N.I. Pirogov, a legendary military doctor called the first nurse Dasha Sevastopolskaya the soul and the destiny of Sevastopol.
Dasha Sevastopolskaya (Darja Lavrentjevna Mikhailova) is a legendary figure
of the
Crimean war,
and
the first defense
of Sevastopol.
For 150 years after
the war her name has been mentioned among the heroes of the first defense -
admirals, officers and sailors.
She was called "Sevastopolskaya" by the people, and Dasha was remembered
under this name ever after.
Dasha was the first volunteer nurse in Russia, who attended the injured right after the battle and in the filed on battle. During the war a 17-year old girl, showed the example of courage to the famous commanders. Pirogov, a famous surgeon who arrived to Sevastopol to provide the operative medical care firstly heard of Dasha from the Duke Menshikov, a chief commander of Russian troops.
The deed of a young orphan from the lower class became known to the Russian emperor, Nikolay I. He was firstly told about Dasha by his sons - Michael and Nikolay, who were in Crimea that time. The emperor awarded the nurse with the gold medal on Vladimir's ribbon with the inscription "for devotion" and gave her 500 silver rubles. He also promised to award Dasha with 1000 silver rubles as a support when she gets married. It was very remarkable event, because as a rool such medal had been always awarded to those who already had 3 silver medals, which meant the Russian tsar highly appreciated Dasha's deed. This award was taken as a very exclusive one by Dasha's contemporaries, as she was the only representative of a lower class among Sevastopol heroes who was awarded not a silver but gold medal.
The archival documents say that in 1855 she got married to Private Maksim (Maxim) Khvorostov and got the 1000 rubles previously promised by the tsar. She is known to have lived in Sevastopol for the rest of her life and worked at one of the city hospitals. When she retired, the injured collected money to buy the icon of the Savior and presented it to Dasha. She died in Sevastopol in 1911.
The name of Darja Mikhailova, a legendary Dasha Sevastopolskaya takes up an honorable place in the history of the country among the other names Russia will also be proud of.
We can also see her in the first Russia fiction film "The Defense of Sevastopol" made by A. Khadzhonkov.
