Kristýna Kaucká1; 1 Masaryk Institute and Archives of CAS, Czechia
Discussion
The paper analyses the theory of natural nidality of transmissible diseases formulated by Yevgeny Pavlovsky in 1939. It also deals with research on tick-borne encephalitis. The paper traces the use and development of the theory in the Eastern Bloc countries, with particular reference to Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Studying the pioneering phase of the theory allows researchers from different disciplines to understand the processes by which human-animal interactions shape the production of scientific knowledge and how groundbreaking discoveries and theories are transferred in historical contexts. The aim of this paper is to show how the intermingling of humans and ticks in the early years of the Cold War sparked a knowledge transfer that was intertwined with power, politics, and ideology. Using the example of Poland and Czechoslovakia, it analyses how Pavlovsky´s theory of natural nidality of transmissible diseases, which originated in the Soviet Union, was elaborated in transnational scientific entanglements. Given the geographic proximity of the two countries and their shared tick habitats, it was logical for their scientific communities to interact not only with each other on the topic, but also with the scientific leader in the field, the Soviet Union. Their entanglements included Western countries, making human-tick interaction a transnational phenomenon across the Iron Curtain.
The paper draws on archival documents as well as published and unpublished memoirs of the actors involved. Another important source is research reports, which were published in large numbers due to the importance of the topic. In Czechoslovakia alone, for example, about 900 titles on natural nidality were published in the period under consideration.
