04-19-2009, 11:44 PM
Hi Brendan,
There is good general stuff on shell-shock in Wikipedia
Combat stress reaction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Everything BUT the Russian view.
Doing a quick search throught the University Library I found this article: "The Collective Mind: Trauma and Shell-shock in Twentieth-century Russia" by Catherine Merridale in the Journal of Contemporary History 35(1), 39–55 (2000). She also wrote a book mentioned elsewhere in the forum "Ivan's War" which is a great read.
Shell-shock (voennaya kontuziya) is described as tremors, mutism, debilitating nightmares and paralysis (seems fairly common to all countries). However, the Russians believed that artillerymen were the most likely to be affected.
It seems that the Russians were initially at the forefront of the treatment of these casualties (starting in the Russo/Japanese War of 1904-1905) but that attitudes had hardened by the GPW and that many sufferers were exiled in Soviet times.
Simon
There is good general stuff on shell-shock in Wikipedia
Combat stress reaction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Everything BUT the Russian view.
Doing a quick search throught the University Library I found this article: "The Collective Mind: Trauma and Shell-shock in Twentieth-century Russia" by Catherine Merridale in the Journal of Contemporary History 35(1), 39–55 (2000). She also wrote a book mentioned elsewhere in the forum "Ivan's War" which is a great read.
Shell-shock (voennaya kontuziya) is described as tremors, mutism, debilitating nightmares and paralysis (seems fairly common to all countries). However, the Russians believed that artillerymen were the most likely to be affected.
It seems that the Russians were initially at the forefront of the treatment of these casualties (starting in the Russo/Japanese War of 1904-1905) but that attitudes had hardened by the GPW and that many sufferers were exiled in Soviet times.
Simon
