Challenges of arranging help for wounded and sick Russian and Serbian soldiers on the Salonika front (1916–1917)

Both the Russian and Serbian armies faced challenges with arranging medical support for their soldiers on the Salonika front. Upon agreement with the allies, assistance to both Russian and Serbian wounded and sick soldiers was to be provided by the French government. This did not work for the Serbian Military Medical Department which had made significant efforts to establish its own infirmaries and hospitals on the Salonika Front since 1916. By the summer of 1916, they had three army hospitals, then four by the fall of the same year. The Russian headquarters followed suite, relying on the already existing Russian medical institutions (the Piraeus Hospital and the St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki Hospital in Thessaloniki). The necessary funds were allocated by the Russian Red Cross Society Administration. Helping the Russian headquarters to overcome challenges connected with medical care for Russian soldiers, Russian imperial diplomats also monitored the issues of helping the Serbs: a sanitary detachment of the Petrograd Slavic Charity was sent to the Salonika Front (senior medical officer Y. I. Chabrov). His fate fully reflected the changed balance of power in the Balkans. Neither the Serbian nor the French government arranged independent sanitary detachments reporting only to Petrograd. They wanted to have full control over the situation. The author concludes that the challenges of medical care for both Russian and Serbian wounded soldiers on the Salonika front were related to the weakening of Russia’s authority in the international arena and the depletion of its resources, including financial ones.