About doctors during the war. Medicine during the Great Patriotic War. Baida Maria Karpovna
Saint Petersburg State University
Faculty of Medicine
Abstract on the discipline "History of Medicine" on the topic
COURAGE AND COURAGE OF MEDICINES DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
1st year student 101 gr. Surovegina O.V.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1. Medicine during the Great Patriotic War
1.1. Problems faced by medicine at the beginning of the war
1.2. The tasks of health care during the Second World War
1.3. Help of science
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
In the five thousand years of recorded human history, only 292 years have passed on Earth without wars; the remaining 47 centuries have preserved the memory of 16 thousand large and small wars that claimed more than 4 billion lives. Among them, the most bloody was the Second World War(1939-1945). For Soviet Union it was the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the 65th anniversary of which we are celebrating this year.
This was the period when service to duty goes beyond science and one's profession and is done in the name of the Motherland, in the name of the people. During this difficult time, medical workers showed true heroism and devotion to their homeland, their exploits during the war years are unique.
Suffice it to say that over 200,000 doctors and a half-million army of paramedical workers worked at the front and in the rear, showing miracles of courage, unprecedented mental fortitude and humanism. Military doctors returned millions of soldiers and officers to the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland. They provided medical assistance on the battlefield, under enemy fire, and if the situation required it, they themselves became warriors and dragged others along. Protecting their land from fascist invaders, the Soviet people, according to incomplete estimates, lost more than 27 million lives on the battlefields during hostilities. Millions of people were left disabled. But among those who returned home with victory, many survived thanks to the selfless work of military and civilian doctors.
The famous commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan, after the end of the war, wrote: “What was done by Soviet military medicine during the years of the last war, in all fairness, can be called a feat. For us, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the image of a military doctor will remain the personification of high humanism, courage and dedication.”
Chapter 1. Medicine during the Great Patriotic War.
1.1. Problems faced by medicine at the beginning of the war.
From the first days of the war, the medical service experienced serious difficulties, there was a sharp shortage of funds, there were not enough personnel. A significant part of the mobilization material and human health resources, which accounted for 39.9% of the total number of doctors and 35.8% of the number of hospital beds, was located in the western regions of the Soviet Union and was captured by the advancing enemy units already in the first days of the war. The medical service suffered heavy losses directly on the battlefield. More than 80% of all its sanitary losses were accounted for by privates and sergeants, that is, by the advanced link operating on the front line. During the war, more than 85 thousand doctors died or went missing. Of these, 5,000 doctors, 9,000 paramedical workers, 23,000 sanitary instructors, 48,000 orderlies and porters. In this regard, early graduations of the last two courses of military medical academies and medical faculties were held, and accelerated training of paramedics and junior military paramedics was organized. As a result, by the second year of the war, the army was staffed by 91% doctors, 97.9% paramedics, and 89.5% pharmacists.
Fig.1. Foreman of the medical service Lisenko V.F. dressing a wounded man, 1944
The main "forge of personnel" for the military medical service was the Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov (VMedA). Military doctors who underwent improvement in it, and students who received special military medical knowledge during the training period, formed the backbone of the leadership and medical staff of the medical service of the Red Army. Within its walls, 1829 military doctors were trained and sent to the front. At the same time, in 1941, 2 early graduations were made at the academy. The graduates of the academy showed true heroism, fulfilling their patriotic and professional duty in the war. 532 pupils and employees of the academy died in the battles for their Motherland. A significant contribution to the victory was also made by representatives of other medical educational institutions, including the 1st Moscow Medical Institute named after I.M. Sechenov: 2632 students of the institute served the troops of the army and the rear of the country.
1.2. Problems of public health during the Second World War.
Fig.2. Komsomol military paramedic Maslichenko O. assists wounded soldiers, 1942
During the war years, the main tasks of health care were:
1.Help for the wounded and sick wars;
2. Medical care for home front workers;
3. Children's health protection;
4. Broad anti-epidemic measures.
The struggle for the life of the wounded began immediately after the injury, directly on the battlefield. All medical personnel clearly realized that the main cause of death of the wounded on the battlefield, in addition to injuries incompatible with life, was shock and blood loss. When solving this problem, the most important condition for success was the timing and quality of first aid, first medical and qualified medical care.
Particular attention was paid to the requirement for the removal of the wounded with weapons, which restored not only the human, but also the military-technical potential of the Red Army. So, in the order of the People's Commissar of Defense "On the procedure for submitting military orderlies and porters to the government award for good combat work", signed on August 23, 1941 personally by I.V. Stalin, it was instructed to present for the award of orderlies and porters for the removal of the wounded from the battlefield with their weapons: for the removal of 15 people were presented to the medal "For Military Merit" or "For Courage", 25 people - to the Order of the Red Star, 40 people - to the Order of the Red Banner, 80 people - to the Order of Lenin.
A wide network of evacuation hospitals (single-profile and multi-profile) was created in the country, a system of staged treatment of the wounded and sick with evacuation according to the destination took shape. In the theoretical substantiation of this system, the works of N.I. Pirogov, V.A. Oppel, B.K. Leonardov. The system of staged treatment with evacuation according to the destination was established already at the beginning of the war and, depending on the strategic situation, was constantly modified and improved. The main elements of the system included a clear and consistent provision of medical care to the wounded and sick, starting with the first medical care on the battlefield and ending with an exhaustive specialized hospital base in the front and rear of the country.
The evacuation of the wounded from the hospital bases of the front to the rear hospitals of the country was carried out in the overwhelming majority of cases by military hospital trains. The volume of railway transportation from the frontline region to the rear of the country amounted to more than 5 million people.
The organization of specialized medical care was improved (for those wounded in the head, neck and spine, in the chest and abdomen, thigh and large joints). During the war, it was vital to establish an uninterrupted system for the procurement and delivery of donated blood. Unified leadership of civil and military services blood provided a higher recovery rate for the wounded. By 1944 there were 5.5 million donors in the country. In total, about 1,700 tons of canned blood was used during the war. More than 20 thousand Soviet citizens were awarded the badge "Honorary Donor of the USSR". The joint work of military and civilian health authorities in the prevention of infectious diseases, their active interaction at the front and in the rear to prevent the mass development of epidemics, dangerous and previously integral satellites of any war, fully justified themselves and made it possible to create the most stringent system of anti-epidemic measures, which included:
- creation of anti-epidemic barriers between the front and the rear;
- systematic observation, with the aim of timely detection of infectious patients and their immediate isolation;
- regulation of sanitary treatment of troops;
- use of effective vaccines and other measures.
A large amount of work was done by the chief epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist of the Red Army I.D. Ionin.
The efforts of hygienists contributed to the elimination of the danger of beriberi, a sharp reduction in alimentary diseases in military units, maintaining the epidemic well-being of troops and civilians. First of all, due to targeted prevention, the incidence of intestinal infections and typhoid fever was insignificant and did not tend to increase. So, if in 1941 14 million vaccinations against typhoid fever were carried out, then in 1943 - 26 million. To maintain a favorable sanitary and epidemic situation great importance had vaccines developed by domestic scientists: a polyvaccine built on the principle of associated vaccine depots using complete microbial antigens; tularemia vaccines; typhoid vaccine. Tetanus vaccinations with tetanus toxoid have been developed and successfully used. The scientific development of issues of anti-epidemic protection of troops and the population continued successfully throughout the war. The military medical service had to create an effective system of bath, laundry and disinfection services.
A well-organized system of anti-epidemic measures, sanitary and hygienic provision of the Red Army led to an unprecedented result in the history of wars - during the Great Patriotic War there were no epidemics in the Soviet troops. Issues related to the medical care of prisoners of war and repatriates remain little known. It was here that the humanism and philanthropy of domestic medicine manifested itself with all its brightness. In accordance with the Regulations on prisoners of war approved by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on July 1, 1941, the wounded and sick from among them were sent to the nearest medical institutions, regardless of their departmental affiliation. They were provided with medical care on the same basis as the soldiers of the Red Army. Food for prisoners of war in hospitals was carried out according to the norms of hospital rations. At the same time, in German concentration camps Soviet prisoners of war were practically deprived of medical care.
During the war years, special attention was paid to children, many of whom lost their parents. For them, children's homes and nurseries were created at home, dairy kitchens were arranged. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in July 1944, the honorary title "Mother Heroine", the Order of "Maternal Glory" and the "Medal of Motherhood" were established.
1.3 Help of science.
The successes achieved in the treatment of the wounded and sick, their return to duty and work,
equal in importance and volume to winning the largest strategic battles.
G.K. Zhukov. Memories and reflections.
It is difficult to overestimate the feat of Soviet doctors in these difficult years.
4 academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 60 academicians and corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, 20 laureates of the Lenin and State Prizes, 275 professors, 305 doctors and 1199 candidates of medical sciences worked as chief specialists in the army in the field. Important features of Soviet medicine were formed - the unity of civil and military medicine, the scientific leadership of the medical service of the rear front, the continuity of medical care for the wounded and sick.
In the process of work, medical scientists developed common principles for wound treatment, a common understanding of the “wound process”, and unified specialized treatment. The main specialists, surgeons of the fronts, armies, hospitals, medical battalions performed millions of surgical operations; methods for the treatment of gunshot fractures, primary treatment of wounds, and the application of plaster bandages have been developed.
Chief Surgeon Soviet army N.N. Burdenko was the largest organizer of surgical care for the wounded.
A well-known domestic military field surgeon, scientist, Professor Nikolai Nikolaevich Elansky made an invaluable contribution to the development of military field surgery and surgical science in general. His name is among the most eminent figures domestic medicine. Starting in 1939, from the fighting in the Khalkhin Gol region, N.N. Elansky at the front as a consultant surgeon. Realizing that the combat defeats of the personnel of the troops, occurring in qualitatively new conditions, cannot be compared with the trauma of peacetime, N.N. Elansky resolutely objected to the mechanical transfer of ideas about such an injury to the practice of military field surgery.
In addition, the indisputable contribution of N.N. Elansky in the organization of surgical care was the development of the issues of surgical triage and evacuation. Received final decision one of the most important problems of military field surgery is the refusal to suture a treated gunshot wound in a combat situation. The implementation of these proposals of the scientist made it possible to achieve high performance indicators of the medical service of the army. The number of surgical complications has sharply decreased. The experience of medical and evacuation support of past combat operations was summarized in a number of works by N.N. Elansky. The most important of them is the "Military Field Surgery" published already at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In subsequent periods of the war, as the tactics of hostilities changed, and, consequently, the forms and methods of medical support for the troops, it repeatedly became necessary to revise some provisions of the textbook. As a result, it was reprinted four times, and the 5th edition, which came out after the war, was awarded the USSR State Prize. The textbook has been translated into many foreign languages. Scientific development by scientists of such the most pressing problems military pathology, such as the fight against shock, the treatment of gunshot wounds of the chest, limbs, craniocerebral wounds, contributed to a significant improvement in the quality of medical care, a speedy recovery and return to duty of the wounded.
The method of skin graft transplantation and the method of transplantation of the cornea of the eye, developed by V.P. Filatov, have been widely used in military hospitals.
At the front and in the rear, the method of local anesthesia developed by A.V. Vishnevsky was widely used - it was used in 85-90% of cases.
In the organization of military field therapy and the provision of emergency care, the main merit belongs to the therapists M.S. Vovsi, A.L. Myasnikov, P.I. Egorov and others.
The science of antibiotics began to develop after the discovery in 1929 by the English scientist A. Fleming of the antimicrobial action of the fungus Penicillinum. The active substance formed by this fungus. Ah, Fleming called it penicillin. In the USSR, the first penicillin was obtained by Z.V. Ermolyeva and G.I. Badesino in 1942. The development of methods for the biological synthesis of penicillin on a mass scale, its isolation and purification, the elucidation of the chemical nature, and the manufacture of drugs created the conditions for the medical use of antibiotics. During the war years, penicillin was used to treat complicated infected wounds and saved the lives of many Soviet soldiers.
The epidemiological scientist T.E. Boldyrev ensured the epidemiological well-being of the front, and G.A. Miterev - the rear of the country.
VN Shamov was one of the creators of the blood service system in the army. During the war, for the first time, mobile blood transfusion stations were organized on all fronts.
On the basis of evacuation hospitals, field mobile hospitals and other military medical institutions, thousands of scientific works, dissertations. In order to further develop medical science, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on June 30, 1944 adopted a resolution "On the Establishment of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR" in Moscow. The opening of the Academy took place on December 20, 1944. The academy included 22 research institutes and 5 independent laboratories. In total, there were 6,717 employees in the academy system, of which 158 were doctors and 349 were candidates of medical sciences. Already after the war, from 1949 to 1956, a 35-volume work “The experience of Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” was published in the USSR.
Also, many chemical scientists came to the aid of medicine, who created the medicines necessary for the treatment of the wounded. So, the polymer of vinyl butyl alcohol obtained by M. F. Shostakovsky - a thick viscous liquid - turned out to be a good tool for healing wounds, it was used in hospitals under the name - "Shostakovsky's balm".
Leningrad scientists developed and manufactured more than 60 new medicinal products, in 1944 they mastered the method of plasma transfusion, created new solutions for blood conservation.
Academician A.V. Pallady synthesized means to stop bleeding.
Scientists at Moscow University have synthesized the enzyme trombone, a drug for blood clotting.
In addition to chemical scientists, who made an invaluable contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany, there were also ordinary chemical warriors: engineers and workers, teachers and students. The senior lecturer of the Dnepropetrovsk Chemical-Technological Institute, former front-line soldier Z.I.Barsukov dedicated his poem to the memory of front-line chemists.
“Who said about the chemist: “He fought a little”,
Who said: “He didn’t shed enough blood?”
I call my chemist friends as witnesses, -
Those who boldly beat the enemy until the last days,
Those who sang in the same ranks with the native army,
Those who defended my homeland with their breasts.
How many roads, front lines have been traveled ...
How many young guys died on them ...
The memory of the war will never fade,
Glory to the chemists alive, the fallen - the honor is doubly.
Chapter 2
Fig.3. Fighter marines N.P. Kudryakov says goodbye to the hospital doctor I. A. Kharchenko, 1942
I've only been in hand-to-hand combat once.
Once upon a time. And a thousand times in a dream.
Who says that war is not scary,
He knows nothing about the war.
Yu.V. Drunina
An ardent love for one's fatherland gives rise to Soviet people determination to go on exploits, selfless work in any post to strengthen the power Soviet state, to increase its wealth, to defend the gains of socialism from all sorts of enemies / in every possible way to protect peaceful life.
In all this struggle, the role of Soviet women, including female doctors, is great.
During the years of the pre-war five-year plans, millions of women in the Soviet Union, together with the entire Soviet people, ensured by their labor the transformation of our Motherland into a mighty industrial-collective-farm power.
During the Great Patriotic War, during the period of the greatest tension of all the material and spiritual forces of the people, when the male part of the population went to the front, the places of men everywhere - both in production and on collective farm fields - were taken by women. With honor they coped with the work in the rear at all posts.
At the same time, Soviet women at the front showed unparalleled valor, bravery and courage. In the halo of glory are the names of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Lisa Chaikina and many thousands of others. Sanitary guards, nurses, sisters, doctors, partisans, anti-aircraft gunners, famous pilots, scouts, snipers, signalmen - all of them showed fearlessness and heroism on a par with men in various sectors of the front.
Soviet women have taken and are now taking the most active part in the common struggle for world peace, for disarmament, for the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction.
The role of the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is honorable and noble.
The Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is doing enormous and strenuous work and is one of the most important links in strengthening the defense capability of the socialist state. The Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in wartime and peacetime stands guard over public health, being a powerful reserve and assistant to the Soviet health authorities. Work in the organizations of the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was especially extensive during the Great Patriotic War. Hundreds of thousands of nurses and sanitary teams were trained on the job at schools, courses, in the sanitary teams of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Here they received initial training in providing first aid to the wounded and sick, in caring for them, and in conducting recreational activities.
Selflessly, under enemy fire, brave patriots provided first aid to the wounded and carried them out of the battlefield. With caring care and great attention they surrounded the seriously wounded in field hospitals and hospitals in the rear. At the front and in the rear, nurses, nurses, sanitary combatants, Red Cross activists were donors, giving their blood to the wounded.
During the years of peaceful construction, the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies continue to train nurses, sanitary combatants, GSO badges, organize sanitary posts at enterprises, collective farms, and institutions.
In 1955 there were more than 19 million members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Currently, the sanitary asset of the Society provides effective assistance to health authorities in improving medical and sanitary and preventive services for the population.
Orderlies, sanitary instructors, nurses, doctors - all of them selflessly performed their duty on the fields of the Great Patriotic War, at the bedside of the wounded, in the operating room, in front-line and rear hospitals far from the front. Thousands and tens of thousands of medical workers received orders and medals, the best of the best were awarded high rank Hero of the Soviet Union.
Most of those awarded were active members of the Red Cross Society.
The names of twelve women doctors who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union are known. Here are these glorious names: sanitary instructor Gnorovskaya Valeria Osipovna; guard senior sergeant of the medical service Kascheeva Vera Sergeevna; foreman of the medical service Konstantinova Ksenia Semyonovna; Guard Senior Sergeant Lyudmila Stepanovna Kravets; sanitary instructor - senior sergeant Mareseva Zinaida Ivanovna; chief foreman of the medical service Petrova Galina Konstantinovna; lieutenant of medical service Pushina Faina Andreevna; sanitary instructor senior sergeant Samsonova Zinaida Alexandrovna; partisan Troyan Nadezhda Viktorovna; sanitary instructor Tsukanova Maria Nikitichna; sanitary instructor - senior sergeant Shkarletova Maria Savelyevna; foreman of the medical service Shcherbachenko Maria Zakharovna.
The largest scientist of our country, chief surgeon of the Soviet Army N. N. Burdenko, who participated as an orderly in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. and then awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross, pointed out during the Great Patriotic War that "behind the shoulders of a soldier with a sanitary bag, bending over a wounded comrade, is our entire Soviet country."
Assessing the high moral character orderlies and nurses who worked under a hail of bullets and mines in the name of saving their comrades, he said that our glorious orderlies show miracles of courage and selflessness, that the orderlies risk their lives every minute, but they perform their duty heroically, and there are thousands of examples of such heroism .
The feat of Russian women will forever remain on the pages of history, let us keep the memory of him in our hearts, the memory of the women who brought freedom to our Motherland.
Chapter 3. History in faces.
In this chapter, I will talk about people who, during the Great Patriotic War and after it, occupied the highest positions in the field of healthcare. They not only took part in helping the wounded directly on the battlefield, but also ensured the development of medicine in general.
Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was the chief surgeon of the Red Army Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko(1876-1946). His assistants and deputies were S.S. Girgolav, V.V. Gorinevskaya, V.S. Levit, V.N. Shamov, S.S. Yudin. Chief Surgeon of the Navy Yustin Yulianovich DzhanelidzeMiron Semenovich Vovsi(1897-1960); in 1952 - 1953 he was repressed in the “doctors' case” (stopped in 1953). The chief physician of the Navy was Alexander Leonidovich Myasnikov(1899-1965).
Supervised the medical support of the Red Army throughout the war, the head of the Main Military Medical Directorate Efim Ivanovich Smirnov(1904-1989), later Minister of Health of the USSR (1947-1953).(1883-1950). The chief therapist of the Red Army during the war was (and the Soviet Army - in the post-war period) - academician
Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko (1876-1946), surgeon, one of the founders of neurosurgery in the USSR, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939), first president of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (since 1944), colonel general of the medical service (1944), Hero of Socialist Labor (1943). On the eve of the war, he participated in the development of the scientific and organizational foundations of military field surgery, during the war years he was the chief surgeon of the Red Army. Under the leadership of Burdenko, uniform principles for the treatment of gunshot wounds were introduced at the fronts, which contributed to the success of Soviet military medicine in saving lives, restoring the health and combat capability of the wounded.
Yustin Yulianovich Dzhanelidze (1883-1950), surgeon, academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1944), Hero of Socialist Labor (1945), lieutenant general of the medical service (1943). Since 1939 Chief Surgeon of the Navy and since 1943 Head of the Department of Hospital Surgery of the Naval Medical Academy. He developed the problems of surgical treatment and medical and evacuation support for the wounded in the Navy, exactly in case of damage to the musculoskeletal system (one of the operations bears his name) and burns.
Miron Semenovich Vovsi (1897-1960), therapist, major general of the medical service (1943). In 1941-1950 the chief physician of the Soviet Army. He made a great contribution to the development of military field therapy. Participated in the development of a system of therapeutic measures in the army. Works devoted to the peculiarities of the course of internal diseases in wartime conditions, exactly, in the wounded.
Alexander Leonidovich Myasnikov (1899-1965), therapist, academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1948). Since 1942, the chief physician of the Navy, head of the department of the Naval Medical Academy (1940-1948), was in besieged Leningrad; repeatedly in active fleets. Under the leadership of Myasnikov, a system of therapeutic service for the fleet was created.
Efim Ivanovich Smirnov (1904-1989), scientist in the field of health, colonel general of the medical service (1943). Works on the organization and tactics of the military medical service, epidemiology, the history of military medicine. During the war years, the head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army. He developed the doctrine of staged treatment with evacuation according to the destination and put into practice a system of treatment of evacuation measures that contributed to the return to service of the majority of the wounded and sick. The system of anti-epidemic support for the troops, developed under the leadership of Smirnov, determined the epidemic well-being of the army in the field. Chief editor of the scientific work "The experience of Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" in 35 volumes.
Conclusion
Medical workers made an invaluable contribution to the victory. At the front and in the rear, day and night, in the incredibly difficult conditions of the war years, they saved the lives of millions of soldiers. 72.3% of the wounded and 90.6% of the sick returned to service. If these percentages are presented in absolute figures, then the number of wounded and sick returned to service by the medical service during all the years of the war will be about 17 million people. If we compare this figure with the number of our troops during the war years (about 6 million 700 thousand people in January 1945), it becomes obvious that the victory was won to a large extent by soldiers and officers returned to service by the medical service. At the same time, it should be especially emphasized that, starting from January 1, 1943, out of every hundred killed in battles, 85 people returned to service from medical institutions of the regimental, army and front-line regions, and only 15 people from hospitals in the rear of the country. “The armies and separate formations,” wrote Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky, “were replenished mainly by soldiers and officers who returned after treatment from front-line, army hospitals and from medical battalions. Truly, our doctors were hardworking heroes. They did everything to put the wounded on their feet as soon as possible, to give them the opportunity to return to duty again.
Graduated in the forty-first year high school in Kharkov with a gold certificate and in June 1941 he was admitted to study at the Kharkov Military Medical School - KhVMU. Excellent students were accepted without exams. My choice - to link fate with the army - was influenced by the example of my older brother. By that time, my older brother Ilya had graduated from an art school and commanded a battery. Shortly after the start of the war, a cadet regiment was created on the basis of the school, and we were brought to the line of defense, to the distant approaches to Kharkov. We did not participate in the battles, it's just that the German did not reach our borders.
Already in early September, the school in full force, and this is about 1,500 cadets, was evacuated to the city of Ashgabat. We were placed in the barracks, and classes began. We did internships in Ashgabat hospitals and clinics.
The main pressure in educational process they did military field surgery at the VPKh. Primary treatment of wounds, splinting, desmurgy (bandaging) and the so-called small surgical operations we knew enough.
We knew about the conduct of resuscitation measures, then the concept of such resuscitation did not exist. Of course, such things as the Latin exam were not taken seriously by us at such a difficult moment for the country, when the Germans stood at the gates of Moscow, but such was the specificity of our profession.
Many training hours were allocated for field exercises - the deployment of battalion first-aid posts, the evacuation of the wounded. And, of course, shagistics: drill training took us a lot of nerves and time. It was something in hot Turkmenistan. Nobody wanted to march on the parade ground under the scorching ruthless sun. They fed us well. Camel meat was often given for lunch.
We learned to shoot well with all types of small arms, five times there were classes in throwing grenades. Infantry platoon commanders were not prepared from us, but I think that in terms of rifle and tactical training we were not much inferior to graduates of accelerated junior lieutenant infantry courses. Once again, I want to note that we were trained for a strictly defined task - to save the lives of the wounded on the battlefield.
The GSS attack pilot Emelianenko also once studied at the conservatory, and the legendary battalion commander Major Rapoport, a future academician-geneticist, looked through a microscope in a laboratory before the war, and not into the scope of a sniper rifle.
But here we are talking about cadets of military medical schools or military paramedics. And from a certified doctor, or even from an ordinary doctor, no one demanded knowledge of the tactics of a rifle company in battle. In June 1942, we were released from the school and given the rank of lieutenant m / s.
The whole war is in flux. The soldiers' feet were swollen, and after a few days in the water they could no longer walk on land.
He broke his MP on some island, in the middle of the water, but how was it possible to send the wounded to the rear?! They made rafts for the wounded and pushed them to the rear, while being almost neck-deep in water. A wounded soldier lies in front of you, still conscious, holding his intestines in his hands, looking with prayer and hope for you, and what could I do. Sanbat the devil knows where, the painkillers are over. Nearby is another soldier with severed legs, asking him to shoot ... The whole island is clogged with bleeding bodies.
I still sometimes see these moments in front of me ...
But the most difficult memory of that period is the participation in the battle of our officer's penal battalion against the Vlasov battalion. God forbid memory, in the area of the village of Kavkazskaya or Kazanskaya. I personally saw with my own eyes that only every second penalty box had a weapon. I repeat - only every second! ..
I pull out a wounded penal from the battlefield. We are lying behind some kind of bump, waiting for the Vlasov machine gunner to get rid of us. The prisoner, writhing in pain, pale from loss of blood, suddenly says to me: “I am a sailor, lieutenant commander, they put me in a penal battalion for talking. They should come here now, all this Tribunal bastard! .. "
They went into the landing with their usual weapons, no one was hung with bundles of grenades and no one was girded with machine-gun belts. Everything was according to our standard - we got up and went, and then we'll see ...
Everyone intuitively recruited ammunition to the maximum, and, of course, everyone took an extra cracker or something more impressive. The fact that on this bridgehead we will eat up the ninth horseradish without salt, everyone knew 100% in advance.
My opinion is private, I am not a prosecutor and not a war historian. Our business in the war was veal, the infantry - to fight, to me - to save the wounded, and not to argue. Yes, and cool KGB ears stuck out. But to be honest...
For your information, the great leader of all nations, Comrade Stalin, in the trenches, on the front line, was quite often cursed and cursed openly. Not afraid of anything! Because they won't send you further than the front! And those who were not a political instructor, but prayed for Stalin or raised a toast for his health, were considered on the front line not quite healthy in the head. I myself went to war as a Komsomol fanatic, but only by 1945 had I seen and understood a lot.
What more i can say? We had a duty to the Motherland, a soldier's duty.
And the fact that someday we will be killed was as clear as two times two ... There is such a proverb - lieutenants die in battle, and only generals die in their beds ...
... Sometimes you go alone at night to the rear of the regiment for dressings, here and there shooting, and you feel uneasy, your heart is restless, it takes some kind of dumbfounded. What if German intelligence grabs me now? I was more afraid of captivity than of my own death...
There was a joke at the front: whoever is not afraid is not a hero!
In an attack, a person is insane! .. You just don’t understand anything, you run forward at the Germans, you shoot somewhere in front of you ... They shoot us from above with machine guns.
Independentists in Western Ukraine treated us with hatred. I will give one example. It was in the Carpathians. The regiment was on the march to the front line. According to the map, seven kilometers from us was a village already liberated from the Germans. Five people were supposed to go ahead and reconnoiter what was happening, and look for places for the battalions to spend the night. They named five names of officers headed by the party organizer, including my last name. They jumped on the car, suddenly an accidental shot, the soldier was wounded. I got down from the car, began to bandage the fighter. And the Komsomol organizer of the regiment went instead of me. Two hours later we entered the village. Our comrades hung on the trees, tortured, mutilated and undressed...
Bandera hanged them... We burned this village down to the last log.
In fact, I did not see any obvious crossbows.
If the crossbow is not a complete idiot, he immediately after a combat wound fled to the rear of the regiment, to the sanrote. Why? Yes, if the battalion suspected that he was a crossbow, his company comrades would have killed him immediately, on the spot, without hesitation or delay.
We, cadets of the KhVMU, during our studies did practice in Ashgabat hospitals and everyone wondered why the nationalists had so many wounded in left hand? At the front, I realized - these, so to speak, some fighters voted in the elections to the Supreme Soviet - they stuck their hand out of the trench and waited for the German to have mercy and shoot. But in 1943, such a number was no longer held ...
And the special officers by that time had already become cunning guys.
During the Carpathian battles, the so-called soapmen appeared: they swallowed soap so as not to go on the attack, and then writhed from pain in their stomachs, rolling on the ground, depicting intestinal volvulus. These knew that no one would sew them self-mutilation or simulation. But there were only a few such bastards, and if such a bastard got into his company again, then he could also ... I’ll say it again - such nets were rare.
Speaking in general: people fought honestly, not sparing their lives.
Our losses were very heavy, sometimes even our own infantry felt sorry for us. I do not remember that more than two medical instructors remained alive in my medical platoon.
There has always been a shortage of medics on the front lines. Healthy sedate men, 30-35 years old, were selected as orderlies. In order to carry a wounded man with a weapon from the battlefield, one must have the proper strength for this. So, orderlies in rifle companies died very often, rarely anyone was able to hold out for more than two or three battles, there was no choice: either in the people's commissariat of agriculture, or in the people's commissariat of health.
Not everyone trusted in God, but the soldiers always hoped for the medical workers of the battalion and trusted us. They knew that we would save our wounded comrades and not leave them to bleed on the battlefield. Even if we are destined to die. Such was our work at the front ... And we justified the soldiers' trust ...
Excerpts are given according to the edition of Artem Drabkin “Up to the elbow in blood. Red Cross of the Red Army"
One of the most important orders of the Headquarters, which ultimately saved many lives Soviet soldiers, was the order of the People's Commissar of Defense "On the procedure for submitting military orderlies and porters to the government award for good combat work", signed on August 23, 1941 by I.V. Stalin. It was prescribed to present to the awarding of orderlies and porters for the removal of the wounded from the battlefield with their weapons: for the removal of 15 people were presented to the medal "For Military Merit" or "For Courage", 25 people - to the Order of the Red Star, 40 people - to the Order of the Red Banner, 80 people - to the Order of Lenin. By the end of the war, more than 116,000 military medical personnel and 30,000 civil health workers were awarded orders and medals during the war years. 42 medical workers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In total, 22,326,905 soldiers and officers were hospitalized during the war years armed forces. Of these, 14,685,593 - due to injury, the rest - due to illness. Of this huge amount, 76.9% returned to service. Another 17% commissioned. And only 6.1% of the soldiers could not be saved by doctors.
During the war, not only the medical service of the armed forces, but also local health authorities, and with them tens of thousands of people who were far from medicine, took part in servicing the wounded and sick during the war. Mothers, wives, younger brothers and sisters of warriors, working in industry, agriculture, found time and energy to carefully care for the wounded and sick in hospitals. Experiencing great deprivation in food and clothing, they gave everything, including their blood, in order to quickly restore the health of the soldiers.
The entire system of providing medical care in battle and the subsequent treatment of the wounded until recovery was built on the principles of staged treatment with evacuation as directed. This means dispersing the entire treatment process between special units and institutions, representing separate stages on his way from the place of injury to the rear. And then carry out the evacuation according to the destination, where each wounded person will be provided with qualified and specialized treatment, dictated by the requirements of modern surgery and medicine in general.
Thus, during the war in the Soviet Union, a unified military field medical doctrine was implemented. Its content was formulated by the head of the Glavvoensanupr E. I. Smirnov: “Modern staged treatment and a unified military field medical doctrine in the field of field surgery are based on the following provisions:
- all gunshot wounds are primary infected;
- the only reliable method of combating the infection of gunshot wounds is the primary treatment of wounds;
- most of the wounded need early surgical treatment;
- the wounded, subjected to surgical treatment in the first hours of injury, give the best prognosis.
They are not fragile, women's shoulders!
One of the most striking indicators of the organization of the field medical service, which was of paramount importance for all subsequent surgical work, was the time of arrival of the wounded after being wounded at the regimental medical station (PMP), where he was provided with first medical aid. The main requirement for the medical service was to ensure the arrival of all the wounded at the field medical station within 6 hours after the injury and at the medical battalion - up to 12 hours. If the wounded were detained in the company sector or in the area of the battalion first-aid post and arrived after the named dates, then this was considered as a lack of organization of medical care on the battlefield.
The optimal period for providing primary surgical care to the wounded in the medical battalion was considered to be within six to eight hours after the injury.
The most important body of first aid, undoubtedly, was the battalion medical center (BMP), headed by the battalion paramedic. It was he who was the organizer of all medical care and all sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic measures carried out in the battalion. The most important thing for him was to expedite the arrival of the wounded on the BMP and their dispatch to the regimental medical center (PMP_. In addition, the condition was checked here and the previously applied bandages and transport tires were corrected. When the wounded arrived in a state of shock, heart and painkillers were used. The wounded were warmed with chemical heating pads and warm blankets.
Helping the wounded during an attack
In turn, PHC turned from general medical care centers into preparatory surgical stages. At the regimental medical center, for the first time on the evacuation route of the wounded, medical registration of the wounded was carried out, medical cards of the advanced area were filled out, which followed them along the entire evacuation route. In some cases, when there were significant difficulties with the evacuation of the wounded from the PHC to the MSB, it was practiced to send a surgeon from the medical battalion to the PHC for surgical care (mainly for emergency and urgent operations).
The third group of doctors were employees of inpatient hospitals. Their features are high qualification and specialization of doctors, connection with the civilian population.
A special group of doctors was the staff of the ambulance trains. They took the seriously wounded to the rear of the country.
Among medical instructors there were up to 40% of women. Among the 44 doctors - Heroes of the Soviet Union 17 women.
But the death rate of medical workers was in second place after the rifle units. In total, during the war years, the losses of the medical service amounted to 210 thousand people. Most of the dead and wounded were among the orderlies and medical instructors.
Dressing the wounded in battle
From the memoirs of a veteran
They operated on me in a pine grove, where the cannonade of a close front reached. The grove was filled with wagons and trucks, constantly bringing the wounded ... First of all, the seriously wounded were let through ...Under the canopy of a spacious tent, with a canopy and a tin pipe over a canvas roof, there were tables shifted in one row, covered with oilcloth. The wounded, stripped to their underwear, lay across the tables at intervals of railway sleepers. It was an internal queue - directly to the surgical knife ...
In a partisan hospital, 1943
Among the crowd of sisters hunched the tall figure of the surgeon, his bare sharp elbows began to flicker, the abruptly harsh words of some of his commands were heard, which could not be made out over the noise of the primus stove, which constantly boiled water. From time to time there was a resounding metallic slap: it was the surgeon throwing the extracted fragment or bullet into the zinc basin at the foot of the table ... arms.
Saint Petersburg State University
Faculty of Medicine
Essay on the course "History of Medicine" on the topic:
"Medicine during the Great Patriotic War"
1st year student 102 gr. A. R. Kerefov
Table of contents
Introduction
medical women
Surgery on the battlefield
Great frontline surgeons
Hospitals underground
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Russian medicine has gone through a bright and original path, marked by many years of wars. One of the most cruel and merciless was the Great Patriotic War, where our country lost 27 million people and the 60th anniversary of the end of which we celebrate this year. The well-known commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan, after the end of the war, wrote: “What was done by Soviet military medicine during the years of the last war, in all fairness, can be called a feat. For us, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the image of a military doctor will remain the personification of high humanism, courage and dedication.”
In 1941, in the editorial of the Pravda newspaper, the strategic task facing medicine was formulated as follows: “Each soldier returned to duty is our victory. This is a victory for Soviet medical science... This is a victory for the military unit, in whose ranks an old warrior, already hardened in battles, has returned.”
In the battle with the enemy, not for life, but for death, along with the troops, military doctors walked along the battlefields. Under lethal fire, they carried the wounded from the battlefield, delivered them to medical stations, provided the necessary assistance, and then evacuated them to medical battalions, hospitals and further to specialized rear facilities. A well-organized military medical service worked tensely and without interruption. During the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 200 thousand doctors and over 500 thousand paramedics, nurses, medical instructors and orderlies in the army and navy, many of whom died in the fire of battles. In general, during the war, the death rate of medical workers was in second place after riflemen. The combat losses of the medical corps amounted to 210,602 people, of which 84,793 people were irretrievable. The greatest losses were on or near the battlefield - 88.2% total number losses, including porters - 60%. The Motherland highly appreciated the selfless work of military and civilian healthcare workers. More than 30,000 civil health workers during the Great Patriotic War were awarded orders and medals. More than 116 thousand military doctors were awarded orders, 50 of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 19 became full holders of the Order of Glory.
Since the exploits of every doctor on the battlefield and all examples of the heroism of doctors in the war cannot be reflected in this essay, I turned to several of the most key and interesting aspects from the point of view of the history of medicine.
medical women
Marshal of the Soviet Union I.Kh. Bagramyan wrote: “What was done by military medicine during the years of the last war, in all fairness, can be called a feat. For us, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the image of a military doctor remains the personification of high humanism, courage and dedication.”
Thanks to the heroic selfless work of military doctors, with the help of Soviet health care, the entire Soviet people, unprecedentedly high rates of return to duty of the wounded and sick after treatment were achieved. Significantly improved compared to previous wars, the outcome of severe injuries and diseases.
Through the efforts and care of military doctors, the lives of 10 million defenders of the Motherland have been saved. 72.3% of those injured in battles and 90.6% of sick soldiers were returned to service. Truly, this is a feat in the name of life. The army and the population were reliably protected from the outbreak of epidemics - these constant companions of war.
Most doctors are women, mothers, sisters, daughters. The main burden of military everyday life fell on their shoulders, because almost the entire male population was at the forefront.
Medical women. Their share fell tests no less than the soldiers on the front lines. So much courage, courage, fearlessness they showed! Old people and children, the wounded and the disabled, the weak and the sick - everyone needed the help of a nurse and a sanitary combatant. And every fighter and commander felt it in battle, knowing that there was a sister nearby - a "sister", a fearless person who would not leave you in trouble, would provide first aid in any conditions, drag you to shelter, take you out in a difficult moment on yourself, hide from the bombing on my way. Many years have passed since the terrible events of the Patriotic War, but the memory has preserved the names and deeds of these wonderful women who, not sparing their health and life itself, worked “on the front line”, daily saving the lives of wounded soldiers and commanders in any and the most difficult battle conditions, helping them to return to the ranks, and after the victory - to the family and favorite work.
Here is the data from the letter from the command of the 6th rifle corps Siberian volunteers to workers Krasnoyarsk Territory about the military exploits of Krasnoyarsk residents and a call to join the ranks of the dead on January 7, 1943: “... Comrade Verozubova carried out over 200 wounded from the battlefield and provided them with first aid. Participating in a tank assault on the battlefield, she bandaged 40 wounded soldiers. Three times wounded did not leave the battlefield.
Indeed, many doctors were still very young, in some cases they specially attributed a year or two to themselves in order to be older. Taisiya Semyonovna Tankovich, who was born in the Mansky District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, recalls that her work had to be carried out in difficult conditions: , to drag a heavy soldier with weak girlish hands to the dressing station ... On the way they came under bombing, the walking wounded were able to jump out and run into the forest. The seriously wounded screamed with fear, I calmed them down as best I could, running from car to car. Luckily the bombs didn't hit. Many doctors were on their feet almost the entire combat path, but it was impossible to destroy the enthusiasm and willpower. On the Oryol-Kursk direction, the losses were huge. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Petrova (participant in these events) did not have deep knowledge of medicine, but despite this, Nadezhda Nikolaevna assisted the wounded soldiers in a temporarily equipped dressing station (in a deep bomb crater), as other nurses were injured. Now the life of all the wounded depended on the girl from Irbey. She had, without hesitation, if you need to help a person save his life, then, without hesitation, she said: “Take blood from me as much as necessary,” and in return received words of gratitude and letters. Anna Afanasyevna Cherkashina tells about military life on the Oryol-Kursk salient. She, who could not swim, operated a rubber boat, pulled the wounded out of the water when crossing the Dnieper. Saving the lives of the fighters, being wounded herself, she did not think about herself. Another case, when doctor V.L. Aronov and nurse Olga Kupriyanova did not lose their heads during a raid by enemy aircraft, but were able to calm the patients by ordering Olga to sing loudly:
I accompanied you to a feat,
A thunderstorm rumbled over the country ...
We must not forget the doctors, nurses, nurses, all those who worked in the rear and helped people who were close to death come back to life, they looked death in the face. Soldiers who were treated in hospitals expressed gratitude through the newspapers, not naming the names of the doctors, but only the names and fatherlands: “Hello, dear mother Praskovya Ivanovna, I can’t find high words of gratitude that I am obliged to write to you; I loved Dora Klimentyevna, I loved as I loved my mother in childhood, you carried me a lot in your arms; I ask you, mother, take care of yourself. Appeals are found in all letters addressed to the medical staff of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, these are people who do not ask for anything, do not pretend to anything, but simply express their “high grateful feelings” from the bottom of their hearts. Our doctors did not remain indifferent after the treatment of the fighter. They searched through letters for their former patients at the front, in collective farms and cities, they wanted to know if the wounds had opened. Are postoperative scars disturbing, is the sick heart worried. But this is something that often could not be achieved even in times of peace from many highly titled medical institutions.
Among medical instructors there were 40% of women. Among the 44 doctors - Heroes of the Soviet Union - 17 women. As one of the heroes of K. Simonov's story "Days and Nights" said: "Well, by God, are there really no men for this business. Well, let him go in the rear, in the hospital for the wounded, but why come here." According to the poetess Yu. Drunina, it often happened: "Men in bloody overcoats called a girl for help ..."
One hundred wounded she saved alone
And took it out of the firestorm,
She gave them water to drink
And she bandaged their wounds...
To save the defenders of the Motherland, the girls spared neither their strength nor their lives.
Yu. Drunina wrote the following lines about the heroes of these events:
... We did not expect posthumous glory,
We wanted to live with glory.
... Why, in bloody bandages
The light-haired soldier lies?
His body with his overcoat
I hid, clenching my teeth,
Belarusian winds sang
About Ryazan deaf gardens....
Surgery on the battlefield
Surgery has always been one of the most important specialties of medicine. Surgeons have long enjoyed special trust and disposition. Their activities are surrounded by an aura of holiness and heroism. The names of skilled surgeons are passed down from generation to generation. It was. So it is today. During the war, saving people's lives became a daily job for them.
A memorable picture of the work of the surgeons of the medical battalion was drawn by Mikhail Sholokhov in the novel "They Fought for the Motherland": "... meanwhile the surgeon stood, clinging with both hands to the edge of a white table, which seemed to be flooded with red wine, and swayed, stepping from socks to heels. He he was sleeping ... and only when his friend, a big black-bearded doctor, had just finished a complex abdominal operation at the next table, pulling off his gloves that were softly sobbing, wet with blood, he said to him in a low voice: “Well, how is your hero, Nikolai Petrovich? Will he survive?" The young surgeon woke up, unclenched his hands, clenching the edge of the table, adjusted his glasses with a habitual gesture, and answered in the same businesslike, but slightly hoarse voice: "Definitely. So far, there's nothing wrong. This one must not only live, but also fight. The devil knows how healthy he is, you know, even enviable ... But now you can’t send him: he has one wound, something doesn’t like me ... We have to wait a bit.
The writer of the front-line generation Yevgeny Nosov, in the story "Red Wine of Victory", according to his own recollections, conveys the situation of the medical battalion: "They operated on me in a pine grove, where the cannonade of a close front flew. The grove was stuffed with wagons and trucks, constantly bringing the wounded ... ... Under the canopy of a spacious tent, with a canopy and a tin pipe over a canvas roof, there were tables shifted in one row, covered with oilcloth. The wounded, stripped to their underwear, lay across the tables with an interval of railway sleepers. It was an internal line - directly to the surgical knife. .. Among the crowd of sisters hunched the tall figure of the surgeon, his bare sharp elbows began to flicker, jerky-sharp words of some of his commands were heard, which could not be made out over the noise of the primus stove, which constantly boiled water. threw the extracted fragment or bullet into a zinc basin to at the foot of the table ... Finally, the surgeon straightened up and, somehow martyrically, hostilely, with eyes reddish from insomnia, looking at the others who were waiting for their turn, went to a corner to wash their hands.
Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov wrote that "... in the conditions of a major war, the achievement of victory over the enemy depends to a large extent on the successful work of the military medical service, especially military field surgeons." The experience of the war confirmed the truth of these words.
During the war, not only the medical service of the armed forces, but also local health authorities, and with them tens of thousands of people who were far from medicine, took part in servicing the wounded and sick during the war. Mothers, wives, younger brothers and sisters of warriors, working in industry, agriculture, found time and energy to carefully care for the wounded and sick in hospitals. Experiencing great deprivation in food and clothing, they gave everything, including their blood, in order to quickly restore the health of the soldiers.
The work of the workers of the medical battalion was described as follows by the poet S. Baruzdin:
And the sisters are busy
They work skillfully and quickly,
And the drivers sweat
Trying to be less shaky.
And gray-haired doctors
With the hands of real sappers
Somehow they think
We just got lucky...
The entire system of providing medical care in battle and the subsequent treatment of the wounded until recovery was built in our country during the Patriotic War on the principles of staged treatment with evacuation according to the destination. This means dispersing the entire treatment process in relation to the wounded among special units and institutions, which are separate stages on his way from the place of injury to the rear, and carry out evacuation according to the destination where each wounded person will be provided with qualified and specialized treatment, dictated by the requirements of modern surgery. and medicine in general. Changing stages on the evacuation route and the medical personnel providing assistance and care at these stages will not damage the treatment process if there is a strong connection between all stages and mutual understanding and interdependence are established in advance. But the first thing that is required is a common understanding by all physicians of the foundations on which military field surgery is organizationally based. It's about about a unified military field medical doctrine.
The content of this doctrine was formulated by the head of the Glavvoensanupr E. I. Smirnov. He said during the war years that “modern staged treatment and a unified military field medical doctrine in the field of field surgery are based on the following provisions:
1) all gunshot wounds are primary infected;
2) the only reliable method of combating the infection of gunshot wounds is the primary treatment of wounds;
3) most of the wounded need early surgical treatment;
4) the wounded, subjected to surgical treatment in the first hours of injury, give the best prognosis.
In his speeches, E. I. Smirnov repeatedly emphasized that in the conditions of the field medical service, the amount of work and the choice of methods of surgical intervention and treatment are most often determined not so much by medical indications as by the state of affairs at the front, the number of incoming patients and wounded and their condition, number and the qualifications of doctors, especially surgeons, at this stage, as well as the availability of vehicles, field and sanitary facilities and medical equipment, the time of year and weather conditions. Successes in providing surgical care and subsequent treatment of the wounded at the stages of medical evacuation were largely ensured by the work of the advanced stages and, first of all, the organization of first aid in battle, the removal of the wounded from the battlefield and their delivery to the battalion medical center and further to the regimental medical center (BMP and PMP).
The work of the advanced medical stages is of exceptional importance for saving lives and restoring the health of the wounded. Time is critical to the success of this work. Sometimes minutes are important to quickly stop bleeding on the battlefield.
One of the most striking indicators of the organization of the field medical service, which was of paramount importance for all subsequent surgical work, was the time of arrival of the wounded after being wounded at the regimental medical station, where he was provided with first medical aid. The early timing of the arrival of the wounded at the PHC predetermined the success of the entire further fight against shock and the consequences of blood loss, and was important for accelerating the further direction of the wounded from the PHC to the medical battalion, where the primary surgical treatment of wounds and the necessary surgical interventions were carried out.
Our main requirement for the medical service was to ensure the arrival of all the wounded at the PMP within 6 hours after the injury and at the medical battalion - up to 12 hours. If the wounded lingered in the company sector or in the BMP area and arrived after the named dates, then we considered this as a lack of organization of medical care on the battlefield. The optimal period for providing primary surgical care to the wounded in the medical battalion was considered to be within six to eight hours after the injury. If there were no special conditions in the nature of the battle that could delay the arrival of all the wounded from the forward zone to the PMP (the lightly wounded arrived in full), then the delay in the arrival of the seriously wounded could only be explained by emergency circumstances that required the intervention of a battalion paramedic, a senior regimental doctor, and sometimes and nachsandiva.
The most important body of first aid, undoubtedly, was the battalion medical center, headed by the battalion paramedic. It was he who was the organizer of all medical care and all sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic measures carried out in the battalion. The work of the sanitary departments of the companies and the evacuation of the wounded from the company sectors to the BMP depended primarily on the battalion paramedic. The most important thing for him was to speed up the arrival of the wounded on the BMP and their dispatch to the PMP. At the same time, special attention was paid to the removal of the wounded from the company sites, ambulance transport was sent to help, orderlies and porters from a previously prepared reserve were attached to the medical instructors. It was especially important, when the wounded were admitted to the BMP, to examine them in order to send, first of all, to the PMP the wounded requiring urgent medical, including surgical, care. On the BMP, the condition was checked and the previously applied bandages and transport tires were corrected. When the wounded were admitted in a state of shock, heart and painkillers were used. The wounded were warmed with chemical heating pads and warm blankets. With penetrating wounds of the chest, a large hermetic pressure bandage was applied with a gasket from the rubberized shell of an individual package.
The implementation of anti-epidemic measures by the battalion paramedic had special meaning during offensive operations and the liberation of previously occupied areas that are extremely unfavorable in terms of epidemics. The incredible oppression, poverty and deprivation that the population of the areas occupied by the Nazis were subjected to created a difficult epidemiological situation that threatened our advancing troops if serious and quick anti-epidemic measures were not taken. Much attention was also paid to this work by the medical unit of the regiment.
The path of the wounded from the place of first aid to him on the battlefield and before arriving at the PMP, despite its shortness (three to five kilometers), was very difficult for the victim himself. When conducting a medical examination of the arrived wounded at the PHC in order to determine the degree of urgency of their evacuation to the SME, the bandages were changed, soaked and unsatisfactorily applied, the correctness of the splints was checked and, if necessary, they were replaced, and control was carried out for previously applied tourniquets to stop arterial bleeding. Particular attention was paid to the introduction of anti-tetanus and anti-gangrenous sera for artillery-mine wounds of the lower half of the body, as well as for all lacerations and bruised wounds and heavy contamination of the body. At the PHC, measures were taken to combat shock and the consequences of large blood loss, which required emergency care in the form of preoperative blood transfusion and blood substitutes, which was of particular importance in difficult conditions for the evacuation of the wounded.
Under these conditions, PHC, as it were, turned from general medical care centers into preparatory surgical stages. At the regimental medical center, for the first time on the evacuation route of the wounded, medical registration of the wounded was carried out, medical cards of the advanced area were filled out, which followed them along the entire evacuation route. In some cases, when there were significant difficulties with the evacuation of the wounded from the PHC to the MSB, it was practiced to send a surgeon from the medical battalion to the PHC for surgical care (mainly for emergency and urgent operations).
The specific contribution of PPG doctors, medical battalions and ambulance trains to the phased treatment of the entire mass of the wounded is that they continued dressing, sanitizing, sorting, and on the other hand, ensured the cure of fighters with minor and moderate injuries, performed a huge number of operations. The third group of physicians, as noted, were employees of inpatient hospitals. Their features are high qualification and specialization of doctors, connection with the civilian population. A special group of doctors was the staff of the ambulance trains. They took the seriously wounded to the rear of the country.
In medical battalions and hospitals, doctors responsible for blood transfusion were allocated. In September 1941, a blood transfusion group consisting of a hematologist and two sisters was organized to receive, store and distribute blood to the armies and evacuation centers. The group was provided with two ambulances and was located near the front-line ambulance base. The responsibility of the group, in addition to receiving, storing and distributing blood to the places, included the organization of donation at all medical institutions, especially in the army region. Blood was delivered by planes from Moscow ( Central Institute blood transfusion - TsIPK) and from Yaroslavl, where a branch of the TsIPK was organized especially for our front. On non-flying days, blood was delivered from the capital by cars, mostly by railway, and from Yaroslavl by return sanletuchki and sanitary trains. The main point of delivery of blood from Moscow to the front was with. Edrovo near Valdai.
In the army, blood was delivered by air ambulances, using them on their return flight to evacuate the wounded. In all armies, “blood groups” were also organized, consisting of a doctor and one or two sisters: blood was sent to places in medical battalions and hospitals by their vehicles (ambulances and trucks, on wagons, sledges, and with complete impassability - on foot) During the spring thaw in 1942, units cut off by flooded rivers and swamps received blood in special drop baskets designed by the head of the blood service, I. Makhalova (now a retired colonel of the medical service). For a considerable time, our front also supplied blood to the neighboring armies of the Kalinin and Volkhov fronts. Simultaneously with the use of blood at the front, blood substitutes (plasma, transfusin, Seltsovsky's, Petrov's, etc.) began to be widely used.
Great frontline surgeons
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Petr Andreevich Kupriyanov - Chief Surgeon of the Leningrad Front in the Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, Professor P. A. Kupriyanov was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Northern Front, then the North-Western Direction, and from 1943 until the end of the war - of the Leningrad Front. The blockade of Leningrad and the extraordinary difficulties of defending the besieged city demanded heroic efforts from the medical service, as well as from the entire population and all soldiers. Under these conditions, the speedy restoration of the health of the wounded and their return to duty had national importance. P. A. Kupriyanov played a leading role in organizing the surgical service and developing the most appropriate methods of treating the wounded.
He was often seen at the forefront of the defense, where fierce fighting was going on. P. A. Kupriyanov recalled: “When our troops converged on Leningrad, the medical battalions were located on the outskirts of the city, partly on its streets. Field army hospitals entered the general network of front-line evacuation centers. When the evacuation of the wounded from Leningrad ceased on August 31, 1941, Pyotr Andreevich organized hospital bases for the lightly wounded in each army. AT hardest days blockade of Leningrad, in agreement with the chief therapist of the front, E.M. Gelstein, it was decided to place therapeutic field mobile hospitals “back to back” on the same site with surgical field mobile hospitals. This allowed the use of experienced therapists to treat those wounded in the chest, abdomen and in the postoperative period.
Along with the main work of the chief surgeon of the front, P. A. Kupriyanov supervised the work of a specialized hospital where the wounded in the chest lay. The chief surgeon of the Volkhov Front, A. A. Vishnevsky, who arrived on business in besieged Leningrad, will write in his diary what he saw P. A. Kupriyanov "...as always calm, slightly smiling, but much thinner." During the blockade, Petr Andreevich performed more than 60 operations on the wounded in the heart.
During this difficult period of the Great Patriotic War, P. A. Kupriyanov did not stop studying scientific activity. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, his book “A Short Course in Military Field Surgery” was published in Leningrad, written jointly with S.I. Banaitis. It summarizes the achievements of military field surgery in the prewar period and outlines the organizational principles for providing surgical care at various stages of medical evacuation. In the preface to this book, E. I. Smirnov and S. S. Girgolav wrote: “This textbook uses the experience of the war with the White Finns. Its authors were active participants in the war, organizers of surgical work on the Karelian Isthmus. There is no need to prove that personal experience works dominated over the authors. And this is good ... The basic organizational principles of military field surgery are set out correctly, competently, and therefore the publication of this textbook will only enrich our military medicine.”
This assessment of the book needs no comment. It was the “Short Course on Military Field Surgery” by P. A. Kupriyanov and S. I. Banaitis that served as a desktop manual for surgeons during the Great Patriotic War. The book has not lost its significance at the present time, since the main information presented in it remains true to this day.
At the initiative of Petr Andreevich in the most difficult conditions blockaded Leningrad began to create an "Atlas of gunshot wounds." For this purpose, a team of authors and artists was involved. The entire edition consists of 10 volumes and was edited by P. A. Kupriyanov and I. S. Kolesnikov. Some of the volumes appeared during the war years, the rest were printed in the post-war period. This unique scientific work outlines the basic guidelines for the surgical treatment of wounds of various localizations and outlines the surgical technique, illustrated with excellent color drawings. In the Soviet and foreign literature there is no similar scientific work.
When creating an outstanding multi-volume publication “The experience of Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” P. A. Kupriyanov was involved in the editorial board. He took over the leadership of the writing team for the compilation of the ninth and tenth volumes of this edition, edited both volumes and wrote some of the chapters. These two volumes reflect the experience of surgical treatment of gunshot wounds of the chest and summarize the achievements in this field of surgery.
In addition to the above-mentioned capital works, P. A. Kupriyanov wrote a number of other scientific works during the war years - “Treatment and evacuation of the wounded on the Leningrad Front”, “Classification of wounds and wounds”, “On the surgical treatment of gunshot wounds”, “Principles of primary surgical treatment of wounds in the military district”, “Amputation of limbs (excluding fingers) at the stages of sanitary evacuation”, “Surgery of gunshot wounds of the chest organs” and many others. Together with N. N. Burdenko, Yu. Yu. Dzhanelidze, M. N. Akhutin, S. I. Banaitis and others, he took part in the development of the basic principles for providing surgical slop to the wounded at the stages of medical evacuation. As a result, a harmonious system of treatment of war victims was achieved and a high percentage of their recovery was ensured, which was of great importance for the country's defense.
In parallel with the service in the Soviet Army, P. A. Kupriyanov worked for a long time at the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute. I. P. Pavlova (1926-1948). At this institute, he headed the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy (1930-1945) and the Department of Faculty Surgery (1944-1948). In September 1944, while remaining the chief surgeon of the front, Kupriyanov was approved as head of the department of faculty surgery. Military Medical Academy them. S. M. Kirov.
In 1942, Petr Andreevich was awarded the title of Honored Scientist. He was one of the initiators of the creation of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, which was established on June 30, 1944 by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 797. position until October 1, 1950. In 1943-1945. Kupriyanov was elected chairman of the board of the Pirogov Surgical Society.
Organizational activity during the war with the White Finns (1939-1940) and then in the Great Patriotic War, as well as publications of numerous and important scientific papers nominated P. A. Kupriyanov among the largest and most progressive military field surgeons in our country.
Hospitals underground
In the besieged Sevastopol, doctors acted in conditions of tough defense, cut off from the front, from the army in the field. The city was under fire all the time. In the huge blue horseshoe of the Sevastopol bay, the water boiled from explosions of bombs, mines and shells, the city blocks turned into ruins. For several days of the December battles, the Sevastopol Naval Hospital received about 10,000 wounded. Several surgeons were unable to cope with them. I had to involve therapists, neurologists, radiologists: they performed the simplest operations. And yet the effect of the titanic efforts of doctors was incomplete - the hospital was subjected to continuous bombardment and shelling, the wounded received additional injuries, many died under fire and the ruins of the hospital, protected only by the sign of the Red Cross. There was no safe place left on the wounded and burned land of Sevastopol.
The best thing would be to “hide” medical shelters underground. But where to find the necessary underground structures? It takes a long time to build, and there is no one. Found a way out. The commander of the Primorsky Army, General I.E. Petrov, and the commander of the Black Sea Fronts, Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky, helped. On their advice, they decided to use the quarry galleries of Champagnestroy: they improved the galleries, reliably protected them from fire with a thickness of stone. In a matter of days, doctors of the 25th Chapaev division (it was part of the Primorsky army) installed electric lighting here, equipped ventilation, arranged water supply and sewerage. In general, the uninhabited basement was turned into a hospital with 2,000 beds. In six underground operating rooms and dressing rooms, surgeons served as priests. Experienced surgeons B.A. Petrov, E.V. Smirnov, V.S. Kofman, P.A. Karpov, N.G. Nadtoka operated here... The berths of the North Side, from the Mine Harbor, the wounded and medicines were delivered to the hospital. The experience of the first underground hospital was widely used in Sevastopol. A significant part of the hospitals and medical posts operated underground: in the abandoned cellars of the champagne wine factory, in the natural shelters of the Holland Bay (the medical battalion of the 95th division was located here), the Ship Side, Yukharinskaya beam. The doctors of the Marine Corps brigade set up their medical station in the former cave monastery on the steep slope of the Inkerman Heights at the very tip of the Northern Bay. They got to the former monastery cells along the ladder, and the seriously wounded were lifted here on blocks with the help of a hand winch.
In reliable shelters in the rocks, in tunnels pierced in limestone mountains, under a protective fifty-meter thickness, which no air bombs or shells could penetrate, the wounded felt safe. And the surgeons of the besieged city, enduring continuous shelling and bombing, worked much calmer here. Things were unrelenting. All hospitals and medical battalions were overcrowded. Surgeons did not leave the operating rooms for days, each performed more than 40 operations per shift. Doctors were tormented by the thought: how and where to evacuate the wounded? Ahead is the enemy, behind is the sea. True, at first it was possible to use the sea route. Warships, cargo ships, sanitary transport ships in November 1941 evacuated 11,000 wounded. Hospitals and medical battalions have become much freer. However, when the Nazis launched a new offensive in December, up to 2.5 thousand wounded were received every day. And again the problem of their evacuation overshadowed all others. The sanitary transport ships of the Black Sea Fleet, carrying the wounded, quickly broke down. Violating all the laws and customs of war, the fascist vultures specifically hunted them, many times with an incomprehensible normal person they stubbornly attacked and sank defenseless ships, and those who tried to escape the wounded were shot from machine guns. So the transports and ships "Svaneti", "Georgia", "Abkhazia", "Moldavia", "Crimea", "Armenia" were sunk. On the "Armenia", together with the naval doctors who accompanied the wounded sailors, the chief surgeon of the Black Sea Fleet B.A. Petrov and Professor E.V. Smirnov were to sail from Sevastopol. By some chance, they did not get on the ship and sailed a day later on a warship. And soon a message came about the death of "Armenia". On this day, in his diary, B.A. Petrov wrote in despair: “We arrived in Tuapse. Here we were greeted with thunderous news: "Armenia" perished ... Everything surgical that was in Sevastopol was loaded onto it. All surgery is gone. All the surgeons of the Black Sea Fleet died. All my friends, assistants, students, like-minded people perished ... The entire medical, political, and economic staff of the Sevastopol hospital perished. Everything died!!! Will I still laugh and enjoy life? I think it's sacrilege now."
With the loss of the ambulance ships that made heroic voyages under enemy bombs, the medics used only warships. And although the capabilities of battleships and destroyers, cruisers and leaders are much lower than specially equipped ambulances, and they arrived irregularly, this was a very important "window". On one of the December nights of 1941, the battleship "Paris Commune" boldly entered the Sevastopol Bay and, standing on the barrels, opened fire on the enemy, who had fortified on the north side. At this time, one after another barges with the wounded approached its board. Having received more than a thousand people, the ship went to the open sea. But, despite the heroism of the military and doctors, the situation worsened. Huge fascist planes began to dive on any lone car carrying the wounded, and bombs were thrown on every cart that appeared on the street or road. Helpless wounded received repeated wounds, often died. In the underground hospital, equipped in adits, ventilation and plumbing stopped working, the electric light, penetrated smoke from fires, explosions of bombs and shells. But the wounded kept coming, and the surgeons operated continuously, now by the light of kerosene lamps, forgetting about rest and barely standing on their feet from fatigue. The bitter truth is this: it was not possible to carry out the evacuation of all the wounded, although great efforts were made to do this. On the seashore, near the new sanitary piers in Kamyshovaya and Kazachya bays, near the rocky Cape Khersones in last days defense there were about 10 thousand soldiers and sailors injured in the battles and with them physicians: doctors, nurses, orderlies. Of course, alone, without the wounded, the doctors could still, perhaps, evacuate. But to abandon the wounded, to leave them to the mercy of the Nazis? They stayed, stayed with those who were saved.
Medical Service in the Battle of Stalingrad
The military medical service of the 62nd army, which defended Stalingrad, was created in the spring of 1942, simultaneously with the formation of the army itself. By the time the 62nd Army entered combat operations, the medical service had mainly young cadres of doctors, paramedics and nurses, most of them without practical special and combat experience. Medical units and institutions were not fully provided with standard equipment, there were very few tents, and there was almost no special ambulance transport. Medical and evacuation institutions had 2,300 full-time beds. During the fighting a large number of the wounded - tens, hundreds, thousands of victims needed the help of doctors. And they got it.
There were many difficulties in the work of the medical service. But military doctors did everything possible, and sometimes, it would seem, impossible to fulfill their sacred duty. Taking into account the created combat situation, new forms of medical support were sought.
In addition to the existing system of medical support, attention was paid to the training of all personnel of the troops to provide self-help and mutual assistance.
In assault groups and detachments, in battle formations, in separate garrisons, there were always orderlies and sanitary instructors, additional forces were allocated to ensure the removal of the wounded. Often these separate groups and garrisons found themselves cut off from their troops, fought in the encirclement. In these cases, the evacuation of the wounded became almost impossible, and battalion medical posts (BMP) were equipped in the basements of buildings, dugouts, dugouts directly behind the battle formations.
Regimental medical posts (PMPs) were deployed close behind the battle formations of the battalions. Most often, they provided the necessary assistance, supplementing the one already provided, and taking all measures for the fastest evacuation of the wounded. The work of the BMP and PMP took place in the zone of effective enemy rifle and machine-gun fire. The medical service suffered heavy losses.
Under the banks of the Volga, advanced groups of medical and sanitary battalions worked. They deployed, as a rule, receiving and sorting rooms, operating rooms, small hospitals for temporarily non-transportable people, and emergency qualified surgical care was provided to evacuees.
Here, on the shore, there were advanced groups of field mobile hospitals (PPG) No. 80 and No. 689 and an evacuation center (EP) - 54, which, having deployed surgical dressing and evacuation rooms, provided qualified assistance and prepared the wounded for evacuation across the Volga. The operational group of the army sanitary-epidemic detachment (SEO) worked nearby.
Operating dressing, sorting, evacuation hospitals were deployed in basements, adits, dilapidated rooms, dugouts, crevices, dugouts, sewer wells and pipes.
So, the hospital department of the medical battalion 13 GSD was located in a sewer pipe; operating medical battalion 39 sd - in the adit; operating room PPG-689 - in the basement of the pumping station; operating room and evacuation room EP-54 - in a restaurant near the central pier.
The evacuation route from the front line to the medical battalion and the surgical field mobile hospital (HPPG) was very short, only a few kilometers. Operation was high. In many cases, even extremely seriously wounded were on operating table after 1-2 hours.
On the left bank of the Volga, 5-10 km. the main departments of medical battalions and HPPG of the first line were located (Kolkhoznaya Akhtuba, Verkhnyaya Akhtuba, Burkovsky farms, Gospitomnik).
Moorings were equipped in Krasnaya Sloboda, Krasny Tugboat and just on the shore. In the area of Kolkhoznaya Akhtuba, a sanitation station was set up.
The provision of specialized assistance, treatment of the wounded and sick was carried out in second-line hospitals and front-line hospitals, which were located in Leninsk, Solodovka, Tokarev Sands, Kapyar, Vladimirovka, Nikolaevsk, etc. - 40-60 km away. from the front.
In the second half of November, at the Tumak pier on the eastern bank of the Volga, a receiving nutritional and heating point was organized, next to which HPPG-689 deployed an operational dressing unit and a hospital for temporarily non-transportable people to provide emergency qualified assistance. All departments were equipped in dugouts built by the personnel of the hospital.
An army field hospital APG-4184 with 500 beds was deployed in Tokarev Sands. All departments of the hospital were equipped in dugouts of a large area. The work was supervised by the head of the hospital - military doctor of the 2nd rank, later - Professor Landa, political officer Zaparin, leading surgeon, military doctor of the 2nd rank Teplov.
But perhaps the most difficult thing in medical support was the evacuation of the wounded across the Volga. There were no special funds. For the evacuation of the wounded, everything that could be adapted for these purposes was used. The evacuation was carried out mainly at night. By order of the commander of the 62nd Army, Marshal V.I. Chuikov, all types of transport that brought ammunition, weapons, troops and other property across the Volga were supposed to pick up the wounded on the way back.
By mid-September, the issue of crossing the wounded became especially difficult and difficult. By decision of the Military Council, HPPG-689 and EP-54 were allocated to ensure the crossing of the wounded. The work of the personnel of these medical institutions was very difficult and dangerous. Enemy planes were constantly over the crossings, shells were exploding.
Only for the period from 20 to 27 September 1942, EP-54 lost 20 of its personnel.
At the beginning of October, the situation deteriorated sharply. The enemy in some places went to the Volga. He scanned and kept under fire a large section of the surface of the river. The number of wounded during this period increased, and the conditions for crossing the wounded became even more difficult. However, for example, in just one day on October 14, about 1,400 wounded were transported across the Volga. At this time, the wounded were transported at night to Zaitsevsky Island, where there were groups from the 112th medical battalion and EP-54. After helping the needy, the wounded were taken on stretchers to the berths, located 2 km away, and transported to the left bank. During the period of ice drift, the berths for the wounded became "volatile", i.e. they were where they could, given the ice situation, land the crossing facilities.
Describing the work of the medical service during the defense of Stalingrad, the head of the GVSU, Colonel-General M / s Smirnov, in his work “Problems of Military Medicine” writes: “The presence in the military rear of a large water barrier, which was the Volga, made it difficult to organize medical and evacuation support for the troops. There was mass heroism near Stalingrad, mass courage of medical workers, especially the 62nd Army.
Speaking at a meeting of veterans of the 62nd Guards Army, Marshal of the Soviet Union V.I. Chuikov said: “The wonderful deeds of doctors, nurses, sanitary instructors who fought shoulder to shoulder with us on the right bank of the Volga will remain forever in everyone’s memory .. The dedication of medical workers, who were, in essence, at the forefront of the fight against the enemy, helped the 62nd Army to complete its combat mission.
Conclusion
The contribution of Soviet doctors to the cause of the Victory is invaluable. Unprecedented in its scale, everyday mass heroism, selfless devotion to the Motherland, the best human and professional qualities were shown by them in the days of severe trials. Their selfless, noble work restored life and health to the wounded and sick, helped to take their place in combat formation again, made up for losses, and helped to maintain the strength of the Soviet Armed Forces at the proper level.
The Great Patriotic War became the most difficult test for the whole country.
In the address of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, employees of the Ryazan State Medical University to the younger generation, there are the following lines: “You are the younger generation. The future of Russia largely depends on you. We urge you to know the heroic past, to appreciate the present, to better comprehend the great significance of our Victory. We pass on to you the baton of glorious heroic deeds, the baton of defending the Motherland.”
The memoirs of Lidia Borisovna Zakharova may seem surprising, who said that doctors had to provide medical care to all patients, regardless of who was wounded: a soldier of the Red Army or an enemy - a German! “Yes, I was afraid ... I was afraid that when helping the Germans, I would hurt and they would kill me. When I came in, I saw an 18-year-old boy - skinny, pale, guarding them. Having entered the barracks, I saw about 200 healthy men of German nationality, whom I began to bandage. The Germans behaved calmly and offered no resistance at all... I still ask myself how this can be, because I am alone and I am only 22 years old, and what about the guard?..» http://www.historymed.ru/static.html?nav_id=177
Gaidar B.V. The role of doctors in the Great Patriotic War. - St. Petersburg: Medical Bulletin, 2005 - No. 3, p. 85.
On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Zdorovye-info publishes material about military field surgeons. These lines are dedicated to the people who put on their feet and returned to service more than 17 million soldiers who managed to defend our Motherland and the whole world from fascism.
Alexander Tushkin / Health-info
“What was done by Soviet military medicine during the years of the last war, in all fairness, can be called a feat. For us, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the image of a military medic will remain the personification of high humanism, courage and dedication,” wrote Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan. Thanks to the feat of doctors, 72.3% of the wounded and 90.6% of sick soldiers were able to return to the front. The victory was made possible largely thanks to the soldiers and officers returned to service by military doctors.
“War is a traumatic epidemic,” said the great Russian doctor Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. Therefore, the profession of a surgeon was most valued at the front. Doctors of other specialties urgently at the beginning of the war underwent retraining for short courses, and then became assistant surgeons or went to the front line. It was there that the privates and sergeants suffered the main losses - more than 80% of deaths. In total, 85,000 doctors died or went missing during the war.
Major of the medical service Vladimir Terentyevich Kungurtsev was also at the forefront. Before the war, Vladimir Terentyevich graduated from the Medical Institute in Novosibirsk with a diploma of a general practitioner. He served on the Far Eastern Front as a field surgeon in an artillery unit, where he fought the Japanese on the Manchurian border. Together with fellow soldiers, Vladimir Terentyevich reached Harbin, where he received the Order of the Patriotic War for his services. IIdegree.
Today, Vladimir Terentyevich is 95, he lives in Moscow, and on the eve of Victory Day he agreed to answer several questions especially for Health-Info.
"Health-info":What was the main task of field surgeons?
V. Kungurtsev: We provided first aid to combatants. I was engaged in the fighters of the artillery unit, who fired from cannons and mortars. Most often, I worked with the wounded, who needed first aid and sent to the medical battalion. From there, the soldier was transferred to if full-fledged surgical operations were required.
"Health-info":What injuries were the most common?
V. Kungurtsev: Shrapnel, bullet. But I was lucky: not a single death. But they were heavy: once they brought a fighter with a pneumothorax chest. He couldn't breathe. I put a bandage on him to keep air out of his lungs. In general, we promptly evacuated the seriously wounded - on stretchers or cars. All soldiers in mandatory equipment had individual dressing bags, which they received from the regimental doctor. Each soldier was well instructed in case of injury. For example, if a bullet hits the stomach, you can’t drink or eat, because through the stomach and intestines, along with the liquid, an infection enters the abdominal cavity, and the peritoneum begins -.
"Health-info":What injuries were considered the most severe?
V. Kungurtsev: Shrapnel wounds, especially in limbs.
"Health-info":How far do projectile fragments fly?
V. Kungurtsev: Depends on the caliber. Small projectiles strike at a distance of several meters, large - a hundred or more. The sound wave of such a projectile is small, not like that of the Katyusha. Such a projectile flies, and its sound is specific, similar to a piercing whistle and very short. Then he lands and there is an explosion.
"Health-info":Can shock occur?
V. Kungurtsev: Concussion is air and most often when hit by a fragment. This is a closed skull when a fighter loses. Sometimes he loses the ability to navigate in space, to speak, to hear sounds. Then everything is gradually restored.
"Health-info":And then what do they do with the shell-shocked?
V. Kungurtsev: He is given an anesthetic and then a sedative. All we had at our disposal was belladonna and codeine.
"Health-info":What actions did you take if the wounded man went into pain shock?
V. Kungurtsev: If the wounded has a pain shock, it is necessary to put him in such a way that the blood circulates normally, and the head is not higher than the body. Then you need to anesthetize the wounds. We had nothing but chloroethyl then. Chloroethyl freezes the pain for a few minutes. And only later, in the medical battalion, the wounded were given novocaine injections, more effective ether and chloroform were given.
"Health-info":What else threatened the health of the soldier, except for fragments and bullets?
V. Kungurtsev: Due to the fact that people led an abnormal lifestyle, there were infectious diseases: acute respiratory infections, intestinal disorders, diseases associated with unsanitary conditions. But there were usually few. If something is somewhere, the person was immediately evacuated to the infectious disease.
"Health-info":How were infections treated in the regiment?
V. Kungurtsev: There were also medicines, then usually patients were given streptocide and sulfidine.
"Health-info":Do you remember your toughest fight?
V. Kungurtsev: The heaviest battle was near Hailar. No matter how much we ironed the Japanese with artillery, no matter how much we bombed with aircraft, we could not knock them out of the fortifications. Then they decided to bypass Hailar, and he remained in the rear. Then the Japanese beat a lot of soldiers from the 94th Infantry Division, because they went on the attack and went straight for them.
"Health-info":How many people have you saved from death?
V. Kungurtsev: I never kept any records.
"Health-info":Did you communicate with your patients after the war?
V. Kungurtsev: No, I didn’t communicate, because they parted in different sides. After the war, I entered the Leningrad medical academy and received a degree in neurology.
"Health-info":Have you been injured yourself?
V. Kungurtsev: I wasn't hurt. I had a concussion and bruises. In the medical battalion and never lay.
