Registration and medical-sanitary supervision of prostitution in Eastern Siberia (late 19th–early 20th centuries)

The article analyzes the system of registration and medical-sanitary supervision of prostitution in the cities of Eastern Siberia in the late 19th–early 20th centuries basing on archival materials and statistical reports.
The article examines the legislative framework for the regulation of prostitution as established in the normative acts of 1844–1903. It includes the “Rules for Public Women” and the “Statute on the Organization of Supervision over Urban Prostitution in the Empire”, as well as the practice of conducting medical examinations of prostitutes. For the first time, the research introduces previously unpublished archival documents from the collections of the State Archives of the Irkutsk region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republic of Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory into academic discourse.
Based on data from one-day censuses of 1889 and 1907, as well as on reports from medical boards and police departments, the author analyses the effectiveness of medical and police control in the cities of the region. The research shows that despite the existence of a developed regulatory framework, the supervisory system was ineffective. Medical examinations were formal due to a chronic shortage of doctors, the lack of unified examination methods and the weak material and technical base of medical institutions. Moreover, the significant portion of registered prostitutes evaded regular examinations, and administrative measures remained ineffective. The scale of hidden (illegal) prostitution according to doctors and police officials far exceeded official figures, rendering the actual epidemiological situation unmanageable. 

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