[Women serving the sick and the wounded in nineteenth century Russia]

The genesis of women's service to the sick and the wounded dates from the 1820s. At the instigation of the tsarist court, assistance to the sick and wounded was provided by the so-called "widows of charity" recruited at the empress's command from among the inmates of an institution for poor officers' widows, then the Sisters of Charity. As early as the middle of the century, the Sisters' charity work had taken on a twofold character: during peacetime they cared for the poorest inhabitants, mainly of large and small towns; during wartime they cared for the sick and wounded in areas of armed conflict. From the time of the Crimean War, the Sisters of Charity constituted a permanent medical presence in all the wars of the Russian Empire. They were involved in the transportation of the sick and wounded, field hospitals as well as land and ship hospitals. Their activities later became institutionalised. In peacetime they served the poorest of the population, working in municipal hospitals, often founded near their convents since their organisation was modelled on Christian monastic structures. Three categories of Sisters of Charity were established: Orthodox, Catholic, though very small in number, and secular - among them the Russian Red Cross, from 1867, and their service to the sick and wounded has taken on the name of a "female profession".