p The Soviet people suffered bitter trials during the Great Patriotic War against nazi Germany which had treacherously attacked the USSR. The Soviet public health system withstood these trials honourably. All reserves were mobilised for the purpose of organising an efficient system of specialised 29 medical aid as close to the field of battle as possible, evacuation hospitals and medical aid for the people in the rear. Special attention was devoted to providing food and medical care lor women and children. Naturally, all necessary measures were taken to prevent epidemics.

p Thanks to these and other urgent measures the spreading of infectious diseases was avoided which saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of servicemen and civilians. For the first time in the history of war on the territory of the Soviet Union, there were no epidemic outbreaks of any appreciable size. The percentage of officers and men returned to the ranks was unusually high—more than 72 per cent of the wounded and 90 per cent of the sick.

p A sizeable contribution to the victory over the aggressor was made by medical scientists. It was no accident that during the Great Patriotic War (in 1944) a decision was taken to organise a single medical research centre—the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Academician N. N. Burdenko, outstanding scientist and Chief Surgeon of the Soviet Army, was elected its first president.

The war inflicted immeasurable losses on the Soviet people. These included 20 million servicemen and civilians killed and millions of mutilated, sick and disabled; 1,710 towns and more than 700,000 villages, 40,000 hospitals, polyclinics, dispensaries, sanitary and antiepidemic centres and other medical institutions were completely or partly destroyed. A tremendous amount of work had to be done to restore the economy ruined by the war. Already the 1946-1950 FiveYear Plan adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in March 1946 provided not only for restoration of the prewar level of public health, but also for a considerable increase in the number of medical institutions and the size of personnel; the number of hospital beds was to be increased to one million and that of doctors severalfold. The medical and pharmaceutic industries established before the Second World War were to be expanded.