Project News

We are delighted to share that Anna Toropova and Olga Smolyak presented their research at the Society for the Social History of Medicine Biennial Conference, In/Out, held at the University of Leeds from 30 June to 3 July 2026.

On 1 July 2026, they contributed to the panel 'Trauma at the Margins: Understanding the Role of Borders, Place and Space in Psychiatric History', which explored how geographical, political, and institutional settings shaped experiences and understandings of psychological trauma.

Anna Toropova presented the paper ‘Localising Trauma: The Treatment of Neurotic Patients in Soviet Ukraine and Georgia, 1917–1953’. Examining the work of medical specialists in the non-Russian republics of the USSR, she explored how practitioners responded to the psychological consequences of revolution, war, displacement, and famine. Her paper highlighted often overlooked traditions of medical practice and demonstrated the importance of local contexts in shaping approaches to trauma and mental health.

Olga Smolyak presented the paper ‘The Therapeutic Function of Labour in Early-Soviet Sanatoria’. Drawing on theoretical writings by Bolshevik thinkers on physical culture, hygiene, and the scientific organisation of labour, she examined treatment models developed in Moscow and promoted across the Soviet republics. Her paper considered how therapeutic labour was conceptualised as a means of restoring health and productivity, revealing the connections between medicine, ideology, and social engineering in the early Soviet period.

The panel brought together perspectives on the relationship between place, medical practice, and psychiatric knowledge, contributing to broader discussions about the spatial dimensions of trauma in modern history.