The Russian Railway Museum will tell about the history of military hospital trains during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945
On January 27, 2020, day of full liberation of Leningrad from fascist blockade, the Russian Railway Museum opens suburban car Ок № 3906 for visitors as part of the exhibition project dedicated to the history of military hospital trains and to the 75th anniversary of Soviet people Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.
The car was built by the Leningrad carriage building plant named after I.Ye.Yegorov in 1940. During the peace time it was used as a sitting car and during the war it was modified as a car for seriously wounded of the military hospital train. Near the car there is an installation – a sculpture group presenting the entrainment of a wounded person on a stretcher.
During the Great Patriotic War hundreds of trains were used to transport wounded and they transport millions of soldiers that came out of action. Hospital trains were used during all significant battles of the war: defense of Leningrad, counterattack near Moscow, battle for Stalingrad, offensive actions in Poland and East Prussia.
Inside a car one can see both pre-war interior with seat benches and a bench for seriously wounded and ill soldiers NIISI-42 that were often installed in hospital train cars. This bench was named after the abbreviation of Scientific Research Probationary Sanitary Institute of the Red Army. 42 is referred to the year of construction. Wounded were placed in three rows on their stretchers. In compare with Krieger bench that had been used before, this one was simpler and did not required making complex metal details. It was mostly made of wood.
The car opening is only a beginning of the first part of the Benevolence Trains exhibition project that is performed by the Russian Railway Museum together with the Russian Museum of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It is planned to place in the car a unique model of a car for seriously wounded. Follow the Museum news on our website for updates.
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