Cholera in Russia
Biographer Anthony Holden writes that cholera had arrived in Europe less than a century before Tchaikovsky's death. An initial pandemic had hit the continent in 1818. Three others had followed and a fifth, which had begun in 1881, was raging. The disease had been imported by pilgrims from Bombay to Arabia, and from there crossed the Russian border.
The first reported cases in Russia from this pandemic occurred in Vladivostok in 1888. By 1892, Russia was by far the worst hit of the 21 countries affected. In 1893, no fewer than 70 regions and provinces were combatting epidemics.
Holden adds that, according to contemporary Russian medical records, the specific epidemic which claimed Tchaikovsky's life began on 14 May 1892 and ended on 11 February 1896. During this time, 504,924 contracted cholera. From that number, 226,940 (44.9 percent) died from it.
Read more about this topic: Death Of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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