Lithuanians once experienced a pandemic: that year the nation took the “path of extinction”

I thought the “flu” was nothing to fear

Savo Facebook G. Kulikauskas, historian and author of the books “Orange Contraband” and “Lithuanian Code”, shared historical facts about the Spanish flu in Lithuania.

After reading about the old flu riots in Lithuania in 1918-1919. It is already difficult to look at the situation today with an “intact look”. Everywhere, formless chaos spreads out in fractals and a patchwork already seen.

1918 The flu that appeared in Lithuania in July did not impress our ancestors; the weather was thought to help: “If the sunny weather is pleasant longer, the disease that has now spread throughout Europe will be defeated and will soon spread again. Then there is nothing to fear … ”the historian shares the sources of that time.

According to G. Kulikauskas, there were a number of illnesses in Lithuania at that time, but, according to historical sources, “no one has died from the flu yet.”

“Therefore, the Lithuanian press became more concerned with national and state-building issues. And the Germans, who still felt the landlords of the country, were more concerned about the flu,” writes G. Kulikauskas.

According to him, messages about “flu” appeared in German publications and some preventive recipes were found to overcome it, for example:

• to avoid sneezing at people, and to “roll over, cough, and clench your hand to your mouth.”
• After leaving the public, it is advisable to swim and wash your hands. Also, rinse your mouth with warm salt water (several times a day is possible). Better still, “with water superoxide (probably hydrogen peroxide – G. Kulikauskas note) or potassium hypoermanganicum (potassium permanganate – G. Kulikauskas note) is equivalent to our experiment and dilute lysoform liquid (potassium carbonate solution with the addition of formaldehyde – note by G. Kulikauskas) a few drops of water in a glass) so that after washing off the already attached disease “.

According to the historian, German hands finally had edge disinfection and hygiene stations. As G. Kulikauskas warns, they were handled efficiently. For example, smallpox is almost over in Lithuania – smallpox. “Or 1917. controlled the outbreaks of dysentery and typhoid (although more than a thousand people in Vilnius and the Vilnius region managed to die)”, writes G. Kulikauskas.

Many patients were killed by the potato grinder.
And while the flu appeared to have disappeared by late summer, the historian says, the infectious disease returned in the fall and struck in full force, especially in October. “Influenza is often accompanied by pneumonia<...> In recent days, many are dying ”, G. Kulikauskas cites sources from that time in his Facebook post.

According to him, the greatest threat to all was the infectiousness of the flu: “if one gets sick in the family, it doesn’t take long for the second, third and so on to get sick.

The historian writes that people were surprised by the danger of the “flu” for the elderly and the reappearance of the disease. “Influenza in particular does not clarify why the disease is spreading around the world at the same time. <...>The disease occurs at irregular times, affects many older people, and those who got sick in the summer are now sick again. Therefore, a person who has ever had the flu does not have to think that he will not contract it again ”, such statements have been recorded in historical sources.

According to the historian, if today there is a deadly need for many to socialize in bars / events, then that need was worship, a bazaar, and a potato grater.

“It is not a revelation these days, it does not scratch, the potatoes are frozen, you too could have died, just from starvation. Thus, many autumn patients were killed by a potato grower: as soon as they felt the first improvement, they came out out of bed to cut potatoes, they froze and “became ill again,” and then frequently said goodbye to the world, “writes G. Kulikauskas.

Hit the most sensitive period

But the potato was not the worst when it came to handling the pandemic. According to the historian, the pandemic hit the most sensitive period: the transfer of power. “1918 In autumn, the German authorities in the country were just a formality, unlike the summer, they no longer cared about organizing, maintaining and managing a network of disinfection stations, taking care of hygiene, vaccinating the population and forcing it to follow cleanliness and safety standards. ”The Germans withdrew, leaving the powerfully cut cake on the table for those who could take it and keep it: Lithuanians, Poles, or Bolsheviks.

At the time, very few in Lithuania were concerned about handling a pandemic. It happened like a background, in the shadows (during the war, people had fled from the deaths, so they reacted more coldly) ”, writes G. Kulikauskas.

People had to get sick: as G. Kulikauskas points out, every meter, every village could only rely on itself and its own immunities, which had already increased considerably during the years of war and famine.

“Nobody knows what the losses of a ‘Swedish’ style might have been.” Total number of deaths Number of births in 1918-1919. (during the flu rampage period) exceeds 25 thousand. But it is not clear how many of them are due to the flu, because during the War of Independence, Hello how many places and opportunities there were to help bosses.

But he remembered those years in interwar Lithuania for a long time as a particularly bloody and gloomy nation, which, according to the Lithuanian encyclopedia, then “followed the path of extinction,” writes the author of historical books.

He adds that the epidemic in Lithuania has certainly had an impact on higher mortality. According to G. Kulikauskas, the government’s reaction at that time was often late and slow.

“And ordinary people viewed illness lightly (‘nothing can happen to me’) or fatalistically (‘if you’re destined to get sick, you won’t escape’).”

Probably the biggest difference between Anna and this pandemic is informative. Small messages about the Spanish flu pandemic should be “caught” in the last pages of newspapers. And with the interest of these days, we constantly live overloads of information ”, sums up the historian.