Alexander Nikolayevich Bakulev

Alexander Nikolayevich Bakulev — a Soviet surgical scientist, an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and one of the founders of cardiovascular surgery in the USSR. Bakulev was born on December 7, 1890, in the village of Nevenikovskaya, Vyatka Governorate (now Kirov Oblast). In 1911 he finished gymnasium, and in 1915 he graduated from the Medical Faculty of Saratov University.

During World War I, Bakulev served as a junior doctor on the Western Front. For participating in a reconnaissance operation he was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus. After the Revolution, Bakulev was drafted into the Red Army and took part in the Civil War. He worked in hospitals and later held positions in the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR and the American–Russian Association. From 1922 to 1926 Bakulev worked at Saratov University. In 1926 he moved to Moscow and began working at the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute, progressing from assistant to head of the surgery department after defending his doctoral dissertation in 1939. From 1941 to 1953 Bakulev served as the chief surgeon of the medical-sanitary administration of the Kremlin, and from 1943 he was head of the faculty surgery department at the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute.

In 1956 Bakulev founded the Institute of Thoracic Surgery (now the A. N. Bakulev National Medical Research Center of Cardiovascular Surgery), where he initially served as director and later as scientific supervisor. Bakulev was awarded numerous orders and medals, including three Orders of Lenin. Alexander Nikolayevich Bakulev died on March 31, 1967, in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.