Robak I. Historical Conditions of Health Care Organization and Development Specifics in Kharkov (18th - early 20th century).

This thesis is the first comprehensive analysis of the pre-Soviet history of Kharkov health care service. It was written from the point of view of social history rather than from a perspective of medical history. Such concept as "health care social history" is introduced for scientific use. This concept involves the historical regularities of emersion and evolution of health care service in the "health care - society" system, and, locally, in the "municipal health care - society - urban community" system. The author's concept of pre-Soviet health care development in Kharkov is based on the problem and chronological approach, where problems are represented by structural elements of the health care service (management, human resources, financing, sanitation, types of medical assistance for the population, and organization of the most dangerous disease control), which has been developing through time. Such an approach made it possible to create completely new vision of the problem, which is different from those statements, established since the Soviet times, about lack of any weighty achievements in the health care service in the time of czarist regime, leaving of the working classes without medical assistance, and its entire commercialization.