Kudriavtsev, Petr

Born Oct. 13 (25), 1863, in the village of Chertkovo, present-day Penza Oblast; died Aug. 27,1935, in Riazan’. Active in zemstvo medical services and Soviet public health.

In 1887, Kudriavtsev graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Kazan. He was one of the leaders of the student revolutionary circles in the Volga region. He was close to the People’s Will group and was later affiliated with the Land and Liberty group. He worked with M. Gorky, D. I. Ul’ianov, and A. D. Tsiurupa. From 1889 to 1917 he was a public-health physician in various zemstvos (district and provincial assemblies).

After the October Revolution of 1917, Kudriavtsev worked in Riazan’ and later at the F. F. Erisman Institute of Public Health in Moscow. His principal studies dealt with morbidity, the distribution of epidemics, infant mortality, sanitary conditions in schools, and the living and working conditions of farm laborers. The material compiled by Kudriavtsev was used and commended by V. I. Lenin in his Development of Capitalism in Russia. He was the first Soviet physician to receive the title of Hero of Labor (1933).