Zhores Medvedev
Encyclopedia
Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russia
n biologist
, historian
and dissident
. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev
.
, Georgia
, USSR.
From 1926 until 1938, the Medvedev family lived in Leningrad
. Medvedev's father, Aleksandr Romanovich Medvedev, was a professor of the Military-Political Academy with the military rank of brigade commissar. In August 1938, Aleksandr was arrested in the wave of political terror of the time and was charged as a "follower of Bukharin" and sentenced to eight years of forced labor. He died in March 1941 in one of the Kolyma
Far Eastern camps. The rest of the familyZhores, Roy and mother Yaliamoved to live in Rostov-on-Don
. In September 1941, the family was evacuated to Tbilisi, shortly before the first German
occupation of Rostov-on-Don
.
In Tbilisi in February 1943, Medvedev was drafted to the Soviet Army and after training was sent as a foot soldier to the Taman front where he took part in fighting and was wounded and later discharged from the army. In 1944, Medvedev became a student of the K.A. Timiryazev Russian State Agricultural University
. In December 1950 he was awarded a PhD degree (kandidat biologicheskikh nauk) for his research into sexual processes in plants. He was at first junior and from 1954 Senior research scientist of the agrochemistry and biochemistry department of the Timiryazev Academy until 1963.
In 1952 he turned his attention to the problems of aging, concentrating on the turnover of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1961 he published the first paper suggesting that aging is the result of an accumulation of errors in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1962, Medvedev wrote his book on the history of Soviet genetics (later published in the USA as "The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko", Columbia Univ. Press, 1969) which was widely circulated in a manuscript typewritten version known as "samizdat
" ("self-publishing").
In 1963, Medvedev moved to Obninsk
to the Institute of Medical Radiology, where he was appointed head of the molecular radiobiology laboratory. He published two books, Protein Biosynthesis and Problems of Heredity Development and Ageing (1963; English translation 1965 Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh) and Molecular Mechanisms of Development (1966; English translation 1968, Plenum Press, New York). Medvedev was dismissed from his position in 1969 after the publication in the USA of his book The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko.
Between 1968 and 1970, Medvedev wrote two more samizdat books: International Cooperation of Scientists and National Frontiers and Secrecy of Correspondence is Guaranteed by Law (about postal censorship in the USSR). They were published in 1971 as Medvedev Papers by Macmillan, London. These works were widely circulated in the USSR among scientists, and this activity resulted in Medvedev's arrest and forced detention in the Kaluga
psychiatric hospital in May 1970. However, this action produced many protests from prominent scientists (Academics Andrei Sakharov
, Pyotr Kapitsa
, Igor Tamm
, Vladimir Engelgardt
, Boris Astaurov, Nikolai Semyonov, and others) and well-known writers (Solzhenitsyn, Tvardovsky, Vladimir Tendryakov
, Vladimir Dudintsev
, etc.) which resulted in Medvedev's release (this experience was reflected in Zhores Medvedev's and Roy Medvedev's book A Question of Madness, published by Macmillan in London in 1971).
In 1971, Medvedev was given the job of Senior scientist of the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals in Borovsk
, Kaluga region.
In 1972, Medvedev was invited for one year's research by the National Institute for Medical Research
in London at its new Genetic Division. While in London with wife Margarita and younger son, Dmitry Zhoresevich, Medvedev was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and his passport was confiscated. He remained in London and was working as full-time Senior Research scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research until his retirement in 1991.
Medvedev published about 170 research papers and reviews, about 60 of them during his work in London. In 1980 Medvedev received British citizenship. In 1990 his Soviet citizenship was restored by decree of President Mikhail Gorbachev
.
Medvedev received the Aging Research Award of US Association of Biogerontology in 1984 and
the Rene Schubert Preis in Gerontology in 1985.
, which occurred at Mayak
near Kyshtym
, Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
in the Urals in 1957. He published the book The Nuclear Disaster in the Urals in 1979 (W.W. Norton, New York).
Medvedev was one of the earliest victims of official attempts to stifle opposition by detaining dissidents in mental institutions. In London Medvedev continued to edit the samizdat journal XX Century jointly with his brother, Roy. The two also coauthored Khrushchev: The Years in Power (1978) and several other books, the last one The Unknown Stalin (2007).
He had two sons, the eldest of whom is deceased. The other, Dimitri, ran the Blue Bridge Café in Camden, London, before moving to Cornwall, where he owns a farm and has children, Tomas (1997) and Alice (2000).
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev
Roy Medvedev
Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev |Georgia]]) is a Russian historian renowned as the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, Let History Judge , first published in English in 1972...
.
Biography
Zhores Medvedev and his twin brother Roy Medvedev were born on 14 November 1925 in TbilisiTbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, USSR.
From 1926 until 1938, the Medvedev family lived in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
. Medvedev's father, Aleksandr Romanovich Medvedev, was a professor of the Military-Political Academy with the military rank of brigade commissar. In August 1938, Aleksandr was arrested in the wave of political terror of the time and was charged as a "follower of Bukharin" and sentenced to eight years of forced labor. He died in March 1941 in one of the Kolyma
Kolyma
The Kolyma region is located in the far north-eastern area of Russia in what is commonly known as Siberia but is actually part of the Russian Far East. It is bounded by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Sea of Okhotsk to the south...
Far Eastern camps. The rest of the familyZhores, Roy and mother Yaliamoved to live in Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
. In September 1941, the family was evacuated to Tbilisi, shortly before the first German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation of Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
.
In Tbilisi in February 1943, Medvedev was drafted to the Soviet Army and after training was sent as a foot soldier to the Taman front where he took part in fighting and was wounded and later discharged from the army. In 1944, Medvedev became a student of the K.A. Timiryazev Russian State Agricultural University
Russian State Agricultural University
Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev is one of the oldest agrarian educational institution in Russia. It was founded on December 3, 1865....
. In December 1950 he was awarded a PhD degree (kandidat biologicheskikh nauk) for his research into sexual processes in plants. He was at first junior and from 1954 Senior research scientist of the agrochemistry and biochemistry department of the Timiryazev Academy until 1963.
In 1952 he turned his attention to the problems of aging, concentrating on the turnover of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1961 he published the first paper suggesting that aging is the result of an accumulation of errors in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1962, Medvedev wrote his book on the history of Soviet genetics (later published in the USA as "The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko", Columbia Univ. Press, 1969) which was widely circulated in a manuscript typewritten version known as "samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
" ("self-publishing").
In 1963, Medvedev moved to Obninsk
Obninsk
Obninsk is a city in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: Obninsk is one of the major Russian science cities. The first nuclear power plant in the world for the large-scale production of electricity opened here on June 27, 1954, and it also doubled as a training...
to the Institute of Medical Radiology, where he was appointed head of the molecular radiobiology laboratory. He published two books, Protein Biosynthesis and Problems of Heredity Development and Ageing (1963; English translation 1965 Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh) and Molecular Mechanisms of Development (1966; English translation 1968, Plenum Press, New York). Medvedev was dismissed from his position in 1969 after the publication in the USA of his book The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko.
Between 1968 and 1970, Medvedev wrote two more samizdat books: International Cooperation of Scientists and National Frontiers and Secrecy of Correspondence is Guaranteed by Law (about postal censorship in the USSR). They were published in 1971 as Medvedev Papers by Macmillan, London. These works were widely circulated in the USSR among scientists, and this activity resulted in Medvedev's arrest and forced detention in the Kaluga
Kaluga
Kaluga is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: It is served by Grabtsevo Airport.-History:...
psychiatric hospital in May 1970. However, this action produced many protests from prominent scientists (Academics Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
, Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was a prominent Soviet/Russian physicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Kapitsa was born in the city of Kronstadt and graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute in 1918. He worked for over ten years with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge...
, Igor Tamm
Igor Tamm
Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was a Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate who received most prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.-Biography:Tamm was born in Vladivostok, Russian Empire , in a...
, Vladimir Engelgardt
Vladimir Engelgardt
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Engelgardt was a Soviet biochemist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences , academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , and Hero of Socialist Labor ....
, Boris Astaurov, Nikolai Semyonov, and others) and well-known writers (Solzhenitsyn, Tvardovsky, Vladimir Tendryakov
Vladimir Tendryakov
Vladimir Tendryakov was a Soviet short story writer and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Makorovskaya near Vologda in 1923. His father was a civil servant. He studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He started writing in the late 1940s and graduated with a degree in...
, Vladimir Dudintsev
Vladimir Dudintsev
Vladimir Dimitrievich Dudintsev was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer who gained fame for his 1956 novel, Not by Bread Alone, published at the time of the Khruschev Thaw....
, etc.) which resulted in Medvedev's release (this experience was reflected in Zhores Medvedev's and Roy Medvedev's book A Question of Madness, published by Macmillan in London in 1971).
In 1971, Medvedev was given the job of Senior scientist of the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals in Borovsk
Borovsk
Borovsk is a town and the administrative center of Borovsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located just south from the oblast's border with Moscow Oblast. It is situated on the Protva River, about southwest of Moscow.Population: 12,000 ....
, Kaluga region.
In 1972, Medvedev was invited for one year's research by the National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
in London at its new Genetic Division. While in London with wife Margarita and younger son, Dmitry Zhoresevich, Medvedev was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and his passport was confiscated. He remained in London and was working as full-time Senior Research scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research until his retirement in 1991.
Medvedev published about 170 research papers and reviews, about 60 of them during his work in London. In 1980 Medvedev received British citizenship. In 1990 his Soviet citizenship was restored by decree of President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
.
Medvedev received the Aging Research Award of US Association of Biogerontology in 1984 and
the Rene Schubert Preis in Gerontology in 1985.
Career and dissent
Zhores Medvedev is famous for exposing the Kyshtym nuclear disasterKyshtym disaster
The Kyshtym disaster was a radiation contamination incident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Russia...
, which occurred at Mayak
Mayak
Mayak Production Association refers to an industrial complex that is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. It housed plutonium production reactors and a reprocessing plant...
near Kyshtym
Kyshtym
Kyshtym is a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern slopes of the South Ural Mountains northwest of Chelyabinsk, near the town of Ozyorsk. Population: 36,000 .-History:...
, Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945...
in the Urals in 1957. He published the book The Nuclear Disaster in the Urals in 1979 (W.W. Norton, New York).
Medvedev was one of the earliest victims of official attempts to stifle opposition by detaining dissidents in mental institutions. In London Medvedev continued to edit the samizdat journal XX Century jointly with his brother, Roy. The two also coauthored Khrushchev: The Years in Power (1978) and several other books, the last one The Unknown Stalin (2007).
He had two sons, the eldest of whom is deceased. The other, Dimitri, ran the Blue Bridge Café in Camden, London, before moving to Cornwall, where he owns a farm and has children, Tomas (1997) and Alice (2000).
Works
- Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and Legacy (with Roy Medvedev, Ellen Dahrendorf - Translator) (Overlook Press, 2005) ISBN 1-58567-644-6
- Legacy of Chernobyl (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1992) ISBN 0-393-30814-6
- Soviet Agriculture (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1988) ISBN 0-393-02472-5
- Gorbachev (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1987) ISBN 0-393-30408-6
- Andropov (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1983) ISBN 0-393-01791-5
- Nuclear Disaster in the Urals (1980) ISBN 0-394-74445-4
- Gorbachev (1986) ISBN 0-631-14782-9
- Molecular-Genetic Mechanisms of Development (1970) ISBN 0-306-30403-1
- Medvedev Papers: Fruitful Meetings between Scientists of the World (1971) ISBN 0-333-12520-7
- Ten Years after Ivan Denisovich (1974) ISBN 0-394-71112-2
- Hazards of Nuclear Power (with Alan Roberts) (1977) ISBN 0-85124-211-1
- Secrecy of Correspondence Is Guaranteed by Law (1975) ISBN 0-85124-128-X
- Soviet Science (1978) ISBN 0-393-06435-2
- Stalin and the Jewish Question: New Analysis (2003, in Russian) ISBN 5-7712-0251-7
- Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov: Two Prophets (with Roy Medvedev) (2004, in Russian) ISBN 5-94117-065-3
- Rise & Fall Of Trofim D. Lysenko ISBN 0-231-03183-1
- Medvedev Papers: The Plight Of Soviet Science ISBN 3-331-25207-7
- A Question Of Madness (with Roy Medvedev) ISBN 0-14-003783-7
- Nuclear Disaster In The Urals (Trans George Saunders) ISBN 0-207-95896-3
- Khrushchev: The Years In Power (with Roy Medvedev) ISBN 0-8357-0154-9
- National Frontiers & International Scientific Cooperation (Medvedev Papers) Spokesman Books, 1975: ISBN 0-85124-127-1
- Nutrition and Longevity (in Russian) 2007 ISBN 978-5-7712-0380-5
- Polonium in London (in Russian) 2008 Molodaya Gvardia, Moscow:ISBN 978-5-235-03160-9
Articles
- Articles on poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
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- Only in Krasnoyarsky Rabochy! "Polonium in London", editorial, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 22 February 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 1. Sickness without a diagnosis, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 1 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 2. The trace leads to Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 7 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 4. The neighbour of Akhmed Zakayev, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 15 March 2007, (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 6. The problems for Scotland Yard, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 22 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 8. From consultations to blackmailing, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 29 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 10. The verdict of "free" press, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 5 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 12. The group poisoning, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 12 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 13. Yet another hypothesis, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 19 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: 14. The case did not proceed to laying charges, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 26 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London. A year and a half later, Krasnoyarsky Rabochy, 22 May 2008 (computer translation)
-
- Sickness without a diagnosis, Gazeta 2000, №7 (354) 16–22 February 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London, Gazeta 2000, №8 (355) 23 February - 1 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Berezovsky's and Goldfarb's «Civil Liberties Fund», Gazeta 2000, №10 (357) 9–15 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Scotland Yard detectives follow the radioactive trace, Gazeta 2000, №11 (358) 16–22 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Litvinenko in London. The fateful business consultation, Gazeta 2000, №12 (359) 23–29 March 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Litvinenko in London. From consultations to blackmailing, Gazeta 2000, №13 (360) 30 March - 5 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Why Scotland Yard ceased investigation, Gazeta 2000, №14 (361) 6–12 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Who killed Litvinenko? The verdict of "free" press, Gazeta 2000, №15 (362) 13–19 April 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Litvinenko in London. Documents trade or blackmailing, what is more dangerous?, Gazeta 2000, №16 (363) 20–26 April 2007 (computer translation)
- The group poisoning by Polonium-210. Litvinenko was one of the victims, Gazeta 2000, №17 (364) 27 April - 2 May 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium in London: Who poisoned Litvinenko and Kovtun? A hypothesis, Gazeta 2000, №18-19 (365) 11–17 May 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium-210 as a radio toxin, Gazeta 2000, №20 (366) 18–24 May 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium-210 in London: Three radioactive biographies, Gazeta 2000, №21 (367) 25–31 May 2007 (computer translation)
- Polonium-210 in London: a year and a half later, Gazeta 2000, №21 (415) 23–29 May 2008 (computer translation)
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