Russians allowed for a more real intimacy. And why not, when people were sharing something as intimate as body fluid? Each bottle of donated Russian blood was labeled with the donor’s name and contact details. As most Russian donors were women, and the blood went to serving soldiers, this had a predictable outcome. In 1943, the Dundee Courier reported that this friendly transfusion “has led to a number of romances between the soldier patient and the blood giver.” In some cases, soldiers wounded for the second time asked for blood from the same girl.
