Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev (russian: Жоре́с Алекса́ндрович Медве́дев; 14 November 1925 – 15 November 2018) was a Russian
agronomist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...
,
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...
,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and
dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...
. His twin brother is the historian
Roy Medvedev
Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev (russian: Рой Алекса́ндрович Медве́дев; born 14 November 1925) is a Russian political writer. He is the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, ''Let History Judge'' (russian: К с ...
.
Biography
Early life and education
Zhores Medvedev and his twin brother Roy were born on 14 November 1925 in
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
,
Transcaucasian SFSR
, conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
, common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR
, p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR
, flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...
,
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Their mother Yulia (''nee'' Reiman), was a cellist, and their father, Alexander Medvedev, was a philosopher in a military academy in Leningrad.
[ Steele, Jonathan (23 November 2018)]
"Zhores Medvedev obituary"
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. Zhores, named after French socialist leader
Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
(his twin was named after Indian revolutionary
M. N. Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...
),
was drafted into the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
in 1943, but was soon discharged after being seriously wounded in a battle on the
Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
.
He then began his studies in biology at the
Timiryazev Agricultural Academy Timiryazev (russian: Тимиря́зев, links=no; masculine) or Timiryazeva (russian: Тимиря́зева, links=no; feminine) is a Turkic Russian last name. It may refer to:
People
* Arkady Timiryasev (1880-1955), Soviet physicist and philo ...
in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
.
In December 1950, Zhores was awarded a
PhD degree
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
for his research into sexual processes in plants.
Biology research in the USSR
He became a junior research scientist in the Agrochemistry and Biochemistry Department at Timiryazev Academy and he was promoted to senior research scientist in 1954 and remained at the academy until 1963. Beginning in 1952, Medvedev had focused his attention on the problems of aging, concentrating on the turnover of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1961, he published the first paper suggesting that aging is the result of an accumulation of errors in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids. In 1962, Medvedev wrote his book on the history of
Soviet genetics, which passed an editorial review but was withheld by state censors.
It was later published in the United States in 1969 as ''The Rise and Fall of
T.D. Lysenko''.
In 1963, Medvedev moved to
Obninsk
Obninsk (russian: О́бнинск) is a city in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Protva River southwest of Moscow and northeast of Kaluga. Population:
History
The history of Obninsk began in 1945 when the First Research In ...
to the Institute of Medical Radiology, where he was appointed head of the molecular radiobiology laboratory. He published two books, ''Protein Biosynthesis and Problems of Heredity Development and Ageing'' and ''Molecular Mechanisms of Development''.
Dissident writings
Medvedev was dismissed from his position in 1969. Between 1968 and 1970, Medvedev wrote two more books: ''International Cooperation of Scientists and National Frontiers'' and ''Secrecy of Correspondence is Guaranteed by Law'' (about postal censorship in the USSR). These works were widely circulated in the USSR among scientists, along with a copy of his 1962 history of Soviet genetics (which had been published in ''Grani,'' a Russian journal published outside the USSR), and this activity resulted in Medvedev's arrest and forced detention in the
Kaluga
Kaluga ( rus, Калу́га, p=kɐˈɫuɡə), a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast in Russia, stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population:
Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiol ...
psychiatric hospital in May 1970. This action, however, produced many protests from scientists (academics
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
,
Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza ( Russian: Пётр Леонидович Капица, Romanian: Petre Capița ( – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, best known for his work in low-temperature physics ...
,
Igor Tamm
Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm ( rus, И́горь Евге́ньевич Тамм , p=ˈiɡərʲ jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvitɕ ˈtam , a=Ru-Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm.ogg; 8 July 1895 – 12 April 1971) was a Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in ...
,
Vladimir Engelgardt Vladimir Aleksandrovich Engelgardt (russian: Владимир Александрович Энгельгардт) (December 3, 1894, in Moscow – July 10, 1984, in Moscow) was a Soviet biochemist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sc ...
,
Boris Astaurov,
Nikolai Semyonov, and others) and writers (including
Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
,
Tvardovsky
Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky ( rus, links=no, Александр Трифонович Твардовский, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈtrʲifənəvʲɪtɕ tvɐrˈdofskʲɪj; – 18 December 1971) was a Soviet poet and writer and chief editor of ' ...
,
Vladimir Tendryakov,
Vladimir Dudintsev
Vladimir Dimitrievich Dudintsev (russian: Влади́мир Дми́триевич Дуди́нцев, ; 29 July 1918 – 23 July 1998) was a Soviet writer who gained fame for his 1956 novel, ''Not by Bread Alone'', published at the time of the ...
), which resulted in Medvedev's release (this experience was reflected in Zhores and Roy Medvedev's book ''A Question of Madness'').
In 1971, Medvedev was given the job of Senior scientist of the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals in
Borovsk
Borovsk (russian: Бо́ровск) is a town and the administrative center of Borovsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Protva River just south from the oblast's border with Moscow Oblast. Population: 12,000 (1969).
History
...
, in the Kaluga region.
London
In 1972, Medvedev was invited for one year's research by the
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC);
In 2016, the NIMR b ...
in London at its new Genetic Division. In August 1973, however, his
Soviet passport
The Soviet passport was an identity document issued pursuant to the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for citizens of the USSR. For the general purposes of identity certification, Soviet passports contained such data as name, ...
was confiscated and he was stripped of his
Soviet citizenship. He remained in London and worked as Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research until his retirement in 1991.
Publication of information about the Kyshtym disaster
In 1977, Medvedev published ''Hazards of Nuclear Power'', which mentioned the
Kyshtym nuclear disaster in passing. At the time, the disaster was essentially unknown, and his work was dismissed as baseless propaganda even by his Western colleagues.
Medvedev responded by publishing ''Soviet Science'' in 1978, which assembled evidence from Soviet publications that taken together comprised conclusive evidence of the disaster's occurrence. He followed this with the book ''The Nuclear Disaster in the Urals'' in 1979, and a further critique ''The Legacy of Chernobyl'' (1990), which connected the two disasters as being a product of the same attitudes toward science and engineering in the USSR.
Further work
In London, Medvedev acted as his brother Roy's representative, managing his publishing contracts and financial affairs. In 1975 he created a small publishing house, "T.C.D. publications", for the purpose of publishing the Russian-language version of Roy Medvedev's
samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
journal ''XX Century''. The two brothers also coauthored ''Khrushchev: The Years in Power'' (1978) and several other books, the last one ''The Unknown Stalin'' (2007).
Medvedev died in London on 15 November 2018, one day after his 93rd birthday, with his family by his side.
In 2019, his memoirs posthumously appeared in Russian under the title ''A Dangerous Profession''.
Legacy
Medvedev published about 170 research papers and reviews, about sixty of them during his time in London. In 1973 he was one of the signatories of the
Humanist Manifesto
''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...
.
He received the Aging Research Award from the United States Association of Biogerontology in 1984 and the Rene Schubert Prize in Gerontology in 1985.
According to
Michael Gordin, a professor of History at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, Medvedev provided critiques of the Soviet Union that were "powerful, persuasive and principled", with Medvedev being "sympathetic to the dreams of the
Revolution">ussianRevolution" but opposed to the "
cronyism
Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
and
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
had contaminated the early promise."
Notes
References
Works
* ''Protein Biosynthesis and Problems of Heredity, Development and Ageing''. New York: Plenum Press, 1966. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd Ltd, 1966
* ''Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and Legacy'' (with Roy Medvedev, Ellen Dahrendorf - Translator) (
Overlook Press
The Overlook Press is an American publishing house based in New York, New York, that considers itself "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses".
History and operations
It was formed in 1971 by Peter Mayer, wh ...
, 2005),
* ''Legacy of Chernobyl'' (
W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 1992),
* ''Soviet Agriculture'' (W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 1988),
* ''Gorbachev'' (W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 1987),
*
Andropov' (W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 1983),
* ''Nuclear Disaster in the Urals'' (1980),
* ''Gorbachev'' (1986),
* ''Molecular-Genetic Mechanisms of Development'' (1970),
* ''Medvedev Papers: Fruitful Meetings between Scientists of the World'' (1971),
* ''Ten Years after Ivan Denisovich'' (1974),
* ''Hazards of Nuclear Power'' (with Alan Roberts) (1977),
* ''Secrecy of Correspondence Is Guaranteed by Law'' (1975),
* ''Soviet Science'' (1978),
* ''Stalin and the Jewish Question: New Analysis'' (2003, in Russian),
* ''Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov: Two Prophets'' (with Roy Medvedev) (2004, in Russian)
* ''The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko'' (translated by
I. Michael. Lerner)
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
(1969),
* ''Medvedev Papers: The Plight Of Soviet Science'',
* ''A Question Of Madness'' (with Roy Medvedev),
* ''Nuclear Disaster In The Urals'' (trans. George Saunders),
* ''Khrushchev: The Years In Power'' (with Roy Medvedev),
* ''National Frontiers / International Scientific Cooperation'' (Medvedev Papers),
Spokesman Books
The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, established in 1963, continues the work of the philosopher and activist Bertrand Russell in the areas of peace, social justice, and human rights, with a specific focus on the dangers of nuclear war. Ken Coat ...
, 1975,
* Nutrition and Longevity (2011, in Russian), publ. "Vremya" Moscow,
* ''Nutrition and Longevity'' (in Russian), 2007,
* ''Polonium in London'' (in Russian), 2008, Molodaya Gvardia, Moscow:
Articles
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Articles on
poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
A poison can be any substance that is harmful to the body. It can be swallowed, inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning is the harmful effect that occurs when too much of that substance has been taken. Poisoning is not to ...
.
**
**
External links
Interview with Zhores Medvedev 18 July 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medvedev, Zhores
1925 births
2018 deaths
Writers from Tbilisi
Russian biologists
Russian agronomists
Russian gerontologists
Russian anti–nuclear power activists
Soviet biologists
Soviet agronomists
20th-century biologists
Soviet dissidents
Russian twins
Russian political writers
Stalinism-era scholars and writers
Russian studies scholars
Soviet expellees
Soviet emigrants to the United Kingdom
Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers
Psychiatric survivor activists
People denaturalized by the Soviet Union
National Institute for Medical Research faculty
Soviet military personnel of World War II