North Caucasus People’s Care For The Injured During The Great Patriotic War

Abstract

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, hospitals and hospitals were deployed throughout the country to receive the wounded. Thousands of doctors and paramedics worked selflessly in hospitals, helping wounded soldiers to return to duty. Only Caucasian Mineralnye Vody included 107 sanatoriums with 18.9 thousand beds. In terms of its material, technical and personnel support, it, along with the resort base of Sochi-Matsesta, was considered the most advanced in the Soviet Union. Lake located near the city of Pyatigorsk. In the North Caucasus, patronage work has been developed since the first days of the organization of hospitals. Sponsoring enterprises and organizations provided substantial assistance in equipping hospitals, putting hospital rooms in order, collecting various equipment, transporting the wounded and sick, and providing hospitals with food. Komsomol members and youth showed great help and special activity in this matter. The patronage of hospitals and the mass donor movement played an important role in the return to service of the wounded by the war. Medical institutes forged cadres of doctors. Young graduates were immediately sent to the front as sanitary doctors. In war, the surgeon's scalpel was as formidable a weapon for the enemy as the machine gun. After all, by returning our soldiers to the ranks, the doctors struck at the plans of the Nazis and thereby brought the cherished victory closer. Thanks to the mobilization of all material and human resources, the country managed to defeat the fascist invaders.

Keywords: Care, families of veterans, Great Patriotic War, hospitals, North Caucasus, wounded

Introduction

In the multifaceted activities of the Soviet state during the Great Patriotic War, a large place was occupied by the work of assisting wounded Soviet soldiers, defenders of the Fatherland, and their families. These aspects of social policy are still insufficiently covered in the historical literature. However, the study of precisely this sphere of activity of our state, the entire people, and all public organizations is of great scientific, educational, socio-political, and educational significance. The need to deploy a military medical service appeared immediately after the start of the war.

As the influx of sick and wounded increased, the authorities of the USSR promptly created the necessary organizational structures to solve the whole range of problems. The authorities skillfully maneuvered the material base of health care. By decree of the State Defense Committee on September 22, 1941, all evacuation hospitals in the rear areas of the country were transferred to the health authorities. The military medical service of the Red Army remained in charge of the hospitals of the front-line army districts. This decision united front-line (army) and rear (civilian) medical hospitals (Kondakova, 2002). In The directive (June 29, 1941) stated to provide extensive assistance to the wounded by providing hospitals, schools, clubs, institutions (Fedchenko, 2001).

On September 22, 1941, by a decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, the All-Union Committee for Assistance to Wounded Soldiers and Commanders of the Red Army was created, headed by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Andreev. Similar committees have been established in all regions with broad powers entrusted to them. There was a high sense of patriotism among the working class and the collective farm peasantry of the republics, territories, and regions of the North Caucasus in helping the front. Their activities found expression in the broad development of the movement to equip and provide food for hospitals, provide assistance to wounded front-line soldiers, care for the families of military personnel, and many other forms of patriotic movement. The population showed lively sincere participation in the fate of the wounded, providing them with all possible assistance and assistance.

Problem Statement

Particular attention was paid by the population of the country to the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers, and their return to the armed forces. The government of the USSR, based on the experience of the First World War and given that there would be a significant number of wounded in this war, already at the end of June 1941, adopted a resolution on the deployment of hospitals in the rear. First of all, health care facilities, a sanatorium, and a resort base were used.

In the regions of the country, which had powerful health potential, sanatoriums, boarding houses, and recreation centers created hospital bases. An example is the North Caucasus. The government attracted sanatoriums, boarding houses, and recreation centers to the resorts of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, Sochi, the Black Sea coast, Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan, Chechen-Ingushetia, and more than 200 hospitals (Ovanesov & Sudavtsov, 2007). The population was involved in the equipment of hospitals, among which additional equipment for hospitals was collected – beds, furniture, bedding, utensils for catering, and other essentials. The experience gained during the First World War was widely used, when hundreds of hospitals were opened in Russia at the initiative of the Zemstvo and city governments at their own expense and donations from the population. For purposeful work on servicing the wounded and sick soldiers, republican, regional, city, and district committees were created. The committees were involved in organizing assistance to health authorities for the treatment of the wounded and sick, patronage of hospitals, and daily monitoring of their work.

Research Questions

The Great Patriotic War, which showed the world examples of courage, the courage of Soviet soldiers, the highest love for the Motherland, and the unity of all its peoples, goes further and further into the past. For many decades after its completion, a huge number of works were written dedicated to the tragic and at the same time heroic pages of those harsh years. However, there are still many topics that are not sufficiently covered in the military and historical literature. One of them is activities to provide the hospital base of the North Caucasus with everything necessary, treat wounded soldiers, medical and social rehabilitation to war invalids, and help wounded soldiers of the Red Army and their families.

Purpose of the Study

Within the framework of this article, the goal is to show assistance to the wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, as well as the families of military personnel in the North Caucasus during the Great Patriotic War.

Research Methods

The methodological basis was the principles of objectivity, scientific, and historicism, which involve the study of facts and phenomena in all their diversity, in the specific historical conditions of their emergence and development and allowing to highlight both the positive and negative sides of the problem under study.

Findings

From the first days of the war, an important role was played by the provision of assistance by the population in equipping hospitals that were created throughout the country. This required beds, bedding, kitchen utensils, and furniture. The state could not provide all this in the required quantity. And this was given by the population, enterprises, and institutions.

Teams of hospitals evacuated in 1941, particularly to the North Caucasus, the medical institutes of Leningrad, Ukraine, and Rostov-on-Don provided great assistance to hospital staff. Scientists, in collaboration with hospital teams, developed methods for treating the wounded and sick, making extensive use of natural factors. Patronage over hospitals of enterprises, collective farms, state farms, and educational institutions played an important role. All this contributed to the fact that more than 80% of the sick and wounded who were being treated in the hospitals of the Caucasian Mineral Waters were returned to service, which was much higher than the all-Union figure (Ozheva, 2007).

Such results, never before seen in the history of military medical practice, in the hospitals of the North Caucasus were achieved not only by timely and skillful surgical care, a variety of medical treatment but the extraordinary care of the staff, which was everywhere, and by the bold use of fertile natural healing factors.

However, the work to improve the work of hospitals in the North Caucasus was interrupted by the invasion of the region by Nazi troops. The railroad was unable to ensure the evacuation of the seriously wounded. Many of them are in hospitals. Three echelons of seriously wounded, a total of 1800 people, as German troops captured the Mineralnye Vody station and closed the exit from the Kislovodsk-Mineralnye Vody railway line. An echelon seriously wounded from the Pyatigorsk hospitals arrived in Kislovodsk.

By the summer of 1942, the hospital base of the resort towns of the North Caucasus reached its maximum performance in the first year of the Great Patriotic War. Thanks to the use of various balneological and natural-climatic factors, the doctors of the evacuation hospitals of Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk, Grozny, and others returned to combat formation up to 80 % of all treated fighters and commanders, which exceeded the all-Union figures. However, the German occupation of the North Caucasus, which began in August 1942, led to a temporary curtailment of the activities of the hospital base (Sudovtsov et al., 2020).

Under these conditions, medical workers accomplished a real feat, organizing the work of hospitals under the occupation under the flag of the Red Cross for the seriously wounded. Such a hospital was created in the city of Kislovodsk in August 1942, which could not be evacuated to the rear. This hospital worked for more than two months until the 20th of October. Before the arrival of the invaders, the hospital workers redid all the case histories, replacing all the data given to the officers with privates. In addition, a hospital and a polyclinic were established. For the treatment of patients who did not require inpatient treatment, who were with residents of the city.

When the invaders appeared in the city, they were told that there were typhoid patients in the hospital wards. In the process of healing, doctors discharged those who were recovering and took the seriously wounded from the population. Medical workers, risking their lives, saved hundreds of military lives. In addition, they provided advisory assistance to the wounded in the apartments of the local population and treated them. Nevertheless, gradually the regime of the invaders became tougher. The sentries appeared. The hospital food was taken away. The population of the city shared with the wounded their meager supplies. And in October, the commandant's office of the city announced that the wounded would be taken to Ukraine. On October 23, and 24, 1942, two echelons, in which there were 350 wounded, were sent from the city to Ukraine. Medical workers also volunteered to help the wounded along the way. Residents of the city provided the wounded with food. Many of them died in POW camps.

After the liberation of the region from occupation, many hospitals suffered from destruction, and looting of property and equipment by the invaders. Under these conditions, the task was set as soon as possible to organize the restoration of hospitals and the treatment of the wounded in them, of whom a significant number were received since in the North Caucasus until October 1943 hostilities continued until October 9, 1943. And again, the population came to the aid of the hospital staff, which returned part of the equipment hidden from the invaders but donated a significant part of their equipment. The population helped to restore the destroyed buildings. For this, repair and restoration teams were created to restore buildings, balneological institutions, and utility rooms. Already 10–15 days after the liberation of the resort towns, hospitals began to receive the wounded. By the summer, hospitals and balneological institutions were mostly restored and patients could take mud, narzan, and other procedures, which accelerated the treatment process.

The peak of the arrival of the wounded and sick in the hospitals of the North Caucasus reached by October 1943, when there was a battle for the complete liberation of the Caucasus from the invaders. Then, at the same time, more than 40 thousand people with 37.8 thousand beds were in the hospitals of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. Most with severe injuries. Therefore, the help of the population was especially important here since the hospital teams themselves were not able to cope with transporting the wounded from the ambulance trains. However, despite the enormous difficulties, the hospital staff, with the support of the townspeople, coped with the unloading of trains and the placement of the wounded and sick in hospitals. The successful treatment of the wounded and sick was largely facilitated by the clear profiling of hospitals.

The hospital staff had to work with an acute shortage of the most necessary. Nurse Medvedeva (Osipenko) from Kislovodsk recalled: “Our surgeon from evacuation hospital No. 2047 Gnilorybov came and said: “A guy is going to die on my table, I need blood.” And I walked, lay down next to a direct transfusion. In the forty-fourth year, nurse Pavlova and I were the first in the Stavropol region to receive certificates of donors of allied significance”.

In total, according to incomplete data, more than 8.7 thousand liters of blood were donated by donors during the years of the war in the Stavropol Territory, which almost completely satisfied the needs of the hospitals of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. The best donors were awarded the title "Honorary donor of the USSR", including the donor of the Pyatigorsk blood transfusion station Pomiluyko donated 13 liters of blood from the beginning of the war until the end of 1943. In addition, her three adult daughters became donors. In total, by the middle of 1945, 58 people in the region were awarded the badge "Honorary Donor of the USSR" (Ovanesov & Sudavtsov, 2007). Throughout the war, she donated blood to the wounded defenders of the Motherland Melnikov, who accompanied her husband and brother to the front (Abazatov, 1973).

The hospitals were often visited by delegations of chefs who provided great material assistance and moral support to the teams and the wounded. And most importantly, they had a powerful moral impact on the wounded and sick, who, constantly feeling the attention and care of society for themselves, saw that they were not forgotten, not left to the mercy of fate. So the Grozny Russian and Chechen-Ingush Drama Theatres, the Republican Song and Dance Ensemble, and amateur art groups showed performances and gave concerts (Abazatov, 1973).

The soldiers were especially happy about the arrival of schoolchildren, with whom they willingly communicated, remembering their children. The guys helped write letters to those who were unable to, read newspapers, and books, and gave concerts, often inwards for those who were unable to walk.

The report of the Stavropol Regional Committee for Assistance in Servicing Sick and Wounded Soldiers included information on the work carried out from 1941 to 1945. This report emphasized that the committee paid constant attention to improving the quality of treatment, improving service and creating material and living conditions in hospitals, mobilizing the broad masses of the population to provide patronage assistance to hospitals, and increasing cultural and mass work in them. At the same time, data were given on admission to hospitals from sponsoring regions, organizations, and the population: 27 tons of fats and meat, more than 17 tons of dairy products, 270 tons of potatoes, vegetables, and fruits, almost 290 thousand eggs, 4423 beds, 3067 pieces of various furniture, 26 thousand pieces of dishes, about 28 thousand pieces of bedding, 25,564 sets of underwear, 15,000 pairs of shoes, 23,726 pieces of personal items, 200 pieces of various musical instruments (guitars, balalaikas, violins) and other items (Boyko, 1962).

However, these are official data, which differ significantly from the actual ones. This circumstance is because much came personally from the chefs who came to the hospitals and brought gifts.

The selfless work of medical workers in hospitals during the war years with the active disinterested support of the population of the region. People helped doctors in their daily work. This assistance made it possible to return 82 % of the servicemen who were being treated to the active army and significantly strengthen the country's defense power (State Archive of Recent History of the Stavropol Territory. This figure was one of the highest in the country. Noting the outstanding contribution to the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers during the Great Patriotic War, the cities of Kislovodsk and Sochi were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree. Many medical workers in the hospitals of Checheno-Ingushetia showed exceptional abilities and skills. These are, for example, doctors Sazonova, Tokar, Yakubovskaya, and nurse Terskaya. Doctors healed more than 70 % of the wounded and sick soldiers (Abazatov, 1973).

It is no coincidence that in 1980 the first gathering of medical workers of the war years took place in Kislovodsk. It was in the city of Kislovodsk that a monument was erected to doctors who accomplished their feat in hospitals during the Great Patriotic War. The bronze figure of the sister of mercy against the background of the "dome gates" with a thorough cross symbolically reflects the eternal struggle of physicians with death. Labor collectives and public organizations showed special concern for the families of servicemen, and children left without parents.

Conclusion

Thus, the nationwide movement to help the front, caring for the wounded soldiers, and families of front-line soldiers strengthened the fighting and morale of the soldiers and commanders and demonstrated the unbreakable unity of the front and rear in mobilizing all forces to achieve victory over the enemy. The newspaper "Pravda" noted that the country, the state, and the people spare no effort or means to provide the wounded soldier with the best care, the best treatment, and the best conditions for restoring health and strength.

References

• Abazatov, M. A. (1973). Chechen-Ingush ASSR in the Great Patriotic War. Chechen-Ingush book publishing house.

• Boyko, S. P. (1962). Stavropol in the Great Patriotic War. 1941–1945. Collection of documents and materials. Stavropol.

• Fedchenko, E. V. (2001). To the question of helping the wounded during the Great Patriotic War. Problems with the history of the Great Patriotic War. By the 60th anniversary of the beginning. 1941–2001: Collection of scientific articles. Krasnodar.

• Kondakova, N. I. (2002). War, state, society. 1941–1945. Veteran of Moscow.

• Ovanesov, B. T., & Sudavtsov, N. D. (2007). Healthcare in the Stavropol Territory (1917–2005). Stavropol.

• Ozheva, K. Sh. (2007). Care for the population and party organizations of the North Caucasus about the soldiers of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Bulletin for Adyghe State University. Ser. 1: Regional studies: philosophy, history, sociology, jurisprudence, political science, cultural studies.

• Sudovtsov, N. D., Tsutsulaeva, S. S., Strekalova, E. N., Pechalova, L. V., & Kameneva, G. N. (2020). Hospital base of the North Caucasus during great patriotic war (1941–1945. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences EpSBS. International Scientific Conference dedicated to the 80-th anniversary of Turkayev Hassan Vakhitovich. (Kh.I. Ibragimov Complex Research Institute).