Moisiejus Leonas Koganas (February 20, 1894, Šiauliai – May 30, 1956, Vilnius) was a Lithuanian Jewish medical doctor specializing in lung diseases, particularly tuberculosis. In 1919, he graduated from

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. During World War I, he served as a doctor in the Red Army. In 1921–40 he worked as a physicians in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

. He was one of the first to perform thoracocautery and practice tracheobronchoscopy in Lithuania. After the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in June 1940, he became Minister of Health in the short-lived People's Government of Lithuania (it was a new ministry; before, there was only the Health Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs). He spent World War II working at various tuberculosis clinics in the interior of the Soviet Union ( Mordovia,

Kirghizia Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

, Gorky Oblast,

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...

). After the war, he returned to Lithuania working in Vilnius as director (1945–46) and deputy director (1947–51) of the Tuberculosis Institute. He became a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

in 1947. In the wake of the Doctors' plot, Koganas was arrested in February 1953 and accused of communicating with other arrested doctors, preferring Western treatment methods, and giving poor medical care to various communist workers and activists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koganas, Leonas 1894 births 1956 deaths People from Šiauliai People from Kovno Governorate Lithuanian Jews Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Lithuanian pulmonologists Lithuanian collaborators with the Soviet Union (1940–41) Soviet pulmonologists Moscow State University alumni