The Railways during the Second World War (1941 – 1945)
HOSPITALS ON WHEELS
A huge role in saving the lives of soldiers was played by the creation of a system for the evacuation of wounded and sick servicemen, which involved 472 military sanitary trains (MSTs). In addition to medical personnel, MSTs employed more than 7,000 railway workers, and 350 sanitary flying trains consisting of boxcars for the evacuation of the wounded from the front and near-front zone with subsequent transfer to the MSTs. Operating close to the front line, hospital trains suffered heavy losses. In 1941 alone, the enemy destroyed 28 hospital trains, smashed and burned 820 carriages, and damaged another 1,171 carriages. In 1942, another 10 military trains were destroyed. In 1942, another 10 military hospital trains were destroyed and 8 were damaged. But despite these losses, the MSTs continuously ensured the evacuation of the wounded to hospitals in he rear throughout the USSR On one run, an MST could take on board from 400 to 900 wounded soldiers. In total, the MSTs made 11,900 runs during the war and ensured the transportation of 97% of all the wounded and sick to hospitals on the rear.
MILITARY SANITARY TRAIN No. 87, SARATOV
On 17 July 1941, military hospital train No. 87 departed from Saratov on its first run, headed by medical service major Pavel Tabakov, the father of the People’s Artist of the USSR Oleg Tabakov. The stations flashed by: Balashov, Pavorino, Likhaya, Rostov, Zaporozhye... day after day, month after month, the staff on the military hospital train worked non-stop – doctors, nurses, orderlies, conductors. Among the staff were Viktor Ushatsky, a doctor and senior lieutenant, Dina Ostrovskaya, the head of the pharmacy, and the nurses Antonina Kashirina, Tatyana Usina, Alexandra Klokova and Valentina Kashchenko. They took the wounded out of the frontline zone, treated them, and brought them to safety in the rear.
During the Great Patriotic War, military hospital train No. 87 made 35 runs and travelled more than 220,000 kilometres. You can read about this in the surviving "Travel Diary of Military Hospital Train No. 87" kept by the clerk Lidiya Prikhodko. The personnel of military hospital train No. 87 saw in the victory in the war at Valuyki station in the Voronezh region. But the work did not stop there. In July 1945, the train travelled to Warsaw and Frankfurt, and in August and September that same year transported repatriates and then in October and November demobilised soldiers, holidaymakers and civilians.
On 17 July 2002, an unusual exhibit was set up at the Saratov State Museum of Military Glory – a military hospital car from the 1940s. This carriage was a pharmacy-cum-dressing station that consisted of a sanitary checkpoint, a dressing station, a department for the seriously and slightly wounded, a pharmacy and a medical station. The exhibition recreated the atmosphere of the war years and included authentic medical instruments of the time and household items, as well as documents from the archive of military hospital train No. 87, which were kept for a long time by Lidiya Prikhodko (Tabakova).
MILITARY SANITARY TRAIN No. 312, VOLOGDA
In the first months of the war, the Vologda Locomotive and Carriage Repair Plant prepared more than 10 military hospital trains for operation. These trains had specially equipped places for the wounded, an operating carriage, a drugstore carriage and a laundry wagon.
Military hospital train No. 312 was the first to leave on its run and departed on 26 June 1941. The train’s crew consisted of 40 medical staff and railway workers. The train made dozens of trips to all the fronts, covering 200,000 kilometres, a distance equivalent to five round-the-world trips, and transported more than 25,000 wounded soldiers.
The staff of train No. 312 made dozens of proposals to rationalise the transportation of the wounded and turned the train into a model medical facility. When military hospital train No. 312 arrived at the station, they tried to put it on the first track – it was so beautiful and well-looked after. Danichev led the train personnel, but other important figures were the party organiser I. Porokhin, the senior operating nurse L. Razumov and the military paramedic F. Kiseleva. They and the entire staff tried to make the wounded feel at home: they installed a bathhouse carriage in the train and put boxes with greens on the roof, while chickens and piglets were transported under the carriages to serve fresh meat and eggs to the wounded soldiers. The train was in a state of exemplary order and cleanliness.
Later, the writer Vera Panova wrote a book about the legendary ambulance train No. 312 entitled "Companions," and the feature films "Mercy Train" and "For the Rest of My Life" were released.