Vera Gedroitz

Who was Vera Gedroitz?

Princess Vera Ignatievna Gedroitz was a Russian doctor of medicine, a professor, the first female surgeon in Russia, one of the first female professors of surgery in the world, and a writer of poetry and prose.

Gedroitz belonged to a Lithuanian princely clan which shared its origins with the more famous Radziwiłł family. She was born in Slobodishe into the Russian-speaking milieu and was trained to be a surgeon at the University of Lausanne, in the clinic of professor César Roux. The illness of her parents and the death of her sister compelled Gedroitz to return to Russia in 1900.

Her work in laparotomies during the Russo-Japanese War was among the first to achieve a high success rate. This led the Russian army to adopt the procedure, and caused the notions of the correct treatment of penetrating abdominal wounds to change.

In 1909 Gedroitz was transferred to the court hospital in Tsarskoye Selo, where she worked as a surgeon to the imperial family. At that time she joined the Poets' Guild, publishing her poems under the pen name Sergei Gedroitz.

After the February Revolution she did not flee the Tsarskoye Selo as many her relatives did.