The Formation of Veterinary Business as an Element of Urban Space in Akmolinsk in the Second Half of the XIX – Early XX Centuries

This article is part of a study of the urban culture of Akmolinsk in the post-reform period. The purpose of this study is to recreate the process of formation of veterinary medicine in Akmolinsk as an integral part of the public health sector of the region. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to trace changes in the urban health system and attitudes towards the cattle breeding process in general. Within the framework of the historical and systematic method, the available number of livestock among Akmola residents, the periodic increase in livestock in the city during the Konstantinovskaya fair, livestock diseases and the actions of the city authorities for the organization of veterinary services in the city were analyzed. The article is written on the basis of legislative sources (the Medical Charter of 1905), statistical sources (Reviews of the Akmola region for 1881-1915), memoirs of travelers passing through Akmolinsk, materials of the regional periodical press and archival materials of the State Archive of the Akmola region (GAAO).The study shows that the urban culture of Akmolinsk in the late XIX – early XX centuries was still at the level of the traditional urban culture of pre-industrial society, and the state of veterinary medicine, like many other components of urban culture, confirms this conclusion. In Akmolinsk in 1897, the ratio of available livestock among the townspeople to the number of urban population was 0.9 heads of cattle per Akmola resident, and on the days of the Konstantinovskaya Fair (May-June) this ratio was 30.7 heads of cattle per Akmola resident. The first veterinary point will appear in Akmolinsk only in 1912, before that, Vaclav Gerlovich performed the functions of a veterinarian under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.