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Russian Nurses after the Crimean War

Bureaucracy and Prejudice Against Nurses 

by Yuri Bessonov 

This is an attempt to analyze why nursing in Russia followed a different path of development after the Crimean War, although the number of nurses that had worked in the Crimean hospitals on the Russian side was much bigger than the number of British nurses. -author

 As it is well known, the Crimean War (1854-1856) marked the turning point in the history of nursing. The outstandingly self-sacrificing work of Florence Nightingale and 38 British nurses, who worked day and night in Turkish hospitals, providing help and necessary care to the sick and wounded soldiers, was highly praised and acknowledged in Britain. Their hard labor and efficient management in improving sanitary conditions in the army hospitals brought about a new approach to women’s participation in hospital care. The results of the nurses’ activity during the Crimean War gave powerful impetus for developing professional nursing and establishing educational institutions for nurses throughout Europe. At the same time, the destiny of more than 300 Russian nurses who did the same job on the opposite side of the Crimean battlefields was different. Although their invaluable mission in hospitals, at bandage posts and in the battlefields of the besieged Sebastopol gained public recognition, development of nursing in Russia after the Crimean War followed an entirely different path.

The total number of Russian nurses who worked in the hospitals and at bandage posts in Sebastopol, Kherson, Simferopol and many other places is still disputable. The list of the main group of nurses – the nurses of St. Petersburg’s Krestovozdvizhenskaya Commune - includes 236 names. The list of the smaller group – the Compassionate Widows of Moscow and St. Petersburg’s Widow Houses – contains 91 names. Yet, there were some other women - officers’ wives and local residents, who voluntarily joined the above-mentioned communes or just came to work in hospitals as nurses, servants, or sitters, striving to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded. According to the research made by the Russian historian Valeri Durov1, Russian government stamped out 7 gold medals and 1450 silver medals to award women who had worked in the hospitals during the Crimean War. The places where the nurses provided care to the sick and wounded Russian officers and soldiers were listed on one side of the medal – Sebastopol, Perekop, Belbek, Bakhchisarai, Kherson, Nikolaev, Simferopol. This fact may be regarded as indirect evidence that the total number of women who worked in different places in Crimea during the war exceeded one thousand. However, even taking into consideration the nurses sent from St. Petersburg and Moscow, whose names are listed in the documents found in Russian State Historical Archive2 and St. Petersburg’s City Archive3, one can come to conclusion that by the end of the Crimean war, Russia had had at least 327 experienced and skilled nurses, which is approximately ten times more than the number of nurses worked for the British hospitals in Turkey. It would be natural to expect that these skilled and experienced women might have launched fast development of nursing in Russia. However, it did not happen. The majority of the nurses that took part in the campaign either retired right after the war or returned to the communes of nurses in their native cities, while only a handful of them were employed as nurses in two military hospitals in Kiev and St. Petersburg in 1856.

Doctors who had worked in the Crimean hospitals highly praised nurses’ activity and paid tributes to their selflessness, indefatigable labor, and sympathetic attitude to the sick and wounded warriors. Here is a short extract from the report of the two Russian doctors who inspected a number of hospitals in the Crimea during the war.

Compassionate nurses of the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Commune of Nurses must be regarded as medical ranks. Ten of them worked in the Military Temporary Hospital Number 11 and five other nurses worked in the Military Temporary Hospital Number 3. Motivated by the highest spirit of selflessness, compassion and humanity they proved to be the most precious assets to the hospitals. To take care of the wounded, to inspire the sufferers with the hope of recovery, to say prayers, to suffer and rejoice with them – all this was only possible for the women with the highest sense of responsibility. The nurses of the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Commune really were such women. Any doctor who had such a helper was sure that all the prescriptions would be performed perfectly. The nurses not only looked after the tidiness and clean linen, but they also distributed medicines, put on cupping glasses [Bier’s cups], applied Spanish flies, put on bandages, etc. In short, the compassionate nurses were the best helpers for the doctors and they were truly the best friends and patronesses for the patients.4

On the other hand, the same report reveals a rather different and controversial approach towards nurses. Medical officials did not like at all when nurses tried to improve management and started interfering into the administration of hospital care.

Nurses demonstrated all these qualities only in the beginning of their activity. However, since they had started interfering in all the parts of hospital administration, considering themselves utterly independent, they dodged performing their direct responsibilities.5

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