Following her involvement in a student movement, Gedroits was unable to complete her studies in Russia, and despite being openly lesbian, entered into a marriage of convenience, which allowed her to obtain a passport in another name and leave the country.

[5][6] Establishing a tobacco plantation in the Non-Black Earth Region, he was later elected head of the Council of Magistrates in the Bryansk District,[5] and in 1878 received confirmation of the title of prince for himself and his heirs.

[4] They grew up on the family estate[1][6] which was destroyed by fire in 1877, forcing them to move to a boarding house where their grandmother Natalia Mikhau taught the children reading, French, music, and dancing.

[6] By 1901, Gedroits had performed 248 operations with minimal fatalities, including amputations, herniation repair, and setting broken bones, many caused by the difficult working conditions of the laborers.

[5] Inadequate safety practices by the factory meant that there was a high risk of industrial accidents and the cement dust caused many eye problems.

Poor living conditions with little sanitation, inadequate knowledge of hygiene and nutrition, and no midwifery care contributed to other serious health issues, such as dysentery.

Concerned about the overall health of the workers, Gedroits made a list of recommendations for factory administrators, including cleaning the wells, providing washing tubs, and serving hot meals.

[6][16] In addition to her hospital work, Gedroits published scientific articles in Russian medical journals, which began to be noticed and reprinted in German and French.

[5][6] Invited to participate in the Third Congress of Surgeons in 1902,[7] she presented a report on a surgery performed in 1901 on a male patient suffering from a deformation of the hip joints, which was so severe he could not stand or sit comfortably.

[18] Wanting to leave the provincial life because of the difficult working conditions, the poverty of the workers, and family issues, Gedroits was required to attain Russian credentials to practice medicine elsewhere in Russia.

[19] After successfully passing her exams, Gedroits earned the title of female doctor and on 21 February 1903, received her diploma, allowing her to practice medicine throughout the country.

Initially treatment was provided in tents covered in an insulating layer of clay, but by January 1905,[20] Gedroits was accompanying the horse-drawn ambulances which brought the wounded to the hospital to perform triage, before entering the operating theater.

[3] The operating car was a specially equipped surgical unit, supplied by the Russian nobility to allow care to the wounded to be performed on the front lines.

[2] Though many Russian, as well as French and British, military surgeons had discarded the idea of treating abdominal wounds, Gedroits recognized that early intervention was key.

[25] Her success rate was high, leading to recommendations being made in international medical journals to adopt mobile surgical units which allowed for rapid treatment.

[7] At the Maltsov factory, she continued to see many chronic diseases and began cataloguing the cases of bone tuberculosis, infection, and inguinal hernia for future scientific study.

[31] Her operating experiences included abdominal and chest wounds, amputations, ectopic pregnancy, facial and tendon reconstructions, intestinal resection, hysterectomy, skull trepanation, and setting bones.

She obtained apparatuses like the D'Arsonval and Tesla high-frequency current instruments and x-ray machines, promoted the use of ether rather than chloroform for anesthesia, and selected special garments for patients and their bed linens, all of which were innovative measures for her time.

She also established a pathology and anatomy archive and cooperative agreements[6][33] with Philip Markowitz Blumenthal's chemical and bacteriological institute on Lubyanka Square in Moscow to improve diagnostics.

[6][18] In 1909, at the invitation of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna,[3][5] Gedroits became the senior resident physician at the Tsarskoye Selo Court Hospital, "with a salary of 2,100 rubles and a state apartment".

[36] To ensure that they had reference materials, she wrote a textbook for the royals, Беседы о хирургии для сестер и врачей (Conversations on Surgery for Sisters and Doctors), addressing general surgical problems in laymen's terms.

[7] Dressing almost exclusively in men's trousers and suits, she favored a style similar to Feodor Chaliapin's portrait with a beaver hat and a sable fur.

[11] Her cultural companions included her former professor, Vassili Rozanov; writers such as Nikolai Gumilev, Razumnik Ivanov-Razumnik, and Aleksey Remizov; and the artist Julius von Klever.

She successfully earned her doctorate of surgery, the first woman to achieve the distinction from the University of Moscow, on 11 May 1912, after defending her thesis Отдаленные результаты операций паховых грыж по способу профессора Ру на основании 268 операций (Long-term results of inguinal hernia operations using the protocol of Professor Roux based upon 268 operations).

[39] She published a second volume of poetry, Вег (Veg, representing the beginning letters of her names and possibly inspired by the German Weg meaning "way") in 1913.

Working with Eugene Botkin and Sergey Vilchievsky, she established networks linking infirmaries and supply trains, and planned evacuation routes for the wounded.

[5] Sent to the front, she served the wounded at the Battle of Galicia in June and July 1917 and was then transferred to the 5th Siberian Rifle Corps as a divisional surgeon, a rank comparable to lieutenant colonel in the Imperial Russian Army.

[46][47] She published two poems in the Banner of Labor in 1918, Искушение Святого Антония (The Temptation of St. Anthony) and Галицийские рассказы (Galician Stories), which reflected on her war impressions.

[10] In the archives of Razumnik Ivanov-Razumnik, Gedroits' collection of fictionalized autobiographies, Жизнь (Life), confirmed that four volumes, The Little Caftan, The Pole (as in person of Polish descent), The Separation and Shaman had been published.

The archive of personal effects Gedroits left to Irina Avdiyeva contained an unfinished poem, Великий Андрогин (старец Досифсй или Дарья) (The great Androgyne (the elder Dosifs or Darya) and a prose article Куски лю­дей (Pieces of people), as well as a school notebook and two diaries from 1914.