A pioneer in St Petersburg

At the turn of the 20th century St Petersburg was the capital of the multicultural Russian Empire. Over the centuries a number of different ethnic minority groups settled by the Neva River, playing an important role in the city’s development. Among them were the Poles who, as historical sources show, made a significant contribution to the metropolis’s economic, political, scientific and cultural life.

Antonina Leśniewska was one such figure. She was one of the first female pharmacists in the world and founder of the First Female Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical School for Women in St Petersburg. Her memoir, Nieprzetartym szlakiem: Wspomnienia pionierskiej farmaceutki Antoniny Leśniewskiej (An Unexplored Track: The Memoirs of Antonina Leśniewska, the Pioneer Pharmacist), has just been republished. The publication marks the 15th volume of the Polish-Russian series, Polonica Petropolitana.

Against the ills of society

Leśniewska’s memoir was originally published in Russian in 1901. They cover the period of her studies from 1889 to 1900. Leśniewska graduated in 1900 with a license to start practicing as a pharmacist. On the subsequent pages, sprinkled with humour and in an acute and extremely sincere way, Leśniewska depicts the time she spent in St Petersburg, pointing to the ills of Russian society at the turn of the century as well as the discrimination of women and the problems affecting the pharmacy world. Her lively and critical observations, together with stories of her professional experiences in the Russian provinces, can be an analogy to the works of Nikolai Gogol or Anton Chekhov. With a similar sense of humour, she describes how she was abused during her internship by the pharmacists who tried to take advantage of her as a free governess and hinder her from obtaining her license.

After passing the pharmacist assistant exam and completing her work in zemstvo (an institution of local government in imperial Russia – editor’s note), Leśniewska describes her first attempt to seek employment. She writes about the advertisement she posted, which received a lot of responses. She describes it in the following way: “Some asked me to send a photograph, which probably was to play a key role in making the decision whether they would employ me or not. I also received a marriage proposal so that in this role, I would help run a family business.”

Leśniewska’s strong character, determination and charisma becomes even more visible as she continued to face obstacles – despite years of professional experience in obtaining a higher degree –  yet she did not give up. In her account of these moments, she never exaggerates or brags. Instead, she focuses on the most important matters, and putting her heart into the story she is very convincing. Most significantly, Leśniewska’s memoir is a testimony to the social changes that came with the women’s rights movement and the vision of reform in pharmaceutical studies that was put forward then. Leśniewska amazes the readers with uncompromising passion and a mind-set that can be called modern even by today’s standards. Specifically, she believed that the auxiliary sciences of medicine, such as her own pharmaceutical profession, ought to support the doctors in their efforts and not remain a mechanical craft carried out separately.

From Poland and back

In the introduction to the book, Iwona Arabas, a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences and the curator of The Antonina Leśniewska Museum of Pharmacy, says that Leśniewska’s words were never empty. She was grounded and never departed from the path she took. As a result, by 1914 the Pharmaceutical School for Women had 387 students, while Leśniewska publically presented her views to pharmaceutical congresses. Her pharmacy, in turn, introduced revolutionary and new solutions that generated international attention.

Arabas’s introduction is especially interesting as it informs us about Leśniewska’s later years, which are not covered in the memoir. Thanks to Arabas we also learn about the historical, family, social and professional contexts, which make reading the later pages of the memoir all the more thought-provoking. Especially interesting is knowing what actually drove Leśniewska’s father, a doctor by profession, to move with his family to St Petersburg. There were few opportunities for Poles in their own country (the Kingdom of Poland at that time), which was united by virtue of personal union with the Tsardom of Russia. As there were no similar restrictions in Russia, many Poles opted for migration and settled in St Petersburg. The largest waves of migration followed the November and January Uprisings which the Poles had lost. The estates of many Poles were confiscated and families faced the need to move to cities while women had to take up paid jobs.

In addition to providing this socio-historical context, Arabas offers other details, including some facts that had taken place before, during and after the period covered in the memoir by Leśniewska. Here we can read about the reactions of those in pharmaceutical profession as well as ordinary citizens to a woman becoming a pharmacist. Fear and aversion were these two most common feelings – women at the time also experienced a lack of trust.

From the introduction, we also learn about Leśniewska being a kind-hearted woman who was not indifferent to human suffering. She was involved in charity work, and after the outbreak of the First World War she was on the board of the Committee for Helping War Victims, and provided medication to the Polish Hospital in St Petersburg. Once her pharmacy and school were shut down by the Bolsheviks, she faced arrest. She then decided to move back to Poland, but on her way home she still managed to organise a place to feed refugees in Pskov. Upon her return to Warsaw she helped repatriates resettle back in Poland. She also set up a shelter and sanatorium for children and worked in numerous social organisations, including The Women Citizens’ Work Association.

If it wasn’t for them…

Published since 2001 by the Polish Consulate General in St Petersburg and the Polish Institute in St Petersburg, the series Polonica Petropolitana has been popularising the stories of people, social organisations, statues and addresses that show the Polish presence in St Petersburg. The series is well completed by the online encyclopaedia of Polish traces in St Petersburg (www.polskipetersburg.pl, www.polskipetersburg.ru). It is run jointly by the Likhachev Foundation in St Petersburg and the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, and includes the works of both Polish and Russian historians.

All told, I will finish this review with the view that the portrait of Leśniewska that emerges from the memoir can be used as a remedy for the bruised feminism in our region. Reading the stories of Leśniewska and her reflections we may forget about the controversies that were generated around the women’s movement in recent years and take a fresh look, full of admiration and gratefulness, at the achievements of the pioneers. This reflection raises simple questions such as: where would we be now if it were not for them? What would our societies look like today if it they had not made an effort? The answers to these questions point to the countless professions occupied by women today that were not present over a hundred years ago. Leśniewska was one of those who paved the way.

Translated by Monika Szafrańska

Margarita Vladimirova is an editorial assistant and administrator of Polish St Petersburg online encyclopaedia (www.polskipetersburg.pl) developed by the International Cultural Centre in Kraków. She graduated from international cultural studies at the Jagiellonian University (Kraków, Poland) and Linnaeus University (Växjö, Sweden). She is also a curator of the Art Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków where she pursues her passion for arts and music.

Book review, St. Petersburg