Varvara Rudneva

Varvara Aleksandrova Kashevarova-Rudneva (; c. 1841 – 1899) was a Russian medical doctor. Rudneva was the second woman in Russia to become a doctor, after Nadezhda Suslova. She was the first woman in Russia to become a doctor and to have completed her education at a Russian medical school, an event which occurred at a time when women were barred from receiving training at such universities. Her attendance at St. Petersburg Medical Surgical Academy, and later medical practice, were thereby unique in Russia, thus garnering attention from both the medical field and general public, making her a notoriously controversial figure. After the death of her mother, Rudneva briefly moved to Velizh Vitebsk province with her father until his death. Becoming an orphan at a very young age, Rudneva spent the first twelve years of her childhood being passed from one temporary family to another experiencing physical and emotional abuse. Rudneva learned that treatment of venereal diseases was delegated to midwives because religious law did not permit male physicians to see Muslim women thus, feeling that a midwife could not provide the level of care necessary, decided to pursue training as a physician enrolling in the St. Petersburg Surgical Academy in 1863, as the first female student, through the recommendation of Dr. Tarnovsky who recruited the governor of Orenburg and the minister of war to support her admission. In the year 1864 it became illegal for women to take medical courses making her already controversial attendance a greater grievance for many, but Rudneva was allowed to continue studying for her diploma on the condition that she would not receive that academic rank that traditionally accompanied it. Rudneva received her degree of physician in 1868 without the academic title which barred her from working at any hospital in Orenburg.

Career and research She specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, and her scientific articles were published in Russian and German scientific journals. Rudneva was admitted to the "Society of Russian Doctors in St. Petersburg" - the first woman to be admitted to the medical society. She had a medical practice in St. Petersburg, Zheleznovodsk, and Voronezh Province. Rudneva was also an author, writing the story "Pioneer" and "The history of women's medical education" (autobiography, "news", 1886); "Village notes" ("news", 1888 and others).

Publications

"A Chronic inflammation of the Decidua Membrane of the Uterus" (Medical Gazette, 1868) "The Doctrine of Placental Polyps" (Journal for Normal and Pathological Anatomy, 1873) Doctoral Thesis: "Materials for Pathological Anatomy of the Uterine Vagina" (1876) "Hygiene of the Female Body in All Phases of Life" (1892)

Legacy A crater on Venus bears Rudneva's name.