Lev Vasilyevich Gromashevsky is an epidemiologist, the developer of the doctrine of the mechanisms of transmission of infection, the original classification of infectious diseases, the organizer of the system of sanitary and epidemiological stations in the USSR.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on October 1 (13 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1887 in Mykolaiv in the family of a naval officer.
In 1904, he graduated from the gymnasium in Odessa and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Novorossiysk University. Later he moved to the Faculty of Medicine.
Career
Since 1905, Hromashevsky was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) and was engaged in revolutionary activities during his studies. He was arrested several times, and in 1910 he was exiled to the Orenburg province. He escaped from there, but in 1911 he was arrested again and exiled to the Arkhangelsk province.
Subsequently, Hromashevsky received permission to join the anti-plague expedition in Manchuria under the leadership of Danylo Zabolotny. He worked in sanitary detachments, identified patients, carried out disinfection and other anti-epidemic measures.
In 1912, for his work during the epidemic, he was released from police supervision and allowed to defend his medical diploma in Odessa.
After receiving a doctor’s diploma with honors, Hromashevsky worked as an epidemiologist in the Astrakhan province during outbreaks of typhus and cholera. Later he returned to Ukraine and worked in the Podolsk province.
From 1914 to 1917, he served as a doctor in the active army during the First World War. He worked in the regiment, infectious diseases hospital and headed the laboratory of the evacuation point.
In 1917, he was engaged in political activities in the RSDLP(b), was a member of the Constituent Assembly and served as People’s Commissar of Education and Health of the Western Region.
From 1918 to 1928 he worked at the Odessa Medical Institute. He was an assistant, professor, head of the Department of Epidemiology and rector.
From 1928 to 1931 he headed the Dnepropetrovsk Sanitary and Bacteriological Institute, and from 1931 to 1933 – the Central Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).
During the Soviet-German war, Hromashevsky was a military doctor of the first rank, later – a colonel of the medical service. He worked as the chief epidemiologist of the Transcaucasian and Crimean fronts, as well as the Moscow Military District.
In October 1942, he was recalled from the army to train military epidemiologists. After that, he again headed the Department of Epidemiology of the Central Institute for Advanced Training of Doctors.
In 1944, Hromashevsky was elected a full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Two years later, in 1946, he participated in the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO).
From 1948 to 1951 he headed the Kyiv Institute of Infectious Diseases, and from 1951 to 1963 – the Department of Epidemiology of the Kyiv Medical Institute.
Since 1963, he worked at the Kyiv Institute of Epidemiology, Microbiology and Parasitology.
Death/Fatalities
He passed away on May 1, 1980 in Kyiv at the age of 93. He was buried at the Baykovo cemetery.
Marital Status
Hromashevsky’s wife was biochemist Lyubov Hromashevska.
