Ruslan Mitrofanov, M. A.

Doctoral Project

Die Institutionalisierung der Psychiatrie im Russisches Zarenreich: Der Fall des Kasaner Bezirkskrankenhauses als transnationale Studie

The Institutionalization of Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the Case of the Kazan District Hospital as a Transnational Study

Questions regarding the direct effect of government institutions on individuals, as well as its penetration into the individual’s psychosis and everyday life, were boldly raised 60 years ago by philosophers and sociologists such as M. Foucault, E. Goffman, A. Negri and others. This served as practical stimulus for the European movement of the antipsychiatry and so called liberalization of mental services in Italy, Germany, France, etc. In contemporary Russia, and especially in the Soviet Russia, where the Institute of Psychiatry often functioned as a national institution - "suppressor of dissent," deinstitutionalization of psychiatry did not happen and it still functions as a loop system. Many issues related to humanizing psychiatric patients and improving their psychological and physical conditions in hospitals remains unresolved. In opposite to this historical background, the research project states that in the case of the Kazan District Hospital, the rise of Russian Imperial psychiatry was a story which was not tied to regional or national boundaries, but was involved in the broader, transnational context of German, French, British and other European models of institutionalization of psychiatry at the beginning of the 20 century. Drawing on reports from the Kazan District Hospital, as well as other secondary sources, our research seeks to formulate new analytical language for defining Russian practices of institutionalization of psychiatry in the logic as non-national/cross-border institution. It is necessary to understand how the establishment and development of the institutions of psychiatry in imperial Russia occurred, because their legacy can be found in Russian psychiatric hospitals nowadays. Which differences and similarities can be identifying between the Western European and Russian models of treatment? How was established a dialogue between metropolitan and provincial experience in building psychiatry projects?

Please also see an overview of his project in the Graduate School's Newsletter Nr. 9, Winter Semester 2017/18.

Curriculum Vitae

Geboren in Kasan (Russische Förderation). Lehramtsstudium der Geschichte an der Föderalen Universität Kasan mit Abschluss im Juni 2014 (Specialist’s degree diploma with honors). Von Januar 2013 bis Ende Juni 2014 zudem wissenschaftlicher Assistent in soziologischen Forschungsprojekt "The 'Wars of Memory' and 'Conventions of Memory' in Post-Soviet Tatarstan" an der Föderalen Universität Kasan. Gastaufenthalte an der Comenius Universität Bratislava (04/2015 – 07/2015), der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (10/2013 - 01/2014 und 09/2012). November 2015 Aufnahme des Promotionsstudiums bei Prof. Dr. Andreas Renner an der Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien.

Positions, Assignments and Memberships

• Member of the Study Group "Empires"

Awards

• 2015 Medaille der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften als Nachwuchswissenschaftler im Bereich Geschichte (für die Examensarbeit "The Institutionalization of Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: Kazan Province as a Case Study, mid-end of the 19 century")
• 2013 Stipendium des Präsidenten der Russischen Föderation für einen Auslandsaufenthalt (Gast am Historischen Institut der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 10/2013 - 01/2014)
• 1. Platz im Wettbewerb "Ad Astra per Aspera" für Studierende und Postgraduierte der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften an den Universitäten Tratastans (für eine Arbeit mit dem Titel "Institutionalization of psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the case of Kazan province"
• 2. Platz im Wettbewerb der besten studentischen Forschungsarbeiten der Föderalen Universität Kasan 2013 (für die Arbeit "The Institutionalization of Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the Case of Kazan Province (mid-end of the 19 century)"

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Stanovlenie sravnitel'noj rasovoj psihiatrii v Germanskoj i Rossijskoj imperijah (konec XIX - nachalo XX stoletija). In: Medicinskaja antropologija i biojetika 2 (10), 2017.

The Transnational Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the Case of Kazan Province (mid – end of the 19th century), in: Proceedings of the "Social Sciences & Medical Innovations: Doing Things Together" Conference, Tomsk 2015.

"And Aborigines too?": Genealogy of Comparative Racial Psychiatry in Imperial Germany (half-end of the 19 c.), in: Proceedings of the 47th All-Russian Scientific Student Conference at Cheboksary State University 2013.

"Including a Plague" the Birth of Disciplinary Power in Medieval Town (mid. XVIV c.), in: Proceedings of the XXXII International Conference of Students and Young Scientists "Kurbatov Readings", St. Petersburg 2012, S. 48-49.
Further Publications

Российский государственный исторический архив (Rossiyskiy Gosudarstvennyy Istoricheskiy Arkhiv) / The Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), in: ESE Archives Guide: A Web Guide to East and Southeast European Archives, 2018 (2018-04-26), http://www.ese-archives.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/?p=1187

Presentations (selected)

2018

"Legislative Initiatives Regarding the Foreign Mentally Ill of the Russian Empire: A Transnational Perspective". (Jahrestagung der Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien "Studying East and Southeast Europe as Area Studies: Paradigms - Themes - Methods for the 21st Century", München, 25.-27.10.2018)

2015

"Transnational Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the Kazan District Hospital as a Case Study (end of the 19 c.)" (Workshop "Medicine and health care in late imperial and revolutonary Russia: the circulation of knowledge, practices and technologies", Europäische Universität St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, 13.-14.11.2015).

"The Institutionalization of Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: Kazan Province as a Transnational Study" (Internationale Konferenz "Psycho-politics: The Cross-Sections of Science and Ideology in the History of Psy-sciences", Central European University Budapest, Budapest, 30.-31.10.2015).

"The Institutionalization of Psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the Case of Kazan Province as a Transnational Study" (Konferenz "Social Sciences & Medical Innovations: Doing Things Together", Tomsk, 21.-24.05.2015).

2014

Projektpräsentation (Thyssen-Seminar des Deutschen Historischen Instituts Moskau in Kooperation mit der Föderalen Universität Kazan "Transnationale Geschichte: Globale Prozesse und regionale Dynamiken, 18.-20. Jahrhundert“, Kasan, 02.-04.10.2014).

2013

"And Aborigines too? Genealogy of Comparative Racial Psychiatry in Imperial Germany (half-end 19 c.)" (Panel "Historical Knowledge" der 47. All-Russian Scientific Student Conference, Cheboksary, 09.04.2013).

2012

"The institutionalization of psychiatry in the Russian Empire: the case of Kazan Province (mid-end of the XIX century.)" (Internationale Konferenz "Science, theory and practice", Poznan, 29.-31.10.2012).

"'Including a Plague': the Birth of Disciplinary Power in Medieval Town (mid. XIV c.)" (XXXII. Internationale Konferenz für Studierende und Nachwuchswissenschaftler "The Kurbatov readings", St. Petersburg, 28.-30.11.2012).