Mikhail Grigoryevich Grigoryev (September 19, 1916, village of Krasny Yar, Yadrin Uyezd, Kazan Governorate — According to the Nizhny Novgorod Biographical Encyclopedia, the place of birth is the village of Khirle-Siry (now Yadrinsky District of the Chuvash Republic), and the date of birth in the New Style is September 6, 1916.[1] — April 6, 2007) — Soviet and Russian trauma surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR. From 1951 to 1984 he headed the Gorky Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, The Great Patriotic War.[2]

Early Life and Education

He was born into a peasant family and lost his father at an early age. At fifteen he went to work as a bookkeeper at the Shumerlya woodworking plant, while simultaneously studying in the evening division of a rabfak (workers' preparatory faculty), which he completed by external examination in 1936. He enrolled in the medical faculty of the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy and then, at the urging of the institute's administration and by his own inclination, transferred to the pediatric faculty. He graduated from the institute in 1941.[2]

Wartime Military Service and Research

Immediately after graduating, he was drafted into the Red Army. He served throughout the war in active-duty units of the Western, Northwestern, 1st Belorussian, and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, serving in succession as a ward doctor, commander of a surgical and dressing platoon, and chief surgeon of the 268th Independent Medical Battalion of the 250th Rifle Division. Even at the front he systematically studied the clinical picture of traumatic shock. In 1946 his monograph "Traumatic Shock in the Field Zone During the Years of the Great Patriotic War" was awarded a second-degree prize in the All-Union competition "The Experience of Soviet Medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945." In 1947 Grigoryev defended his candidate's dissertation, "A Study of Combat Traumatic Shock."[2]

Directorship of the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics

In March 1946 Grigoryev joined the Gorky Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics as a junior research associate; he subsequently became a senior research associate and head of the traumatology department, and later of the pediatric orthopedics department. In December 1951 he was appointed director of the Gorky Research Institute of Reconstructive Surgery, Traumatology, and Orthopedics, succeeding Nikolai Nikolaevich Blokhin, who later became president of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He led the institute without interruption until his retirement in 1984 — a span of 33 years.[2]

During his years as director, the institute trained 26 doctors and 138 candidates of medical sciences; 43 candidate's dissertations and 8 doctoral dissertations were defended under Grigoryev's personal supervision. Under his leadership and with his direct participation, methods were developed for treating the sequelae of combat injuries in war invalids, paralytic poliomyelitis, and burn disease. Grigoryev's original surgical techniques — involving joint arthroplasty using allografts — entered the surgical literature under the name "Grigoryev operations"; he also improved methods of diagnosing spinal osteochondrosis and multiple injuries to the musculoskeletal system and skull, as well as forms of prosthetic and orthopedic care for the population.[1] In 1961 Grigoryev performed the world's first operation to transplant the proximal femur in a child. In 1966 he was confirmed in the academic rank of professor. In total he published more than 200 scholarly works.[2]

Concurrently with his work at the institute, from 1947 to 1950 he was engaged in teaching as an assistant at the Gorky S. M. Kirov Medical Institute, and from 1950 to 1960 as an associate professor of the military field surgery course at the same institute.[2]

International Activities and Recognition

Grigoryev represented Soviet traumatology and orthopedics abroad on numerous occasions, delivering papers at international conferences in East Germany, Poland, and Hungary. He was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR.[2]

Grigoryev was decorated with the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Star (1942 and 1943), the Orders of the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd Class, and two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour.[1]

Sources

  1. names52.ru — Grigoryev Mikhail Grigoryevich — According to the Nizhny Novgorod Biographical Encyclopedia, Grigoryev was born in the village of Khirle-Siry (now Yadrinsky District of the Chuvash Republic), and not in… (archive)
  2. history.nizhgma.ru — Museum of the History of NizhGMA — View Person (archive)
  3. pimunn.ru — Mikhail Grigoryevich Grigoryev (archive)