Donor movement in Moscow in 1950-1970s: on the documents of the Central State Archive of Moscow

Abstract

The article is devoted to a little-studied topic in Russian research circles - the history of gratuitous blood donation in the capital under the auspices of the Moscow City Committee of the Red Cross Society (MCC RCRS) in 1950-1970s. The donor movement for several decades has come a long way from spontaneously initiated events to the formation of a sustainable community of donors with its traditional actions, support and motivation system. The work actualizes the problem of development of the sectoral sphere of volunteer efforts application - gratuitous blood donation - from the historical point of view. The systematic and planned development of the donor movement of the MCC RCRS allowed to increase the donor activity of the capital's population, to form the ideology of socially significant practice with its key principles and the culture of responsible behavior of citizens. The MCC RCRS used a wide arsenal of organizational forms of social mobilization of citizens on a voluntary basis to attract the attention of the capital's residents to the problems of regularity and gratuitousness of donations. The article describes the measures of social support of donors that proved their effectiveness in practice. The joint activity of the MCC RCRS, district committees and primary branches with blood services, health care institutions in close contact with the authorities was the key to the successful fulfillment of the planned obligations to involve Soviet citizens in the ranks of gratuitous donors of the capital in the 1950-1970s. The empirical basis of the study was formed by the archival materials of the Central State Archive of Moscow, many of which the author introduces into scientific circulation for the first time. Of particular interest is the office work documentation of the MCC RCRS (transcripts, reports, annual activity reports, orders, circulars, decisions and resolutions), diverse in nature and content. The methodological basis for a comprehensive study was the principles of systematicity, historicism, objectivity, as well as the integrated use of a wide range of sources, generally accepted in historical science, which allowed us to consider the development of the gratuitous donor movement in Moscow in the conditions of specific-historical determinism, social conditionality and consistency of its design. Taking into account the historical experience of development of gratuitous donation is relevant nowadays in the process of solving both modern and prospective problems of the Russian health care system. Besides, it is in demand by the All-Russian public movement "Medical Volunteers" and the Russian Red Cross in the conditions of implementation of volunteer programs, volunteer initiatives and projects of development of the domestic blood service.