‘Military’ miracle drugs and the ‘pharmaceuticalisation’ of everyday life from below in the Cold War USSR

Culture, Theory and Critique. 2023. Vol. 64. No. 1-2. P. 58–72.

Vasilyev P.

This paper focuses on the interrelation between the process of militarisation of everyday life and individual subjectivities. More specifically, it explores one of the less obvious manifestations of this process – the issue of ‘military' miracle drugs. By this term, I understand the various pharmaceuticals that (1) are perceived to treat a very broad range of medical conditions, often without any scientific evidence proving their efficiency; and (2) are believed to have been developed by/for or have other connections to the military. The characterisation of the Soviet system (including and perhaps especially during the Cold War) as ‘militarised' has existed for a long time and remains commonplace. However, in this article, I would like to advance a more nuanced understanding of this militarisation. In the following, I show that ‘military' miracle drugs remained an important goal for citizen scientists as well as a desirable object of consumption for the Soviet public throughout the Cold War. In contrast to the conventional historical narrative, I further show that the Soviet state authorities did not attempt to advance this ‘pharmaceuticalisation’ but rather perceived this process as dangerous and tried to halt it as much as possible.

Keywords: Cold War, милитаризация, Холодная война, фармацевтикализация, militarisation, miracle drugs, pharmaceuticalisation, drugs in the USSR, чудодейственные лекарства, лекарства в СССР

Publication based on the results of: Российская психиатрия в транснациональном контексте: трансферы и циркуляции научных теорий и повседневных практик (вторая половина XIX - XX вв.) (2024)