Wounded in the everyday life of a provincial city during the World War I (on the materials of the Central Black Earth Economic Region)

Abstract

The subject of this research is the multi-aspect impact produced by the system of medical care for the ill and wounded soldiers during the World War I upon the social life of provincial towns that accommodated the military hospitals. The article determines the role of the Central Black Earth Economic Region in treating the wounded; provides information on the number of hospital beds; describes organizational moments of operation of hospitals, as well as the forms of public participation in work of the hospitals. Attention is given to the common and symbolic aspects associated with the figure of a wounded soldier. The study is based on systematization of records on functionality of the medical military facilities in the Central Black Earth Economic Region, making emphasis on the changes and new occurrences in everyday of the city folks caused by establishing and operation of hospitals. The acquires results state that the system of medical care for the wounded during the World War I has become the subject of social consolidation, invoking new forms of charity and active cooperation of various social classes of a provincial city. At the same time, concentration of the wounded was a destabilizing factor of urban life.