Molkov, Alfred

Born Oct. 28 (Nov. 9), 1870, in Irkutsk; died May 1947, in Moscow. Soviet hygienist and founder of child and adolescent hygiene in the USSR. Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1934). Professor (1935). Member of the CPSU from 1919.

In 1895, Mol’kov graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University, whereupon he worked as a zemstvo physician and health officer. He was a member of the board of the Society of Russian Physicians in Memory of N. I. Pirogov, and from 1901 to 1919 was chairman of the society’s commission for the dissemination of hygiene information. He was director of the Museum of Social Hygiene from 1919 to 1923 and of the Institute of Social Hygiene from 1923 to 1931. Mol’kov was the founder and head of the first subdepartments of school hygiene in the medical departments of the Second Moscow State University (1924; from 1930, the Second Moscow Medical Institute), the First Moscow State University (1926; from 1930, the First Moscow Medical Institute), and the Central Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians (1934). He was the author of the first Soviet textbook on school hygiene (1934), which went through five editions.

Mol’kov directed the first study of the health and physical development of children in the USSR. He established the hygienic requirements for the design and construction of schools, kindergartens, and Pioneer camps. He also established work and rest schedules for children and made many contributions to the fields of medical care and health education. Mol’kov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.