Vasilii Vasilevich Zakusov

Born Apr. 13 (26), 1903, in St. Petersburg. Soviet pharmacologist, academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1952).

In 1926, Zakusov graduated from the Academy of Military Medicine, where he was a student of N. P. Kravkov. Between 1937 and 1954 he was the head of the pharmacology subdepartments in the Third Leningrad Medical Institute, Kuibyshev Academy of Military Medicine, and Leningrad Medical Institute. He became director of the Institute of Pharmacology of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1954 and simultaneously (1956–65) head of the pharmacology sub-department of the First Moscow Medical Institute. Zakusov’s main works deal with the pharmacology of the nervous, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems, general pharmacology, and industrial toxicology. He established a new school of thought in pharmacology. He was president of the All-Union Pharmacological Society and was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.