Georgy Miterev

Georgy Miterev (1900–1977) was a Soviet scientist and politician who was the long-term minister of health in the period 1939–1947.

Georgy Miterev
Minister of Health
In office
1939–1947
PremierJosef Stalin
Preceded byMikhail Boldyrev
Personal details
Born
Georgy Andreyevich Miterev

23 April 1900
Died10 January 1977(1977-01-10) (aged 76)
NationalityRussian
Political partyCommunist Party
Alma materSamara University
Signature

Early life and education

Miterev was born in Barinovka, Buzuluk district, Samara Oblast, on 23 April 1900.[1][2] He attended the medical faculty of Samara University and graduated in 1925.[2] He obtained a PhD in medical sciences in 1945.[2][3] His thesis was entitled the System of Public Health and Counter-Epidemic measures during the World War II Period.[3]

Career

Miterev worked as a teacher between 1919 and 1921.[2] Following his graduation from Samara University he was an intern at the Samara Central Hospital and the Venereal Dispensary in 1925–1926.[2] He joined the Communist Party in 1928.[2] He worked at different medical institutions until 1939 when he was appointed people's commissar of health care.[1][2] Later the institution was renamed as ministry of health care.[4] Miterev succeeded Mikhail Boldyrev in the post.[5] One of the major crises during the Miterev's tenure as the minister of health was the cholera outbreak which began in Leningrad in the Summer of 1942.[6][7] He assigned the microbiologist Zinaida Yermolyeva to organize the work of local doctors to reduce the cholera outbreak which produced desired outcomes.[7]

Miterev was removed from his post as health minister on 17 February 1947.[2][8] The reason for his dismissal was his role in the meeting of the US Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith with two scientists, Nina Kluieva and her husband Georgy Roskin, in Moscow in June 1946 about their promising treatment to eliminate the tumor growth in cancer patients.[8] Then Miterev was interrogated about his function in the meeting and severely reprimanded by the honor court "for anti-state and anti-patriotic actions."[2][8]

However, he was rehabilitated soon and served as the head of the central public health and hygiene scientific research institute between 1947 and 1954.[3] While working there he got the title of professor in 1950.[3] Next he was named the president of the executive committee of the Soviet Union Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in 1954.[3] From 1958 he worked at the First Moscow Medical Institute as a faculty member.[3]

Later years and death

In June 1971 Miterev retired after serving as director of the state research sanitary institute.[2] He died on 10 January 1977.[1][2]

Awards

Miterev was the recipient of the following: Order of Lenin (three times) and Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[3] He was also the recipient of the Red Cross awards from various countries, including Poland, Denmark, Greece, Belgium and the United Kingdom.[3]

References
  1. Pavel Polian (2004). Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR. Budapest; New York: Central European University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-963-9241-68-8.
  2. Z. A. Zalessky (2000). Empire of Stalin. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow: Veche.
  3. "G. A. Miterev" (PDF). Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce. 4 January 1961. pp. 1–2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022. Translation of an article entitled "60th birthday of Professor G. A. Miterev" in the journal Soviet Public Health, no:7, 1960, p. 90
  4. "Doctors Visit". USSR Information Bulletin. 6 (52): 333. 1946.
  5. Susan Grant (2017). "Introduction". In Susan Grant (ed.). Russian and Soviet Health Care from an International Perspective. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-44171-9. ISBN 978-3-319-83002-5.
  6. Dmitriy Myelnikov (October 2018). "An Alternative Cure: The Adoption and Survival of Bacteriophage Therapy in the USSR, 1922–1955". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 73 (4): 385–411. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jry024. PMC 6203130. PMID 30312428.
  7. Anatoly Garanin. "How a cholera epidemic was defeated in Stalingrad during World War II". Russia Beyond. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  8. Nikolai Krementsov (1995). "The 'KR Affair': Soviet Science on the Threshold of the Cold War". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 17 (3): 428, 433. JSTOR 23331888.
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