The guardsmen of Hippocrates

by Vladimir Tulinov

No people suffered more during the Second World War than the people of the Soviet Union and the soldiers of the Red Army. Tens of millions perished and further millions were wounded – horrific numbers, which would have been even higher if it weren’t for the efforts of the army of doctors, nurses, and medics who treated the wounded and the suffering. Vladimir Tulinov’s The Guardsmen of Hippocrates brings the reader up close to the men and women who fought to save the lives of those struggling to resist the Nazi invasion. Tulinov’s collection of stories allows the reader to creep out into No Man’s Land under fire to treat the wounded along with Tatyana and Sergey, to experience the tension of a last-minute hospital train evacuation in the midst of the fog of war, and to feel the tension and exhaustion of Antonina and the rest of the field hospital medical staff as wounded men pour in from nearby front lines. The Guardsmen of Hippocrates is a chance to gain an appreciation for the Soviet wartime experience, through the lens of the oft-neglected but dedicated and unsung medical services