A woman at the helm of healthcare in Buryatia: Ulyana Alekseevna Babushkina

This article, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republican Clinical Hospital named after N. A. Semashko, explores the biography of Ulyana Alekseevna Babushkina, a prominent leader in Buryatia's healthcare sector. She made history in the 20th century as the first female People's Commissar of Health for the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The goal of the article is to reconstruct Ulyana Alekseevna's life journey, identify the prerequisites for her professional success, analyze her contributions to the organization of healthcare services in Buryatia, and examine the roles of her predecessors and successors, as well as the current state of the healthcare sector. The author posits that Babushkina's appointment to a government position was a result of her natural abilities, leadership qualities, and societal transformations, along with a targeted state policy in the evolving field of medicine. Babushkina's life shares many parallels with those of other socially active women of her time. She introduced significant social innovations in Buryatia, such as kindergartens and nurseries. Her historical legacy has been preserved, and her successor, Vera Rinchenovna Boyanovaa distinguished woman leader of the next generation and an honored physician of the RSFSR and Buryatia-continued her work. The personal histories of generational leaders in healthcare remain a relevant area of interest for historians, local researchers, and the wider public.