Miasnikov, Aleksandr Leonidovich

Born Sept. 6 (18), 1899, in Krasnyi Kholm, present-day Kalinin Oblast; died Nov. 19, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet doctor of internal medicine. Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1948).

Miasnikov graduated from the department of medicine of the First Moscow State University in 1922. From 1932 to 1938 he was head of the subdepartment of internal medicine at the Novosibirsk Institute of Advanced Training for Physicians and simultaneously (from 1934) head of the subdepartment of general medical sciences at the Novosibirsk Medical Institute. From 1938 to 1940, Miasnikov headed the subdepartment of general medical sciences at the Third Leningrad Medical Institute. From 1940 to 1948 he was head of the subdepartment of general medical sciences at the Naval Medical Academy in Leningrad and simultaneously (from 1942) chief of internal medicine of the Soviet Navy. In 1948, Miasnikov became director of the Institute of Internal Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (in 1966 renamed the Miasnikov Institute of Cardiology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR), and simultaneously, from 1948 to 1965, head of the subdepartment of hospital internal medicine of the First Moscow Medical Institute.

Miasnikov’s principal works dealt with cardiovascular pathology (hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary insufficiency), diseases of the liver and biliary tract, and infectious diseases (malaria and brucellosis). He founded a school of doctors of internal medicine (E. I. Chazov, I. K. Shkhvatsabaia, Z. S. Volynskii, A. S. Loginov, and V. S. Smolenskii).

In 1957, Miasnikov became chairman of the All-Russian Society of Doctors of Internal Medicine; he was an honorary member of many foreign scientific medical societies and a member of the executive committee of the International Society of Internal Medicine. He was awarded the Golden Stethoscope by the International Cardiology Foundation in 1964. He received the Order of Lenin, four other orders, and a number of medals.