Medicine in besieged Leningrad
Leningrad was the capital of military field surgery of the Soviet Union. It was there that the Military Medical Academy was located. In addition, the experience gained during the Soviet-Finnish war played a role.
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, new military hospitals were established in Leningrad and doctors from the reserve were called up for military medical service. Given the blockade of the city and the impossibility of evacuating the wounded to the rear, doctors were often forced to improvise on the spot. At the same time, the possibility of returning wounded servicemen to duty played an important role. Throughout the Great Patriotic War, scientific work continued in Leningrad.
The blockade caused problems with medicines and doctors were forced to resort to methods that did not work very well, such as smoking wounds. For the most exhausted wounded soldiers and civilians of Leningrad, sanatoriums were opened, both citywide and departmental.
Despite malnutrition, Leningrad residents massively donated blood for wounded soldiers. Wounded soldiers were often taken to hospitals literally on their own, dragged on improvised stretchers. The shortage of food led to tragic cases when people evacuated from besieged Leningrad to the rear received increased nutrition, as a result of which they died from volvulus.
Throughout the blockade in Leningrad, scientific work did not stop. Conferences were held and even books were published. The achievements of Leningrad doctors in the treatment of dystrophy were subsequently widely used in the rehabilitation of liberated prisoners of Nazi concentration camps.
Information