Glinskii, D.L.: The Life of a Russian Sanitary Unit in Harar

Title

Zhizn’ russkogo sanitarnogo otriada v Kharrare, Grodna 1899

The Life of a Russian Sanitary Unit in Harar

Keywords

Summary

This short book is a collection of memories about the author’s experience in Ethiopia. Glinskii recollects a pleasant meeting with Ras Makonnen, who asks the Russian sanitary team to stay in Harar since his army needs medical assistance and the city is full of sick people. Indeed, as reported by Glinskii, the doctors would visit up to 3000 people a day. The author explains the work in the different sections of the ambulatory, located in the house of an Italian man. Glinskii enlists the diseases that are widespread in the area, and points out the poor advancement of local medicine. He also notices that while many people are hurt by animals, just as many are hurt by other people, including children, who are allowed to play with guns from a very young age. Moreover, he observes that fire is believed to have medicinal properties, a tradition which comes from Arab medicine, and recounts an unpleasant episode of theft in the hospital. The final remarks about the overall experience are nevertheless positive.

Bio

David Glinskii was born in Hrodna (present-day Belarus), where he served as a regimental physician and later as chief physician of the military hospital after having completed his medical degree (1893). In 1892 he travelled to India as a member of a group of officers from the Hrodna Hussar Regiment. During the Italo-Ethiopian war, he was part of the Russian sanitary mission sent to provide aid. After 1905, Glinskii lived in Saint Petersburg. He is renowned for his contributions to medical literature, as well as for his memoirs recounting experiences from the Italo-Ethiopian War. He is the author of Harar and Its Inhabitants (1897) and The Life of a Russian Sanitary Unit in Harar (1899).

Sources

V. Semenova, Ethiopian Photo Collections 1896-1913: Some Aspects of Arrangement, Attribution and Interpretation, “African Research & Documentation”, 2019, 135, p. 71-85;

S. Sitkevich, V. Cherepica, Grodnenskie voennye vrachi D.L. Glinskii i K.N. Krechunesko na zavershaiushchem etape italo-abissinskoi voiny (1896-1897), “Zhurnal GrGMU”, 2023, 6, p. 599-604.

M.E.