The History of Russia Podcast · Damon Boar

Episode 95 - Variolation, Expansion and Rebellion

·33 min·1 clip

Damon opens by wrapping up the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768 to 1774. He also reminds listeners that Moscow’s plague scare was brought under control by Grigory Orlov. The episode then shifts back to the 1760s. Catherine and her circle are facing another deadly threat: smallpox. The question is plain. Should a ruler be variolated first, before anyone else is asked to take the risk? Catherine wants the procedure done quickly. Dimson is not eager to move that fast, so the episode spends time on the very reasonable problem of whether a court physician should gamble before he has proof. A trial run on younger people nearby comes first. When that works, Catherine is variolated in both arms on the evening of October 12. The reaction is mild. She feels faint at times, develops a small number of pustules, and is fully recovered in St. Petersburg three weeks later. Crown Prince Paul follows on November 1. Over the next few weeks, more than 100 members of the Russian nobility are variolated too, including Grigory Orlov and Kirill Razumovsky. A Russian translation of the physician’s treatise is published in St. Petersburg, and clinics open in several cities including Moscow, Kazan, and Irkutsk. By 1780, 20,000 Russians have been inoculated. By 1800, the number is well over 2 million. Other European rulers, including Frederick the Great and Louis XV, thought the gamble was reckless. The episode then widens into further Russian territorial expansion and the first serious rebellion of Catherine’s reign. Pugachev’s followers care less about the man than about what he is promising them, even if he claims the name Peter III.

As heard by us

A ruler's smallpox gamble opens into empire, then rebellion.

The episode's strongest passage is Catherine's smallpox gamble, which turns a medical decision into statecraft. She exposes herself, then Crown Prince Paul and more than 100 members of the nobility, and the result is laid out with steady control.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want Catherine's smallpox variolation gamble, then Russian territorial expansion, then the opening of Pugachev's rebellion.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The History of Russia Podcast