Leonid Iosifovich Smirnov — outstanding soviet scientist-neuromorphologist
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Abstract
The article is dedicated to the life and creative path of an outstanding Soviet scientist-pathologist, organizer and educator, one of the founders and classics of Soviet neuromorphology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Leonid Iosifovich Smirnov (03/08/1889 — 01/08/1955), who was born in the district Soligalich of the Kostroma province in a large family of a priest, archpriest and rector of the Soligalich Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and his mother Smirnova (nee Krutikova) Alexandra Evgenievna. In 1918, his father was repressed and shot as a “perpetrator of a counter-revolutionary uprising”. Leonid received his primary education at a parochial school and a theological college. In 1906, he passed the external matriculation exam at the Kostroma Gymnasium and entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Imperial Saint Petersburg University. After graduating, in 1910 he became a student at the Medical Faculty of the University of Warsaw, and in 1914, due to the events of the First World War, he transferred to the Faculty of Medicine of the Imperial Moscow University and successfully graduated, receiving a doctor’s diploma in 1916. From 1916 to 1938, L.I. Smirnov worked in hospitals and medical institutes in various positions. From 1938 to 1955, at the invitation of N.N. Burdenko and under his patronage, L.I. Smirnov headed the Morphological Department of the Central Neurosurgical Institute. In 1940, the Higher Attestation Commission awarded Leonid Iosifovich a doctorate degree without defending his dissertation. In 1940, L.I. Smirnov was a voluntary participant in the war with Finland and from 1941 to 1944 in the Great Patriotic War with Nazi Germany. The scientist’s scientific interests throughout his creative career were the study of issues of central nervous system pathology. L.I. Smirnov is the author of more than 80 scientific publications, including a number of monographs that laid the foundation for neurophysiology and contributed greatly to the study of the pathomorphology of mental, traumatic, and tumor diseases of the brain and spinal cord. The remarkable modesty and extraordinary work ethic of this unique scientist, who made significant contributions to medicine, will serve as an example for the younger generation of scientists. L.I. Smirnov died on January 8, 1955, at the age of 66, and was buried at the Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow.
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