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was born in St. Petersburg to Edvard Brändström (1850-1921), a Swedish military attaché to Russia, and his wife Anna Wilhelmina Eschelsson (1855-1913). Having grown up in Russia and Sweden, Elsa Brändström finished teacher training in Stockholm before returning to Saint Petersburg in 1908. At the outbreak of the First World War, Brändström was trained as a nurse together with Ethel von Heidenstam (1881-?), with whom she was to collaborate for many years. She looked after wounded Russian soldiers as a member of the Saint George order