ABSTRACT
This chapter explores mental health implications of famine such as alimentary and pellagra psychoses in the context of besieged Leningrad in the Second World War. The period under investigation is not limited to the siege but extends into the postwar years until the early 1950s. The chapter examines the alimentary and pellagra psychoses are perceived broadly, that is as medical, social and scientific phenomena. It focuses on little-known consequences of malnutrition such as alimentary and pellagra psychoses. The chapter draws on Soviet medical texts written during the war or in the late 1940s. It studies the influence of malnutrition on mental health of the population of the city of Leningrad during the military siege and in the early postwar years. The chapter discusses at relapses and the longer-term impact of alimentary and pellagra psychoses in the postwar period. The Soviet medical texts demonstrate the development of doctors' perception of the physiological consequences of starvation.
