Women’s Military Service in Medical Units and Institutions of the South of Russia and their Contribution to Maintaining the Health of the Red Army Soldiers (1941-1945)

Abstract

According to the analysis of the study, among a large number of female military specialists of the South of Russia during the Great Patriotic War there were more than 30 thousand women involved in medical units - hospital nurses, sanitary officers, women medical orderlies, medical assistants, doctors. The personnel of casualty clearing stations, medical and sanitary battalions, evacuation receiving stations, military infirmaries, hospital trains, evacuation hospitals consisted mostly of women. Servicewomen were predominantly sent to serve in the nearby fronts: the North Caucasian Front, the Stalingrad Front and the Caucasus Front. From the first months of the war, the South of Russia became the largest hospital base of the country, where for the entire period of the war up to thousands of hospitals were located. In the summer of 1942 among nearly 52 000 physicians two-thirds of whom consisted of women, worked in the evacuation hospitals of the North Caucasus Military District. More than two million Red Army soldiers underwent medical treatment in regional hospitals. In spite of the wartime, the scientific activity of medical staff was not interrupted. Inside the hospital walls they conducted extensive researches, held scientific and practical conferences. Owing to the doctors’ efforts soldiers could return to the army ranks. Among the active participants of donor movement in the region there were 90% of women. 25 tons of blood was delivered to the medical-sanitary battalions of the North Caucasian Front alone. A lot of female physicians served in the Soviet Armed Forces were awarded orders and medals for their dedicated work during the war. For instance, a nurse from Essentuki evacuation hospital M. Alekseenko (Stavropol region) and a military physician S. Salamova (North Ossetia) were decorated with Orders of Lenin. And Galina Petrova (Krasnodar region) received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union who for the short period of her military service (a year and a half) managed to save hundreds of soldiers’ lives. Women of the South of Russia made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of the health of the nation during the Great Patriotic War.