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Up until the 20th century women in Russia had
no access to higher education. Still, the more enterprising ladies defied
parental bands and went to study abroad, for example in Switzerland, where
university education was already available for women. These were mainly
girls from well-to-do families. Some, however, did manage to receive education
in Russia, among them – Varvara Kashevarova-Rudneva, the first Russian
woman to be certified as a doctor and get a degree in medicine.
This woman lived a wonderful life and sometimes it seems that she was guided
by some supernatural force.
Varvara’s parents died when she was a young girl, so she spent years living
in some other people’s family. She was eager to learn, but the idea didn’t
sit well with her foster parents. At the age of twelve, Varvara decided
to run away to St. Petersburg. On the way there she was robbed, fell ill
with typhoid fever and was taken to hospital. Weeks later she was released
only to find out that she had nowhere to go and nothing to wear. The doctors
bought her clothes, gave her some money and a recommendation letter
to a retired skipper who lived in St. Petersburg. The girl was allowed
to live with the captain’s family where, helping the man’s wife about
the house, she simultaneously was taking lessons from their son who was
a high school student. Varvara didn’t stay long with the skipper’s family
and was later adopted by a childless military topographer who thought that
education was something alien to girls and all they needed was a good marriage.
At the age of fourteen Varvara married a rich merchant whose surname was
Kashevarov, and it was under this name that she eventually went down in
the history of Russian medicine. Varvara told her future husband that she
would marry him only if he allowed her to continue her education… He said
yes, but a month later demanded that she gave up her studies. Egged on
by his parents, he began to mistreat his young wife. Frustrated, Varvara
left home and decided to enroll at St. Petersburg Institute of Obstetrics.
The girl’s hard work and lust for knowledge was not lost on her teachers.
Graduating as a certified midwife, Varvara was allowed to practice her
skills, but her biggest dream, however, was to get a higher medical education.
One day she made a happy acquaintance with people who helped the young
Varvara Kashevarova get admitted as an occasional student at the prestigious
St. Petersburg Medical Academy.
Five years later Varvara graduated from the Medical Academy com laude and
was allowed to defend a doctorate in obstetrics and gynecology. The defence
took place on May 28, 1876 at the Academy’s conference hall that was jam
packed with academicians and students. It all ended with a crowd of admiring
friends taking a triumphant Varvara up in their arms and carrying her all
around the place with everyone applauding like mad for Russia’s first woman-doctor
of medicine.
It seemed that after such a resounding success all roads were open for
Varvara to pursue a research and teaching career, but it was easier said
than done. Back in those days such a career was still closed for women.
The only opportunity left to her was general practice and articles she
occasionally contributed to medical journals. To make things worse, her
new husband and a good friend professor Mikhail Rudnev died leaving Varvara
all alone. Unbent by the tragedy, she worked hard to eventually become
very popular among her female patients.
The fact that a woman of modest beginnings had become a doctor of medicine
didn’t sit well with those who hated to see women get any education at
all. A number of magazines published slanderous stories with an eye to
discrediting the young doctor. Varvara Kashevarova successfully sued some
of those publications only to see the vicious campaign of demonstration
become increasingly shrill. Sickened by all that cold-blooded hysteria,
Varvara Kashevarova left St. Petersburg and settled down in central Russia
where she bought a small estate and devoted herself fully to treating the
local women. During her self-imposed exile, she wrote a number of treatises
and books.
The years of hard work and painful turnarounds finally had their toll
and, shortly after celebrating her 57th birthday, Varvara Kashevarova,
the first Russian woman-doctor of medicine died of heart failure…
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