True Soviet medicine in the Kremlin. Report 3: Anthropology of elite healthcare

The authors present a triptych of articles revealing various aspects of Kremlin medicine - the system of Soviet health care designed exclusively for the political elite of the USSR and its associated countries and communist parties, as well as for the scientific and cultural elite. The third presentation deals with the relationship between doctors and patients in the space of elite health care, the behavior of partycrats in hospitals and Soviet intellectuals in privileged sanatoriums and rest homes, the perception and memory of doctors about their eminent patients, and the relationship of patients to one another. This aspect of Kremlin medicine helps to understand Soviet social life, where a person's status was determined by his access to the limited resources of the state. Judging by the surviving statements in diaries and memoirs, access to elite medicine engendered the loyalty of Kremlin patients to the «party top» and arrogance to the «population.