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Our Academy was to be disbanded, but our chief Ivanov Alexander went to Moscow and obtained permission to keep its status. By that time cadets of the 4th course quickly passed their examinations and became professionally qualified doctors. The Academy chiefs tried to evacuate them, but on their way across the Ladoga Lake their barges turned turtle because of the storm. All of them were drowned. The chief of Academy received Stalin's order about evacuation of thу rest cadets to Kirov. Therefore they took us away from the Luga firing line and urgently brought to Leningrad. Preparation for evacuation began. It happened in 1942, Leningrad was already besieged [7] and each of us received 125 gr. of bread per day. We crossed the Ladoga Lake on foot (40 km to Kobona village). We were 300. Later we were ordered to reach Kirov any way we could: on foot, by autostop, by train. Some of us walked to the railway station where hospital train was formed. Chief of the train took us as hospital attendants. We reached Kirov a month later (by the beginning of February). A lot of cadets went home. In Kirov we were placed to the rooms of the Kirov Pedagogical College. All military registration and enlistment offices received the following order: ALL CADETS OF THE NAVAL MILITARY ACADEMY HAVE TO REPORT FOR THE ACADEMY IN KIROV IMMEDIATELY.
Soon all cadets gathered in Kirov. We started our studies. After the 2nd course we had to do practical work afloat. I was sent to the Black Sea Navy (Sukhumi and Poti [8]). I served on board the ship Krasnaya Abkhasia. It was a part of the separate battalion of gunboats. These ships were used for creeping and transportation cargoes to front lines, because they were able to approach coast without mooring.
We were appointed medical assistants. Besides creeping we several times went to Malaya Zemlya near Novorossiysk where our soldiers fought battles а outrance. During one night we had to bring there reinforcements, ammunition, etc., and take injured soldiers therefrom. We had to manage everything before dawn. Once we stayed there too long embarking injured soldiers and at dawn Germans started bombardment. Krasnaya Georgia, a ship of the same type got a shell-hole and went down before my eyes.
In 1944 after I finished the 3rd course, we were sent for practical work as assistants to doctors in medical and sanitary battalions and front hospitals of the Leningrad front and Northern fleet. I got to the front hospital of the Leningrad front. There were 3,000 beds. It was situated in Leningrad in the building of Suvorov Military School. There I was seriously trained in surgery.
They brought us 100-300 injured people a day. In operating-room there were 20 tables. We worked sorting injured people, assisting during operations and dressings supervised by more experienced doctors. They put into our hands only initial treatment of wounds, immobilizing of extremities, putting in plaster, etc. We did not make abdominal operations. I remember that I had to take care of a soldier with a wounded knee. The knee joint was open, facets of femur and shin-bone stuck out. A doctor approached us and said ‘It is necessary to amputate the leg!’ And I managed to do it for the first time in my life. Till now I remember all stages of that operation: fixing tourniquet, cutting muscles up to the thigh-bone, pulling muscles aside, sawing the bone, loosing the tourniquet and making ligature. Then final removal of the tourniquet, additional hemostasis, and final stump formation. You see, I was impressed so much that keep all details in my mind till now.
Every day injured soldiers from our hospital were transported to the railway station and sent to the east of the country by hospital trains.
Soon all cadets gathered in Kirov. We started our studies. After the 2nd course we had to do practical work afloat. I was sent to the Black Sea Navy (Sukhumi and Poti [8]). I served on board the ship Krasnaya Abkhasia. It was a part of the separate battalion of gunboats. These ships were used for creeping and transportation cargoes to front lines, because they were able to approach coast without mooring.
We were appointed medical assistants. Besides creeping we several times went to Malaya Zemlya near Novorossiysk where our soldiers fought battles а outrance. During one night we had to bring there reinforcements, ammunition, etc., and take injured soldiers therefrom. We had to manage everything before dawn. Once we stayed there too long embarking injured soldiers and at dawn Germans started bombardment. Krasnaya Georgia, a ship of the same type got a shell-hole and went down before my eyes.
In 1944 after I finished the 3rd course, we were sent for practical work as assistants to doctors in medical and sanitary battalions and front hospitals of the Leningrad front and Northern fleet. I got to the front hospital of the Leningrad front. There were 3,000 beds. It was situated in Leningrad in the building of Suvorov Military School. There I was seriously trained in surgery.
They brought us 100-300 injured people a day. In operating-room there were 20 tables. We worked sorting injured people, assisting during operations and dressings supervised by more experienced doctors. They put into our hands only initial treatment of wounds, immobilizing of extremities, putting in plaster, etc. We did not make abdominal operations. I remember that I had to take care of a soldier with a wounded knee. The knee joint was open, facets of femur and shin-bone stuck out. A doctor approached us and said ‘It is necessary to amputate the leg!’ And I managed to do it for the first time in my life. Till now I remember all stages of that operation: fixing tourniquet, cutting muscles up to the thigh-bone, pulling muscles aside, sawing the bone, loosing the tourniquet and making ligature. Then final removal of the tourniquet, additional hemostasis, and final stump formation. You see, I was impressed so much that keep all details in my mind till now.
Every day injured soldiers from our hospital were transported to the railway station and sent to the east of the country by hospital trains.
Period
Location
Russia
Interview
Boris Girshov
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