Leningrad City Health Department and Leningrad Front Military Sanitary Department: Problems of Interaction in 1941–1942

Abstract

The article covers the problems of relations between the Leningrad City Health Department and the Military Sanitary Department of the Leningrad Front in 1941–1942. The medical institutions of the Front Evacuation Point were located within city limits due to the unfavorable combat situation. This led to conflicts between military and civilian medical agencies, both at the stage of medical support of military mobilization and deployment of a network of evacuation hospitals in the first months of the war and later. The lack of clarity on subordination, rights, and obligations had a negative impact on the deployment and ongoing activities of evacuation hospitals, the conduct of anti-epidemic measures, and personnel policies. This could undermine the combat capacity of the troops and, ultimately, threatened Leningrad. However, attempts to redistribute powers between civilian and military medical institutions were not motivated by personal self-interest of their leaders, but by the interests of the service personnel. Most likely, personal responsibility for implementing instructions of parent bodies forced them to concentrate all control in their hands to use resources promptly to avoid lengthy inter-agency coordination. Despite difficult relations and differences, the health care system of blockaded Leningrad was able to solve its main task: to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of troops and the population and to restore combat losses of the army units defending the city.