Alexander A. Bogdanov (Malinovsky) (1873-1928) - the first director of the Institute (1926-1928), remembered in history as a doctor, economist, outstanding philosopher, politician, natural scientist and science fiction writer.
Alexander Bogdanov was born in 1873 in the town of Sokolka, Grodno province, into a teacher's family. He graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium with a gold medal and continued his studies at the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow University, from where he was expelled for his participation in the student movement. In 1899 Bogdanov graduated from the medical school of Kharkov University and received his medical diploma.
In 1903 he joined the Bolsheviks, taking the name Bogdanov as his party pseudonym. It is during this time that he met N.A. Berdyaev, V.I. Lenin, A.M. Gorky, V.I. Bonch-Bruevich, and G.V. Plekhanov.
In 1909 Bogdanov left the Bolshevik Party and retired from politics. He began to focus his efforts on topics that interested him at that time - economics, literature and medicine.
In 1914 he was mobilized and sent to the front as a doctor.
After the October Revolution, Bogdanov lectured on economics at Moscow University. In 1918 he became one of the organizers of the Proletkult and worked at the Communist Academy.
Lenin and Bogdanov playing chess. The woman in the photograph is the wife of A. A. Bogdanov, Natalia Bogdanovna Korsak-Malinovskaya.
Beginning in 1921 Bogdanov devoted himself entirely to scientific research, mainly in the field of gerontology and hematology. Years earlier, in 1908, in his scientific utopian novel "The Red Star," he described the method of exchange transfusion and formulated his views on the function of blood as the main organizing mediator that ensures the viability of an organism. Bogdanov was the first to point out the enormous social and medical importance of blood transfusions. He believed that the widespread use of exchange transfusions would have a positive transformative effect on individuals and society.
Together with enthusiastic doctors S.L. Maloletkov, D.A. Gudim-Levkovich, and I.I. Sobolev, who assessed the significance and prospects of the blood transfusion method, he began experiments with exchange transfusions on himself and his loved ones. Initially, operations were carried out at home, eventually being moved to a base of a private hospital in 1924.
In 1925 Bogdanov submitted to the People's Commissariat for Health a project to create an Institute of Blood Transfusion. The project was approved by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and on February 26, 1926, the USSR Labor and Defense Council, after receiving the signature of V.V. Kuybyshev, made the decision to create the Institute. In March 1926, the People's Commissariat for Health of the RSFSR issued an order signed by N.A. Semashko on the organization of the Institute of Blood Transfusion. Bogdanov was appointed as the director of the institute.
From the very foundation of the Institute, its activities were aimed at developing the most important theoretical and practical problems:
- the study of blood transfusions in various types of pathology
- research on the use of exchange blood transfusions
- development of a method for obtaining standard group sera
- creation of equipment for the preparation and transfusion of blood
- familiarization and training of doctors in the method of blood transfusion
- creation of donor cadres
In May 1926, the first successful blood transfusion operation was performed, and by April 1928 the number of blood transfusions totaled around 400.
The life of Alexander Alexandrovich Bogdanov, a fascinating individual, was as unusual as his tragic death as director and scientific leader of the Institute.
A staunch promoter of blood transfusions, he gave himself 11 transfusions, five of which were 900 ml. At first, he endured these transfusions without any reaction, and the effect was noted by him as quite satisfactory. The twelfth blood transfusion proved to be fatal for Bogdanov. Three hours after the blood transfusion, he developed a severe transfusion reaction.
Until the last minutes of his life, Alexander Alexandrovich, overcoming his illness, carried out self-observation and wrote down the symptoms of the disease, refusing medical assistance in the interests of science. Bogdanov's genuine courage and resilience were reflected in the annals of dramatic medicine, along with the scientific exploits of other researchers who suffered as a result of their experiments, at the cost of their lives, in order to prove the correctness of their ideas.
The death of Bogdanov gave rise to different rumors. An official investigation was carried out, but the results were not reported. The cause of the post-transfusion reaction is still unclear.
The article uses materials from the books of S. I. Donskoy and V. N. Yagodinsky "The legacy and followers of A. A. Bogdanov in the blood service," Moscow, 2008
