Vera Gedroits

Princess Vera Ignatievna Gedroits (Template:Langx, ; 19 April [O.S. 7 April] 1870 – March 1932), also known by her pen name Sergei Gedroits, was a Russian doctor of medicine and author. She was the first woman military surgeon in Russia, the first woman professor of surgery, and the first woman to serve as a physician to the Russian imperial court.

Following her involvement in a student movement, Gedroits was unable to complete her studies in Russia, and despite being openly lesbian, entered into a marriage of convenience, which allowed her to obtain a passport in another name and leave the country. In Switzerland, she enrolled in the medical courses of César Roux and graduated in 1898, working as Roux’s assistant, but returned to Russia because of illnesses in her family.

As a young physician, Gedroits was concerned at the low standards of hygiene, nutrition and sanitation, and made recommendations to improve conditions. In the Russo-Japanese War, she performed abdominal surgeries against established policy, leading to a change in the way battlefield medicine was performed. Much decorated for her war service, she served as physician to the royal court until the outbreak of World War I, training the Tsarina Alexandra and her daughters as nurses.

At the beginning of the Revolution, Gedroits returned to the battle front. Wounded, she was evacuated to Kiev, where she resumed her work as a physician and academic. In 1921, she was hired to teach pediatric surgery at the Kiev Medical Institute and within two years was appointed a professor of medicine. Soviet purges at that time removed her from office in 1930 and denied her a pension. Gedroits turned her attention to writing autobiographical novels until her death from uterine cancer in 1932.

Early life

Vera Ignatievna Gedroits was born on 7 April 1870 O.S. in Template:Ill, (now in the Bryansk Oblast), in the Oryol Governorate of the Russian Empire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her parents were Daria Konstantinovna Mikhau (Template:Langx) and Prince Ignatiy Ignatievich Gedroits (Template:Langx). Her mother's family were Russified Germans and her maternal grandfather served as a captain in the military.Template:Sfn Her father's family belonged to a Lithuanian princely clan which shared its origins with the more famous Radziwiłł family.Template:Sfn After having taken part in the Polish uprising of 1863, Ignatiy Gedroits fled to Russia when Lithuanian liberties were suspended by the autocracy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Establishing a tobacco plantation in the Non-Black Earth Region, he was later elected head of the Council of Magistrates in the Bryansk District,Template:Sfn and in 1878 received confirmation of the title of prince for himself and his heirs.Template:Sfn

Gedroits was the middle child among five living siblings, Maria (1861), Ignatius (1864), Nadezhda (1876), and Alexandra (1878).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Another brother, Sergei, of whom she was particularly fond, died young and would later inspire her literary pseudonym.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Following Sergei's death, she developed an interest in medicine, vowing to become a doctor so that she could help to prevent suffering.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The children, like their mother, were raised as Orthodox, but their father remained Catholic.Template:Sfn They grew up on the family estateTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was destroyed by fire in 1877, forcing them to move to a boarding house where their grandmother Natalia Mikhau taught the children reading, French, music, and dancing. The lively Vera Gedroits became the children's ringleader, often dressing in boys' clothes for convenience.Template:Sfn

Gedroits attended at the Bryansk women's gymnasium under Vasily Rozanov for a period but was expelled for mischief aimed at her teachers. Her father arranged with his industrialist friend Sergei Maltsov for her to be introduced to medicine as a factory assistant. Under Maltsov's influence, she was finally readmitted to the gymnasium, matriculating with honors in 1885.Template:Sfn She continued her education in St. Petersburg, attending the medical courses of the anatomy professor Peter Lesgaft.Template:Sfn While there, Gedroits became involved in the revolutionary youth movement, participating in the populist circle of Victor Alexandrovich Veynshtok.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Along with other members of the group, she was arrested in 1892. The police returned her to Slobodishche.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Years in Switzerland

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The Swiss University of Lausanne (c. 1899, Swiss National Library, EAD-7270) where Gedroits studied for her diploma as Doctor of Medicine and Surgery

Keen to continue her studies, but unable to do so in Russia, Gedroits arranged a marriage of convenience with a friend from St. Petersburg, Nikolai Belozerov.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Gedroits was openly lesbian, she and Belozerov actively corresponded, met frequently and traveled together. According to biographer Tatiana Khokhlova, the couple had real affection for each other.Template:Sfn They took measures to hide their union, which occurred on 5 September 1894, by living separately. Belozerov's military career took him to Irkutsk in Siberia, while Gedroits used her new name to obtain a passport and slip into Switzerland.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She entered the University of Lausanne, where she trained to be a surgeon in the clinic of professor César Roux, graduating in 1898.Template:Sfn Earning almost perfect marks, she received her diploma as a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Upon receipt of her diploma, Gedroits first worked as an intern in a therapy clinic, but was soon posted as a junior assistant to Roux. Carrying out scientific studies, she became Roux's senior assistant and he subsequently offered her the post of Privatdozent.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Immersing herself in her work, Gedroits wrote that she was "drowning in surgery" in an attempt to comprehend all the subtleties of the procedures and how best to help her patients.Template:Sfn She began an ardent lesbian affair,Template:Sfn but was forced to return to Russia when she received a pleading letter from her father. He advised that her sister Alexandra had died from tuberculosis and her mother was suffering from nervous exhaustion.Template:Sfn He urged her to return and assist him, promising to help her secure work in a new 10-bed factory hospital which was being built.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Believing she had a responsibility to her family,Template:Sfn she reluctantly returned to Slobodishche in 1900.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Return to Russia

On her return, Gedroits was immediately hired at the Maltsov Cement Factory in the Zhizdrinsky District of the Kaluga Oblast as the plant's physician. Though primarily responsible for the medical needs of the workers and their families, she tended to local villagers as well,Template:Sfn as she was the only doctor in the district.Template:Sfn By 1901, Gedroits had performed 248 operations with minimal fatalities, including amputations, herniation repair, and setting broken bones, many caused by the difficult working conditions of the laborers.Template:Sfn Inadequate safety practices by the factory meant that there was a high risk of industrial accidents and the cement dust caused many eye problems. Poor living conditions with little sanitation, inadequate knowledge of hygiene and nutrition, and no midwifery care contributed to other serious health issues, such as dysentery. Concerned about the overall health of the workers, Gedroits made a list of recommendations for factory administrators, including cleaning the wells, providing washing tubs, and serving hot meals.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In addition to her hospital work, Gedroits published scientific articles in Russian medical journals, which began to be noticed and reprinted in German and French.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Invited to participate in the Third Congress of Surgeons in 1902,Template:Sfn she presented a report on a surgery performed in 1901 on a male patient suffering from a deformation of the hip joints, which was so severe he could not stand or sit comfortably. Following a complex surgery, within four months the patient was able to walk without crutches.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her detailed report showed a thorough knowledge of surgical work of predecessors in the field, including John Rhea Barton, F. J. Gant, Bernhard von Langenbeck, Jules Germain François Maisonneuve, and Richard von Volkmann.Template:Sfn

Wanting to leave the provincial life because of the difficult working conditions, the poverty of the workers, and family issues, Gedroits was required to attain Russian credentials to practice medicine elsewhere in Russia. In spite of her Swiss degree, she had to obtain certifications to meet the requirements of the University of Moscow. In 1902, she asked permission to test for the Latin requirement at the Oryol Gubernatorial Gymnasium. Having been under the watch of the police since her arrest in 1892, she was required to get a statement of character before the examination was allowed.Template:Sfn After successfully passing her exams, Gedroits earned the title of female doctor and on 21 February 1903, received her diploma, allowing her to practice medicine throughout the country.Template:Sfn The continuing ill-health of her parents, her long working hours, and the collapse of her relationship with her lover from Switzerland, led to a suicide attempt in 1903.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Russo-Japanese War

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Gedroits' report on her medical work during the Russo-Japanese War, which she presented to the Society of Military Doctors in July 1905

In early 1904, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Gedroits volunteered to go to the front with the Red Cross.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the first month of the war, she treated 1,255 patients, including over 100 patients with head wounds and 61 patients with abdominal wounds. Initially treatment was provided in tents covered in an insulating layer of clay, but by January 1905,Template:Sfn Gedroits was accompanying the horse-drawn ambulances which brought the wounded to the hospital to perform triage, before entering the operating theater.Template:Sfn She was appointed chief surgeon of the hospital train,Template:Sfn which consisted of an operating car and five patient cars.Template:Sfn The operating car was a specially equipped surgical unit, supplied by the Russian nobility to allow care to the wounded to be performed on the front lines. This put the medical personnel at grave risk, as unless there were wounded personnel in ambulances, tents or surgical trains, their neutrality was not recognized.Template:Sfn

Though many Russian, as well as French and British, military surgeons had discarded the idea of treating abdominal wounds, Gedroits recognized that early intervention was key.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Standard treatment at the time required the patient to be placed in a semi-reclining position so that the wound could drain. In previous eras, without anesthesia, penetrating abdominal wounds were considered inoperable.Template:Sfn Gedroits was the first to perform laparotomies on military patients,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn having extensive experience in abdominal surgery for hernias, the most frequent surgery she performed in the cement factory hospital.Template:Sfn Her procedure required that the patient undergo the operation within three hours of receiving a wound.Template:Sfn Her success rate was high, leading to recommendations being made in international medical journals to adopt mobile surgical units which allowed for rapid treatment.Template:Sfn The Russian Army and the Russian Society of Military Doctors officially adopted Gedroits' operative procedures.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Designed to treat 2,000 people, the nobles' hospital quickly exceeded its capacity and because it was on the front lines, mortality was high. With the Russian defeat, Gedroits helped organize the hospital evacuation from near the Fushun Mining region, which was performed under gunfire because the Russian troops refused to retreat until the patients were moved.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Gedroits was credited with saving the life of Vasily Gurko,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn as well as that of a Japanese prince.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1905, she returned to the Maltsov Factory Hospital as chief surgeonTemplate:Sfn and was appointed chief doctor of the Lyudinovskaya Hospital.Template:Sfn Compiling a 57-page report on her work during the war, which included illustrations, she presented her results on 27 July 1905 to the Society of Military Doctors.Template:Sfn She was awarded the gold medal of diligence from the Order of Saint Anna by the army commander for her actions during the Battle of Mukden, the Ribbon of Saint George with the silver medal "For Bravery" (ru) by General N. Plinevich for her treatment of the wounded,Template:Sfn the three highest distinctions from the Russian Red Cross, and recognition by the Imperial family in the form of the silver neck medal of the Order of Saint Vladimir.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Provincial work

Gedroits decided in 1905 to disentangle herself from her marriage and was divorced on 22 December 1905.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her maiden name and her noble title were restored on 1 February 1907.Template:Sfn At the Maltsov factory, she continued to see many chronic diseases and began cataloguing the cases of bone tuberculosis, infection, and inguinal hernia for future scientific study. She recommended that special institutions designed to treat chronic patients be established.Template:Sfn Gedroits published 17 scientific papers between 1902 and 1909. In addition to hernias and industrial injuries, her publications also covered surgeries for obstetrics, the thyroid gland, and various tumors which she had seen in her patients.Template:Sfn Her operating experiences included abdominal and chest wounds, amputations, ectopic pregnancy, facial and tendon reconstructions, intestinal resection, hysterectomy, skull trepanation, and setting bones.Template:Sfn

The Lyudinovskaya Hospital was originally associated with the Lyudinovskaya Mining Plant, but was turned into a surgical hospital serving the nearby communities of the district. Gedroits utilized her Swiss education and battlefield experiences as a basis for bringing it up to modern European standards. She expanded the facility and equipped it with new surgical implements, including white gowns, threads, and gloves. She obtained apparatuses like the D'Arsonval and Tesla high-frequency current instruments and x-ray machines, promoted the use of ether rather than chloroform for anesthesia, and selected special garments for patients and their bed linens, all of which were innovative measures for her time. She also established a pathology and anatomy archive and cooperative agreementsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with Philip Markowitz Blumenthal's chemical and bacteriological institute on Lubyanka Square in Moscow to improve diagnostics.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In addition to her work in the hospital, Gedroits made numerous housecalls, and over a five-year period, reported she had visited 125,363 patients.Template:Sfn She received a municipal commendation from the City Council for her merits as a surgeon in 1908.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Tsarskoye Selo

File:Boris Kustodiev - Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin - Google Art Project.jpg

Boris Kustodiev's Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin in beaver hat and sable coat, dressed in a style emulated by Gedroits

In 1909, at the invitation of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Gedroits became the senior resident physician at the Tsarskoye Selo Court Hospital, "with a salary of 2,100 rubles and a state apartment".Template:Sfn As the royal household's first female physicianTemplate:Sfn and the second-highest-ranking member of the hospital's staff, she headed the Departments of Surgery and Gynecology/Obstetrics, while acting as the attending physician for the royal children.Template:Sfn As the only medical facility in Tsarskoye Selo, the Court Hospital functioned as a city hospital, with a surgery, a therapeutic department, and an isolation wing for infectious patients.Template:Sfn To ensure that they had reference materials, she wrote a textbook for the royals, Беседы о хирургии для сестер и врачей (Conversations on Surgery for Sisters and Doctors), addressing general surgical problems in laymen's terms.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Taking advantage of her position, Gedroits made no attempt to conceal her lesbian inclinationsTemplate:Sfn and spoke of herself using masculine verb forms. One biographer, Svetlana Maire, indicated that these manifestations could well have been an attempt to assert her authority as a professional in a male-dominated field.Template:Sfn Dressing almost exclusively in men's trousers and suits, she favored a style similar to Feodor Chaliapin's portrait with a beaver hat and a sable fur. She also spoke in a deep-pitched voice and frequently smoked.Template:Sfn Besides her appearance, she began seeking the acquaintance and company of literary figures. In her youth, Gedroits had published a collection of poems in 1887, but now she joined the Poets' Guild, publishing her poems under the pen name Sergei Gedroits in such journals as Bright Light, Covenants, and The Theosophical Gazette, among others.Template:Sfn Her cultural companions included her former professor, Vassili Rozanov; writers such as Nikolai Gumilev, Razumnik Ivanov-Razumnik, and Aleksey Remizov; and the artist Julius von Klever.Template:Sfn In 1910, Gedroits privately published the anthology Стихи и сказки (Poems and Fairytales) in St Petersburg,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and though the critical response was not enthusiastic,Template:Sfn that same year she published Страницы из жизни заводского врача (Pages from the Life of a Factory Doctor).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Interested in providing support for young writers,Template:Sfn in 1911, she paid half the costs to establish the journal Гиперборей (Hyperborea).Template:Sfn In parallel, Gedroits was compiling a thesis based on research from her factory days. She successfully earned her doctorate of surgery, the first woman to achieve the distinction from the University of Moscow, on 11 May 1912, after defending her thesis Отдаленные результаты операций паховых грыж по способу профессора Ру на основании 268 операций (Long-term results of inguinal hernia operations using the protocol of Professor Roux based upon 268 operations).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The thesis was dedicated to Roux and Template:Ill, a Russian surgeon who had been supportive to her work.Template:Sfn She published a second volume of poetry, Вег (Veg, representing the beginning letters of her names and possibly inspired by the German Weg meaning "way") in 1913. Once again the critical response, though improved, noted the lassitude and lack of passion in the verse.Template:Sfn Her Chinese Tales was published in Precepts magazine in 1913 and a collection of folk poems titled the Red Angel was published in 1914.Template:Sfn

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Vera Gedroits (right) with Russian Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna Romanov

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Gedroits worked on equipping the hospital and preparing the staff for war.Template:Sfn For example, nurses first learned how to dress wounds and prepare the various bandages, dressings, and equipment that would be needed for treatment, before being trained for surgical support.Template:Sfn She taught nursing techniques to the Tsarina and her daughters, Olga and Tatiana, and they became assistants to her in her surgical operations.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn One of the other nurses she trained at Tsarskoye Selo, Countess Maria Dmitrievna Nirod, would later become Gedroits' life-long partner.Template:Sfn Raising funds from the nobles, the hospital was equipped to enable rapid treatment, so that soldiers would not have to be sent to Petrograd, as St. Petersburg was now known. Working with Eugene Botkin and Sergey Vilchievsky, she established networks linking infirmaries and supply trains, and planned evacuation routes for the wounded.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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Gedroits (center) operates on a patient, while Tsarina Alexandra and daughters Tatiana and Olga (right) provide assistance

By the end of 1914, Gedroits was mainly involved in serving as the palace physician.Template:Sfn Though treating war wounded and giving nursing courses,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn she was called into service to treat a patient who had a riding accident on the palace grounds, a noblewoman injured in a train crash,Template:Sfn as well as the staff of the Tsarina.Template:Sfn Her favor with the Tsarina gave her some measure of protection, as she had little patience with Rasputin.Template:Sfn Despite this favor, however, one of Gedroits' few medical failures shook the Tsarina's confidence when her favorite maid of honor Anna Vyrubova's treatment was unsuccessful,Template:Sfn for although Vyrubova recovered she walked afterward with a limp.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Gedroits did have enough influence left to garner a transfer of Nikolai Gumilev from Template:Ill to the Template:Ill.Template:Sfn Periodically, Gedroits would go to the front to compensate for the absence of other surgeons.Template:Sfn In one episode in 1916, she performed over 30 operations, mostly trepannings, over a three-day period.Template:Sfn

When the February Revolution began in 1917, Gedroits, as an employee of the Tsar, could not openly support the Russian Provisional Government. In order to remain neutral in the conflict, while still honoring her friendship with the Imperial family, she chose to return to work as a military doctor.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Having worked for the Tsar, it would have been very unsafe to remain in Petrograd after Tsar Nicholas abdicated.Template:Sfn Aged 44, she altered the birth information in her passport and was appointed as chief physician for the 6th Siberian Rifle Regiment.Template:Sfn Sent to the front, she served the wounded at the Battle of Galicia in June and July 1917 and was then transferred to the 5th Siberian Rifle Corps as a divisional surgeon, a rank comparable to lieutenant colonel in the Imperial Russian Army. During the demobilization after the October Revolution, Gedroits was injuredTemplate:Sfn in January 1918 and taken to a military hospital in the Pechersk neighborhood of Kiev.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Kiev

While recuperating, Gedroits moved in with Countess Nirod, with whom she lived for the remainder of her days.Template:Sfn Initially they lived in an apartment on Kruglouniversitetskaya Street, according to their neighbor, Irina Avdiyeva, as a married couple.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She published two poems in the Banner of Labor in 1918, Искушение Святого Антония (The Temptation of St. Anthony) and Галицийские рассказы (Galician Stories), which reflected on her war impressions.Template:Sfn As soon as she was able to return to work, Gedroits began working in the hospital of the Template:Ill and by 1919 had established a clinic to perform maxillofacial surgery. In 1920, when the Kiev Medical Institute organized a surgery department, she was invited by Template:Ill to join the faculty.Template:Sfn In 1921, she began working as an external lecturer, teaching a course on pediatric surgery. She was appointed as a professor of medicine in 1923Template:Sfn and entered a period of publishing as an academic surgeon. In 1924, she published a paper on nutrition and in 1928 wrote an article on surgical procedures for treating tuberculosis in the knee.Template:Sfn She published a textbook on pediatric surgery;Template:Sfn wrote extensively for surgical journals with articles on surgery, endocrinology and oncology; and participated in surgical conferences.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1929, following Tcherniakhovsky's arrest, Gedroits became the departmental head of surgery. But the following year, during the Soviet purge, she was removed from her post and denied a pension.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Using funds she had saved, she purchased a house on the outskirts of Kiev, where she and Nirod moved together. Continuing to work as a surgeon from time to time at the Intercession Monastery's hospital, she devoted the next two years to writing,Template:Sfn publishing a series of fictionalized autobiographies. The Publishing House of Writers in Leningrad published three of the works of her series Жизнь (Life)—Кафтанчик (The Little Caftan), Лях (The Pole), and Отрыв (The Separation)—in 1931.Template:Sfn Unlike her epic poems, which were labeled "особенно неприятны" (especially unpleasant),Template:Sfn Gedroits' prose, was called "outstanding". Konstantin Fedin compared her autobiographical works to those of Boris Pasternak.Template:Sfn Two other works from this period, Шамань (Shaman) and Смерч (Tornado), were found in the archives of Razumnik Ivanov-Razumnik, which indicate at least one, Shaman, was published.Template:Sfn It is also thought that the novel Вдали от Родины (Far from the Homeland) is one of her works. Published in Leningrad in 1926, it is about her Swiss teacher César Roux.Template:Sfn

Death and legacy

Diagnosed with cancer in 1931, Gedroits died in March 1932, aged 61, of uterine cancer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She was buried in the Savior-Transfiguration Cemetery, also known as the Template:Ill, of Kiev,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn by the Archbishop Ermogen (born Alexei Stepanovich Golubev), who had been a patient of hers.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn She left her personal papers to her neighbors, the painters Irina Avdiyeva and her husband Leonid Povolotsky. During the purges of 1937–1938, the couple's apartment was raided and Gedroits' papers were discovered. One of them was a letter from her professor, César Roux, advising he had bequeathed to Gedroits the Department of Surgery at the University of Geneva. Based upon the letter, the couple were accused of imperialism and Povolotsky was forcibly disappeared.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Gedroits challenged established medical procedure at the beginning of the 20th century and her success with abdominal wound treatment played a part in changing international military medical policy.Template:Sfn She is remembered as a pioneer in applying laparotomy for the treatment of abdominal wounds on the battlefront.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She was one of Russia's first women to work as a surgeon,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the first woman to become a professor of surgery,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the first woman to work as a military doctor,Template:Sfn and the first woman to serve as a doctor in the imperial palace.Template:Sfn The hospital in Fokino, Bryansk Oblast was named in Gedroits' honor and a memorial plaque was dedicated to her memory in front of the former Tsarskoe Selo palace hospital in Pushkin, Saint Petersburg.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Selected works

Scientific publications

By her own assessment in 1928, Gedroits published 58 scientific papers, which included articles and textbooks dealing with general surgery, as well as facial and dental reconstructions, military fieldwork, and pediatric surgery.Template:Sfn Most of her works were released in Russian,Template:Sfn though some were published in French, German, or Swedish.Template:Sfn

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Literary publications

In the archives of Razumnik Ivanov-Razumnik, Gedroits' collection of fictionalized autobiographies, Жизнь (Life), confirmed that four volumes, The Little Caftan, The Pole (as in person of Polish descent), The Separation and Shaman had been published. The unpublished volume Tornado was also discovered in this archive. The archive of personal effects Gedroits left to Irina Avdiyeva contained an unfinished poem, Великий Андрогин (старец Досифсй или Дарья) (The great Androgyne (the elder Dosifs or Darya) and a prose article Куски лю­дей (Pieces of people), as well as a school notebook and two diaries from 1914.Template:Sfn

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References

Bibliography

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