Preview

Nephrology (Saint-Petersburg)

Advanced search
Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

The contribution of military medicine to the victory in the Great Patriotic war

https://doi.org/10.36485/1561-6274-2025-29-2-80-95

EDN: GITECQ

Abstract

The article is devoted to the contribution of the chief specialists of the General Military Medical Department (GMMD) of the Red Army and the Medical Service of the Navy (MSN) to the organization of medical support during the Great Patriotic War of 19411945. The authors tried to highlight lesser-known, but no less important aspects of the activities of the chief specialists and their deputies using photographs that were rarely published before. Thanks to the high professionalism and originality of each chief surgeon, chief therapist, chief epidemiologist and other specialists; the scientific approach applied by specialists to the organization of medical evacuation, medical and preventive, sanitary and hygienic, anti-epidemic measures and the protection of troops (forces) from weapons of mass destruction; prompt study of experience and development of new, most rational forms and methods of activity during defensive and offensive operations of the Army and Navy; In cooperation with civilian healthcare, the medical service of the Red Army and Navy managed to achieve unprecedented results. 72.3 % of the wounded and 90.6 % of the sick from the total number of medical losses were returned to duty, which in total exceeded 17 million people. A high price had to be paid for this success: during the war, 125,808 military doctors were wounded, 84,793 people died. The bulk of the total losses (88.1 %) were medics, stretcher-bearers and medical instructors. What was done during the Great Patriotic War by Soviet military medicine, and by chief medical specialists in particular, can be defined as a feat and should not be forgotten.

About the Authors

O. A. Nagibovich
Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov
Russian Federation

Associate Prof. Oleg A. - Nagibovich, MD, PhD, DMedSci, Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov, doctor of the highest qualification category, Professor of the Department of Nephrology and Efferent Therapy.

194044, St. Petersburg, 6, Academika Lebedeva str., Liter Zh, Phone: (812)2923310



V. I. Kruglov
Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov
Russian Federation

Victor I. Kruglov - Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov, doctor of the highest qualification category, Physician-methodologist of the Educational and methodical Department.

194044, St. Petersburg, 6, Academika Lebedeva str., Liter Zh, Phone: (812)2923416



References

1. Gladkikh PF, Kosachev ID, Belskikh AN «ed.» Essays on the history of domestic military medicine. Book XVII. War and surgery: Through the pages of the history of military medicine in Russia and the volumes «Experience of Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945». SpetsLit, St. Petersburg, 2016; 559. (In Russ.)

2. Belevitin AB, Shelepov AM, Kryuchkov OA. Medical service of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Voen Med Zh 2010;331(4):65–70. (In Russ.)

3. Gladkikh PF. Healthcare in besieged Leningrad (1941–1944). Medicina, L., 1985; 272. (In Russ.)

4. Kuzmin MK. Soviet medicine during the Great Patriotic War (essays). Medicina, M., 1979; 240. (In Russ.)

5. Chernikov OG, Chernyi VS, Zabrodskii DS, Zaimagov SV. About experience of medidine of the Navy during the Great Patriotic War. Voen Med Zh 2015;336(5):42–47. (In Russ.)

6. Ivanov NG, Georgievsky AS, Lobastov OS. Soviet health care and military medicine in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945. Medicina, L., 1985; 304. (In Russ.)

7. Kryukov YeV, Chernecov VA, Matis AA et al. Experience in organizing treatment of wounded and sick soldiers in the First Moscow Communist Military Hospital (now the Main Military Clinical Hospital named after N.N. Burdenko) during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Treatment and prevention 2020;10(2):5–16. (In Russ.) EDN WSBZCY

8. Shevchenko YuL, Matveev SA, Goodymovich VG. The outstanding scientist and surgeon of the soviet period in the history of national surgery (to the 130th anniversary of Semen Semenovich Girgolav). Vestnik Natsionalnogo mediko-khirurgicheskogo tsentra imeni Nikolaya Ivanovicha Pirogova 2011;6(3):120–124. (In Russ.)

9. Kotiv BN, Dzidzava II, Kurygin AA et al. Semen S. Girgolav is a Servant of Russian Surgery. To his 140th anniversary. Wounds and wound infections. Professor B. M. Kostyuchenok Journal 2021;8(4):6–23. (In Russ.) doi: 10.25199/2408-9613-2021-8-4-6-23

10. Andreev AA, Ostroushko AP. Vladimir Semenovich Levit – Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, outstanding surgeon, Dean of the Medical Faculty of Irkutsk University. On the 135th anniversary of his birth. Journal of experimental and clinical surgery 2018;39(2):151–151. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18499/2070-478X-2018-11-2-151-151

11. Knopov MSh. Academician VN Shamov – surgeon, innovator, patriot (for the 140th anniversary of his birth). Klinicheskaya meditsina 2022;100(6):326-331 (In Russ.) doi: 10.30629/00232149-2022-100-6-326-331. EDN: VMKPJG

12. Maistrenko NA.Vladimir Nikolaevich Shamov. Grekov’s Bulletin of Surgery 2012;171(6):9–12. (In Russ.)

13. Khubulava GG, Volkov AM, Lyubimov AI, Sizenko VV. Iustin I. Dzhanelidze – Russian pioneer of cardiac surgery. Russian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2022;64(2): 222–227 (In Russ.) doi: 10.24022/0236-2791-2022-64-2-222-227

14. Kurygin AlA, Semenov VV, Tarbaev IS. Academician Boris Aleksandrovich Petrov (1898–1973). Grekov’s Bulletin of Surgery 2019;178(5):7–9. (In Russ.) doi: 10.24884/0042-4625-2019-178-5-7-9

15. Knopov MSh, Taranukha VK. M.S. Vovsi – Chief therapists of the Red Army. Klinicheskaya meditsina 2015;93(8):74–77. (In Russ.)

16. Golikov AP. Great Victory Anniversary Academician Alexander L. Myasnikov – the first Chief Therapeutist of the USSR Navy. Kardiovaskulyarnaya terapiya i profilaktika 2008;7(4):107–110. (In Russ.)

17. Myasnikov A.L. Pulse of Russia: turning points in the country's history through the eyes of a Kremlin doctor. Eksmo, M., 2014; 492. (In Russ.)

18. Kharchenko YuA, Nagorny IP, Dmitriyev VN. The notable figure of the russian medicine – Petr Ivanovich Yegorov (on the 50th anniversary of death). Medicus 2017;13(1):30–32. (In Russ.)

19. Frank GA, Knopov MSh, Taranukha VK. Academician M.F. Glazunov, Principal Pathologist of the Red Army (on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of his birth). Arkhiv patologii 2016;78(6):58–60. (In Russ.)] doi: 10.17116/patol201678658-60

20. Zubritsky AN. А pathologist N A Кraevsky during the Great Patriotic War. Clinical Pathophysiology 2020;26(2):95–99. (In Russ.)

21. Iordanishvili AK. David Abramovich Entin: an outstanding scientist, clinician and health care organizer – the founder of Russian military dentistry (on the 120th anniversary of his birth). Medicine XXI Century 2008;(12):84–96. (In Russ.)

22. Sobolev DA, Vysokikh IS, Dolgov GV et al. The founder of military gynecology, Professor I.F. Zhordania. Science of Russia: Goals and Objectives. Collection of scientific papers based on the results of the XXXV international scientific and practical conference. Yekaterinburg, 2023: 62–64. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18411/nrciz-02-2023-14

23. Konovalov YuV, Koschlyak DA. Mikhail I. AVDEEV – Leading domestic scientists, forensic expert, organizer of military forensic examination (to 115th anniversary). Vestnik sudebnoy meditsiny 2016;5(1):56–59. (In Russ.)

24. Goncharov SF, Knopov MM, Akinshin AV, Avetisov GM. Chief Epidemiologists of Fronts and Fleets in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945. Meditsina katastrof 2021;(2):5–10. (In Russ.) doi.org/10.33266/2070-1004-2021-2-5-10

25. Knopov MSh, Taranukha VK. Profess or AYa Alymov and domestic epidemiology (on the 120th anniversary of his birth). Epidemiologiya i infektsionnye bolezni 2013;5:56–57. (In Russ.)

26. Smirnov EI. Frontline Mercy. Voenizdat, M., 1991; 430. (In Russ.)


Review

For citations:


Nagibovich O.A., Kruglov V.I. The contribution of military medicine to the victory in the Great Patriotic war. Nephrology (Saint-Petersburg). 2025;29(2):80-95. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.36485/1561-6274-2025-29-2-80-95. EDN: GITECQ

Views: 61


ISSN 1561-6274 (Print)
ISSN 2541-9439 (Online)