Academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Petrov (1876–1964) (on the 145th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

Nikolai Nikolaevich Petrov was born on December 2 (14), 1876 in St. Petersburg in the family of a famous scientist, professor of mechanics Nikolai Pavlovich Petrov. In 1894, Nikolai graduated from the First Classical Gymnasium and entered the Imperial Military Medical Academy. After graduation in 1898, Nikolai Nikolaevich was left at the Academy for 3 years to prepare for a professorship at the Department of Surgical Pathology, and in 1902 completed his dissertation experimental work for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic: «Tuberculosis of the joints due to injury». After defending his thesis, he was sent for 2 years to further improve in Western Europe, and after returning to St. Petersburg in 1905, N. N. Petrov was elected to the position of privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy. From 1905 to 1912, Nikolai Nikolaevich published about 40 scientific papers, including two fundamental monographs: «The General Doctrine of tumors (pathology and clinic)» (1910) – the first monograph in Russian devoted to oncology, and the monograph «Free Bone plastic Surgery», published in 1912. From 1912 to 1913, he was the Professor of the Hospital Surgical Clinic of the University of Warsaw. From 1913 to 1964, he was the Professor of the Surgical Clinic of the State Institute for Advanced Medical Training. In 1920, N. N. Petrov took an active part in the creation of the first university in the Kuban, especially in the organization of the Faculty of Medicine in Krasnodar. In 1917, N. N. Petrov was elected to the position of the Head of the Department of Hospital Surgery of the Women’s Medical Institute (later the Pavlov First Leningrad Medical Institute, and now the Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University (Pavlov University)), which he headed until 1927. Due to the duty trips, he began to head the Department only in 1921 after returning from the front. In 1921, N. N. Petrov and his family returned to Petrograd. Thanks to the perseverance and high authority of Nikolai Nikolaevich as a surgeon, scientist and health organizer, he managed to achieve the creation of a specialized practical and research oncological center in Leningrad, and on March 15, 1927, the Institute of Oncology was founded, which in 1966 was named after N. N. Petrov. Nikolay Nikolaevich made a significant contribution to the development of experimental oncology thanks to the organization in 1938 of the laboratory of experimental cancer in Sukhumi on the basis of a nursery for monkeys, which was at that time a branch of All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM). Nikolay Nikolaevich was the author and co-author of more than 300 scientific papers, more than 50 dissertation studies were carried out under his supervision. His most famous student was F.G. Uglov, who headed the Department of Hospital Surgery of the Pavlov First Leningrad Medical Institute in 1950. For outstanding services to Soviet healthcare and great achievements in medical science, N. N. Petrov was awarded three Orders of Lenin and two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor. Academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Petrov died on March 2, 1964 and was buried at the cemetery in the village of Komarovo near Leningrad.