Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 The Bolsheviks and the Sisters: Developments in Russian and Early Soviet Nursing, 1914-1941

Description

This paper examines developments in early Soviet nursing and assesses the type of system that emerged after years of war and revolution as the Bolsheviks sought to separate nurses from their Tsarist era image of a religious Sister of Mercy and convert her into a proletarian “red sister”. However, in attempting to transform the social and political perception of the nurse, the nurse’s social status was not improved. Inhabiting almost the lowest rung on the medical professional ladder, the nurse struggled to gain respect and professional recognition. With largely inadequate training facilities, mixed attitudes to their competency by both colleagues and the authorities, and frequently poor living and working conditions, nurses seemed to be engaged in a constant battle to verify and legitimise their right to professional recognition. Using a variety of archival and printed sources in Russia, Britain and the United States, I aim to bring into focus the role and status of the Soviet nurse during this formative period of Russian history and draw on various Soviet, gender, and medical discourses to shed light on the position of the nurse within Soviet society.