Child Infectious Morbidity in the USSR during the World War II

This article presents the results of historical and medical research reflecting infectious morbidity among children during the Second World War (the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945). The research is based on archival and literary sources. The study is relevant because the majority of historical and medical research devoted to the war had been carried out in the Soviet epoch and did not always depict an objective image due to the ideological concepts of that time, which often prohibited the publication of certain information. Inconsiderable in number studies have been conducted on this topic in post-Soviet Russia, yet are selective or localized. A review of a wide range of sources provides an independent perspective on the dramatic situation concerning the significant increase of childhood infections during the war. As a result of systemic control measures carried out by public health services, childhood infections had not become endemic. Despite the rising number of tuberculosis cases, STDs, and malaria in the early years of the war, further spread of the socially significant pathologies was prevented.