The first units of railway troops in the world were created in Russia in 1851 by order of Emperor Nicholas I. At the beginning of the twentieth century. Russian empire had very numerous and one of the best railway troops in the world. Included Russian army there were 12 railway battalions, organized into 4 railway brigades. Baranovichi railway brigade was responsible for European part Russia and combat training of personnel for all brigades. The Turkestan railway brigade ensured the functioning and protection of the Trans-Caspian railway, the Ussuri brigade - the Ussuri railway, and one of the most combat-ready Zaamur brigade - the Chinese Eastern Railway.
By the beginning of the First World War, a well-equipped railway ambulance transport had been created: in September 1914, 74 military ambulance trains were deployed at the front, and by December 1916 there were already about 400 of them...
Below are a selection of photographs of the sanitary train of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, the military sanitary train of the Vyatka province, formed by the local branch of the Red Cross and the sanitary bath and laundry train created with the money of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, during the First World War.
The sanitary train of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna.
01. Interior view of the pharmacy
02. Interior view of the ward car of the ambulance train
03. Doctors and nurses having lunch in the dining car
04. Interior view of the ward car of the train's ambulance train
05. Operating room of the ambulance train
06. Medical and service personnel of the ambulance train
07. Kitchen of the ambulance train
08. Car for the seriously wounded
09. Interior view of the carriage for the lightly wounded
10. Interior view of the kitchen car
11. Train medical team
Military medical train of the Vyatka province, formed by the local branch of the Red Cross
12. A group of train personnel with the chairman of the local administration of the Red Cross, Governor A. G. Chernyavsky (fourth from left in the first row) and his wife, trustee of the Community of Sisters of Charity O. K. Chernyavskaya (fifth from left in the first row)
13. General form military hospital train
14. Group of members of the Vyatka local administration of the Red Cross and train personnel
15. Interior view of the carriage for the seriously wounded of a military hospital train
16. Interior view of a third-class carriage for lightly wounded military ambulance trains
17. Interior view of a fourth-class carriage for the lightly wounded on a military ambulance train
18. Interior view of the operating room of a military ambulance train
19. Interior view of the carriage for the personnel of the military ambulance train; in the foreground is a corner of the dining room
20. Desk in the compartment of a senior doctor on a military ambulance train
21. Interior view of the kitchen car of a military ambulance train
The laundry train, which was used during the First World War and was created with the money of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
23. Platform for transporting an ambulance.
24. Tank car for transporting water.
25. Steam locomotive with tender.
26. Power station car.
27. Hairdressing department.
28. Bath car.
29. Bath car.
SPECIAL COMPOSITIONS ARE FORMED
Already on the third day of the war, June 24, 1941, the NKPS gave instructions railways form 288 military ambulance trains (150 permanent and 138 temporary). Six thousand cars were allocated for them and a staff of railway workers was appointed.
The military hospital train (VSP) consisted of specially equipped carriages for the seriously and lightly wounded, an isolation ward, a pharmacy-dressing station, a kitchen and other service carriages. Sanitary flights operating over short distances were formed mainly from covered freight cars equipped for transporting the wounded, as well as cars for housing a pharmacy-dressing station, kitchen, medical and service personnel.
Military ambulance trains were serviced by train crews, which included conductors, train carriage masters, a train electrician and a power plant driver.
The equipment and formation of military ambulance trains and flights was carried out at many railways and transport factories. Every day the NKPS received messages about the readiness of trains. Their formation and dispatch to front-line areas were strictly monitored.
Workers of the Moscow Car Repair Plant in short term equipped a military hospital train and sent it to the Southwestern Front. Then new trains were equipped. Factory workers - communists and non-party members - went to the front with them.
The railway workers of the Yegorshinsky branch of the movement undertook to prepare the ambulance train. The organizer of the work was the political department of the department. The initiative was supported by workers of locomotive and carriage depots, track distances and teams industrial enterprises. Komsomol members of the branch organized a collection of funds and property. Together with residents
In the Yegorshinsky district they collected 170 thousand rubles. Soon, a military ambulance train set off for the front with a team made up entirely of railway workers and workers of the Yegorshinsky district.
The staff of the Nizhnedneprovsky Car Repair Plant equipped and sent 36 military ambulance trains to the front. To transport the wounded from front-line hospitals, military sanitary flights, formed mainly from freight cars, plied on Pridneprovskaya.
The carriage shop of the Tashkent Locomotive Repair Plant received a combat mission - to prepare trains special purpose. The equipment for them did not arrive. It had to be produced locally. The machines for the seriously wounded were made by a team of women and teenagers under the guidance of the experienced master Lukyanovsky, evacuated from the Velikoluksky carriage repair plant. They worked around the clock. People understood that they needed to complete the task as quickly and as best as possible.
In September 1941, the first three ambulance trains left the carriage shop for the front, and four more in the next two months. In December, five trains with red crosses were sent to the front at once. The work of the team was highly appreciated in the order of the commander of the Central Asian Military District.
Workers from the Kuibyshev and Ufa carriage sections converted passenger cars into sanitary cars and formed 11 trains. The teams included experienced carriage masters, electricians and conductors.
On the instructions of the NKPS and UPVOSO, the Kuibyshev wagon section and depot equipped 80 military ambulance trains and flights. A. N. Boyko, who worked at that time as the head of the Kuibyshevsky carriage section and V. K. Uspensky, the deputy head of the railway carriage service, say:
At the Kuibyshev station, a strong point for the repair of military ambulance trains was organized. On some days, eight trains arrived here. All of them had to be carefully inspected, the heating, water supply, and electric lighting systems had to be checked and repaired, and broken glass had to be replaced. Repairs of bodies, roofs, and internal equipment required large amounts of labor. At first, the half-full food cauldrons in the kitchens caused particular trouble. Senior foreman A.S. Gavrilov found tinsmiths and tinkers among the evacuees. It immediately became easier. There was a shortage of lumber. They also found a way out - they began to catch driftwood in the Volga and deliver it by car to the sawmill.
One day, the military commandant of the station, S.A. Novinsky, called: “By the next morning, 8 military ambulance trains must be repaired and sent to the front.” And there are five more on the way - to Kuibyshev and three transit ones. All required repairs. The existing workforce cannot be used; people are already working two shifts in a row. Who can be involved? All engineering and technical workers were mobilized. The senior foreman of the Kuibyshev carriage depot A. N. Kuvanin remembered his blacksmith experience and went to help the workers. Among the railway workers is the political instructor of one of the trains - Serykh. The repairs were completed on time, and the trains went as intended.
A group of railway workers named after K. E. Voroshilov, who built a military hospital train. 1942
The road named after V.V. Kuibyshev worked with enormous stress. And it was necessary to pass even more trains. The question arose about increasing the length of trains. But there were difficulties with auto braking. Professor V.F. Egorchenko, who led the brake laboratory, helped solve the problem. They began running military ambulance trains of 32–34 cars.
Vera Panova wrote about what military hospital trains were like:
“... On the distant sidings, near some long railway station, stood a handsome train: freshly painted dark green carriages, scarlet crosses on a white field; on the windows there are hand-embroidered linen curtains of dazzling purity. Little did I know, when I entered the staff car with my tiny suitcase, what role this train, or rather the people to whom I was going, would play in my destiny. These people had been living on wheels for almost three and a half years: from the first days of the war, they gathered on this train and carried out their noble service with honor and immaculately. Military ambulance train No. 312 was one of the best in the Soviet Union, 96 and the command decided that the train staff should write a brochure about their work - to transfer experience to the staff of other ambulance trains. The Perm branch of the Union of Soviet Writers sent me to help them as a professional journalist; I was the pen that would write down their stories and put them in proper order.” 97
And here is an excerpt from the order of the head of the military sanitary department of the North-Western Front dated March 14, 1942:
“On the initiative of women railway workers, activists of the station and the city of Bologoye, and women military personnel, a military sanitary fly-out No. 707 was formed as a gift to the North-Western Front for International Women’s Day.
In re-result love relationship to the point on the part of the women who participated in the formation of the military sanitary training camp, it is equipped to provide the evacuees with the maximum possible amenities. Caring for wounded soldiers, defenders of the Soviet Motherland, guided the working women who donated this train to our front.
For valuable assistance to the military sanitary service of the front, for the care shown for the wounded soldiers and commanders, express gratitude to A. A. Zybina - greaser of the third car section, P. B. Vikhrova - instructor in women's work, A. N. Osipova - Bologoye workstation , M.A. Bubnova - housewife..."
Car conductors, train car masters and electricians strived to constantly keep the cars in good condition and clean. Train carriage master N.A. Kosarev from the Mariupol station, working as a foreman of a military ambulance train, organized the care of carriages according to Lunin’s method and taught conductors the job of scrap. There was no need for mechanical inspection and routine repairs, and the transportation of the wounded was accelerated. Kosarev’s experience began to be widely used in servicing the carriages of military ambulance trains. In 1943, the innovator was awarded the high title of Hero Socialist Labor.
THE WOUNDED ARE DELIVERED TO THE REAR
Constant control was established over the timely poisoning and passage of military ambulance trains and flights to the NKPS and on the railways. The heads of the railways pledged to personally monitor the situation with the passage of military ambulance trains and air ambulances and promote trains with wounded, empty ambulance trains and air ambulances on a par with operational military echelons.
During the war years, the volume of transportation for the evacuation of the wounded amounted to 11,863 trains. The fact that 72.3 percent of the wounded and 90.6 percent of the sick soldiers were able to be healed and returned to duty is due to the considerable work of the railway workers, who did everything to create military ambulance trains, quickly move them along the railways, and quickly deliver the wounded to the rear countries.
N. A. Kosarev - train carriage master of military sanitary train No. 342, Hero of Socialist Labor
On the day of June 22, recalled the major of the medical service, Honored Doctor of the Kazakh SSR, holder of orders Patriotic War II degree and Red Star, honorary railway worker A.K. Sukhorukova, and in 1941, a young doctor at the Turksib railway hospital, I went to the front with a military ambulance train. Accompanied by the sound of wheels, she repeated, like an oath, the words of the chief surgeon of the Red Army, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko:
“You, soldiers of the Red Army, remember that we will be with you! We will protect your health, share all the difficulties of combat life and, along with you, we will despise danger! Together with you we will draw our courage from the enthusiasm of the great multinational people, when he will defend the achievements of his liberated labor with arms in hand!”
...Our military ambulance train rushed west, towards the front. Don't forget those terrible days. I can’t erase my first seriously wounded person from my memory. Here he is, as if in reality. Not alive and not yet dead. Doesn't scream, doesn't complain, doesn't demand. The gaze is motionless. The pulse is barely palpable. Was it easy to maintain the necessary calm, to overcome involuntary weakness - no, not weakness - fear! Overcame...
Thousands of railway medical workers donned military uniforms.
The timely evacuation of the wounded was of great importance. Do not leave a single wounded on the battlefield - that was the law. Perish yourself and save your comrade - such was the tradition of front-line brotherhood.
The rescue of a wounded warrior was defined by the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated August 23, 1941, as a manifestation of high military valor, ranking on a par with the exploits of pilots, tank crews, infantrymen, artillerymen, and sailors.
The railway workers showed courage and dedication, delivering the wounded to their destinations on time, saving mercy trains during enemy air raids and shelling.
Despite clear identification marks, Nazi pilots from the first days of the war hunted for military ambulance trains. In 1941 alone, there were 224 attacks on these trains.
After a massive air raid (August 29, 1941) at the Mga station, the tracks were destroyed, the depot was on fire, locomotives and carriages were broken and damaged, and many were killed. By some miracle, one train with seriously wounded people survived. It must be sent as soon as possible. And at the station there is only one serviceable locomotive, but without a crew. And then the locomotive depot worker I.N. Chmutov, who did not have driving rights, climbed onto the locomotive. He drove the train to Leningrad and delivered it safely to the Moscow station. This was the last train to arrive in the city on the Neva from Mga in 1941. The next day Mga was occupied by the enemy.
Not far from Kharkov, at the Losevo station, on October 21, 1941, there was a military ambulance train. There were a lot of wounded here. It is impossible to place them in one composition. Then the commander of the armored train stationed here organized the attachment of several empty platforms to the fortress on wheels. From the hostel located next to the station tractor plant They took mattresses, laid them on platforms and thus evacuated all the wounded.
In the Debaltsevo area, fighting continued throughout November and December 1941. The fascists also continuously fired at the Depreradovka linear station, where air raids with ammunition and food arrived from Voroshilovgrad. From here, wounded soldiers and commanders were taken to the rear. Most often in exact time. The seriously wounded were brought to Depreradovka on sleighs. The slightly wounded traveled on foot. They were met by the station chief L.D. Gorenkin and senior switchman I.N. Prokopenko, assistant to the head of the political department of the Voroshilovgrad Komsomol branch I.Kh. Golovchenko, who often accompanied the trains. The situation sometimes developed in such a way that he had to work as an assistant driver, fireman, loader, compiler. The wounded were placed in wagons. Ammunition delivered by train was loaded onto the sled and sent to the front line.
On December 5, 1941, the military commandant of the Voroshilovgrad station gave the order: “Sanitation flight No. 5 with locomotive E 709-65, driver I. S. Kovalenko, is sent to Depreradovka for wounded soldiers and commanders.” Since Depreradovka was almost continuously subjected to fire raids, the flight stopped at the appointed place. The wounded - more than 120 people - were brought here through ravines and gullies so that the enemy would not notice. When it was time to leave, alarming news arrived: enemy troops were in Depreradovka.
“We will fight our way,” I. S. Kovalenko decided. We pumped water into the boiler, filled the firebox with coal and set off. When approaching Depreradovka, we noticed a group of Nazis on the platform. “Open the purge valve!” - the driver ordered the assistant. The fascists running towards the train were doused with a hot water-steam mixture. There were screams and groans, then random shooting. But the little sanlet had already passed the station and jumped out of the enemy ring.
On the Kupyansk-Valuiki section, an ambulance flight with wounded soldiers, heading to the rear, was suddenly attacked by enemy planes. The first pair of bombers dive howling. There is nothing to defend ourselves with - there is no provision for installing anti-aircraft guns on military ambulance trains. The enemy knew that he could act with impunity.
The driver A. Fedotov brakes sharply, although he knows that by doing so he is causing enormous pain to the wounded, but all the bombs fell in front, and the train is intact. The track is damaged, the train is frozen. And the planes go on the attack one after another. Four carriages caught fire - people were dying. The locomotive and conductor teams uncouple the cars, knock out the flames from them, and rescue the wounded. Fireman Samsonov died, driver Fedotov received burns, chief conductor Efimov’s clothes are on fire, but members of the train crew continue to fight for people’s lives. Finally the planes stopped bombing, as their deadly cargo had run out. Soon the fire was finally extinguished. The path was corrected and the train moved on.
The feat of the railway workers is highly appreciated: the chief conductor I. I. Efimov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and the driver Alexey Fedotov was awarded the Order of Lenin.
On the Ryazan-Ural road, driver A.G. Korneev drove a military ambulance train. During an enemy air raid, he was seriously wounded, but, bleeding, he brought the train out from under the bombing, saving hundreds of wounded soldiers and commanders. Alexander Gavrilovich Korneev posthumously awarded the order Red Banner.
On July 14, 1942, Nazi aircraft carried out a massive raid on the Dolzhanskaya station on the North Donetsk road. Firemen Zinchenko and Matvienko were killed, assistant driver I. Pirogov was seriously wounded, senior driver V. Ya. Dubina was wounded. The team buried the dead, with the help of local railway workers, fixed the leak in the tender, made the most necessary repairs and moved on. At the Krasnaya Mogila station they are met by the station duty officer and a group of soldiers.
Help out. The train containing the seriously wounded must be removed immediately.
“We’ll take it,” V. Ya. Dubina firmly stated, having recovered a little from his wound. They unhooked the broken cars from the train and patched up the locomotive as best they could. The senior driver sat behind the right wing, and his brother Mikhail and A.G. Ermakov were the assistant driver and fireman. The route of this military hospital train ran through Gukovo, Zverevo, Rostov, Bataysk, and Kavkazskaya. It was bombed more than once, but arrived in Mineralnye Vody without losses.
The risky voyage on a faulty locomotive did not end there. In the hospital at Yevlag station, near Baku, V. Ya. Dubina’s fragments were removed, and the flight continued across the Caspian Sea to Kzyl-Orda.
How did you get there on such a mutilated steam locomotive, they were surprised at the local depot. - I can’t believe that they followed the trains...
In 1943, machinist Vasily Yakovlevich Dubina was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
At the beginning of August 1942, not far from Armavir, recalls the commander of the third company of the fifth bridge battalion of the first guards railway brigade, Georgy Mikhailovich Odulov, mostly demolition fighters remained at the station. They must restore the damaged track, send the wagons with cargo that were at the station along it, and then blow up the track. When the cars were sent, barrage work began.
At this time, wounded Red Army soldiers began to arrive at the station; more than a hundred of them gathered here. The only possibility is to evacuate the wounded along the railway track that was preparing for the explosion. There is a locomotive and carriages, but there is no person who knows how to drive a locomotive. Sergeant Ptitsyn found a former locomotive driver among the local residents. He was already old and seriously ill, he could not even speak. The soldiers carried him in their arms to the locomotive and carried him into the booth. Ptitsyn asked to show what needs to be done to set the car in motion. When the driver fixed his gaze on any lever or tap, Ptitsyn took hold of it, and if the patient nodded his head, the sergeant understood that he was acting correctly. Then they attached four carriages with the wounded to the locomotive and sent them towards Tuapse.
There were several trains in the parks of the Bologoe station of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, including a military ambulance. Enemy planes appeared above the station. The duty officer at the third post ordered switchwoman Kuznetsova to prepare a route for the military-sanitary mission. Kuznetsova rushed to move the switches. A bomb exploded nearby. The fragment overtook the woman when there were only a few steps left before the last arrow. With the last of her strength, Kuznetsova reached for the lever, moved the switch, gave the driver a signal and fell dead.
On June 18, 1944, at the Sebezh station of the Kalinin Railway at two o'clock in the morning, a group of fascist bombers illuminated the station with rockets on parachutes. A few minutes before this, the ambulance train arrived and the station duty officer N.V. Savelyev managed to give the command to replace the locomotive. The bombing began. The telephone connection was immediately cut off. The duty officer could not call any switch post, nor the depot, nor the train dispatcher. Together with the military commandant, he rushed to where the orderly was standing in order to immediately send the train out of the station. The fascist vultures made one approach after another. Everything around was burning and collapsing. But people were there. Senior switchman Innokenty Burmakin showed courage and courage. Under a hail of shrapnel, I quickly prepared a route, brought the locomotive under the ambulance, and the train left.
Passing point No. 6 on the new building line Kizlyar - Astrakhan. During the evacuation, dispatcher of the Voroshilovgrad branch Ekaterina Konyaeva was assigned here. Along with her, railway workers arrived from the Rodakovo station: A. I. Grechany, who was assigned to lead a small team of the patrol, shunting dispatcher D. I. Mogilny, switchmen S. V. Verbitsky and I. A. Kovalev, and also Mogilny’s sixteen-year-old nephew, Alexander .
On a quick fix They built housing from sleepers and other materials left by the builders: something similar to a dugout. Then they sent a decommissioned two-axle car. One half was allocated for work, the other for housing.
The echelons were moving continuously: to the north - military, to the south - with evacuated wounded and equipment.
On the morning of September 23, 1942, a military ambulance flight arrived at the patrol. She was brought by the driver A. Kalyuzhny. Two conductors for the entire train. It was they who asked Katya to pick wormwood for brooms in the steppe. As I was returning, I heard the roar of planes and the whistle of bombs. She rushed as fast as she could to the flaming carriage, riddled with shrapnel, where she lived and worked. Of all the comrades, only Ivan Kovalev showed signs of life:
Turn me on my back. I want to see the sky.
“I’ll help you now, Ivan Andreevich,” Katya carefully placed a bunch of wormwood under the dying man’s head.
A groan was heard from the side. Katya rushed there. Driver Kalyuzhny, wounded in the leg, crawled away from the burning carriage. She pulled him away, quickly bandaged him and hurried to send a military ambulance flight. Fortunately, she is unharmed.
I found a telephone set in the wreckage, attached it to a pole, contacted the neighboring station and gave permission to the driver’s assistant to proceed further.
The train left. Soon Kalyuzhny was taken to the hospital by a car that arrived from a nearby station. The dead were buried.
Katya was left alone. For almost three days I met and saw off trains at a deserted siding. It’s unclear how she had the strength, after a three-day shift, to walk 5 kilometers to the railroad workers’ dugout!
Of no small importance for serving the soldiers of the Red Army was the creation of bathhouse trains at the railways and factories of the NKPS. Every appearance of such a train at the front brought joy to the soldiers of the Red Army. Here’s what a front-line newspaper wrote about one of the trains in those years: “A small train can be seen in the distance. The carriages shine in the sun with fresh paint. On one of them it is written: “A train-bath for soldiers of the Red Army from the workers of the Northern Railway and the Vologda Locomotive Repair Plant.”
Let's board this unusual train. The impeccable cleanliness and wonderful amenities are pleasing to the eye. We are asked to undress. The attendants indicate the order of passage through this train.
We enter the hairdresser. It's also clean and cozy here. And here is the bathhouse itself. How nice it is to wash in it - so comfortable and hot!
The train-bath has a rest room. If you washed before your friend, then wait here. Newspapers, chess are at your service...
The soldiers and commanders of junior lieutenant Shkudov’s unit, having washed in this wonderful bathhouse and rested, ask the newspaper’s editors to convey heartfelt thanks to the workers of the Northern Railway and the plant.”
Other kind words were addressed to the railway workers. Short, but no less expressive: “Thank you warmly. Major Vasiliev." " Thank you very much. Lieutenant Pushkov." “This is a wonderful bathhouse! Comrade railway workers know how to please front-line soldiers. Senior political instructor A. Kakorin.” “Everything here is good, wonderful. I was deeply moved by such love and care for the soldiers and commanders. Thank you! Senior battalion commissar K. Novikov.”
TREATMENT AND PREVENTIVE WORK
During the Great Patriotic War, employees of medical institutions (hospitals, clinics, outpatient clinics, medical and obstetric centers) of railway transport worked with enormous stress. In frontline areas they provided medical assistance around the clock. Sanitary and medical posts were organized in the echelons of evacuated enterprises, institutions and the population.
Evacuation hospitals were organized on the basis of the Central Clinical Hospital of the NKPS and road hospitals at large railway junctions. We restructured the nature of the work of hospitals and quickly prepared them to receive the wounded. Some doctors were drafted into the Red Army in the first days of the war. In evacuation hospitals, many general practitioners and doctors of some other specialties became surgeons.
Moscow railway workers hand over a sauna train to front-line soldiers
The team of the evacuation hospital at the Central Clinical Hospital of the NKPS, headed by Professor T. P. Panchenkov, providing timely and highly qualified medical care to the wounded, ensured the return to duty of more than 7 thousand Red Army soldiers. Hospital workers fought day and night for life and health. Soviet people. Doctors N. S. Zhigalko, T. I. Linnik, E. D. Terian, I. I. Yudina, nurses O. M. Andreeva, A. M. Zakharenkova, A. S. Osipenko, N. V. worked selflessly Sazonova and many others. When there was not enough donor blood for the wounded, doctors became donors.
The first military hospital train from near Kaluga delivered 363 wounded on September 3, 1941 to the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital named after N.A. Semashko of the Yaroslavl Railway, which was transformed in July 1942 into the Central Clinical Hospital of the NKPS. The hospital staff showed high level of organization. Surgeons and general practitioners, trained under the guidance of Professor V.R. Braitsev and leading surgeon K.E. Pokotilov, successfully treated the wounded. An example of selfless work was set by the head of the hospital V. A. Rukavishnikov, doctors N. B. Arutyunova, K. P. Ivanov, M. V. Leminovskaya, I. M. Lobodenko, nurses E. I. Gladchikova, E. G. Kuzmicheva , K.N. Maskina and others. During the war, thousands of Red Army soldiers and officers were restored to health in the hospital.
The entire medical network of railway transport closely interacted with the military medical service of the Red Army. The wounded and sick from the evacuated population were hospitalized in railway medical institutions.
The war caused population migration in the country. There is a danger of the emergence and spread of mass diseases. From the very first days, sanitary facilities in railway transport experienced a heavy burden. Active work was carried out to prevent and eliminate infectious diseases by railway sanitary and medical institutions, and the necessary medical assistance was provided on site. Disinfection stations, isolation checkpoints, sanitary and disinfection trains and disinfection teams were created.
In December 1942, the medical and sanitary departments on the roads were reorganized into medical and sanitary services, and the Central Medical and Sanitary Directorate into the Main Medical and Sanitary Directorate of the NKPS. This has increased their role and responsibility for providing medical care. In January 1943, road and linear sanitary and epidemiological stations were organized on the basis of sanitary stations.
Practical assistance to medical institutions was provided by famous medical scientists V. R. Braitsev, I. A. Kassirsky, N. V. Konovalov, E. F. Rabkin, S. F. Kazansky, V. I. Kazansky and other specialists who worked in evacuation hospitals and railway hospitals.
On the roads, the scheme and methods for disinfecting trains and stations developed by Professor P. I. Nikitin and other specialists of the Central Research Laboratory of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Railway Transport were widely used.
The head of the medical and sanitary service of the Central Asian Road, Sh. Workers at the sanitary control point were busy here around the clock. The small staff, led by sanitary doctor A.S. Grigorieva, was overloaded. Doctors met and saw off trains day and night, identified sick people, carried out sanitization carriages. If necessary, patients were sent to the district hospital.
On the initiative of the railway workers of the Tashkent junction, industrial training for recovering wounded soldiers was organized in the sponsored hospital. A communications office was installed at the hospital. The theoretical course was taught by Lipatov, a teacher at the Transport College of Communications. Electrical engineering, turning and metalworking rooms were opened in the same hospital. People who could no longer fight received a specialty..."
Thanks to organizing the timely evacuation of the wounded to the rear of the country, carrying out extensive medical and preventive work, railway workers made an invaluable contribution to saving the lives and restoring the health of thousands and thousands of Soviet people, preventing mass infectious diseases among the population.
Through the whole war. To Berlin
Yakov KOLESNIK (pictured) went through the war from Voroshilovgrad to Berlin. His awards include the long path of the rifle regiment to Victory: two Orders of the Patriotic War, the Order of the Red Star, medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Liberation of Warsaw”, “For the Capture of Berlin”, “For Victory over Germany”...
Frontline pharmaciesYakov Sidorovich is originally from Ukraine. Before the war, he entered the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Kyiv Medical Institute to study by correspondence. He worked as an assistant at pharmacy No. 79 in his native regional center Izyum.
“In August 1941, he was sent to Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk) as an assistant to the head of a pharmacy in rifle regiment, - the veteran spoke about front-line roads at a meeting with Brest pharmacists. - In November 1941, he was transferred as a paramedic to the Vengerovka station in the Rostov region, where he provided first aid to the wounded. They were housed in dugouts, in conditions of complete unsanitary conditions: they contracted tularemia from rodents. In January 1942, after treatment, he arrived in Stalingrad; appointed head of the pharmacy of the 853rd Infantry Regiment.
In the spring of 1942 he was transferred to Kharkov, which had been bombed by the Germans since the beginning of June. There were heavy battles, but the enemy managed to break through the front line - we retreated. The crossings have been destroyed. Swim across the Oskol River - under fire. We reached the city late at night. We were ordered to wait for the division and hold on at all costs...
Then there were battles for Stalingrad, from which our offensive began. Fierce battles for Mount Kremyants in the Izyum region: the Germans chained their machine gunners so that they would not give up their positions. Raisins were taken in the summer of 1943.
By the end of winter 1944, Zaporozhye was liberated, Odessa in the spring, and Chisinau in the summer. Then the division was transferred to the 1st Belorussian Front, commanded by Georgy Zhukov. They moved to Western Ukraine, then to Warsaw, Küstrin, Oder, Lansberg, Berlin..."
Valor in Peacetime
After the war, Yakov Sidorovich continued to serve in the army.
In 1956 he became deputy. Head of the receiving department of the Brest Regional Pharmacy Warehouse. In 1963 - head of the Brest regional pharmacy warehouse. Built 2 warehouses. Implemented information Technology, improved the material and technical base. In 1970, Y. Kolesnik was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor.” In 1985–1992 worked as a pharmacist-technologist at the Brest Pharmacy Administration.
Guerrilla "shield" of health
A doctor from Gomel, Maxim Ermakov, was 27 years old when the Great Patriotic War began. From the first days - at the front: commander of a medical company, head of the medical service of a regiment, medical battalion of a division... In November 1942, he received a shell shock and was captured. Miraculously survived in the fascist death camp "Grosslazaret" (See "MV" for 05/08/2008, No. 19). After escaping from the concentration camp, he ended up in the Shitovsky partisan formation, and was appointed head of the medical service of one of the detachments, then of the entire formation.
We publish the memoirs of a healthcare veteran about the partisan everyday life of doctors.
By the end of 1942, Ivan Shitov’s detachment had grown into a large partisan unit that had its own medical service. At first there were not enough qualified personnel, but the ranks of the partisans were replenished by doctors, paramedics, and nurses who, by the will of fate, found themselves behind enemy lines and escaped from fascist captivity.
Doctors Grigory Kochetov, Nikolai Makarov, paramedic Leonid Chebykin headed the medical units in the detachments named after. Kirov, “For the Motherland”, named after. Chapaeva. Elena Struk, who before the war worked in the surgical department of the Turov Hospital, became the head nurse of the hospital, and after some time, with the help of surgeon Fyodor Goncharov, she mastered the skills of an operating room nurse. She coped well with her responsibilities herself and trained dressing nurses to work in infirmaries.
Until mid-1943, medical supplies were received from Mainland from time to time. Elena taught her assistants to make bandages from sheet fabric, pads for dressing bags, in which flax tow was used instead of cotton wool, rush grass growing in swampy places, etc. Despite the difficult conditions of partisan life, she persistently demanded that nurses follow the rules of asepsis and antiseptics. When they obtained a captured autoclave with bix and primus stoves, Elena taught the girls how to work with it.
Paramedic Stepan Leshchenko (before the Nazi occupation, a pharmacist in the village of Vasilevichi) became the head of the pharmacy. He kept strict records of medications and ensured that detachment hospitals were replenished with medications on time. Through the efforts of surgeons, he mastered the technique of mask anesthesia and assisted during operations.
With the intensification of hostilities, there were more wounded, and doctors were unable to cope with the increased workload. We taught the partisans the skills of self- and mutual aid when wounded in battle: applying bandages, stopping bleeding with a tourniquet made of any soft tissue, fixing a damaged bone, etc.
In a short period of time, 69 medical instructors and 102 orderlies were trained; A sanitary unit was created in each platoon, and sanitary departments were created in the companies. This improved the medical care of the partisans; the units established sanitary control over the slaughter of livestock, food storage, the operation of catering units, and compliance with the rules of personal and public hygiene.
Every day there are several groups of 3-4 people. went on combat missions. They operated at a great distance from the main base, so each had a sanitary activist who provided assistance to the wounded and evacuated them to the infirmary or partisan hospital. It happened that the victims were carried for several days on makeshift stretchers. If they managed to get a horse, they delivered it on horseback or on a cart, in winter - on a sleigh. The fascist garrisons were bypassed at night, and during the day the wounded were sheltered by peasants.
Field surgery
The surgical reinforcement group (SUG), which included a surgeon, an assistant, an anesthetist, an operating nurse, and orderlies, operated effectively. Transport was assigned to them. KhGU had everything necessary for 2-3 operations and worked in the field. If the wounded were not transportable after the operation, a temporary hospital was deployed.
On the basis of the surgical department of the hospital, courses in military field surgery were organized for doctors and paramedics. As the leading surgeon of the medical service, I took exams from the cadets, the most prepared received permission to independently carry out primary surgical treatment of wounds in hospitals, and participated in simple operations.
Together with nachaptek we got an excellent alcohol mashine and adapted it for the preparation of distilled and bidistilled water. They began to prepare 0.25%, 0.5%, 2% solutions of novocaine, saline solution, 5% glucose, 10% table salt. This made it possible to widely introduce qualified surgical treatment. The operations were carried out in a peasant hut, hut, dugout, and sometimes on a cart. If the operation had to be done in the open air, a sheet moistened with a 0.2% solution of chloramine or carbolic acid was hung over the wounded person. The operating table was a shield made of boards or planks. The wounded Grigory Kharitonenko attached folding iron legs to it, and then hung wooden shields at both ends: it was possible to change the position of the body during the operation.
The best horses, carts, and harnesses were allocated for the medical service; An orderly was assigned as a driver, who helped the nurse care for the wounded along the way. The partisans often changed locations, moving from place to place along bumpy, bumpy roads. We tried to ensure that transportation did not cause harm to the wounded and sick. When moving, painkillers were administered intramuscularly, for severe cases - 2 single doses, sometimes - 3, reducing the risk of traumatic shock.
Paramedic Vladimir Kolobkov came up with a net made of ropes. Under it, they laid hay, straw, and green branches on the cart in the summer; on top is the bed on which the wounded man was laid. Over time, a frame was installed over the cart (it was made from vine twigs or wire), covered with a raincoat tent - this protected from rain and snow, and in summer - from the scorching sun.
Scythe instead of scalpel
Tested products were often used for treatment folk remedies(see “partisan” drawings). Medical workers and recovering wounded people collected St. John's wort, immortelle, plantain, lily of the valley, valerian, blueberries, raspberries and other medicinal plants. From them, infusions, decoctions, etc. were prepared in the hospital pharmacy. Crushed aloe leaves with hedgehog fat were used as an anti-inflammatory agent for purulent wounds and skin diseases.
They didn’t forget about physical therapy. Paramedic Maxim Mitichkin worked in the medical and technical department of the Lepel military hospital before the war; He was excellent at massage techniques and knew how to use peat and mud therapy. Thermal procedures with heated sand, potatoes, flaxseed, warming compresses and rubbing helped the recovery of the wounded in the postoperative period, especially when restoring the functions of the limbs.
In the household unit, tires were made from scrap materials; parachute packs were adapted for the manufacture of sanitary bags, panels and straps for stretchers. In the hands of craftsmen, the scythe blade turned into surgical scalpels or amputation knives. Sterilizers were made from galvanized sheet metal.
Partisans Sergei Utkin, Semyon Vorobey, Ivan Semutkin with paramedic Evgeny Osipov designed a collapsible disinfection chamber. Based on the model, 4 more were made and installed in several villages. Disinfection chambers helped reduce the incidence of infectious diseases among residents.
During the operation of the Shitovsky partisan formation, medical care was provided to 431 wounded; with surgical activity of 60.4%, postoperative mortality was 1.9%; 73.3% of the injured partisans were returned to duty.
Maxim ERMAKOV, veteran partisan movement, Gomel.
To victory - on a sanitary train
Galina POGORELOVA, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, former head nurse of the district clinic of the Shchuchin Central District Hospital, was congratulated on her 86th birthday by the head physician Stanislav AMBRUSHKEVICH, the chairman of the trade union committee Elena PODELINSKAYA and the current head nurse of the district clinic Lyudmila KHREPTOVICH.
Galina Pogorelova, a former head nurse at the district clinic of the Shchuchin Central District Hospital, went through the Great Patriotic War before last day. More precisely, she traveled on the front-line ambulance train No. 1151.
68 years have passed, but the memory has retained the smallest details.
Morning of June 22. Joking and talking, Galya and her friends run through the meadow to the forest - to buy strawberries. The sun had just emerged from the horizon. The clean dew cools your feet pleasantly. The sunny meadow is covered in fragrant berries. One handful - in your mouth, the second - in a mug. Yummy! They quickly filled the smoothies to the top. We returned to our native village of Chernoistochinsk, which is 20 kilometers from Nizhny Tagil, smeared with fragrant sweetness, cheerful, satisfied. I was surprised that all the windows in the houses were wide open. From somewhere I heard: “The war has begun.”
The next day, 17-year-old girls went to ask to go to the front. In response: “It’s too early for you!” They stormed the military registration and enlistment office three times; Galina, who managed to graduate from the Nizhny Tagil Medical School, received a summons only in June 1942.
The place of duty was the ambulance train. They took the wounded from the front line and delivered them to the rear personnel. So it cruised like a shuttle in the hot front-line zone of its 1151st. They hid from the bombings in the roadside grass and sparse copses along the railroad. They also dragged the helpless wounded into shelter. Galina took care of 3 carriages: bandaged, turned, washed, watered, fed the soldiers, and even... rolled their cigarettes. She closed the eyes of the dead...
Already 4 months at the front. The most severe shelling at Khvoinaya station. Wounded in the leg, severe concussion (a 500-kilogram land mine exploded 100 meters away). A second before, I saw that my partner, a young female paramedic, had her head cut off by a shrapnel, like a razor. Due to shock and concussion, Galina lost her speech and hearing for a week, but refused to go to the hospital. Their doctors came out from 1151.
Another tragic memory. 1943 The train from Leningrad, on which exhausted blockade survivors were taken to Moscow, turned into a real inferno under massive bombing (the 1151st was coming to meet it halfway). A fatal, absurd twist of fate: people who survived starvation died in the fire. Among the charred bodies, most were children...
Where the offensive began, they threw us there,” recalls Galina Ivanovna. - Sometimes we didn’t close our eyes for days. There was no time to eat, and we didn’t see pickles. In addition to being wounded, I also developed an ulcer at the front.
In the morning we woke up to gunfire. We heard a joyful message on the radio: “Victory!” We immediately went to Nevsky. Passers-by hugged, kissed, and thanked us, girls in tunics. This is the most vivid memory of my life!
But for Galina the war did not end. The train was sent to the Far East. Then - to Manchuria. On the way to Harbin, she met her love: her wedding with Sergeant Major Vasily Pogorelov took place right in the native composition of 1151.
She came to Shchuchin in 1954. Belarus has become a second homeland, the district hospital - the only place her already peaceful service. She worked in a district clinic for 40 years (12 of them while retired). First, as a nurse in a surgical room.
Then there were no treatment nurses or dressing nurses - she did everything herself. From 9 to 12 - dressings and other manipulations, then at the reception. Doctor Sergei Ilyich Presnov received patients without refusal - therapeutic, gynecological, oncological, and even tuberculosis patients. I got it. Well, the nurse Evgenia Zhuk helped - sterilize the material and roll out the casts. Now we have all this, but before we prepared it ourselves.
Then they allocated the senior bid. She worked in this position for a quarter of a century. There were so many worries! They built a clinic, there were more nurses, but there were still not enough. You carry out the duties of a senior - and you run to the oncologist Alexandra Semyonovna Merzlikina to help her at the appointment...
In retirement, Galina Ivanovna began working in the infectious diseases department. It was necessary to write health education materials and arrange them. I went to Grodno for experience and added my own imagination. I went to Skidel for flowers and pots. She created a living green wall from Tradiscantia. In a word, she created comfort, flowers bloomed even in the shade! I spent 4 months “doing magic.” The stands turned out to be informative and colorful. The all-Union inspection assessed the work of the cabinet as exemplary.
I remember the head physician Gavrilyev is leading the guests. Deputy The minister asks me: “How many nights did you stay awake to create such beauty?” Indeed, it hit me not in the eyebrow, but in the eye. I actually took a pencil at night and drew on paper how and what to do where.
The main rule in work, as at the front, was to help people. I asked the young nurses to see the needs of a sick person, treat him sensitively, cordially, encourage him, and support him. She could say sharply to careless subordinates: “The person did not feel any better after communicating with you, think about taking up another profession.”
Today Galina Ivanovna has poor vision due to cataracts. Sometimes he doesn’t recognize someone on the street, but grateful Shchuchin residents will always call out, stop, ask about their health, and offer help. True, Galina Ivanovna does not need the latter: her son takes care of her mother. And colleagues. If you feel the slightest discomfort, they will visit you, prescribe treatment, and if necessary, admit you to a hospital. Invited to the holidays last years- visit themselves. On birthdays and Medical Workers' Day - a must. The head physician, Stanislav Ambrushkevich, buys beautiful, bright flowers and goes with the chairman of the trade union committee and the current head nurse of the district clinic to Galina Ivanovna to express his admiration for the woman who bore the hardships of military men's work on her fragile shoulders.
Even today it conquers - old age, creeping infirmity, illness. In the mornings, he always does exercises and takes care of the house. And today, on her 86th birthday, she covered festive table for colleagues. We sat and had tea, Galina Ivanovna recalled the war years. Her still young, ringing voice trembled only once, when she spoke about Victory Day in Leningrad. How not to be moved: I finally arrived alive on the 1151st ambulance. And how many beautiful and young people died...
Underground pharmacy
In Brest, on residential building No. 18 on Sovetskaya Street, which previously housed pharmacy No. 4, a memorial plaque was installed in memory of Galina Arzhanova.
In a few lines on metal - tragic fate and the feat of a medical worker: “Here during the Great Patriotic War, on instructions from the party underground, Galina Aleksandrovna Arzhanova, a liaison officer for partisan detachments, worked in a pharmacy. In December 1943, after brutal torture, the Nazis hanged the brave patriot.”
...Galina was born in 1922 in the village of Ivanovskoye near Volokolamsk. After seven years of school, she entered the Moscow Pharmaceutical School, from which she graduated with honors in 1940.
Graduate Arzhanova was sent to Brest, to pharmacy No. 4. The girl had the opportunity to work in peacetime for less than a year. The war found itself in an unfamiliar city.
Galino's last letter to his family was dated May 20, 1941. “I don’t have any time at all... I spend all day either in the pharmacy or in the department, preparing a work report by June 1 to send to Minsk. This is a simple calculation of recipes, but now for more than a week the days have been so hot and dry that I have no strength to work, my head can’t think of anything.
The river is filled with people all day, but I haven’t swam or sunbathed yet. With the coming warm weather the whole city came to life. Brest has become noisy: both day and night people walk the streets, talking cheerfully or singing...
In general, it’s not boring in Brest now, but I still want to visit my native land. They promise me a vacation from July 20, the duration, like all pharmacists except managers, is 2 weeks.”
At the beginning of the war, Galina established contact with the underground, distributed leaflets with them, and monitored the movements of enemy military units. On instructions from the Brest Underground Party Committee, she returned to the pharmacy in 1942. The girl, who was already a liaison officer for the Chernak partisan detachment, was given the opportunity to supply the fighters with medicines, medical instruments, and dressings.
In 1942, the relatives received the latest news about their daughter: a representative of the headquarters of the partisan unit came to the village of Ivanovskoye, who told about Gala. And in October 1943, following a denunciation from a traitor, she was arrested by the Gestapo; in December the girl was hanged.
Alexey Arzhanov was looking for his daughter. On August 8, 1944, he wrote to the head of the Brest pharmacy. After 3 months, the family received an answer from Galina’s friend, Olga Filippovich, who headed pharmacy No. 1 in Brest after the liberation of Belarus: “It’s very unpleasant for me to give you such news about my daughter, but I have to write what is there. Your daughter died honestly for her Motherland. She was associated with partisan detachment and helped me with medications all the time. And in 1943 she was caught by German dogs and shot.”
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Galina Arzhanova was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. Since 1972, one of the Brest streets has been named after an underground worker.
Elena ALEXIYUK, Brest TPRUP "Pharmacia". Photo from the archive of the Brest TPRUP “Pharmacia”.
Galina ARZHANOVA worked as a pharmacist in peacetime less than a year. The girl did not live to see the Victory - the Nazis hanged her messenger for helping the partisans in 1943.
During the Great Patriotic War, military ambulance trains saved millions of wounded soldiers, making their way from the “cauldrons” and the hottest places on the front line.
Mobilization
June 24, 1941 People's Commissariat Railways (NKPS) instructed the railways to form 288 military ambulance trains. Six thousand cars were allocated for them and a staff of railway workers was appointed. The military hospital train (VSP) consisted of specially equipped carriages for the seriously and lightly wounded, an isolation ward, a pharmacy-dressing station, a kitchen and other service carriages. In addition to the VSP, the so-called sanitary flights played a huge role in the evacuation of the wounded. They moved on short distances, and were formed mainly from covered freight cars equipped for transporting the wounded. Military ambulance trains were serviced by train crews, which included conductors, train carriage masters, a train electrician and a power plant driver.
On July 17, 1941, military hospital train No. 87 set off from Saratov on its first voyage. rare photo– his boss, captain of the medical service Pavel Kondratievich Tabakov, is posing against the background of this composition.
Soon the wounded Red Army soldiers will call this train “Happy”, and after another 64 years, VSP No. 87 will be removed documentary, in which the son of military doctor Tabakov will take part - famous actor and director Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov. The legendary train made 135 trips into the thick of war hell and during all this time lost only the tail car and one person killed! At the same time, thousands of soldiers' lives were saved on train No. 87.
Baptism of fire
On September 1, 1941, at the Novo-Alekseevka station, “Schastlivy” came under fire from enemy aircraft for the first time. VSP-87 paramedics continued to provide assistance to the victims. The train personnel met the second raid with rifle fire.
“Especially memorable was the loading in Taganrog on October 3, 1941, in the conditions of panic that gripped the city due to the approach of fascist troops. At the same time as a small group of wounded (50 people), our train was supposed to transport workers and personnel from eight hospitals. However, the wounded began to be transported on motorcycles and cars directly from the battlefield. Soon their number increased to 147. I learned that stretchers of the wounded were left in one of the hospitals, and immediately took measures to remove these patients, and they were all taken by train,” Pavel Tabakov later recalled.
Exploits of railway workers
Despite the clear identification marks of the Red Cross, Nazi pilots from the first days of the war hunted for military ambulance trains. In 1941 alone, there were 224 attacks on these trains.
On December 5, 1941, the military commandant of the Voroshilovgrad station gave the order: “Send sanitary flight No. 5 with the locomotive E 709-65, in which Ivan Kovalenko worked as a driver, to Depreradovka for wounded soldiers and commanders.” Since Depreradovka was almost continuously subjected to fire raids, the flight stopped at the appointed place. The wounded - more than 120 people - were brought here through ravines and gullies so that the enemy would not notice. When it was time to leave, terrible news came: enemy troops had entered Depreradovka, and the escape routes were cut off.
“I decided that we will fight our way! We pumped water into the boiler, filled the firebox with coal and set off. When approaching Depreradovka, we noticed a group of Nazis on the platform. “Open the purge valve!” – I ordered my assistant. The fascists running towards the train were doused with a hot water-steam mixture. There were screams and groans, then random shooting. But the ambulance had already passed the station and jumped out of the enemy ring,” the driver of the ambulance train, Kovalenko, later recalled. Another feat was accomplished by railway workers on the Kupyansk - Valuiki section. An ambulance flight with wounded soldiers, following to the rear, was attacked by enemy planes. There is nothing to defend ourselves with - there is no provision for installation of anti-aircraft guns on military ambulance trains. The enemy knew that he could act with impunity.
The driver A. Fedotov braked sharply, contrary to all instructions, thus saving hundreds of lives - all the bombs fell in front, but the train survived.
A minute later, the bombs finally hit the train, four cars caught fire at once, and the wounded began to burn alive. Then the locomotive and conductor crews uncoupled the cars and began to knock out the flames from them. In the fight against the fire, fireman Samsonov died, driver Fedotov received burns, and the clothes on chief conductor Efimov caught fire, but members of the train crew continued to fight for people’s lives. The planes only stopped bombing when they ran out of their deadly cargo. Soon the fire was finally extinguished. The path was corrected and the military ambulance train moved on.
Saboteurs and traitors against ambulance trains
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, saboteurs and saboteurs began to “work” in our rear. Here are just two pieces of evidence of their inhuman “exploits.”
“Before my eyes, the Germans bombed a hospital train,” says Great Patriotic War veteran Ekaterina Kovalenko. — When everyone was evacuated from Dnepropetrovsk, I was part of the ambulance train. We stood at the Nizhnedneprovsk-Uzel station, waiting for the green light to be given. And we only had to drive a little bit - near Novomoskovsk, in the Oryol region, there was our evacuation hospital. But the dispatcher at the station turned out to be a pest: not only did he not release our train, which was standing on the tracks between two fuel trains, but he also signaled to the German aviation who should be bombed.”
Orderly Levitsky Leonid Semenovich talked about how the saboteurs worked in our rear: “While loading the wounded, two fighters appeared in the air - one ours and the other German. A German plane shot down our pilot just above the Vasilkovsky airfield, and after some time this wounded pilot was brought to us. When the German "Messer" turned back, from the rocket launcher, from the ground, he was given a signal by a green rocket. There was a local resident standing close to us who said: “Don’t spend the night in the carriages, kids, because this signal sent to him tells him that there are military trains here - they will bomb you.”
The next day, at 7 o'clock in the morning, military ambulance train No. 1078 was attacked by 18 German bombers.
“The first nine planes reached the railway and began to bomb us, and then another nine arrived - this continued until 11 o’clock in the afternoon,” the war veteran recalled.
Hospital trains were required by the medical service of every front, every army. The echelons were formed, among other things, at the expense of citizens - this required huge funds for those times - 170 thousand rubles per train. Military hospital trains transported millions of wounded and sick during the war. They were a kind of hospitals on wheels, where doctors and nurses worked all day long at operating rooms and dressing tables.
Specially equipped for the transportation and treatment of victims, as well as auxiliary cars, such as operating theater cars, kitchens, pharmacies, staff cars, morgue cars and the like.
On May 8 (20), 1877, the first ambulance train in Russia departed from the Nikolaevsky station platform. One of the residents on this train was F. F. Shperk, who would later write an essay entitled “ Sanitary train No. 1 named after the Empress and its 16-month activities during the war of 1877-1878.» .
The largest number of sick and wounded were evacuated by ambulance trains during the Great Patriotic War. Millions of lives of Soviet soldiers and civilians were saved by military ambulance trains, which not only carried out evacuation and first aid, but also acted as mobile hospitals equipped with operating rooms. According to the testimony of war participants, fascist German troops used the Red Cross emblem as a cover for their armored trains, while the red cross on Soviet trains did not bother the German pilots who attacked them.
Railway ambulance transport is represented by military ambulance trains ( VSP) and military sanitary flights ( VSL).
- VSP designed for evacuation in the front-line rear area and in the rear of the country with continued treatment along the way. They are formed, as a rule, on the basis of all-metal passenger cars. Evacuation capacity is about 500 people.
- VSL designed for evacuation in army and front-line areas with provision of medical assistance along the way. It is formed from freight covered wagons with wooden bodies. Evacuation capacity is about 900 people.
Medical trains today
As of 2010, there are five mobile consultation and diagnostic centers in Russia based on railway trains: “Health”, “Saint Luke”, “Therapist Matvey Mudrov”, “Academician Fedor Uglov” and “Surgeon Nikolai Pirogov”. The diagnostic train consists of eight converted passenger cars. There is a pharmacy on the train where you can purchase the necessary medications immediately after the examination. One car is equipped with diesel generator units, ensuring complete autonomy of power supply.
Hospital trains in literature and cinema
- Feature films “Mercy Train”, “For the rest of my life”, “There is no ford in fire”
- Documentary film "The Road to Stalingrad".
- Fragment from the feature film "Papa"
see also
Write a review about the article "Sanitary train"
Notes
Links
Literature
- Military hospital train // Soviet Military Encyclopedia (8 volumes) / N.V. Ogarkov (chairman of the chief editor of the commission). - M.: Voenizdat, 1978. - T. 6. - P. 391. - 671 p. - 105,000 copies.
|
||||||||||||||||||
Excerpt characterizing the Hospital Train
Pierre continued in French to persuade the officer not to punish this drunken, insane man. The Frenchman listened silently, without changing his gloomy appearance, and suddenly turned to Pierre with a smile. He looked at him silently for several seconds. His handsome face took on a tragically tender expression, and he extended his hand.“Vous m"avez sauve la vie! Vous etes Francais, [You saved my life. You are a Frenchman," he said. For a Frenchman, this conclusion was undeniable. Only a Frenchman could accomplish a great deed, and saving his life, m r Ramball "I capitaine du 13 me leger [Monsieur Rambal, captain of the 13th light regiment] - was, without a doubt, the greatest thing.
But no matter how undoubted this conclusion and the officer’s conviction based on it were, Pierre considered it necessary to disappoint him.
“Je suis Russe, [I am Russian,”] Pierre said quickly.
“Ti ti ti, a d"autres, [tell this to others," said the Frenchman, waving his finger in front of his nose and smiling. "Tout a l"heure vous allez me conter tout ca," he said. – Charme de rencontrer un compatriote. Eh bien! qu"allons nous faire de cet homme? [Now you'll tell me all this. It's very nice to meet a compatriot. Well! What should we do with this man?] - he added, addressing Pierre as if he were his brother. Even if Pierre was not a Frenchman, having once received this highest title in the world, he could not renounce it, said the expression on the face and tone of the French officer. To the last question, Pierre once again explained who Makar Alekseich was, explained that just before their arrival this a drunken, crazy man stole a loaded pistol, which they did not have time to take away from him, and asked that his act be left unpunished.
The Frenchman stuck out his chest and made a royal gesture with his hand.
– Vous m"avez sauve la vie. Vous etes Francais. Vous me demandez sa grace? Je vous l"accorde. Qu"on emmene cet homme, [You saved my life. You are a Frenchman. Do you want me to forgive him? I forgive him. Take this man away," the French officer said quickly and energetically, taking the hand of the one who had earned him for saving his life into the French Pierre, and went with him to the house.
The soldiers who were in the yard, hearing the shot, entered the vestibule, asking what had happened and expressing their readiness to punish those responsible; but the officer strictly stopped them.
“On vous demandera quand on aura besoin de vous,” he said. The soldiers left. The orderly, who had meanwhile managed to be in the kitchen, approached the officer.
“Capitaine, ils ont de la soupe et du gigot de mouton dans la cuisine,” he said. - Faut il vous l "apporter? [Captain, they have soup and fried lamb in the kitchen. Would you like to bring it?]
“Oui, et le vin, [Yes, and wine,”] said the captain.
The French officer and Pierre entered the house. Pierre considered it his duty to again assure the captain that he was not a Frenchman and wanted to leave, but the French officer did not want to hear about it. He was so polite, kind, good-natured and truly grateful for saving his life that Pierre did not have the spirit to refuse him and sat down with him in the hall, in the first room they entered. In response to Pierre's assertion that he was not a Frenchman, the captain, obviously not understanding how one could refuse such a flattering title, shrugged his shoulders and said that if he certainly wanted to pass for a Russian, then let it be so, but that he, despite then, everyone is still forever connected with him with a feeling of gratitude for saving his life.
If this man had been gifted with at least some ability to understand the feelings of others and had guessed about Pierre’s feelings, Pierre would probably have left him; but this man’s animated impenetrability to everything that was not himself defeated Pierre.
“Francais ou prince russe incognito, [Frenchman or Russian prince incognito," said the Frenchman, looking at Pierre’s dirty but thin underwear and the ring on his hand. – Je vous dois la vie je vous offre mon amitie. Un Francais n "oublie jamais ni une insulte ni un service. Je vous offre mon amitie. Je ne vous dis que ca. [I owe you my life, and I offer you friendship. The Frenchman never forgets either insult or service. I offer my friendship to you. I say nothing more.]
There was so much good nature and nobility (in the French sense) in the sounds of the voice, in the facial expression, in the gestures of this officer that Pierre, responding with an unconscious smile to the Frenchman’s smile, shook the outstretched hand.
- Capitaine Ramball du treizieme leger, decore pour l "affaire du Sept, [Captain Ramball, thirteenth light regiment, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for the cause of the seventh of September," he introduced himself with a smug, uncontrollable smile that wrinkled his lips under his mustache. - Voudrez vous bien me dire a present, a qui" j"ai l"honneur de parler aussi agreablement au lieu de rester a l"ambulance avec la balle de ce fou dans le corps. [Will you be so kind as to tell me now who I am with I have the honor of talking so pleasantly, instead of being at a dressing station with a bullet from this madman in my body?]
Pierre replied that he could not say his name, and, blushing, began, trying to invent a name, to talk about the reasons why he could not say this, but the Frenchman hastily interrupted him.
“De grace,” he said. – Je comprends vos raisons, vous etes officier... officier superieur, peut être. Vous avez porte les armes contre nous. Ce n"est pas mon affaire. Je vous dois la vie. Cela me suffit. Je suis tout a vous. Vous etes gentilhomme? [To be complete, please. I understand you, you are an officer... a staff officer, perhaps. You served against us . This is not my business. I owe you my life. This is enough for me, and I am all yours. Are you a nobleman?] - he added with a hint of a question. Pierre bowed his head. - Votre nom de bapteme, s"il vous plait? Je ne demande pas davantage. Monsieur Pierre, dites vous... Parfait. C "est tout ce que je desire savoir. [Your name? I don’t ask anything else. Monsieur Pierre, did you say? Great. That’s all I need.]
When fried lamb, scrambled eggs, a samovar, vodka and wine from the Russian cellar, which the French had brought with them, were brought, Rambal asked Pierre to take part in this dinner and immediately, greedily and quickly, like a healthy and hungry person, began to eat, quickly chewing with his strong teeth, constantly smacking his lips and saying excellent, exquis! [wonderful, excellent!] His face was flushed and covered with sweat. Pierre was hungry and gladly took part in the dinner. Morel, the orderly, brought a saucepan with warm water and put a bottle of red wine in it. In addition, he brought a bottle of kvass, which he took from the kitchen for testing. This drink was already known to the French and received its name. They called kvass limonade de cochon (pork lemonade), and Morel praised this limonade de cochon, which he found in the kitchen. But since the captain had wine obtained during the passage through Moscow, he provided kvass to Morel and took up a bottle of Bordeaux. He wrapped the bottle up to the neck in a napkin and poured himself and Pierre some wine. Satisfied hunger and wine revived the captain even more, and he talked incessantly during dinner.
