The article analyzes the sanitary consequences of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 as a turning point in the history of military and public medicine. Based on the analysis of historical sources, statistical data, and scientific literature, it is shown that for the first time in the history of armed conflicts, the losses from diseases (cholera, typhus, and scurvy) exceeded the combat losses many times, which prompted a radical reorganization of the military medical service. Special attention is paid to the activities of N.I. Pirogov, who laid the foundations of military field surgery: medical sorting, the use of plaster casts, ether anesthesia in the field, the creation of a system for training military doctors, and the use of the work of nurses. The article examines the emergence of the institution of nurses (the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Community) as a prototype of modern nursing in Russia, as well as the activities of Florence Nightingale in the British army. It is concluded that the Crimean War was a catalyst for the reforms of military medicine, the principles of which formed the basis of modern military field surgery and disaster medicine.
Keywords: Crimean War, military field surgery, N.I. Pirogov, medical sorting, nurses, sanitary losses, public medicine.