“Dangerous Play”. Go-Betweens and Borders in Inter-War Public Health

Historical accounts usually celebrate the accomplishments of a go-between in moving ideas back and forth across borders; this article, by contrast, focuses on the dangers a go-between courts in navigating between his country of origin and his adopted country. The article revolves around a debate over depopulation in France that consumed the attention of the French Academy of Medicine in the winter and spring of 1935. Alexandre Nikolaevich Roubakine, arguably the most important intermediary on medical matters between Soviet Russia and France from 1921?1941, became the target of that debate, not so much for his views of depopulation as for his defense of the Soviet legalization of abortion. How did a Russian go-between become the target of a debate among the French medical elite? How did the issue of Soviet legalized abortion become intertwined in the Academy discussion? The article tracks the way circulatory locales in different countries interact?irrespective of the efforts of the go-between to keep them hermetically sealed.