Vladimir Nikititch Vinogradov (1882-1964): the leader of Soviet therapists

Abstract

The article reconstructs and describes, considering as a background the social political events that took place in the USSR during 1930s-1950s, the scientific biography and input into clinical medicine of professor V. N. Vinogradov (1882-1964), the prominent Soviet therapist, the Hero of Socialist Labor, the USSR State Prize winner (posthumously), the holder of five Orders of Lenin, the Honored Man of Science, the Head of the Chairs of Faculty Therapy of the I. V. Stalin Second Moscow State Medical Institute (1935-1942) and the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical (1943-1964), the full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. The facts of participation of V. N. Vinogradov in the political trials on "The case of the Trotskyst block" (1938, on the side of the prosecution) and on "The case of physicians" (1952-1953, as the accused one) are presented. The issues of existence of the scientific clinical school of V. N. Vinogradov (in a sense, the united school of V. N. Vinogradov-V. G. Popov can be considered) and the phenomenon of leadership of V. N. Vinogradov among the therapeutic elite of the USSR are discussed. This phenomenon consists in dedication to the cause he served and in consecutive implementation of the priority directions of the clinic of internal diseases, developed by the teams of the departments and clinics headed by him in different years.