“Working in the hospital has quickly made us adults...” Book Review: Front-line Astrakhan. Hospitals. Astrakhan, 2021

Abstract

The article provides a review of the book “Front-line Astrakhan. Hospitals. Astrakhan, 2021”. The author of the article analyzes both the positive and the negative aspects of the work. It is worth emphasizing that the book is devoted to one of the promising subfields of research in the history of the Great Patriotic War – the everyday life of the front-line and of the military rear.

The publication is a comprehensive research of the activities of the hospitals located in Astrakhan and the Astrakhan region during the war. Compilers acquaint the reader with the main aspects of the daily occurrence of the medical personnel of the hospitals and the wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. The reviewed work contains numerous memoirs of both the medical workers and residents of Astrakhan, and it allows the reader to plunge into the hard and heroic days of the hospitals.

Another important aspect, considered in the publication, is the patronage assistance provided to the hospitals by enterprises and ordinary citizens. It involved millions of people, especially children and adolescents. Corporate assistance played an important part in the psychological rehabilitation of the wounded Red Army soldiers. It is also necessary to note the illustrative material, the peer-reviewed works, which in fact represent additional sources for the research of the front-line and the military rear routine.

This research will be interesting to everyone who is keen on the history of the Great Patriotic War.