Authors
Robert Hornsby1; 1 University of Leeds, UK Discussion
The global eradication of smallpox has long been presented as a fundamentally Western-led success story, overseen from World Health Organization HQ in Geneva and with key individuals and resources coming from the US in particular. Based on preliminary findings from a new research project, the present paper seeks to explore a range of important roles played by the USSR in this context, from initiating the WHO campaign to eradicate smallpox in 1958 (almost a decade before the US began its own active participation), through to the provision of scientific expertise and political leverage, as well as many millions of doses of smallpox vaccine. As I demonstrate, this is a theme intimately connected to several key dynamics of the post-Stalin era, such as reinvigorated internationalism and the Soviet bid to win the affinity of newly-independent countries in the Global South, as well as burgeoning faith in the cure-all power of science and technology, and engagement with international institutions like the WHO. 
