Author: Wind Qianli
Statement: Soldiers say original, plagiarism will be investigated
In the early spring of the new pneumonia epidemic, the Red Cross has once again become the focus. So, how did the Red Cross come about in the first place? What is the origin of this organization with China? Let's start with an unprecedentedly tragic war 160 years ago.
The Battle of Solfellino, which broke out in 1859, indirectly contributed to the birth of the Red Cross
By the middle of the 19th century, the Italian unification war had entered a critical moment. On June 24, 1859, the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was leading the Italian unification movement, joined forces with France, which was intending to dominate Europe, and war broke out with the Austrian Empire, which was trying to prevent the unification of Italy. The two sides gathered nearly 300,000 troops in Solfellino, near Lombardy, Italy, and after 9 hours of blood and fire, the Austrian army was finally defeated, but the French-Sardinian army also won only a tactical victory, and the Kingdom of Sardinia only gained a narrow territory around Lombardy, far from its pre-war expectations. Austria's power in Italy was unshaken. This bloody battle, which cost both sides of the war dearly and failed to have any decisive impact on the situation in Italy at the time, inadvertently led to the birth of a time-bound conception and the birth of an international organization, which has influenced it to this day – the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The initiator of the Red Cross Movement, swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant
It started with a Swiss businessman named Jean Henri Dunant. Before the war, the merchant who had been running a corn business in the French colony of Algeria had experienced many entrepreneurial failures, but at this time he was constantly in conflict with the colonial authorities due to economic disputes, and in desperation, Dunant had to seek a solution through the French Emperor Napoleon III at the time.
He rushed all the way to Paris, but the emperor happened to be in Solfellino, and he went all the way to the front line, and what he saw and heard along the way greatly shocked this ordinary businessman. The muddy roads near the war zone are lined with the bodies of soldiers and civilians who have not had time to dispose of them, and the harsh medical environment of the field hospital, the painful groans and shouts of wounded soldiers make the place look more like a slaughterhouse, and the situation of the refugees is even more miserable.
[The Five-Member Commission, established in 1963, was the predecessor of the International Committee of the Red Cross. To this day, the core of the committee has been dominated by the Swiss.
The encounter of this journey made Dunant even forget the purpose of his trip, and while he was able to rescue the wounded and refugees in the battlefield, a new idea gradually sprouted in his mind: Could a public organization be established to unify the relief of humanitarian disasters caused by the war? After the war, Dunant systematically expounded his ideas in his book UnSouvenir de Solferino (UnSouvenir de Solferino), which immediately caused a strong reaction, and many celebrities of the time, such as the French writer Victor Hugo, the Swiss jurist Gustav Muwanier, including the French Emperor Napoleon III himself, praised Dunant's views.
Since then, support and sponsorship from all walks of life have quickly turned Dunant's ideas into reality: in 1863, Dunant and four other like-minded Swiss celebrities formed a "Committee of Five" to plan for the future neutral battlefield relief organization, which was later renamed the "International Commission for the Rescue of Wounded Soldiers", and the epoch-making Geneva Convention was formally signed in 1864 at the initiative of this committee and the strong efforts of the Swiss Parliament. By 1876, the committee formed by Dunant was officially renamed the "International Committee of the Red Cross" and remains in use today. In the years that followed, the Red Cross societies of various countries mushroomed, and field medical personnel wearing Red Cross armbands on a white background began to appear more and more on the battlefield, becoming a special landscape in the smoke and blood of war. The neutral organization, founded by Dunant himself, also began to set off a wave of "Red Cross Movement" around the world.
Red Cross medical personnel distributing food to Allied soldiers in the later part of World War I
However, it should be noted that from the very beginning, the main scope of the ICRC's services has been limited to the battlefield, and the global humanitarian suffering does not stop on the battlefield. Coupled with the fact that the core of the ICRC has long been dominated by the Swiss, the entire Red Cross movement has even been monopolized by the ICRC, and under the appearance of humanity and charity, the copper smell of monopoly power is becoming more and more obvious.
After world war I, on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Conference, at the initiative of the American Henry Davidson, the great powers bypassed the ICRC and formed an international organization called the "Red Cross Union" (later renamed today the "International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies") in the hope of assisting and coordinating the specific affairs of the national Red Cross Societies. The establishment of this organization, while expanding the scope of activities of the former Red Cross movement, greatly threatened the monopoly position of the ICRC. In the years that followed, the two international organizations, also known as the "Red Cross," fought and blamed each other under the banner of humanitarianism. For example, during the Soviet Civil War, the Red Cross Alliance, under the influence of the ideology of the great powers, actually excluded the Soviet Red Cross Society and directly organized a rescue mission to the Soviet Union to provide relief supplies for refugees. This act was denounced by the ICRC as a breach of neutrality, and the ICRC insisted on cooperating with the Soviet Red Cross, which was accused by the Red Cross Union of "secret communication" with the Soviet Union. It is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong for a while. It was not until 1928, when the two sides adopted a common statute that defined their respective positions and roles in the Red Cross Movement, that the conflict between the two organizations was quelled.
During the Paris Peace Conference, representatives of the participating countries met to organize the "Red Cross Union", with the fourth from right being the advocate Henry Davidson
The Soviet Red Cross during the Soviet Civil War
The ideas of the Red Cross Movement were introduced to China in the late Qing Dynasty. The fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War exposed the shortcomings of the Qing Dynasty's system, and when the reporter who reported it at that time saw the Japanese Red Cross medical personnel active on the battlefield, he wrote an article sighing: "Because there is no Red Cross in China, most of the wounded soldiers are treated by the Japanese Red Cross David, and they are handed over after they are healed." Stimulated by the Red Cross Society of the Japanese army to rescue the Qing army, the people began to have the voice of "imitating Taixi and establishing the Red Cross Society". Sun Gan, a businessman at that time, elaborated on several major benefits of the Red Cross:
"There are sicknesses and wounds, strong morale, drums forward, efforts to make merits easy, one benefit; good governance in all nations, is effective, allied with the countries, people do not dare to be light, two benefits also; the state has a great epidemic, a great evil, the congregation heals, the preservation will be more, and the three benefits will also be gained; our country's medical requests are not refined, if this will be successful, the research will be easy, and the four benefits will also be."
During the Russo-Japanese War, medical personnel of the Shanghai Red Cross Society of All Nations carried out rescue and relief outside the war zone
It can be seen that the Chinese people at that time already had a certain degree of understanding of the Red Cross movement. However, it was not until the Russo-Japanese War 10 years later that the establishment of the Red Cross Society of China became a reality. In 1904, the two major empires of Japan and Russia fought against each other in the black land of the northeast, and the war brought heavy casualties to the Japanese and Russian armies, but also brought deep disasters to the people of the northeast at that time. At that time, people of insight in the domestic people and philanthropists outside the United Nations jointly established the "Shanghai Red Cross Society of All Nations" with the aim of "saving the victims and their husbands and wounded soldiers", which was the indiscriminate pursuit of the Chinese Red Cross Movement. Just as the newly established Red Cross Society of Nations was preparing to enter the war zone for treatment, Japan and Russia refused entry on the grounds that "the Qing Dynasty was a neutral country and not a contracting party to the Geneva Treaty", and only allowed some limited assistance outside the war zone, which became almost indistinguishable from the relief houses of the feudal era. This embarrassing scene made people at the time sigh: "The Chinese people who are hungry and cold can only be rescued, and cannot enter the hospital." Therefore, the Red Cross Society has the name of doing good in the north, but there is no truth in doing good. ”
Lu Haihuan and Sheng Xuanhuai, who contributed to the establishment of the "Great Qing Red Cross Society"
It was not until 1907, when Lü Haihuan, then Shangshu of the War Department, proposed the establishment of an official Red Cross Society, and in that year, the Red Cross Society was organized by the red-top businessman Sheng Xuanhuai and served as its president, and the Red Cross movement was officially recognized in China. However, the color of the government has also caused the newly established Red Cross to suffer a lot of doubts. It was not until the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 that the Red Cross Society of China really played its due role. At that time, the war was being glued in the Lianghuai area, and soldiers and civilians were killed and injured, and they were in urgent need of treatment. However, at this time, Sheng Xuanhuai, the former president of the "Great Qing Red Cross Society", was dismissed from his post, and the dragons were leaderless, and the color of the official office made the status of the Great Qing Red Cross Society embarrassing and constrained everywhere. Although the Qing court had long ordered to go to Hubei to take charge of the rescue and treatment work, it did not make the trip for various reasons, but the Shanghai Red Cross Society, which was far away from the official, was extremely active in the war zone, from the treatment of injuries and diseases, to the resettlement of refugees, to the prevention and prevention of diseases, and did a good job, which made a good story of the Chinese Red Cross Movement.
During the Xinhai Revolution, foreign doctors from the Shanghai Red Cross Society treated the wounded and sick
During the Xinhai Revolution, a medical team sent by the Shanghai Red Cross Society to Wuchang took a group photo
After the founding of the Republic of China, the official Red Cross Society gradually declined, and the Red Cross movement gradually turned into the people. In 1912, the first general meeting of the Red Cross Society of China was held in Shanghai, marking the final unification of the government office and the private Red Cross Society in the late Qing Dynasty. In the turbulent years that followed, weak authorities were unable to dominate the affairs of the Red Cross, and China's Red Cross was run entirely by civilian forces. Since then, the land of China has experienced warlord melee and anti-Japanese war, as well as many natural disasters, and the figure of the Red Cross has become more and more active. By treating the injured and relieving the victims, the suffering of the people caused by war and disasters has been alleviated to a certain extent, but in the face of the huge land and population, the Red Cross, which relies on the strength of private capital to survive, still seems weak and weak.
During the Nanjing period, medical staff of the Red Cross Society of China carried out first-aid drills outside Nanjing
In 1950, the medical team of the Red Cross Society of China carried out health and epidemic prevention work in the frontline of Northern Anhui and Huaihuai
After the founding of New China, the original Red Cross was taken over, and the original institutional settings were retained in full, and even the staffing was not changed. In the years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, from battlefield treatment, to earthquake relief, to epidemic prevention, the Red Cross played an important role in major public events in the country. However, with the passage of time, the glorious image of the Red Cross in the past has gradually blurred, and now it has been questioned a lot, which is lamentable and incomprehensible, and it is more and more expected that it can perform its glorious function in major events.