The Vaccination for the Empress: How Catherine II and Thomas Dimsdale Saved Russia from Smallpox

Known for her insight and sharp mind, Catherine II was keenly interested in philosophy, medicine, and natural sciences, maintaining a long correspondence with Diderot and Voltaire and inviting many outstanding scholars of her time to the court. Among them was... the experienced English physician Thomas Dimsdale, who arrived from London in 1768 to secretly vaccinate Grand Duke Paul Petrovich and (as the first of European monarchs) Catherine herself against smallpox. In the 18th century, the ‘spotted monster’, the deadly smallpox virus, devastated Europe, and the empress understood well the threat that the epidemic posed to Russia. The first mass campaign for smallpox vaccination in Russia, successfully carried out by Dimsdale, laid the foundation for modern vaccination practices. This book engagingly and accurately recounts how the secret plan of the English doctor and the Russian empress emerged and was implemented.