"My Death Was in a Kiss": Theatrical Propaganda Against Sexually Transmitted Infections in the Early Soviet Union and the United States in the 1920s-1930s.

Abstract

We analyze key historical anti-sexually transmitted infection (STI) theatrical performances in the Soviet Union and the United States that were staged to disseminate knowledge and awareness of STIs among the population. The phenomenon of theatrical hygiene propaganda emerged in the USSR after the October Uprising of 1917. The so-called sanitary plays, mock trials, revues, and Living Newspapers addressed important public health issues, one of which was STIs. The Soviet experience provided inspiration for the Federal Theater Project in the United States, which produced socially relevant performances during the Great Depression. The Living Newspaper <i>Spirochete</i>, staged in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938 at the beginning of the "war against syphilis," became one of the most often staged Living Newspapers in the United States. We compare discourses of the theatrical propaganda against STIs in the Soviet Union and the United States. We aim to explain the driving forces and motives behind the anti-STI movement in both countries and describe structural and performative differences in the anti-STI theatrical productions. (<i>Am J Public Health</i>. 2022;112(9):1318-1325. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306933).