All health care personnel became employees of the centralized state, which paid salaries and provided supplies to all medical institutions. The Ministry of Health under strict regulation by the Communist Party, enacted compulsory norms for facilities and manpower. The main policy orientation throughout this period was to increase numbers of hospital beds and medical personnel (29). By 1941, when Russia entered the Second World War, the health care system was well developed and had succeeded in bringing comprehensive health care services to the entire population.

29. Tulchinsky, T.H. and Varavikova, E.A. The New Public Health, Academic Press, 2000.