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Nikolai Semashko | |
|---|---|
Николай Семашко | |
 Semashko in 1922 | |
| People's Commissar of Health of the Russian SFSR | |
| In office 18 July 1918 – 25 January 1930 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Mikhail Vladimirsky |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1874-09-26)26 September 1874 Livenskaya [ru], Russian Empire |
| Died | 18 May 1949(1949-05-18) (aged 74) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow |
| Party |
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| Alma mater | Kazan University |
| Occupation | Physician |
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Semashko (Russian:Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Сема́шко; 26 September [O.S. 14 September] 1874 – 18 May 1949) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet bureaucrat and physician who becamePeople's Commissar of Public Health in 1918, and served in that role until 1930. He was one of the organizers of the health system in theSoviet Union (often called theSemashko system), an academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1944) and of the Russian SFSR (1945).
Nikolai Semashko was born to a teacher in the village ofLivenskaya [ru] in the Russian Empire'sOryol Governorate (in present-dayLipetsk Oblast). His mother was a sister ofGeorgi Plekhanov.
In 1891, after graduating from the Yelets gymnasium (where he studied withMikhail Prishvin), Semashko entered the medical faculty ofMoscow University. In 1893 he became a member of aMarxist group. In 1895, for his participation in the revolutionary movement, he was arrested and exiled to his home in Livenskoe, under strict police surveillance. In 1901 he graduated from the medical faculty ofKazan University, after which he worked as a doctor in Oryol and inSamara. In 1904 he was an active member of theNizhny Novgorod Committee of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP); during the1905 Russian Revolution he co-organized the strike at theSormovo Factory, for which he was again arrested.
In 1906 he emigrated toSwitzerland and lived inGeneva, where he met withVladimir Lenin. In August 1907, Semashko served as a delegate from the Geneva Bolshevik organization at theInternational Socialist Congress of theSecond International. The Swiss police arrested him afterOlga (Sarra) Ravich, convicted in the case of the1907 Tiflis expropriation, sent him a letter from prison.
In 1908, together with the Bolshevik foreign center, he moved toParis, where until 1910 he worked as secretary of the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and participated in the Party School inLongjumeau (1911).
At the Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the RSDLP (1912) Semashko delivered a report on the insurance sector, consisting of a draft resolution which Lenin had edited and which the Conference adopted. In 1913 Semashko participated in the social-democratic movement inSerbia and inBulgaria; at the beginning ofWorld War I he was interned[by whom?]. Returning to Moscow in September 1917, he was elected chairman of the Bolshevik faction of the Pyatnitskaya district council. He was a delegate of theSixth Party Congress, participated in the preparation of the armed insurrection in Moscow, and organized medical care for its participants.
After theOctober Revolution of November 1917, Semashko served as head of the Health Department of theMoscow City Council, and from July 1918 to 1930 he held the post ofCommissar of Health of theRSFSR. He directed the autopsy on Lenin's corpse. Under Semashko'sleadership, work was carried out to combat epidemics, the foundations of Soviet public health were laid, and a system of protection of motherhood and childhood and the health of children and adolescents and a network of medical research institutes were created (e.g. State Central Institute of Public Nutrition in 1930 - now theScientific Research Institute of Nutrition).
In 1921-1949 Semashko was a professor with the Chair of Social Hygiene in the medical faculty ofMoscow State University (from 1931 theMoscow Medical Academy).
From 1930 to 1936, Semashko worked in theCentral Executive Committee, where he served as a member of the Presidium and the chairman of the Commission for the Improvement of Children's Lives (formerly the Detkomissiya), which was entrusted with the fight against homelessness and the management of therapeutic and preventive work in children's health-facilities. In 1945-1949 he was Director of the Institute for School Health of the RSFSR, and at the same time (1947–49) of the Institute for Health and History of Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences (since 1965 the Research Institute of the Semashko Social Hygiene and Public Health Organization).
He was a founder of the Central Medical Library (1918) and of the House of Scientists (1922) in Moscow, editor-in-chief of theGreat Medical Encyclopedia (1927–1936), the first chairman of the Supreme Council for Physical Education and Sports (from 1923), chairman of the All-Union Hygiene Society (1940–49), and delegate to the 10th, 12th, and 16thParty Congresses. He was awarded theOrder of Lenin, theOrder of the Red Banner of Labour, and medals.
Semashko was married and had a daughter Helen (Russian:Елена Николаевна Семашко, 1908–1983, married name Farobina), who was for many years a responsible official of theMinistry of Health.
