Vsevolod I. Astafyev – the Man ahead of Time

Abstract

The authors describe the life and activity of a famous scientist and qualified Russian surgeon, a great man with distinguished leadership ability in medicine and higher medical education, Professor Vsevolod Ivanovich Astafyev.

As a student, Vsevolod I. Astafyev was keen about emergency surgery, and worked a lot in experimental laboratory. He graduated from the Kursk medical institute with honors, completing by the time his PhD thesis. However, he gave up postgraduate study and began working as a surgeon in a district hospital. After returning to the Kursk medical institute, Vsevolod I. Astafyev worked as an assistant at the hospital surgery department and successfully defended his PhD thesis. At the age of 35, he defended his doctorate thesis and competed for a post of the head of hospital surgery department at the Irkutsk medical institute. He had continued to be actively engaged in science, pedagogy and practical surgery, and organized the Siberian branch of the All-Soviet Union Scientific Center of Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. The branch had a clinical base with 220 beds at the Irkutsk regional hospital. Vsevolod I. Astafyev created a school of polyvalent surgeons, lecturers, and scholars.

In 1987, Vsevolod Astafyev accepted an offer to become the deputy head doctor of the Republican hospital of Yakutia. Shortly after coming to Yakutsk city, he was elected a deputy of the supreme council of the Yakut Republic. On his initiative, supported by the Republic’s governance, a modern equipped medical center was built and put into operation within a short time. The so-called “sanctuary of science” still successfully works as one of the leading clinics of Russia and abroad.