The History of Hygiene and a Healthy Lifestyle in Ukrainian Society: from Kyivan Rus to the 19th Century

In ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of health was called Hygieia and was depicted as a young, blooming, beautiful girl with a cup and a snake in her hands (the emblem of modern medicine). In the same period the preventive branch of medicine took shape.

Hygiene culture in the territory of Ukraine has its own history of development and in the time of Kyivan Rus was at a fairly high level. It was directly connected with the development of settlements and the corresponding infrastructure. Among the first monuments of medical literature is an article in Sviatoslav’s “Izbornyk”. Christianisation brought into Old Rus society guidance on physical restraint (against overeating and debauchery). A 12th-century Kyivan princess, the wife of the Byzantine co-emperor, Eupraxia Mstyslavivna, is credited with authorship of the medical treatise “Alimma”, which for the first time in the literature of that time set out the basics of general hygiene (instructions on ventilating rooms, bathing, sexual hygiene), food hygiene, the hygiene of pregnant women and child care. It is claimed that from her young years the princess studied folk medicine and engaged in medical practice, receiving the name Dobrodiia.

Among the founders of hospital care in Kyivan Rus in the 11th–12th centuries the name of Yefrem, Bishop of Pereiaslav, is mentioned. In Pereiaslav, by his order, a stone bathhouse was built on a Byzantine model, which in turn continued the traditions of Roman thermae. In the Roman and early Byzantine tradition, baths were places of hygiene, leisure and socialising. And already in the 11th–12th centuries they became institutions with a therapeutic purpose, built at monasteries whose rules allowed laypeople, first of all the sick, to use them. It is widely believed that it was Yefrem of Pereiaslav who developed a monastery charter, initiating the construction of public baths and hospitals for the poor and travellers. A network of charitable medical institutions formed at monasteries.

In the Cossack era a system of hygienic and preventive measures had already formed in Ukraine. The hygiene and disease prevention methods of any traditional society were based on experience and knowledge of nature and the surrounding world. The first preventive measure was hardening and constant physical activity: rising before sunrise, walking barefoot (especially in the morning dew), bathing in bodies of water, spending a lot of time in the fresh air. Thus the Zaporozhians bathed in water in any weather and at any time of year, and after bathing in summer, still wet, walked into blooming grass.

Young people’s forms of recreation were mostly active: lively games, dances, round dances, competitions; Ukrainian folk dances required appropriate physical training. There was a system of hardening for Cossack youth that included, first of all, physical activity: hunting, swimming, fishing, rowing competitions, diving, horse riding, which developed a slim posture and prevented diseases of the musculoskeletal system. A healthy lifestyle was also supported by rationally organised work, with compulsory rest on Sundays and holidays.

For reasons of hygiene, going into battle the Zaporozhians put on a clean shirt, which reduced the risk of infection; shirts were also used as bandage material. The traditional Cossack hairstyle (the oseledets, or topknot) was easy to care for and prevented parasites, and tanned skin hindered the development of fungi and lichen. There was a custom of boiling water on campaigns or adding herbs with antimicrobial action to it, and a common method was to swallow a cold charcoal ember from a campfire (an analogue of activated charcoal). Interestingly, Cossacks carried a spoon in a special leather case on the belt, and wrapped the pipe carefully from the standpoint of hygiene. There were also quarantine restrictions to prevent disease.

As for the bad habits of the Cossack era, dried medicinal herbs (wormwood, yarrow, thyme, thistle, dried valerian leaves, mint, hogweed) were added to tobacco (which was expensive and scarce); they had a calming effect, lowered blood pressure, improved appetite and sleep, and had a positive effect on the respiratory system. Smoking indoors was not accepted.

The capitalisation and development of industry at the end of the 18th century generally led to a worsening of the sanitary situation. In Ukraine this period coincided with the spread of colonial dependence on the Russian state and the loss of autonomous features. The spread of serfdom led to mass impoverishment of peasants, which always leads to a fall in the level of hygiene and a general worsening of the epidemic situation. In the Russian Empire in 1864 the regulation “On Zemstvos” was issued; the zemstvos were to look after providing the rural population with medical care. But the inconsistency of the reforms led to the uneven spread of zemstvos in different regions of Ukraine (for example, in Right-Bank Ukraine they began to operate only in 1911); in 1913 there were 1,010 zemstvo medical districts in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, powerful medical traditions in Ukraine promoted the further formation of a sanitary system. One of the first was the sanitary organisation of the Kherson zemstvo, which began work on studying the working and living conditions of the region’s population, drawing up sanitary recommendations and so on. From 1887 there was a sanitary doctor in every county there. By the end of the 19th century this experience had spread to many large cities of Ukraine.

Oleksii Lukashevych,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor,
Director General of the Pereiaslav National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve

Oksana Tarapon,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor,
Leading Researcher at the Research Department
of Historical Local Studies, Pereiaslav National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve