MANUFACTURING OF MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS IN THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Abstract

Despite the available information that the USSR had been preparing for war events, those of June 22, 1941 were a surprise. In the early days of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, obvious shortcomings were revealed in planning the deployment of sectors of the national economy important for defense, including the location of most of the warehouses and enterprises of strategic
importance near the country’s western borders. The heroic efforts of the military and civilians to evacuate medical warehouses, industrial enterprises and their staff turned out to be ineffective.
Already in the summer of 1941, it became clear that the country tool industry was not able to function in full force, warehouses with ready-made medical products were lost, and supply chains
were destroyed. The Government of the Soviet Union promptly reacted to the situation, as evidenced by the Order of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR No. 379 issued on August 5, 1941, which transferred the production of medical instruments to a military footing. The restructuring of the work was carried out under the leadership of the Technical Council of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR, alongside the practical implementation at the factories of the Glavka of the medical instrumental industry (Glavmedinstrumentprom). A key role was played by the initiative which started in the years of the pre-war five-year plans to improve production work, which became a huge stepping stone during the war. As a result, in the most difficult conditions for industry in the first years of hostilities, it became possible to increase the implementation of the production plan and improve labor discipline, which was the contribution of the rear and, on the whole, ensured the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.