Darya Lavrentyevna Mikhailova ( ru , Дарья Лаврентьевна Михайлова) (November 1836 – 1892) was a Russian nurse during the siege of Sevastopol in the 1853-1856

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, from which she became better known by the name Dasha of Sevastopol ( ru , Даша Севастопольская). She became one of the founders of modern nursing - in parallel to the work of

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, i ...

. Mikhailova was born in a village near Klyuchischi in the

Kazan Governorate The Kazan Governorate (russian: Каза́нская губе́рния; tt-Cyrl, Казан губернасы; cv, Хусан кӗперниӗ; mhr, Озаҥ губерний), or the Government of Kazan, was a governorate (a '' guberniya'') ...

. Her father, a sailor in the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

, was killed in the Battle of Sinope in 1853. She was a 17-year-old orphan when the

broke out in 1853. Before the war, she worked as a laundress and

needlewoman Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts. Anything that uses a Sewing needle, needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet, worked with a crochet hook, hook ...

for the personnel of the Russian navy in the Karabelnaya district of

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

, near

Sevastopol Shipyard Sevastopol Shipyard ( russian: Севастопольский морской завод, uk, Севастопольський морський завод / Севморверф, Sevmorverf, Sevastopol Sea Wharf) is a shipyard located in Sevastopol ...

. She left her home when the war broke out to help take care of wounded Russian soldiers on the battlefield during the

Battle of Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septem ...

(September 1854). She set up a nursing station, using vinegar and strips of her clothing to clean and dress the soldiers' wounds. She was the first Imperial Russian Army sister of charity ( ru , сестра милосердия) during the Crimean War. The Emperor Nicholas I (died 1855) awarded her the

Order of St. Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir (russian: орден Святого Владимира) was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptize ...

with a gold medal "For diligence". She was the only lower-class Russian woman to receive this award. She was also given a reward of 1500 silver

ruble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...

s. She married Private Maksim Khvorostov in 1855. The couple ran an inn in a village, then moved to Nikolaev, but Dasha eventually returned to Sevastopol where she ran a tavern and worked in a hospital. When she retired, she was presented with an icon of Christ bought with donations from her patients. She died in Shelanga, near her home village, in 1892. Asteroid 3321 is named in her memory (3321 Dasha 1975 TZ2 Darya Lavrentyevna Mikhailova).

References

* Based on the article at Russian Wikipedia on 13 December 2011 * http://great._russian_-women.net/Dasha_Sevastopolskaya.shtml (without the first two underscores - for some reason it is blacklisted) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasha from Sevastopol 1836 births 1892 deaths People from Verkhneuslonsky District People from Sviyazhsky Uyezd Russian nurses Female wartime nurses Women in European warfare Women in 19th-century warfare 19th-century women from the Russian Empire Russian people of the Crimean War Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir

See also

References