The Beginning of Formation of the Military Medical Service of the Russian Army in the Turkestan Region in the 1860s

Abstract

The history of the military medical service in Turkestan during the imperial period has yet to be thoroughly studied. This article aims to analyze the formation of the military healthcare system in Central Asia during the 1860s based on various approaches and methods and a wide range of archival materials, regulatory legal acts, historical sources, and scientific literature. The research delves into the state of traditional medicine in the region before the Russian conquest, examines the issues of adapting Russian troops to local climate conditions during the Turkestan campaigns, and analyzes the activities of military medical ranks, and the process of establishing military medical institutions in the Turkestan region, and later, in the Turkestan General-Governorship (Turkestan Military District). The study concludes that by the end of the 1860s, the military medicine system was established in the Turkestan Region, which includes regulations, military medical institutions such as hospitals, semi-hospitals (polu-gospitals), infirmaries (lazarets), and personnel to assist not only the servicemen of the Russian army but also the local population.