Russian plague of 1770–1772

The Russian plague epidemic of 1770–1772, also known as the Plague of 1771, was the last massive outbreak of plague in central Russia, claiming between 52 and 100 thousand lives in Moscow alone (1/6 to 1/3 of its population). The bubonic plague epidemic that originated in the Moldovan theatre of the 1768–1774 Russian-Turkish war in January 1770 swept northward through Ukraine and central Russia, peaking in Moscow in September 1771 and causing the Plague Riot. The epidemic reshaped the map of Moscow, as new cemeteries were established beyond the 18th-century city limits.

Russian troops in Focşani, Moldova discovered first signs of plague in January 1770; the disease, indigenous to the area, was contracted through prisoners of war and booty. The news was hailed and exaggerated by adversaries of Russia, and Catherine wrote a reassuring letter to Voltaire, arguing that "in spring those killed by plague will resurrect for the fighting". Commanding general Christopher von Stoffeln coerced army doctors to conceal the outbreak, which was not made public until Gustav Orreus, a Russian-Finnish surgeon reporting directly to Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev, examined the situation, identified it as plague and enforced quarantine in the troops. Shtoffeln, however, refused to evacuate the infested towns and himself fell victim to the plague in May 1770. Of 1,500 patients recorded in his troops in May–August 1770, only 300 survived.

Medical quarantine checkpoints instituted by Peter I and expanded by Catherine II were sufficient to prevent plague from reaching inside the country in peacetime, but they proved to be inadequate in time of war. The system regarded all epidemics as external threats, focusing on border control, and paid less attention to domestic measures. The epidemic blocked the logistics of Rumyantsev's army, and as the state tried to push more reserves and supplies to the theatre, peacetime quarantine controls had to be lifted. Plague swept into Poland and Ukraine; by August 1770 it reached Bryansk. Catherine refused to admit the plague in public, although she was clearly aware of the nature and proportions of the threat, as evidenced by her letters to Governor of Moscow Pyotr Saltykov.

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