Issue 1 (62)
| WOMEN OF SMOLENSK PROVINCE MEDICAL AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE TO WORLD WAR I FRONT-LINE SOLDIERS | |||
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| Year | 2019 | Number | 1(62) |
| Pages | 104-112 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94(470)“1914/1918” | BBK | 63.3(2)534 |
| Authors | Pushkareva Natalia L. Mitsyuk Natalia A. |
Topic | RUSSIAN PROVINCE: EVERYDAY LIFE HISTORY |
| Summary | The article analyzes the forms of medical and social assistance provided by women in the frontline areas during World War I. The approach of gender history and the concept of “total warˮ is used. The study is based on materials of administrative, charitable, medical funds of the State Archive of the Smolensk Region and personal funds of the Russian State Military Historical Archive. The wartime created conditions for active involvement of women in the direct solution of medical and social tasks, which changed their social roles, expanded the possibilities for realizing gender identity. The patriotic upsurge of Russia’s women was not due to the feminist movement, but to the established philanthropic tradition. One of the forms of women’s involvement in social life of a front-line region was their leadership in local committees of all-Russian organizations. An important direction of female activism was setting up hospitals. The wartime contributed to the advancement of women in the medical profession. For lack of male doctors, women occupied the positions of surgeons. On the one hand, the sisters of mercy were an expression of female emancipation. But on the other hand, the cultivated image of the sisters of mercy had an essentialist basis, since they tended to be seen from the standpoint of mercy rather than that of professional qualities. Nursing care in pre-revolutionary Russia failed to develop into a professional organization being based on volunteering and Orthodox service. Public organizations and hospitals persisted ethnic and religious segregation in their activities. | ||
| Keywords | sisters of mercy, World War I, gender history, social history of medicine, hospitals | ||
| References |
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