Mel Giedroyc on Vera Gedroits

Podcast: Great Lives · BBC Radio 4

Opublikowano: 2026-11-02

Vera Gedroits was the daughter of a Lithuanian prince and a German-Russian mum. So begins the tale of one of our more extraordinary Great Lives - doctor, author, physician to the imperial court and the first female military surgeon in Russia. Born in 1870, Vera studied in St Petersburg and Lausanne. According to her biographer, she rejected female clothes, enjoyed bear hunting, and started her career as a fearless battlefield surgeon in 1904. Rebellious by nature, she ejected Rasputin from her hospital ward, survived the Russian revolution of 1917, and became a professor of medicine in Kiev where she lived openly with...