On the restoration of the work of the Mogilev Regional Blood Transfusion Station

On August 29, 1944, just a month after the liberation of the territory of Belarus, an order was issued by the People’s Commissariat of Health (Narkomzdrav) of the BSSR to restore the institute of blood transfusion and the network of regional stations in the republic. Such haste was justified by the fact that «the method of using canned blood has gained paramount importance in the work of medical institutions, and during the years of the Patriotic War it serves as one of the most powerful therapeutic agents». However, the practical implementation of these plans was delayed. At the end of November 1944, the board of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the BSSR noted a «frivolous attitude» to the organization of regional stations: plans for blood collection were not fulfilled, there was a lack of necessary equipment and specialists.

The Mogilev Regional Blood Transfusion Station resumed its work on December 1, 1944, housed in two rooms of the surgical department of the Mogilev Regional Hospital (now the Mogilev City SMP Hospital). The first leader was the surgeon Ilya Ivanovich Astapenko. In total, 13 people worked at the station, including 3 doctors. All of them performed their duties part-time, being also employees of the hospital. The green equipment was rather scarce: a traveling operating table, several autoclaves, 4 sterilizers and surgical instruments. The station operated a serological laboratory with experimental animals – a sheep and fifteen guinea pigs.

The State Archives of the Mogilev Region Institution presents the «Passport-characteristics of the Mogilev Regional Blood Transfusion Station» of 1947, which includes information for the period 1944-1947.

Alexey Ivanovich Shvyryov, archivist of the 1st qualification category
of the Department for the Scientific Use of Documents and Information

List of sources used:
Institution “The State Archive of the Mogilev Region” (GAMog), Fund 2948, Op.1, D. 9, L. 1-4.