A SHORT SKETCH OF THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS
BY MR. J. de THAL.
The first initiative to give private aid to the wounded on the battlefield was taken in Russia in 1854, during the Crimean War, when Grand Duchess Helen Pavlovina (a sister of Emperor Nicholas I) formed a party of trained nurses, who, under the leadership of the afterwards celebrated surgeon, Pirogoff, went to the war and cared for the wounded.
In 1867 was formed a Society for the care of the wounded and sick warriors, which changed its name in 1876 and was then called the Russian Red Cross Society. From its very start the Society was taken under the august protectorate of the Empress Maria Alexandrovina, wife of Emperor Alexander II, and many persons of the imperial family and prominent statesmen became its members.
At the very first, lack of funds prevented the Society from the activity along the broad lines which it desired. Not being able at the start to found its own communities of nurses, with its own hospitals and surgical clinics, the Society for a number of years had to place its nurses, for the purpose of training, in the military, civil and municipal hospitals. Only after the Turkish War in 1876-77, in which the immense utility of the Society’s activity was proved, was its popularity assured. Thus the number of communities of Red Cross nurses from 5 in 1878 rose to 99 in 1906. The total number of hospitals and clinics of the Red Cross at present amount to 148. In 1906 the number of persons cared for in these institutions was 1,294,547.
Russian Red Cross Depot of Supplies.
Red Cross Station.
In 1868 the Russian Red Cross had 35 institutions of all kinds and in 1906, 920.
On the first of January, 1907, the Red Cross Society of Russia consisted of the following institutions: 1 Chief Board of Administration; 8 Boards of District Administration; 95 local Boards of Administration; 509 local Red Cross Committees; 40 Committees of communities of Red Cross nurses; 60 communities of Red Cross nurses; 90 ambulatory clinics; 6 emergency hospitals; 5 asylums for former Red Cross nurses; 1 asylum for invalids; 9 asylums for crippled soldiers; 1 asylum for soldiers’ widows; 3 asylums and 3 sanitariums for children of disabled soldiers; 7 convalescent houses; 1 maternity hospital.
Red Cross Hospital Ship.
Any person entering into a community as nurse is not obliged to take any kind of oath, but gives only the promise to submit to a vigorous discipline, to acquit him or herself conscientiously of all duties and to nurse the sick carefully. The feminine personnel is divided into two categories—sisters of charity and nurses for surgery.
The surgical nurses have to pass a three years’ course, the sister of charity a one-and-a-half year’s course of studies, according to a program established by the Chief Board of Administration. The courses to be followed are theoretical and practical, which consist chiefly of lectures at the sick bed, held mainly in the hospitals of the Red Cross, and partially in military, municipal and private hospitals, according to arrangements between these hospitals and the Red Cross. Having finished the courses, the surgical nurses enter either the institutions of the Red Cross or hospital institutions maintained by the government or municipalities. The sisters of charity are delegated to the military hospitals, which the Red Cross has undertaken to supply with nurses, to other hospitals and to private nursery. In 1906 there were 3,819 of these Red Cross sisters, and since 1875 there have been graduated 2,000 of the higher class of trained surgical nurses.
The care for disabled soldiers after the war includes the furnishing of means for cures at health resorts, as well as furnishing them with warm clothes, artificial limbs, crutches, etc., or provides for their care in asylums of the Society.
The asylums for invalids in 1906 received 737. Among other sums granted, the Society paid in 1906, 10,940 roubles to the former defenders of Sabastopol, during the Crimean War in 1854.
Red Cross Hospital Train.
In St. Petersburg the Society possesses six stations for help in emergency cases, with twelve ambulances and sixteen attendants.
The Russian Red Cross Society has taken part in all wars and military expeditions which have occurred since 1868.
During the Franco-Prussian war, the Russian Red Cross sent to Basel a party of 30 surgeons and large quantities of supplies which were equally distributed to the belligerents.
It sent a generous contribution to both parties during the Civil War in Spain in 1873. In 1876 surgeons and nurses were sent for assistance in the Turkish-Martemgian War, expending $42,000. During the Turkish-Servian War it expended over $263,000 and sent 115 doctors, 4 pharmacists, 118 nurses, 41 medical students, 78 assistant surgeons, besides hospital equipment for 200 beds.
At the time of the Russo-Turkish War in 1876, the Russian Red Cross rendered wonderful service. Contributions flowed into its treasury, over $8,000,000 was received and expended, and the gifts of supplies were equally great.
During the war the Society transported on its ships and trains over 100,000 sick and wounded; 230,000 were cared for at the ports of evacuation, and 18,000 severely wounded at the port. The Red Cross institutions in Russia cared for 116,268 sick and wounded. In the troubles of 1879-81 in Asia, the Red Cross expended $300,000. In 1885 in helping the sick and wounded of both Servia and Bulgaria, expended about $87,000. It assisted Japan in the Chinese-Japanese War of 1894.
Interior of Hospital Train.
In 1896, as the Italian Red Cross declined assistance, it expended $75,000 for Abyssinia relief, and in 1899, as the United States Government declined its offer of assistance, it gave aid to the Spanish Red Gross for the veterans of the war. As England declined assistance, it expended some $56,000 for the Boers in 1899. During the Boxer trouble in China the Red Cross provided most valuable assistance at a cost of over $600,000. Its greatest work was rendered during the late terrible war with Japan, during which it expended over $15,000,000 in relief work, providing hospital trains, ships, field and reserve hospitals, a large medical nursery and administration personnel.