Darya Lavrentyevna Mikhailova (Russian:Дарья Лаврентьевна Михайлова) (November 1836 – 1892) was a Russian nurse during thesiege of Sevastopol in the 1853-1856Crimean War, from which she became better known by the nameDasha of Sevastopol (Russian:Даша Севастопольская). She became one of the founders ofmodern nursing - in parallel to the work ofFlorence Nightingale.
Mikhailova was born in a village nearKlyuchischi in theKazan Governorate. Her father, a sailor in theImperial Russian Navy, was killed in theBattle of Sinope in 1853. She was a 17-year-old orphan when theCrimean War broke out in 1853.
Before the war, she worked as a laundress andneedlewoman for the personnel of the Russian navy in the Karabelnaya district ofSevastopol, nearSevastopol Shipyard. She left her home when the war broke out to help take care of wounded Russian soldiers on the battlefield during theBattle of Alma (September 1854). She set up a nursing station, using vinegar and strips of her clothing to clean and dress the soldiers' wounds. She was the firstImperial Russian Army sister of charity (Russian:сестра милосердия) during the Crimean War.[citation needed]
The Emperor Nicholas I (died 1855) awarded her theOrder of St. Vladimir with a gold medal "for diligence".[citation needed] She was the only non-noble Russian woman to receive this award. She was also given a reward of 1500 silverrubles. She married Private Maksim Khvorostov in 1855.
The couple ran an inn in a village, then moved toNikolaev, but Dasha eventually returned to Sevastopol where she ran a tavern and worked in a hospital. When she retired, she was presented with an icon of Christ bought with donations from her patients. She died inShelanga, near her home village, in 1892.
Asteroid 3321 is named in her memory (3321 Dasha 1975 TZ2 Darya Lavrentyevna Mikhailova).
