Drugs and the Early Soviet City: Mapping Cocaine, Opiates, and Cannabis in Petrograd/Leningrad in the 1920 s (Workshop Geschichte)

Introduction: The early Soviet period witnessed a substantial increase in the number of drug addicts and the proliferation of drugs into wider social strata. However, in contrast to popular contemporary 'black market' image of drugs, in the 1920 s cocaine and morphine were rather semi-legal ('gray market') substances, since the everyday practice of too many areas of public health greatly depended on the use of these medicines. In early Soviet Petrograd/Leningrad drugs were present on literally every corner: in most pharmacies, hospitals, dentist's rooms, maternity houses and other health care institutions. The city depended on very large amounts of cocaine and opiates, and indeed the regional office of medical supply and trade (Gubmedsnabtorg), located in the very center of Petrograd/Leningrad, accumulated tens of thousands of morphine ampules and hundredweights of opium for the needs of whole North-Western Russia.

Materials and Method: Using primary sources from several St. Petersburg archives, I attempt to reconstruct the map of drug sale and use in the city with particular focus on the peculiarity of the 'gray market' situation and the inequities between city districts, thus contributing to current discussions in both early Soviet urban history and the history of modern medicine and public health. Wherever applicable, I seek to compare and contrast the situation in Petrograd/Leningrad with other major urban centers in Soviet Russia and beyond (for example, Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, and Istanbul). In my presentation, I also demonstrate a preliminary digital map of drug sale and use in early Soviet Petrograd/Leningrad. For this purpose, I make use of the capacities of Quantum GIS and its compatibility with raster maps.

Preliminary results: The paper shows the continuities in drug trading in certain locations dating back to the Imperial period (and indeed still evident in St. Petersburg today) as well as the authorities' changing approaches to the problem.

Discussion: It is also argued that the central districts of the city were increasingly seen as dangerous, dirty and inappropriate, possibly fueling later Stalinist ideas to move the city center to the new neighborhoods in the south.