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The Life of a Russian Woman Doctor: A Siberian Memoir, 1869-1954
The Life of a Russian Woman Doctor by Anna Bek (1869–1954) yields rich insights into the lives of a generation of Russian women who lived at a time of revolutionary change, extraordinary challenges, and unprecedented opportunities. Written in a lively and compelling style, Anna Bek's memoir reveals not only the experiences but also the motives and values of women who sought education, independence, and self-sufficiency, the obstacles they encountered, and the influences of other women and men on their lives. This engrossing memoir also engages the special context of Siberian geography and history―the vast distances and isolation, the heterogeneous population of settlers, exiles, and convicts, the closeness and interdependence of families and communities, and the deep appreciation of nature. This book offers a rewarding excursion into Siberian social history and an intimate acquaintance with two exceptional individuals of great charm and courage―Anna Bek and her American editor, Anne D. Rassweiler.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 29, 2024
A brilliant memoir by an intrepid woman who managed to become a doctor in tsarist Russia. Women becoming doctors wasn't unheard of at the time, but Anna Nikolaevna had to travel thousands of miles and jump through a lot of hoops to get there. This is a memoir generally aimed at Anna Nikolaevna's daughter, so there's not a lot of detail for a person who doesn't already know Siberia, and the end isn't as robust as the beginning, presumably because Anna Nikolaevna's daughter was there, as an adult, so there was no need to describe things to her.
The book starts off brilliantly, with Anna Nikolaevna and her many siblings growing up as part of the upper crust of a small tsarist mining town, with exiles and mining officials and engineers around to visit with. There is no secondary school nearby, so Anna Nikolaevna has to live at a boarding school for the daughters of noble families in Irkutsk, and all the drama and deprivation of a late nineteenth century boarding school education is vivid. Anna graduates with honors and returns to Nerchinsk Zavod, where there's nothing to do except hang around and get married, and she's not feeling that. Her mother suddenly dies of sepsis, and she's sent to help her pregnant sister-in-law, who also dies, and Anna feels that if she had been a doctor, she could have saved both of them, which is probably true.
St. Petersburg is a thirty-plus day journey on post roads until Anna Nikolaevna arrives at the partially completed Trans-Siberian railroad. But the women's higher education institute in Petersburg is shut down because of politics, so she has to travel to Paris, and then, because foreign students can't be educated in Paris, Nancy. She meets other aspiring Russian women doctors who all become best friends and club together on a tutor to learn the Greek and Latin they need to pass the French university entrance examinations. Anna Nikolaevna studies in France for a year, before the Russian institutes of higher education are reopened and she can finish her education in Petersburg, which is cake because she's already learned enough of the material in France, so she has time to get into student politics and be exiled back home for a year, where she meets her future husband. Her life after marriage, moving around Siberia, could have used more detail, but it's her own memoir and it's interesting. She eventually has two daughters, one surviving, gets really into Montessori education, and tries to finish her career as a professor of pedology and reflexology, which are two holistic academic disciplines nobody does anymore. The university is unkind to her, and you can tell she's trying not to write a memoir about how her colleagues are jerks, but it's coming out a little anyway. She's being sidelined either because she's a woman, not a party member, because of Stalinism, or because academics is cutthroat, or all of the above.
Good book. Fascinating topic. The editors do a good job of summarizing and explaining each segment of Anna Nikolaevna's life but seemed confused about why she omitted so much, when the answer is that this is just a short memoir and she didn't want to write a War and Peace about herself.
The book starts off brilliantly, with Anna Nikolaevna and her many siblings growing up as part of the upper crust of a small tsarist mining town, with exiles and mining officials and engineers around to visit with. There is no secondary school nearby, so Anna Nikolaevna has to live at a boarding school for the daughters of noble families in Irkutsk, and all the drama and deprivation of a late nineteenth century boarding school education is vivid. Anna graduates with honors and returns to Nerchinsk Zavod, where there's nothing to do except hang around and get married, and she's not feeling that. Her mother suddenly dies of sepsis, and she's sent to help her pregnant sister-in-law, who also dies, and Anna feels that if she had been a doctor, she could have saved both of them, which is probably true.
St. Petersburg is a thirty-plus day journey on post roads until Anna Nikolaevna arrives at the partially completed Trans-Siberian railroad. But the women's higher education institute in Petersburg is shut down because of politics, so she has to travel to Paris, and then, because foreign students can't be educated in Paris, Nancy. She meets other aspiring Russian women doctors who all become best friends and club together on a tutor to learn the Greek and Latin they need to pass the French university entrance examinations. Anna Nikolaevna studies in France for a year, before the Russian institutes of higher education are reopened and she can finish her education in Petersburg, which is cake because she's already learned enough of the material in France, so she has time to get into student politics and be exiled back home for a year, where she meets her future husband. Her life after marriage, moving around Siberia, could have used more detail, but it's her own memoir and it's interesting. She eventually has two daughters, one surviving, gets really into Montessori education, and tries to finish her career as a professor of pedology and reflexology, which are two holistic academic disciplines nobody does anymore. The university is unkind to her, and you can tell she's trying not to write a memoir about how her colleagues are jerks, but it's coming out a little anyway. She's being sidelined either because she's a woman, not a party member, because of Stalinism, or because academics is cutthroat, or all of the above.
Good book. Fascinating topic. The editors do a good job of summarizing and explaining each segment of Anna Nikolaevna's life but seemed confused about why she omitted so much, when the answer is that this is just a short memoir and she didn't want to write a War and Peace about herself.
September 22, 2021
Interesting insight into life in Siberia in the early 19o0s and in particular the struggles and successes of a woman doctor and scientist during that time. Lacks details of her personal life and descriptions of food, culture, and nature.
July 13, 2022
This was really interesting, but a little dense. I did really appreciate gaining a better understanding of Russian history. I also liked learning from her life. She pretty much always did what she thought was best and ended up doing a lot of good that way despite opposition.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews