Pages of the common history of Kazan and Saint Petersburg microbiology schools

Abstract

The paper is prepared for the 100th anniversary of the Department of Microbiology at the Military Medical Academy and the 100th anniversary of naming Louis Pasteur Saint Petersburg Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. The article is devoted to the history of interaction between Kazan and Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) microbiological schools from early XXth century to the present day. It provides historical milestones in developing Departments of Microbiology at the Kazan State Medical University and the Military Medical Academy as well as research departments both in the Kazan Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Saint Petersburg Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, highlights aspects of the joint establishment and development of the Kazan and Saint Petersburg Microbiology Schools, provides brief biographical data of the microbiology department staff members, whose activities were related to work in such institutions. Biographical information, personal characteristics, major directions in scientific and practical activities of famous microbiologists who worked in various periods of own lives in Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) and Kazan (V.M. Aristovsky, R.R. Geltzer, P.N. Kashkin, I.I. Pryakhin, A.R. Konova, A.G. Grigorieva-Berenstein) are presented. The efforts of Leningrad and Kazan scientists during the Great Patriotic War scientists to jointly develop and improve methods of industrial manufacture of antibiotics, therapeutic and prophylactic sera, bacteriophages are covered in detail. The article was prepared using primary sources: publications, memoirs of employees of the Department of Microbiology at the KSMU, VMA, KNIEM, Saint Petersburg Pasteur Institute, documents from the archives of personnel departments, as well as the National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, archival materials of the Departments of Microbiology of KSMU and VMA. The main scientific achievements of representatives of the Kazan and Saint Petersburg Microbiology Schools, their scientific contribution to development of microbiology field are described. Finally, it is noted about a need to preserve historical memory about the contribution of Russian scientists to development of microbiology field.