Russian Medical Academy of Continuing Professional Education. Nikolay Burdenko

Burdenko Nikolai Nilovich is an outstanding Russian surgeon, the founder of Russian neurosurgery, Chief Surgeon of the Red Army, Professor of the Faculty Surgical Clinic of the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute, Director of the Central Neurosurgical Institute, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Lieutenant General of the Medical Service.

Nikolai Nilovich was born on May 22 (June 3), 1876 in the village of Kamenka, Nizhnelomovsky district, Penza province. Having successfully graduated from a rural school, he goes to Penza. Here he graduates from theological seminary with honors. Burdenko goes to Tomsk, where he enters the medical faculty of the university. Over the course of three courses, he masters the art of dissection and preparation of anatomical preparations. He was noticed and appreciated. Third-year student Nikolai Burdenko is officially appointed assistant prosector. In 1901, he took part in a revolutionary demonstration, deciding to show his irreconcilability with the autocracy, and as a result he “flunk out” from the university.

In 1905, Burdenko returned from the front and completed his studies at Yuryev (now Tartu) University. After passing the exam in the summer of 1906, he received the title of doctor and a medical diploma with honors and worked there at the university. For the topic of his dissertation, he turned to I.P. Pavlov, who suggested that he study liver function.

From his very first steps in surgery, Burdenko conducted research into the consequences of portal vein ligation. In 1909, he defended his dissertation “Materials on the issue of the consequences of Venae Portae ligation.” After defending his dissertation, he continues to improve his knowledge, combines clinical observations with experimental research, and achieves virtuoso technique during operations. With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he volunteered to join the military sanitary detachment. For over a year, he participated in combat operations in Manchuria as part of the detachment. He was wounded while carrying wounded soldiers out from under enemy fire. Awarded the soldier's St. George Cross. These circumstances allowed Nikolai Burdenko to graduate from the university only in 1906, but he was already a major, mature scientist and practitioner. Since 1907 - surgeon at the Penza Zemstvo Hospital. In 1909 he defended his dissertation and became a doctor of medicine.

Since 1910, Burdenko has been a private associate professor at the Department of Surgery and the Surgical Clinic of Yuryev University, later an extraordinary professor at the Department of Operative Surgery, Desmurgy and Topographic Anatomy, and since 1917 an ordinary professor at the faculty surgical clinic of this university.

Nikolai Nilovich - professor at Voronezh University since 1918 and head of the surgical clinic, and since 1923 head of the department of topographic anatomy and operative surgery of the medical faculty of Moscow University, reorganized later, in 1930, into the 1st Moscow Medical Institute, where he remained until the end of his life headed the faculty surgical clinic. In 1924, Burdenko, having become the director of the faculty surgical clinic, organized a neurosurgical department at it, and from 1929 he headed the neurosurgical clinic at the X-ray Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health, on the basis of which the Central Neurosurgical Institute was established in 1934 (now the N.N. Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery Academy of Medical Sciences of Russia). In 1933, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, and in 1939 - Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Nikolai Burdenko was one of the first to introduce central and peripheral surgery into clinical practice nervous system; studied the cause and methods of treating shock, made a great contribution to the study of processes occurring in the central and peripheral nervous system in connection with surgery and acute injuries; developed bulbotomy - an operation in the upper part of the spinal cord. Burdenko created a school of surgeons with a pronounced experimental direction. The valuable contribution of Burdenko and his school to the theory and practice of neurosurgery was work in the field of oncology of the central and autonomic nervous system, pathology of the cerebrospinal fluid circulation, cerebral circulation, etc.

In 1937, Burdenko was appointed Chief Consultant Surgeon at the Military Medical Directorate of the Red Army. In 1939 N.N. Burdenko was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1939-1940, under the leadership of Burdenko and E.N. Smirnov compiled the manual “Materials on Military Field Surgery”. This work outlined the sanitary-tactical foundations of surgical care, the doctrine of wounds, highlighted issues of specialized care, and outlined the concept of primary wound treatment.

During the Great Patriotic War, Burdenko was the chief surgeon of the Soviet army (1941-1946), colonel general of the medical service (1944); member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee; Deputy of the USSR Supreme Council in 1937-1946, laureate of the USSR State Prize (1941). In 1944-1945, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was engaged in an in-depth study of penicillin therapy for injuries of various parts of the body. On his initiative, teams were created, and at various stages of the evacuation, careful observation was carried out on the effect of penicillin on infection with careful bacteriological control.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1943, for outstanding achievements in the field of Soviet medicine, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal (No. 52). In 1944 he initiated the creation of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. At its first meeting in the same year, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was elected academician and first President of this Academy.

Nikolai Nilovich is responsible for the development of issues of pathogenesis and treatment of shock. According to Burdenko’s concept, created by him together with his students and collaborators, shock is a consequence of overexcitation of the nervous system, accompanied by disturbances in all its components. He contributed a lot of new things to the study of processes that arise in the central and peripheral nervous system in connection with surgical intervention and acute injuries, to the study of trophism from the point of view of neurohumoral processes (experimental and clinical work), to the study of brain phenomena in tumors and injuries of the central nervous system. systems.

Awarded three Orders of Lenin (1935, 1943, 1945), Orders of the Red Banner (1940), Orders of the Patriotic War 1st degree (1944), Red Star (1942), medals “For the Defense of Moscow” (1944), “For Military Merit” (1944), "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." (1945), “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” (1946), “For victory over Japan” (1946). Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1933). The outstanding scientist received international recognition during his lifetime. He was elected an Honorary Member of the International Society of Surgeons in Brussels (1945), the Royal Society of Surgeons of London (1943), and the Paris Academy of Surgery (1945). Honorary Doctor of the University of Algiers (1945). Name N.N. Burdenko are worn by the Research Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow, the Main Military Hospital of the Ministry of Defense, the Faculty Surgical Clinic of the I.M. Sechenov Medical Academy, the Voronezh State Medical Academy, the Penza Regional Clinical Hospital, streets in Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Irkutsk, Khimki, Moscow region. Monuments to the great scientist were erected near the buildings of the Research Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow and the Penza Regional Clinical Hospital. A house-museum of N.N. has been opened in Penza. Burdenko. In the city of Moscow, on a building Russian Academy medical sciences, a memorial plaque was installed. At the Academy of Medical Sciences Russian Federation The prize named after N.N. is awarded. Burdenko for best works in neurosurgery.

On June 3 (NS) 1876, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko, a great military surgeon and founder of Soviet neurosurgery, was born.

Choosing a profession

Burdenko came from peasants, graduated from the Kamensk Zemstvo School, and since 1886 he successively studied in several religious institutions. educational institutions Penza, passed the exams at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, but unexpectedly went to enter the young medical faculty of Tomsk University. Student Nikolai Nilovich became interested in surgery under the impression of the biography of N. I. Pirogov. Burdenko was a talented student who showed great promise, but he was expelled from the university because he took part in anti-monarchist protests in 1901. He managed to recover at Yuryevsky (now Tartu) University at the request of large number professors and only after a year of working with children with tuberculosis. Over the years, he volunteered to go to the front and performed all kinds of medical duties on the front line. By the time he defended his medical diploma in 1906, Burdenko had already earned recognition from the scientific medical community for his scientific and practical activities.

Healthcare organizer

In 1914, a doctor of medicine (since 1909) Burdenko volunteered for the front of the First World War. He carried out tremendous work to reduce the mortality rate and amputations as a result of wounded soldiers, studied and developed Pirogov’s methods. He left the front in the summer of 1917 after a shell shock and became the head of the department of surgery at Yuryev University. Finding himself in evacuation with the university in Voronezh (since 1918), Burdenko devoted himself to organizing military hospitals of the Red Army, taught at the special courses he created in military field surgery and founded a school for nurses. During the same period he became the organizer of civil health care. Having moved to Moscow in 1923, Burdenko, using the material accumulated in the field of treatment of the nervous system in the First World War, did a lot to distinguish neurosurgery as an independent branch of medicine. For example, in 1932 the world's first Central Neurosurgical Institute was created.

Chief Surgeon of the Red Army Nikolai Burdenko talks with soldiers

World War II

Thanks to Burdenko’s activities after Civil War in Russia, military medicine of the USSR turned out to be sufficiently prepared for the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the master himself - the chief surgeon of the Red Army - performed several thousand operations in close proximity to the front, was shell-shocked, suffered a stroke, almost completely lost his hearing, was appointed to the Extraordinary State Commission, which was engaged in identifying and investigating the atrocities of the Nazi invaders , continued to conduct practical and research activities. In 1944 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel General of the Medical Service. During the war years, thanks to Burdenko's tests of penicillin, sulfidine and streptocide, these drugs began to be used by surgeons in all military hospitals, which saved thousands of lives. Among Burdenko's many innovations and discoveries was an operation for the upper part of the spinal cord - bulbotomy. A great surgeon with a worldwide reputation, who left behind more than 400 scientific works, died on November 11, 1946 in Moscow as a result of the consequences of a third stroke.

I want to dwell on the personality of a prominent medical scientist, one of the founders domestic neurosurgery, general of medical service, first president of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko. The urn with his ashes was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

The article focuses on the death, farewell and funeral of Academician Nikolai Burdenko, and provides material from the press of that period.

Biographical information:
BURDENKO Nikolay Nilovich [May 22(June 3) 1876 , village of Kamenka, Nizhnelomovsky district, now Penza region, - November 11, 1946, Moscow], Soviet surgeon, one of the founders of neurosurgery, academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1939), academician and first president of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1944-1946). Colonel General of the Medical Service. Hero of Socialist Labor (1943). Member of the CPSU since 1939. In 1906 he graduated from the university in Yuryev (now Tartu); since 1910 professor at this university. From 1918 he was a professor at Voronezh University and from 1923 a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University (from 1930 - the 1st Moscow Medical Institute), where until the end of his life he headed the faculty surgical clinic, now named after Burdenko. Since 1929, director of the neurosurgical clinic at the X-ray Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health, on the basis of which the Central Neurosurgical Institute was established in 1934 (now the Institute of Neurosurgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences named after N. N. Burdenko). Since 1937 chief consultant surgeon Soviet Army. He was one of the first to introduce surgery of the central and peripheral nervous system into clinical practice; investigated the cause and methods of treating shock, contributed a lot to the study of processes occurring in the central and peripheral nervous system in connection with surgery and acute injuries; developed bulbotomy - an operation in the upper part of the spinal cord. Burdenko created an original school of surgeons with a clearly expressed experimental direction. The valuable contribution of Burdenko and his school to the theory and practice of neurosurgery was work in the field of oncology of the central and autonomic nervous system, pathology of liquor circulation, cerebral circulation, etc. Burdenko was one of the most active organizers and builders of Soviet healthcare. Special attention devoted to the organization of military medical affairs. Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the 16th convocation. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocations. USSR State Prize (1941). Awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 3 other orders, as well as medals. Honorary member of the International Society of Surgeons, Royal Society of London. The name of Burdenko was assigned to the Main Military Hospital Armed Forces USSR. The Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR established a prize named after. N. N. Burdenko, awarded for the best work in neurosurgery or military field surgery.

Op. : Collection soch., vol. 1 - 7, M.. 1950 - 52.
Lit.: Bagdasaryan S. M., Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko, M., 1954.

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Article Burdenko Nikolay Nilovich V Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (with minor changes).

Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko
(Obituary)

On November 11, 1946, Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Academician Nikolai Nilovich died Burdenko.
In the person of Nikolai Nilovich Soviet science suffered an exceptionally difficult loss. One cannot talk about N. N. Burdenko as just a major specialist surgeon, because the range of his entire scientific activity huge, limitless.
N. N. Burdenko was born in 1878 in the village of Kamenka, Penza province. From a young age, Nikolai Nilovich’s life was full of worries and difficulties. Studying at the university (Yuryev, Tomsk) was interrupted due to the fact that Nikolai Nilovich could not put up with the arbitrariness of the tsarist regime. He was expelled from the university and spent these years of exile working in the village as a paramedic or in the war, working as an orderly (Japanese War).
After graduating from Yuryev University, Nikolai Nilovich attracted the attention of professors and very soon, five years after graduation, he took the department in Yuryev.
During the First World War, N.N. Burdenko moved from Yuryev to Voronezh, where Yuryev University was transferred. Here Nikolai Nilovich began his journey as a scientist, professor and surgeon.
Having started his medical and professorial career as a general surgeon, Nikolai Nilovich very soon left the usual framework of a specialist.
N. N. Burdenko introduced a lot of new ideas into issues of general surgery and applied these ideas in practice, in particular in military field surgery. In addition, Nikolai Nilovich showed with his works that modern surgery can develop in collaboration with a number of disciplines, such as physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pathological anatomy and pathophysiology.
In general surgery, N. N. Burdenko is known for his deep scientific concepts in such problems as shock, treatment of wounds and general infections, neurogenic treatment peptic ulcer and much more.
N. N. Burdenko is the founder of Soviet neurosurgery. He is known for his theoretical work and the improvement of practice and surgical technique, which gave him the opportunity to penetrate the most intimate places of the central nervous system. In military field surgery, N. N. Burdenko proved himself to be such an energetic and proactive organizer and administrator that without exaggeration he can be considered the heir and successor of Pirogov in modern military field surgery.
N. N. Burdenko was a true Soviet scientist who had a sense of what was new in science. All his scientific ideas were not unfounded hypotheses; his concepts in science were associated with action, with practice. Nikolai Nilovich devoted his entire life to that science, which was not fenced off from life, from practice.
N. N. Burdenko was a world-famous scientist. He was the initiator, organizer and first president of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences.
Nikolai Nilovich also showed his boundless enthusiasm in training specialists. Combining in his multifaceted, rich, talented, gifted personality the qualities of a great scientist and teacher. Nikolai Nilovich was also distinguished by his exceptional organizational skills. For many years he held the most responsible post of Chief Surgeon of the USSR Armed Forces.
N. N. Burdenko could not tolerate a state of inaction; he worked and created without rest, sparing his strength. Nikolai Nilovich was awarded the honorary title of Hero of Socialist Labor for his high merits.
N. N. Burdenko throughout his life, with all his vigorous activity, showed that his personal was always of secondary importance to him in life. He put above all the interests of science, the interests of the homeland, the interests Soviet man, - which is typical of a Soviet citizen, a Bolshevik. These qualities of a Soviet citizen, devoting his strength for the good of his homeland, for the good of the state and the party, brought Nikolai Nilovich into the ranks of the All-Union Communist Party(Bolsheviks).
The government highly appreciated his multifaceted social, political, scientific and pedagogical activities, awarding him several orders of the Soviet Union.
The memory of N. N. Burdenko will remain forever in the history of medicine and in the history of the socialist Soviet state.

Mitirev G. A., Priorov N. N., Krotkov F. G., Kuznetsov A. Ya., Kovrigina M. D.,
Shabanov A. N., Petrov B. D., Zhukov N. G., Vavilov S. I., Bruevich N. G.,
Orbeli L. A., Khrulev A. V., Smirnov E. I., Redkin M. I., Beletsky G. N.,
Sapozhkov P. I., Kaftanov S. V., Kochergin I. G., Anichkov N. N.,
Abrikosov A. I., Davydovsky I. V., Rufanov I. G., Zbarsky B. I., Salishchev V. E.,
Semashko N. A., Likhachev A. G., Smirnov L. V., Egorov B. G., Busalov A. A.

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Founder of Soviet neurosurgery

Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko died. Soviet and world science has lost its distinguished representative, who adorned her with talented creativity and enormous, vigorous practical activity.
Love for scientific research, inextricably linked with broad practical activities, was characteristic feature Nikolai Nilovich. Everyone who met him had deep respect and exceptional admiration for the enormous thirst for scientific creativity that never left N. N. Burdenko. Just a few days ago, at the third session of the Academy of Medical Sciences, N.N. Burdenko’s report was heard with great interest, summing up the rich experience of practical work carried out by Nikolai Nilovich together with his students during the war days.
N. N. Burdenko was a very versatile scientist and a major organizer of Soviet medical science. But his talent manifested itself with particular force in the creation of the doctrine of military field surgery and neurosurgery, the founder of which in our country was N. N. Burdenko. We rightfully personify N. N. Burdenko with another great Russian surgeon - N. I. Pirogov.
Already having vast theoretical and practical experience in general surgical work behind him, a participant in many wars, N. N. Burdenko, after the end of the civil war, with his characteristic courage and determination, took on mastering a new, almost completely unexplored area of ​​surgery and neurology at that time - neurosurgery. Brain operations in those days were very rare, and not every surgeon dared to perform them. They required not only complex surgical techniques, but also excellent knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the spinal cord and brain. A brilliant expert in topographic anatomy, N. N. Burdenko, at the beginning of his neurosurgical activity, first carefully tested his surgical technique on corpses and animals. This allowed him to perform the most complex operations with brilliance and technical perfection. The techniques he introduced have become classic and are now used by hundreds of Soviet and foreign surgeons.
The Central Neurosurgical Institute, organized by N. N. Burdenko, became the center of this branch of medical science and was a school for many Soviet doctors. Without exaggeration, we can say that the successes of neurosurgery during the Second World War are inextricably linked with the name of the outstanding scientist N. N. Burdenko.
Having operated on many hundreds of patients suffering from severe lesions of the brain and spinal cord, N. N. Burdenko always remained in the position of a great experimenter. His clinical work constantly overlapped with interesting experimental work on animals. This includes studies of the mechanism of traumatic, in particular bullet, damage to the skull and brain, the study of cerebral edema, etc. In the field of neurosurgery, Nikolai Nilovich created a number of new methodological techniques, included in world literature under the name “Burdenko’s method”. I mean the replacement “according to Burdenko” of a defect in the dura mater by layer-by-layer splitting it, the brilliant neurosurgical technique of “bulbotomy”, etc. All these methods allow surgeons to penetrate into the most hidden secrets brain and thereby alleviate the suffering of patients.
Academician N. N. Burdenko left numerous scientific works, which are an invaluable contribution not only to neurosurgery, but also to medical science in general. The death of N. N. Burdenko is a heavy loss for all medical workers, for the entire Soviet country. But his enormous scientific and practical heritage will be developed and multiplied by numerous students and followers. They will do this for the benefit of our homeland, for the benefit of all humanity.

Full member of the Academy
Medical Sciences of the USSR
Prof. N. I. GRASHCHENKOV.

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Izvestia newspaper, November 12, 1946

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From the Council of Ministers of the USSR
and the Central Committee of the CPSU(b)

The Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks announce with deep regret the death of the outstanding Russian scientist-surgeon, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, chief surgeon of the Armed Forces of the USSR, colonel general, academician Burdenko Nikolai Nilovich, who followed on November 11, 1946 at the age of 69.

In the Council of Ministers of the USSR

On perpetuating the memory of the outstanding Russian scientist-surgeon, academician
N. N. Burdenko and about providing for his family

The USSR Council of Ministers decided:
1. Name Academician Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko:
a) faculty surgical clinic of the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute, the head of which was the late academician N. N. Burdenko;
b) the Institute of Neurosurgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, the founder and director of which was the late academician N. N. Burdenko;
c) The Main Military Hospital of the USSR Armed Forces.
2. Install busts of Academician N. N. Burdenko:
a) on the territory of the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute;
b) on the territory of the Institute of Neurosurgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences;
c) in the conference hall of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences.
3. Install memorial plaques in Voronezh on the building of the surgical clinic of the Voronezh Medical Institute, where the late academician N. N. Burdenko worked, and in Tartu, Estonian SSR, on the Tartu building state university, where the late academician N. N. Burdenko studied and worked.
4. Establish three annual prizes named after Academician N. N. Burdenko for the best work in surgery, 20 thousand rubles each, awarded by the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences.
5. Establish scholarships named after Academician N. N. Burdenko for students in the amount of 400 rubles per month each:
a) two scholarships at the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute;
b) two scholarships at the Voronezh Medical Institute;
c) one scholarship at the Faculty of Medicine of Tartu State University.
6. Establish doctoral scholarships named after Academician N. N. Burdenko in the amount of 1,300 rubles each:
a) one scholarship at the biological department of the USSR Academy of Sciences;
b) two scholarships at the Institute of Neurosurgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences.
7. Oblige the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR during 1947-1949. publish the works of N. N. Burdenko.
8. Establish a pension for the wife of the late academician N.N. Burdenko, Maria Emilievna Burdenko, in accordance with Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated December 28, 1943 No. 1435 and give her a one-time allowance in the amount of 70 thousand rubles.
9. Establish a pension of 700 rubles per month each for life for the sisters of academician N. N. Burdenko - Olga Nilovna Burdenko and Varvara Nilovna Chernyavskaya and give them a one-time allowance of 15,000 rubles.
Establish a pension of 500 rubles per month for the granddaughter of academician N. N. Burdenko, Tatyana Burdenko, until graduation higher education.
10. The funeral of Academician N. N. Burdenko will be held at the expense of the state.

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Izvestia newspaper, November 12, 1946

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From the funeral committee
Academician N. N. Burdenko

The coffin with the body of Academician N. N. Burdenko was installed in the hall of the Institute of Neurosurgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (5th Tverskaya-Yamskaya, building No. 5).
Access to the institute hall for farewell to the deceased is open on November 13 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.; November 14 – from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The civil funeral service will take place on November 14 at 12 noon. The removal of the body from the Institute of Neurosurgery is at 14:00. Cremation is at 3 p.m.

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Izvestia newspaper, November 13, 1946

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At the tomb of N. N. Burdenko

The Central Neurosurgical Institute is in mourning. In the conference hall of the institute, on a high pedestal, entwined with crepe and scarlet plush, there is a coffin with the body of an outstanding Russian scientist-surgeon, Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko.
At the foot of the coffin there is a huge wreath from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a wreath from the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR, along the walls there are numerous wreaths from scientific and public organizations- Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Pedagogical Academy of the RSFSR and Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, the organizer and first president of which was N. N. Burdenko.
Numerous scientists, medical workers, friends and students came to say goodbye to the deceased. Employees of the Main Military Medical Directorate, military doctors of the Soviet Army, and employees of the Main Military Hospital of the Armed Forces of the USSR named after N. N. Burdenko came to pay their last respects to the one who was the chief surgeon of the Armed Forces of the USSR for many years.
To the sad sounds of a funeral march, workers of the First Moscow Medical Institute, where N. N. Burdenko headed the faculty surgical clinic for many years and where he nurtured hundreds of surgeons now working in the cities and villages of the Soviet Union, pass by the coffin.
A military guard stood at the head of the coffin. Nearby, scientists and generals, Soviet and party workers, medical personnel of hospitals, institutes and clinics replace each other in the guard of honor.
Delegations of scientific and medical institutions, representatives of the Shcherbakovsky district of the capital, who elected N. N. Burdenko as their deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, walk past the coffin.
The mountain of wreaths grows every hour. They are placed by delegations of doctors of the Georgian SSR, representatives of the Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics, and a delegation of the Main Military Hospital of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
Wreaths are laid at the foot of the coffin from the Moscow Council of Working People's Deputies, from the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.I. Vavilov, from the President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Lieutenant General of the Medical Service N.N. Anichkov, from friends, students and relatives of the deceased.
Yesterday, the conference hall of the Neurosurgical Institute was visited by thousands of workers who paid their last respects to the remarkable son of the Russian people, Soviet scientist and statesman, with all their wonderful life who set an example of service to his homeland.

*

Today access to the institute hall is from 8 to 11 am. A civil funeral service will take place at 12 noon. Cremation at 3 p.m.

Published by:

Izvestia newspaper, November 15, 1946

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Funeral of N. N. Burdenko

Yesterday, the working people of the capital buried the outstanding Soviet scientist, academician Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko.
Academicians and professors, generals and medical service officers, doctors and university professors, and employees of medical institutions came to pay their last respects to the deceased.
At 12 noon the civil funeral service began.
The Deputy Minister of Health of the USSR, Professor N.N. Priorov, spoke. He talks about the heavy loss that the Soviet country suffered.
“Death tore from our ranks,” said Professor Priorov, “a major scientist, a brilliant teacher, an outstanding organizer and statesman. He devoted all his knowledge and strength to science. His vigorous activity was entirely aimed at benefiting his homeland.
The floor is given to the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician S.I. Vavilov. He says that the Soviet country has lost a wonderful person, a talented scientist, the creator of domestic neurosurgery. Particularly important were the works of N. N. Burdenko on military field surgery. He knew about the needs of the wounded on the battlefield and in his activities did everything to alleviate the fate.
The head of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Colonel General of the Medical Service E. I. Smirnov, delivers a heartfelt, emotional speech. He talks about life path this wonderful son of his homeland, that he never rested on his laurels.
Then speeches were made from the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR by its vice-president P. A. Kupriyanov, from the council of professors of the First Moscow Medical Institute, Hero of Socialist Labor B. I. Zbarsky, from the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR, Professor I. G. Kochergin, from the workers of Shcherbakovsky constituency worker-Stakhanovite G.P. Kubynin and others.
The civil funeral service is over. Friends and associates carry the coffin out of the building of the Neurosurgical Institute.
To the sounds of a funeral march funeral procession, accompanied by an honorary military escort, heads to the crematorium. The last military honor is given to the late Colonel General N.N. Burdenko: a triple rifle salvo thunders.

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Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was born on June 3, 1876 in the village of Kamenka, Nizhne-Lomovsky district, Penza province (now the city of Kamenka, Penza region). Father - Nil Karpovich, the son of a serf, served as a clerk for a small landowner, and then as a manager of a small estate.

Until 1885, Nikolai Burdenko studied at the Kamensk Zemstvo School, and since 1886 - at the Penza Theological School.

In 1891, Nikolai Burdenko entered the Penza Theological Seminary. After graduating, Burdenko passed with excellent grades entrance exams to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. However, he abruptly changed his intentions and on September 1, 1897, he went to Tomsk, where he entered the newly opened medical faculty of Tomsk Imperial University. There he became interested in anatomy, and by the beginning of his third year he was appointed assistant prosector. In addition to working in the anatomical theater, he was engaged in operative surgery and willingly and generously helped struggling students.

Nikolai Burdenko took part in the student “riots” that arose at Tomsk University in connection with the movement that swept Russian students in the 1890s. In 1899, Nikolai Burdenko was expelled from Tomsk University for participating in the first Tomsk student strike. He applied for reinstatement and returned to the university. In 1901, his name appeared again on the list of strikers, according to some sources, by accident. However, Burdenko was forced to leave Tomsk and on October 11, 1901, transfer to Yuryev University (now the University of Tartu, Estonia) for the fourth year of the Faculty of Medicine.

While studying science, Nikolai Burdenko took an active part in the student political movement. After participating in a student gathering, he had to interrupt his studies at the university. At the invitation of the zemstvo, he arrived in the Kherson province to treat an epidemic of typhus and acute childhood diseases. Here Burdenko, in his own words, first became familiar with practical surgery. After working for almost a year in a colony for children with tuberculosis, thanks to the help of professors, he was able to return to Yuryev University. At the university, Nikolai Burdenko worked in a surgical clinic as an assistant assistant. In Yuryev, he became acquainted with the works of the prominent Russian surgeon Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, which made a deep impression on him.

In accordance with the order of that time, students and teachers went to fight epidemic diseases. Nikolai Burdenko, as part of such medical teams, participated in the elimination of epidemics of typhus, smallpox, and scarlet fever.

Russo-Japanese War

Since January 1904, Nikolai Burdenko took part as a volunteer as a medical worker in Russian-Japanese war. On the fields of Manchuria, student Burdenko was engaged in military field surgery, being a doctor's assistant. As part of the “flying sanitary detachment” he performed the duties of an orderly, paramedic, and doctor in advanced positions. In the battle at Wafangou, while carrying out the wounded under enemy fire, he himself was wounded by a rifle shot in the arm. He was awarded the soldier's St. George Cross for heroism.

Start of a medical career

In December 1904, Burdenko returned to Yuryev to begin preparing for the exams to become a doctor, and in February 1905 he was invited as a trainee doctor to the surgical department of the Riga City Hospital.

In 1906, after graduating from Yuryev University, Nikolai Burdenko passed brilliantly state exams and received a doctor's diploma with honors.

Since 1907 he worked as a surgeon at the Penza Zemstvo Hospital. Combined medical activities with scientific work and writing a doctoral dissertation. The choice of the dissertation topic - “Materials on the issue of the consequences of venae portae ligation” was determined by the influence of the ideas and discoveries of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. During that period, Nikolai Burdenko wrote five scientific papers on “Pavlovian” topics in the field of experimental physiology and in March 1909 defended his dissertation and received the title of Doctor of Medicine. In the summer of the same year, Nikolai Burdenko went on a business trip abroad, where he spent a year in clinics in Germany and Switzerland.

From June 1910 he became a private assistant professor in the department of surgery at the clinic of Yuriev University, and from November of the same year - an extraordinary professor in the department of operative surgery, desmurgy and topographic anatomy.

First World War

In July 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Nikolai Burdenko announced his desire to go to the front, and was appointed assistant to the head of the medical unit of the Red Cross under the armies of the Northwestern Front.

In September 1914, he joined the active forces as a consultant to the medical unit of the North-Western Front, and participated in the attack on East Prussia, in the Warsaw-Ivangorod operation. He organized dressing and evacuation points and field medical institutions, personally provided emergency surgical care to seriously wounded people at forward dressing points, often coming under fire. Successfully organized the evacuation of more than 25,000 wounded in conditions of military inconsistency and limited medical transport.

To reduce mortality and the number of amputations, Burdenko dealt with the problems of triaging the wounded (so that the wounded were sent precisely to those medical institutions where they could receive qualified assistance), and their speedy transportation to hospitals. The high mortality rate of those wounded in the stomach, who were transported over long distances, prompted Nikolai Burdenko to organize the possibility of quickly operating on such wounded people in the Red Cross medical institutions closest to the fighting. Under his leadership, special departments were organized in the infirmaries for those wounded in the stomach, lungs, and skull.

For the first time in field surgery, Nikolai Burdenko used primary wound treatment and suture for skull injuries, subsequently transferring this method to other areas of surgery. He emphasized that when saving the lives of those wounded in large and especially arterial vessels, the “administrative side” of the matter plays a big role, that is, the organization of surgical care on site. Influenced by the works of Pirogov, N. N. Burdenko carefully studied the organization of sanitary and anti-epidemic services, dealt with issues of military hygiene, sanitary and chemical protection, prevention venereal diseases. He participated in the organization of medical and sanitary supplies for troops and field medical institutions, pathological service in the army, and was in charge of the rational distribution of medical personnel.

Since 1915, Nikolai Burdenko was appointed surgeon-consultant of the 2nd Army, and since 1916 - surgeon-consultant of Riga hospitals.

In March 1917, after the February Revolution, Nikolai Burdenko, by order of the army and navy, was appointed “correcting the post of chief military sanitary inspector,” where he was involved in resolving and streamlining certain issues of the medical and sanitary service. Having encountered opposition in matters of reorganization of the medical service during the reign of the Provisional Government, Burdenko was forced to interrupt his activities in the Main Military Sanitary Directorate in May, and returned to active army, where he dealt exclusively with issues of therapeutic medicine.

In the summer of 1917, Nikolai Burdenko was shell-shocked on the front line. Due to health reasons, he returned to Yuryev University and was elected there as head of the department of surgery, which was previously headed by N. I. Pirogov.

Post-revolutionary period

At the end of 1917, Nikolai Burdenko arrived in Yuryev to the position of ordinary professor in the department of the faculty surgical clinic. However, Yuryev was soon occupied by the Germans. Resuming the work of the university, the command of the German army offered Nikolai Burdenko to take a chair at the “Germanized” university, but he refused this offer, and in June 1918, together with other professors, he was evacuated with the property of the Yuryev clinic to Voronezh.

In Voronezh, Nikolai Burdenko became one of the main organizers of the University transferred from Yuryev, continuing his scientific research work. In Voronezh, he took an active part in the organization of military hospitals of the Red Army and served as a consultant to them, taking care of the wounded Red Army soldiers. In January 1920, he organized special courses for students and doctors in military field surgery at Voronezh University. He created a school for paramedical personnel - nurses, where he led pedagogical work. At the same time, Burdenko was involved in organizing civil healthcare and was a consultant to the Voronezh provincial health department. In 1920, on his initiative, the Medical Society named after N.I. Pirogov was established in Voronezh. N. N. Burdenko was elected chairman of this society.

His main research at that time related to the topics of general surgery, neurosurgery and military field surgery. In particular, Burdenko dealt with the issues of prevention and treatment of shock, treatment of wounds and general infections, neurogenic treatment of peptic ulcers, surgical treatment of tuberculosis, blood transfusions, pain relief, etc.

Having accumulated extensive material in the field of treatment of damage to the nervous system during the First World War, Burdenko considered it necessary to distinguish neurosurgery as an independent scientific discipline. Having moved from Voronezh to Moscow in 1923, he opened a neurosurgical department at the faculty surgical clinic of Moscow University, becoming a professor of operative surgery. For the next six years, Burdenko was engaged in clinical activities in peacetime conditions. In 1930, this faculty was transformed into the 1st Moscow Medical Institute named after I.M. Sechenov. Since 1924, Burdenko was elected director of the surgical clinic at the institute. He led this department and clinic until the end of his life, and now this clinic bears his name.

Since 1929, Nikolai Burdenko became the director of the neurosurgical clinic at the X-ray Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health. On the basis of the neurosurgical clinic of the X-ray Institute, the world's first Central Neurosurgical Institute (now the N. N. Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery) with the All-Union Neurosurgical Council attached to it was established in 1932. Neurosurgeons B. G. Egorov, A. A. Arendt, N. I. Irger, A. I. Arunyunov and others, as well as leading representatives of related specialties (neuro-radiologists, neuro-ophthalmologists, otoneurologists) worked at the institute.

Burdenko took part in organizing a network of neurosurgical institutions in the form of clinics and special departments in hospitals throughout the USSR. Since 1935, on his initiative, sessions of the Neurosurgical Council and all-Union congresses of neurosurgeons have been held.

From the first years Soviet power Nikolai Burdenko became one of the closest assistants to the head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate, Zinovy ​​Petrovich Solovyov. became the author of the first “Regulations on the military and sanitary service of the Red Army.” In 1929, on the initiative of Nikolai Burdenko, the Department of Military Field Surgery was created at the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow University. Since 1932, he worked as a consultant surgeon, and since 1937 as the chief consultant surgeon at the Sanitary Administration of the Red Army. As chairman of surgical congresses and conferences frequently convened in Moscow, Burdenko invariably set problematic issues military medicine, training of military medical personnel. Based on your combat experience and studying materials from the past, he issued instructions and regulations on individual issues surgical support for troops, which prepared military medicine for the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

Nikolai Burdenko was a member of the State Academic Council of the Main Directorate vocational education, Chairman of the Scientific Medical Council of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR. In this post, he was involved in organizing higher medical education, Soviet high school.

World War II. Last years of life

In 1939-1940, during the Soviet-Finnish War, 64-year-old Burdenko went to the front, spending the entire period of hostilities there, and led the organization of surgical care in the army there. Based on the experience of the Soviet-Finnish war, he developed regulations on military field surgery.

In 1941, from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - chief surgeon of the Red Army. Despite his 65 years, he immediately went into the active army, and subsequently took every opportunity to visit the front. He was involved in organizing assistance to the wounded during the battles near Yartsevo and Vyazma.

To carry out complex operations, Burdenko traveled to regimental and divisional medical battalions and personally performed several thousand operations. Organized work to collect operational information about injuries.

In 1941, Academician Burdenko was shell-shocked for the second time during a bombing while crossing the Neva. At the end of September 1941, near Moscow, while examining a military ambulance train that had arrived from the front, Nikolai Burdenko suffered a stroke. He spent about two months in the hospital, almost completely lost his hearing, and was evacuated first to Kuibyshev, then to Omsk.

Having not yet recovered from the illness, Burdenko in local hospitals was engaged in the treatment of wounded received from the front, and carried out extensive correspondence with advanced front-line surgeons. Based on his observations, he wrote a number of studies, formatting them in the form of nine monographs on issues of military field surgery.

In April 1942, Nikolai Burdenko arrived in Moscow, where he continued his research work and wrote scientific works. In November of the same year, he was appointed a member of the Extraordinary State Commission to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders; the work of this responsible commission on behalf of the government took him a lot of time and effort.

Participant of the Russian-Japanese, World War I, Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars.
Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocations. Honorary member of the Royal Society of Surgeons of London and the Paris Academy of Surgery. Chairman of the Soviet Commission that investigated the Katyn massacre of Polish citizens.

Nikolai Burdenko was born on June 3, 1876 in the city of Kamenka, Penza region. He graduated from the Kamensk Zemstvo School and the Penza Theological School. In 1891 he entered the theological seminary. After graduating in 1897, he came to Tomsk and entered Tomsk State University.

In 1899, Burdenko was expelled from the university for participating in the student revolutionary movement and was forced to leave Tomsk. Then the main qualities of Burdenko’s character appeared, to which he remained faithful until last days: active life position, decisive struggle with any difficulties that arise, vigorous initiative, dedication, patriotism. After working for almost a year in a colony for children with tuberculosis, thanks to the help of a number of professors, Burdenko was allowed to return to the university.

Soon transferred to Yuryev University. In accordance with the then procedure, teachers and students went to fight epidemics. Burdenko was an indispensable participant in such medical teams and participated in the elimination of epidemics of typhus and smallpox.

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he volunteered to join the military sanitary detachment. For over a year, he participated in combat operations in Manchuria as part of the detachment. He was wounded while carrying wounded soldiers out from under enemy fire. Awarded the soldier's St. George Cross. These circumstances allowed Nikolai Burdenko to graduate from the university only in 1906, but he had already become a major, mature scientist and practitioner.

In 1907 he was appointed surgeon of the Penza Zemstvo Hospital. Two years later he defended his dissertation and became a doctor of medicine. Since 1910, he became a professor at Yuryev University in the department of operative surgery and topographic anatomy.

At the beginning of the First World War, he again voluntarily achieved appointment to the active army. Since 1914 he worked as a consultant to the medical unit of the North-Western Front. The following year he became a consultant surgeon in the Second Army, and in 1916 he took up the position of surgeon consultant in Riga hospitals.

He was involved in the organization of military sanitary detachments, hospitals and medical evacuation points. He performed many surgeries in field and army hospitals. He actively sought to improve the medical care of the wounded at all stages, starting with their evacuation from the battlefield.

In March 1917, under the Provisional Government, he was appointed chief military sanitary inspector Russian army. In the summer of 1917, he was shell-shocked in battle while leaving for the active army. Due to health reasons, he returned to Yuryev University and was appointed head of the department of surgery, which was once headed by his highest authority, Professor Pirogov.

Professor Burdenko immediately consciously accepted October Revolution. In 1918, with a group of professors, he moved from Yuryev to Voronezh, becoming one of the initiators of the creation of Voronezh University. At the same time, during the Civil War, he was a consultant to Voronezh hospitals of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

Since 1923, he became a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow University, which in 1930 was transformed into the 1st Moscow Medical Institute. In this institution, until the end of his life, Burdenko headed the faculty surgical clinic, which now bears his name. He is the author of the first “Regulations on the military and sanitary service of the Red Army.”

Nikolai Burdenko was one of the first to introduce surgery of the central and peripheral nervous system into clinical practice; he investigated the cause and methods of treating shock, made a great contribution to the study of processes occurring in the central and peripheral nervous system in connection with surgical intervention, and developed bulbotomy for acute injuries; , surgery in the upper part of the spinal cord.

Burdenko created a school of surgeons with a pronounced experimental direction. A valuable contribution to the theory and practice of neurosurgery was his work in the field of oncology of the central and autonomic nervous system, and pathology of cerebral circulation.

Nikolai Burdenko made a real revolution in the treatment of brain tumors. Brain operations were performed rarely and were rare throughout the world. The professor has developed more simple methods carrying out these operations and thereby made them widespread. In addition, he proposed a number of original operations that had never been performed before. Surgeons from England, the USA, and Sweden came to Moscow to join the new ideas of the Soviet scientist.

From 1929 he became chairman of the Moscow Surgical Society, and from 1932, for fourteen years, he was chairman of the board of the Society of Surgeons of the RSFSR. Despite his progressive hearing loss, he worked exceptionally hard.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was drafted into the Red Army on August 1, 1941. Then he was assigned military rank"corps doctor" He is appointed Chief Surgeon of the Red Army and spends a lot of time at the fronts. Often, to carry out complex operations, he reached regimental and divisional medical battalions. Personally performed thousands of complex operations. Organized work on the prompt collection of materials on injuries and implementation into practice the latest ways treatment.

In 1941, while crossing the Neva, Academician Burdenko came under bombardment and was shell-shocked. The consequences were very serious. One after another, he suffered two cerebral hemorrhages, then a stroke, and almost completely lost his hearing. The scientist was urgently evacuated to Omsk. However, Nikolai Nilovich continued to work for hospital bed, and as soon as there was improvement, he immediately returned to Moscow and again began traveling to the front.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1943, for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of Soviet medicine and dedicated, fruitful work in organizing surgical care for soldiers and commanders of the Red Army wounded in battles with the German invaders, Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin. and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

He continued to work until the last days of his life. In the summer of 1946, a third cerebral hemorrhage occurred, and the scientist was near death for a long time. Having recovered a little, he began preparing his scientific report at the next congress of surgeons and wrote it right on his hospital bed. He died from the consequences of hemorrhage on November 11, 1946 in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

The Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation awards the Nikolai Nikolaevich Burdenko Prize for the best work in neurosurgery.

Scientific works of Nikolai Burdenko

Burdenko was a member of the editorial board of the 35-volume work “The Experience of Soviet Medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”

Editor of the journals “Modern Surgery”, “New Surgery”, “Issues of Neurosurgery”.

Burdenko owns more than three hundred published works.

In 1950-1952, the Collected Works of Burdenko in seven volumes was published in Moscow:

Vol. I - Historical works about N.I. Pirogov, issues of balneology, teaching surgery in medical universities etc.,
vol. II, III - Articles and monographs on general and military field surgery,
vol. IV, V - Works on neurosurgery,
Vol. VI- Doctoral dissertation of N. N. Burdenko: “Materials on the issue of the consequences of venae portae ligation”, other experimental physiological works,
Vol. VII - Medical and public journalism.