Burdenko Nikolai Nilovich (1876-1946)

Penza province – November 11, 1946, Moscow) - Russian and Soviet surgeon, the

organizer of health, the founder of Soviet neurosurgery, chief surgeon of the Red Army in 1937-1946, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), academician and the first President of Academy of medical Sciences of the USSR (1944-1946), a Hero of Socialist Labor (1943), Colonel General of medical service, member of Russian-Japanese, the fiirst world the Soviet-Finnish and the great Patriotic war, winner of the Stalin prize (1941).

in surgery. As a student, he become interested in the

legacy of the great Pirogov, read the works of a remarkable surgeon, and wrote articles about him. Pirogov -  a scientific thinker, the Creator of military field surgery (wartime surgery) - remained the ideal of Burdenko until the end of his life.

midical worker in the Russian-Japanese war. In the fields of

Manchuria, the student Burdenko was engaged in military field surgery, as an assistant doctor. As part of the "flying ambulance squad", he performed the duties of an orderly, a paramedic, and a doctor in advanced positions. In the battle of Vafangou, while carrying out the wounded under enemy fire, he was himself wounded by a rifle shot in the arm. He was awarded the soldiers cross of St. George for his heroism.

war, Nikolai Burdenko declared his desire to go to the front,

and was appointed assistant head of the medical until of the red cross in the armies of the North-Western front.
In September 1914, he arrived in the active forces as a consultant to the medical unit of the North-Western front, participated in the offensive on East Prussia, in the Warsav-Ivangorod operation. He organized dressing and evacuation points and field medical institutions, provided emergency surgical care to the seriously wounded at advanced dressing points, often coming under fire. Successfully organized the evacuation of more than 25,000 wounded in conditions of military inconsistency and limited sanitary transport. 

Burdenko dealt with the problems of sorting the wounded (so

that the wounded were sent to those medical institutions where they could be provided with qualified assistance), and their speedy transportation to hospitals.
For the first time in field surgery, he applied primary wound treatment and suture for skull injuries. 
From 1915 Burdenko was appointed consultant surgeon to the second army, and from 1916 he was appointed consultant surgeon to hospitals in Riga.

and made them mass-produced. In addition, he offered a number

of original operations that had never been performed before.
In 1934, at the initiative of Burdenko, the world's first neurosurgical Institute was established in Moscow.
 In 1941, the government awarded Burdenko The state prize of the first degree for outstanding work on the surgery of the nervous system.

tested penicillin, sulfidin, and streptocide in front-line hospitals. Soon, at

his insistence, these drugs were used by surgeons in all military hospitals. 
In 1944, according to the plan developed by Burdenko, the Soviet government created the Academy of medical Sciences of the USSR. Nikolai Nilovich was elected the first President of this Academy.

hemorrhage. While near death, he writes a report of gunshot

wounds.  One of his employees read this report to the delegates of the XXV all-Union Congress of surgeons. Ten days later, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko dies.
The urn with the ashes was buried in Moscow. The grave has a monument by the sculptor G. Postnikov.