Biography. Encyclopedia of the Chelyabinsk region
Born on March 29, 1924 in Krasnoyarsk. Father - Guskov Konstantin Vasilievich (1892-1979). Mother - Guskova 3rd Vasilievna (1895-1977).
In 1941, Angelina Guskova entered the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute at the Faculty of Medicine. Upon graduation in 1946, she completed a residency at the clinic of nervous diseases and neurosurgery. From 1949 to 1953, she headed the neurological department in the medical and sanitary department No. 71 in the city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region. Since 1953, she worked as a senior researcher at the branch, then at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 1961, she headed the radiological department of the Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1974, she returned to the Institute of Biophysics of the Ministry of Health as head of the clinical department. From 1998 to the present, he has been working here as chief researcher.
In the period from 1946 to 1953, the scope of her research was the problems of neuropathology and neurosurgery (neuroinfections, brain tumors). In 1951, she defended her Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Multiforme glioblastomas of the brain: clinical and histotopographic types.”
From 1953 to the present, the main activity of A.K. Guskova's specialty is radiation medicine - diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic radiation sickness. In 1956, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Organization of medical monitoring of persons exposed to radiation under normal and emergency conditions. Examination of their health status. Clinical epidemiology and clinical dosimetric correlates of the consequences of radiation exposure. Neurological syndromes of human radiation sickness.”
The main areas of activity and scientific and practical achievements of A.K. Guskova can be presented as follows: creation together with G.D. Baisogolov's fundamental etiopathogenetic classification of human radiation sickness; direct participation in treatment, assessment of its effectiveness and the formation of the basic principles of therapeutic and diagnostic measures in case of radiation accidents of various types; participation in the system of preventive measures among the staff of the Mayak p/o, which led to the restoration of the health of the vast majority of people (88%) out of several thousand exposed; participation in the work of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (SCEAR) and the preparation of reports of this committee in sections relating to the acute effects of radiation, clinical radiation epidemiology, the effects of radiation on the nervous system and participation in the program on vascular diseases (the contribution of radiation to polyetiological diseases).
With the guidance and consultations of Angelina Konstantinovna, more than 40 candidate and 10 doctoral dissertations were completed and defended.
A.K. Guskova is the author of about 200 publications, monographs (co-authored) and sections in monographs and manuals (independent). The most important of them: “Human Radiation Sickness” (1971), “Medical Assistance given to personnel of the Chernobyl N.P. after 1986 Accident” (1996), “Guide to the organization of medical care for persons exposed to radiation” (1986), “Manual on Radiation Medicine” (2001), chapter “Diseases caused by exposure to radiation” in the “Manual of Occupational Diseases” (1996), “Medical Management of the Radiation Accident”.
From 1959 to the present - member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection, expert of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation at the UN (from 1967 to the present).
In 1986, she was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Winner of the Lenin Prize (1963). Awarded the Orders of Lenin and Friendship of Peoples. Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, laureate of the Siewert Prize for radiation protection (2000).
For many years, Angelina Konstantinovna has been interested in studying materials on the history of science. Likes to read, travel to Russian cities and countries around the world, and listen to music. She considers it her unfinished duty to talk about the many wonderful people with whom she had the opportunity to communicate, as well as to write clinical lectures on human radiation sickness for future generations.
Lives and works in Moscow.
Born on March 29, 1924 in Krasnoyarsk. Father - Guskov Konstantin Vasilievich (1892-1979). Mother - Guskova 3rd Vasilievna (1895-1977).
In 1941, Angelina Guskova entered the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute at the Faculty of Medicine. Upon graduation in 1946, she completed a residency at the clinic of nervous diseases and neurosurgery. From 1949 to 1953, she headed the neurological department in the medical and sanitary department No. 71 in the city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region. Since 1953, she worked as a senior researcher at the branch, then at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 1961, she headed the radiological department of the Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1974, she returned to the Institute of Biophysics of the Ministry of Health as head of the clinical department. From 1998 to the present, he has been working here as chief researcher.
In the period from 1946 to 1953, the scope of her research was the problems of neuropathology and neurosurgery (neuroinfections, brain tumors). In 1951, she defended her Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Multiforme glioblastomas of the brain: clinical and histotopographic types.”
From 1953 to the present, the main activity of A.K. Guskova's specialty is radiation medicine - diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic radiation sickness. In 1956, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Organization of medical monitoring of persons exposed to radiation under normal and emergency conditions. Examination of their health status. Clinical epidemiology and clinical dosimetric correlates of the consequences of radiation exposure. Neurological syndromes of human radiation sickness.”
The main areas of activity and scientific and practical achievements of A.K. Guskova can be presented as follows: creation together with G.D. Baisogolov's fundamental etiopathogenetic classification of human radiation sickness; direct participation in treatment, assessment of its effectiveness and the formation of the basic principles of therapeutic and diagnostic measures in case of radiation accidents of various types; participation in the system of preventive measures among the staff of the Mayak p/o, which led to the restoration of the health of the vast majority of people (88%) out of several thousand exposed; participation in the work of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (SCEAR) and the preparation of reports of this committee in sections relating to the acute effects of radiation, clinical radiation epidemiology, the effects of radiation on the nervous system and participation in the program on vascular diseases (the contribution of radiation to polyetiological diseases).
With the guidance and consultations of Angelina Konstantinovna, more than 40 candidate and 10 doctoral dissertations were completed and defended.
A.K. Guskova is the author of about 200 publications, monographs (co-authored) and sections in monographs and manuals (independent). The most important of them: “Human Radiation Sickness” (1971), “Medical Assistance given to personnel of the Chernobyl N.P. after 1986 Accident” (1996), “Guide to the organization of medical care for persons exposed to radiation” (1986), “Manual on Radiation Medicine” (2001), chapter “Diseases caused by exposure to radiation” in the “Manual of Occupational Diseases” (1996), “Medical Management of the Radiation Accident”.
From 1959 to the present - member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection, expert of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation at the UN (from 1967 to the present).
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In 1986, she was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Winner of the Lenin Prize (1963). Awarded the Orders of Lenin and Friendship of Peoples. Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, laureate of the Siewert Prize for radiation protection (2000).
For many years, Angelina Konstantinovna has been interested in studying materials on the history of science. Likes to read, travel to Russian cities and countries around the world, and listen to music. She considers it her unfinished duty to talk about the many wonderful people with whom she had the opportunity to communicate, as well as to write clinical lectures on human radiation sickness for future generations.
Lives and works in Moscow.
Guskova Angelina Konstantinovna— radiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences (1956), professor, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1989), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (1986), laureate of the Lenin Prize of the USSR (1963), laureate of the Sievert Prize for radiation protection (2000).
Angelina Guskova was born on March 29, 1924 in Krasnoyarsk, in the family of doctor Konstantin Vasilyevich and pianist Zoya Vasilievna Guskov. Angelina's great-grandfather served as a nurse, and her grandfather was a paramedic.
In 1946 she graduated from the medical faculty of the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute, and in 1949 she completed clinical residency at the clinic of nervous diseases and neurosurgery of the same institute. She became a 4th generation doctor.
She was sent to the medical and sanitary department (MSD) No. 71, created for medical care of the personnel of the country's first weapons-grade plutonium production plant in Ozersk (Chelyabinsk-40).
In 1949-1953 - head of the neurological department of medical and sanitary department No. 71, in 1953-1957 - senior researcher at Branch No. 1 of the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Ministry of Health.
In 1951 she defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Glioblastomas of the brain multiforme: clinical and histotopographic types.”
Since 1953, Angelina Konstantinovna has been involved in radiology, diagnosis and treatment of radiation sickness. She laid the foundations for the diagnosis and treatment of radiation diseases in nuclear plant workers exposed to occupational exposure to high doses; developed a system for preventing occupational pathology.
In 1956, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Organization of medical monitoring of persons exposed to radiation under normal and emergency conditions. Examination of their health status. Clinical epidemiology and clinical dosimetric correlates of the consequences of radiation exposure. Neurological syndromes of human radiation sickness.”
In 1957-1961, Angelina Konstantinovna worked at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow; in 1961-1974 she was the head of the radiology department at the Institute of Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases.
In 1974-1998 - head of the clinical department of the Institute of Biophysics, then its chief researcher (since 2008 - Federal Medical Biophysical Center named after A.I. Burnazyan FMBA of Russia).
Under the scientific guidance of A.K. Guskova defended 34 candidate and 12 doctoral dissertations.
The main directions of scientific and practical activity in different periods: diagnosis and pathomorphology of human brain tumors; diagnosis and treatment of various forms of radiation sickness; organization of medical care in case of radiation accidents of various types; comparative assessment and optimization of radiation risk perception by various groups of the population and professionals; optimization of the medical surveillance system and assessment of the health status of various professional groups working with sources of ionizing radiation; the state of the cardiovascular system and cerebrovascular hemodynamics, the possible role of the radiation factor in the risk system.
Since 1967, Angelina Konstantinovna Guskova, as an adviser to the Russian delegation and a member of working groups, has constantly participated in sessions of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation at the UN, and is a member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection.
She took part as the head of a team of doctors in the treatment of people injured in Chernobyl during the explosion and fire extinguishing at the nuclear power plant. Thanks to the developments and practical experience of the team, the state scientific center “Institute of Biophysics” is the leading scientific and practical center of radiation medicine in the country and the world.
A.K. Guskova was awarded the Order of Lenin (1986), Friendship of Peoples (1986), “Badge of Honor” (1956), badges “For services to the nuclear industry” 1st degree, “For participation in the liquidation of the accident”, “A. I. Burnazyan.” In 2000, in Hiroshima (Japan), the IRPA Congress awarded Angelina Konstantinovna the Sievert Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy for her contribution to solving the problem of radiation protection.
PROFESSOR ANGELINA GUSKOVA: ON THE BLADE OF THE ATOMIC SWORD
Author of the article: Vladimir GUBAREV. “SCIENCE AND LIFE” No. 4 2007
Guskova Angelina Konstantinovna died on April 7, 2015 in Moscow.
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GUSKOVA Angelina Konstantinovna (b. 03/29/1924, Krasnoyarsk), radiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences (1956), professor, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1989), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (1986), laureate of the Lenin Prize of the USSR (1963), laureate Siewert Prize for radiation protection (2000).
From a doctor's family. Since 1926 she lived in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk region. In 1946 she graduated from the medical faculty of the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute, and in 1949 she completed clinical residency at the clinic of nervous diseases and neurosurgery of the same institute. She became a 4th generation doctor.
She was sent to the medical and sanitary department (MSD) No. 71, created for medical care of the personnel of the country's first weapons-grade plutonium production plant in Ozersk (Chelyabinsk-40). In 1949-1953 - head of the neurological department of medical and sanitary department No. 71, in 1953-1957 - senior researcher at Branch No. 1 of the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Ministry of Health. In 1951 she defended her PhD thesis on the topic “Glioblastomas of the brain multiforme: clinical and histotopographic types.”
Since 1953, Angelina Konstantinovna has been involved in radiology, diagnosis and treatment of radiation sickness. She laid the foundations for the diagnosis and treatment of radiation diseases in nuclear plant workers exposed to occupational exposure to high doses; developed a system for preventing occupational pathology. In 1956, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Organization of medical monitoring of persons exposed to radiation under normal and emergency conditions. Examination of their health status. Clinical epidemiology and clinical dosimetric correlates of the consequences of radiation exposure. Neurological syndromes of human radiation sickness.” In 1957-1961, Angelina Konstantinovna worked at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow; in 1961-1974 she was the head of the radiology department at the Institute of Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases.
In 1974-1998 - head of the clinical department of the Institute of Biophysics, then its chief researcher (since 2008 - Federal Medical Biophysical Center named after A.I. Burnazyan FMBA of Russia). Under the scientific guidance of A.K. Guskova defended 34 candidate and 12 doctoral dissertations. She is the author of more than 200 scientific publications, including 10 monographs (co-authored), more than 40 master's and 10 doctoral dissertations were completed under her leadership and consultations.
The main directions of scientific and practical activity in different periods: diagnosis and pathomorphology of human brain tumors; diagnosis and treatment of various forms of radiation sickness; organization of medical care in case of radiation accidents of various types; comparative assessment and optimization of radiation risk perception by various groups of the population and professionals; optimization of the medical surveillance system and assessment of the health status of various professional groups working with sources of ionizing radiation; the state of the cardiovascular system and cerebrovascular hemodynamics, the possible role of the radiation factor in the risk system. Since 1967, Angelina Konstantinovna Guskova, as an adviser to the Russian delegation and a member of working groups, has constantly participated in sessions of the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation at the UN, and is a member of the National Commission on Radiation Protection.
She took part as the head of a team of doctors in the treatment of people injured in Chernobyl during the explosion and fire extinguishing at the nuclear power plant. Thanks to the developments and practical experience of the team, the state scientific center “Institute of Biophysics” is the leading scientific and practical center of radiation medicine in the country and the world.
A.K. Guskova was awarded the Order of Lenin (1986), Friendship of Peoples (1986), “Badge of Honor” (1956), badges “For services to the nuclear industry” 1st degree, “For participation in the liquidation of the accident”, “A. I. Burnazyan.” In 2000, in Hiroshima (Japan), the IRPA Congress awarded Angelina Konstantinovna the Sievert Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy for her contribution to solving the problem of radiation protection.
Works of A.K. Guskova
Books
1. Human radiation sickness (essays) / A.K. Guskova, G.D. Baisogolov. – M.: “Medicine”, 1971. – 384 p.
2. Nuclear industry through the eyes of a doctor / A.K. Guskova. - M.: Real Time, 2004. - 240 p.: photo.
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
3. First steps into the future together: nuclear industry and medicine in the Southern Urals / A.K. Guskova, A.V. Akleev, N.A. Koshurnikova; edited by A.K. Guskova. - M.: ALLANA, 2009. - 183 p.
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
4. The accident of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986-2011): consequences for health, thoughts of a doctor: [monograph] / A.K. Guskova, I.A. Galstyan, I.A. Gusev; ed. A.K. Guskova. - M.: FMBC im. A.I. Burnazyan, 2011. - 251 p.
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
6. The same age as the century / A.K. Guskova // Issues of radiation safety. - 1998. - No. 3. - P. 72-75. – Access mode: http://www.libozersk.ru/pbd/pochet/persons/slavskiy/guskova.html
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
8. Memories and reflections / A.K. Guskova // Ozersky Bulletin. - 2000. - November 15. – P. 10. – Access mode: http://www.libozersk.ru/pbd/Mayak60/link/353.htm
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
MKUK "CBS" Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region
22. Kosheleva L. The one who walks will master the road / L. Kosheleva // Ozersky Bulletin. - 1994. - August 4. — P. 1-2. – Access mode: http://www.libozersk.ru/pbd/Mayak60/link/355.htm
23. Anniversary of Angelina Konstantinovna Guskova // About “Mayak”. - 2004. - March 26. – P. 3. – Access mode:
Date of: 11/11/2005
Subject: Health
A.K. Guskova, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member. RAMS, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Biophysics of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation
Angelina Konstantinovna Guskova is called a legend of medical radiology. And there is not a grain of exaggeration in this characterization. She worked with Kurchatov, Aleksandrov, Slavsky, leaving her memories about them in the just published book “The Nuclear Industry of the Country Through the Eyes of a Doctor.”
In fifty-three, in collaboration with his colleague G.D. Baisagolov published a book describing radiation sickness. At that time the book was marked “secret”. In 1971, the book was republished, removing the classification of secrecy. The book remains the best practical guide for doctors to this day; one of its copies is kept in the National Library of Congress.
Dr. Guskova’s entry into science was swift and vibrant, like all subsequent activities. Here are just some of the milestones of her long scientific journey. At the age of 27, I defended my candidate’s dissertation, and at thirty-two, I defended my doctoral dissertation. In 1963, she and a number of other scientists were awarded the Lenin Prize for achievements in the treatment of radiation sickness. In 2000, in Nagasaki, Angelina Konstantinovna was awarded the Sievert Gold Medal for radiation safety of the Royal Swedish Academy. Delivering a response speech, A.K. said: “In accepting this high award today, I believe that it is rightfully shared with me by the participants in this incredibly difficult early and significant stage of protecting the personnel of the country’s first nuclear enterprise from radiation.” “The first nuclear enterprise in the country” is the Mayak plant, where in 1948 she began to comprehend radiology.
Angelina Konstantinovna belongs to a rare type of patriotic scientist in our time. Recalling the Geneva Conference of 1953, he invariably emphasizes that at it for the first time Soviet scientists reported on radiation sickness. The rest of the countries were silent, although by that time 59 cases of radiation sickness had been recorded.
Since the 60s, participating in the work of many international organizations (WHO, IAEA, UN), having worked for several years in the USA and Europe, having extensive scientific connections with scientists around the world, she takes every opportunity to highlight the contribution of Russian (Soviet) scientists in the development of radiation medicine. The author of these lines personally observed how at the recent coordination meeting of REMPAN with the participation of representatives of the UN, WHO, IAEA, held in St. Petersburg, Professor Guskova several times clarified the speeches of her foreign colleagues during scientific discussions. In one case, she expressed bewilderment why the speaker, while naming the names of scientists who made a great contribution to the development of radiobiology, did not mention the name of the prominent representative of the Russian scientific school B. Raevsky. Next time, she expressed regret that the three-volume manual on the treatment of radiation sickness, published by Russian scientists, did not become the object of attention of WHO and REMPAN. For the third time, going to the microphone, she recommended that the heads of international organizations cooperate more closely with the Moscow and Ukrainian Research Institutes of Biophysics, which have accumulated vast practical experience in the treatment of radiation sickness.
Her patriotism is not limited to purely scientific discussions. Angelina Konstantinovna cannot calmly watch as the scientific, technical and scientific and medical potential of the research centers of nuclear cities declines. She is obsessed with the idea of meeting with the country's President Vladimir Putin to convey to him her concern for the nuclear industry. A man who has saved people hundreds of times from the effects of radiation and buried them more than once has something to tell the first person in the country.
During a break between REMPAN meetings, Nadezhda Koroleva, a journalist from Atomic Strategy, met with Angelina Konstantinovna Guskova.
– Angelina Konstantinovna, does your scientific biography from the outside look like nothing but victories?
– I am an optimist and a happy person. Although I had troubles in my life. For example, it was very difficult to move from the Urals to Moscow, to the Institute of Biophysics in 1957, where I was met with hostility. I came as a doctor of science, and in four years at the institute I was given one graduate student. It was a difficult four years; they didn’t allow me to work at all. And then I decided to go to the Leningrad Institute of Neurosurgery to work in my old specialty. An incredibly serious scandal broke out. The director of the institute, Shamov, received a reprimand from Deputy Minister of Health Burnazyan for poaching personnel. Letavet Gennady Andreevich took me to the Institute of Professional Medicine, and I happily worked there for thirteen years, organizing the radiology department. Leonid Andreevich Ilyin brought me back to the Institute of Biophysics. When he saw the terrible state of the institute and clinic, he asked me to come back. I returned with great excitement.
“I was “returned” to the IBF also at the insistence of L.A. Ilyina. He took on his shoulders the heavy burden of Chernobyl during the acute period, and worked directly as part of the government commission at the station in April-May 1986. It was he who made the bold decision to refuse to evacuate the population of Kiev, but instead of being grateful for this decision, he became a figure non grata with a stream of unfair accusations and reproaches that fell upon him. Chairman of the NCRP, in this difficult time L.A. Ilyin was the initiator of many important and useful decisions. “Alas, the letter initiated by him from 100 leading scientists, which would have prevented many of the socio-economic ills caused by legislation on the Chernobyl situation, adopted under pressure from demagogues, was not taken into account.”
– After a free student life, you found yourself in a closed, super-secret system. Wasn't it difficult to adapt to it?
“When I was sent to this system in 1948, my parents thought that I had been arrested, since all connections were severed and I could not come home. For two years I didn’t see anything, no family – barbed wire. I was only sent to Moscow on business trips, but no meetings with my family. The first time they let me go home for a few hours, when I accompanied B.L. Vannikova and E.P. Slavsky (the first is Deputy Minister of Sredmash, the second is Minister of Sredmash. Author's note) on their trip to the Urals. There was a tour of the base in the Urals past Nizhny Tagil, and they let me go home for a few hours. For the first time in 1951 I met my family.
“During our trip to the Urals, for the first time in 1.5 years of my separation from my family, they let me go home to Tagil for a few hours. And when my dad, mom and sister saw me off to the station, they talked to them warmly and cordially. E.P. has a special (and long-lasting) interest. was caused by the work of my sister, historian T.K. Guskova on the problems of the formation of the mining industry in the Urals and the role of a number of generations of the Demidov family in this. From my sister, through me, E.P. learned about the strength of the Ural iron that covered the vaults of Westminster Abbey in Great Britain, and about the Ural copper in the Statue of Liberty in the USA. This is important and needed by E.P. in his love for the “great power” and pride in it. Probably, in this way one can only love something into which a particle of soul and heart is invested, to which one’s life is given.”
– Who were your parents?
– The family was intelligent. Mom is a pianist, dad is a doctor. I am a fourth generation doctor. My great-grandfather served as a nurse during the Russian-Turkish war, my grandfather was a paramedic, my father was a doctor. He graduated from the Tomsk Medical Institute after the Civil War in 1921. The family loved books and music. My sister is a historian, an honorary citizen of Nizhny Tagil. So the family environment was educated.
– Why did high-ranking Kremlin officials take you, an aspiring young doctor, with them on business trips?
“When they came to our enterprise, even their Kremlin doctors did not have access to them; they were transferred to our care. Our eldest was Georgy Davydovich Baisogolov. I was Vannikov’s doctor (deputy minister), he had a stroke, and I was a neurologist, working with the consequences of a stroke. If he had heart problems, Baisogolov would have gone. And Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov had a stroke, I was also their attending physician.
“Jokes and pranks of I.V. loved and had fun himself, involving his scientific colleagues and their assistants in them. During one of the “night vigils” in the Kremlin, with the help of Dmitry Semenovich, he placed corks from wine bottles in the pockets of their jackets. The wife who discovered the traffic jam naturally asked whether her husband had spent the night again “in high places” or at a friendly party. Has changed the clothes of Academician A.P. Vinogradov and speaks to him on the road only in English, assuring others of that. What an extravagant foreigner he is. He cheerfully joked about the attempts of his scientific colleagues to “fix the electric lighting” in a cottage in the Urals, and when they snapped that it would be better if he, a physicist, did this, he joked: “Physicists at least critically evaluate their abilities.” He joked cheerfully, kindly, harmlessly. Very rarely did he speak ironically about anyone without warmth, but there were also famous characters in jokes with apt definitions (“Armenian philosopher”, etc.).”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
– How were you involved in the Chernobyl accident?
“I was probably the first physician in the country to know about it.” I received a call from the Kyiv medical unit at two o’clock in the morning: the first patients appeared there with symptoms very similar to radiation sickness. But the nuclear power plant assured that there could be no radiation, there could be poisoning from fumes, hot plastic, etc. My first decision: “Give us people with different periods of the primary reaction: three who started vomiting immediately, three who started vomiting after an hour, three after two hours, and we’ll figure it out.” Well, then the patients began to arrive, and by five in the morning it became clear that this was, after all, radiation sickness. I went to the Institute of Biophysics to prepare the clinic for the appointment.
“I remember with bitterness our attempt with IBP physicist A.A. Moiseev, through the head of the 2nd Main Directorate of the Ministry of Health, in 1970, proposed for publication a book manuscript in which the features of the radiation situation and measures of assistance in the event of a ground-based atomic explosion and a peacetime accident with the discovery of the reactor zone were compared.
Deputy Minister A.M. Burnazyan, in anger (“You are planning this accident!”) threw the manuscript of the book on the floor and demanded that we limit ourselves to publishing only the part dedicated to helping victims of the atomic explosion. The correct and very thoughtful head of the 2nd Main Directorate of the Ministry of Health, General V.M. Mikhailov carefully collected the sheets of paper scattered on the floor and tried to reassure me: “We will return to this issue.” In 1971, A.A. and I Moiseev with poorly hidden hostility A.M. Burnazyan still managed to obtain his permission to make a report at a conference in Dmitrovgrad. Friends sadly joked later that this report was the first scenario for the Chernobyl accident. The report aroused great interest. On its basis, a small book was prepared (but not published until 1988) on measures to help in case of peacetime accidents.”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
– In your report at the REMPAN meeting, you said that the resettlement of people and the change in background radiation had a much stronger impact on people during the Chernobyl accident than the radiation doses they received?
– I believe that an absolutely correct and timely decision was made to evacuate the population of Pripyat, since the radiation cloud went in that direction. But the subsequent delayed resettlement of people was not motivated by anything. Firstly, the bulk of the dose has already been received, so people with it will move to another place and will not be under the control of medical specialists. What is it like to move to a new place? This means abandoning the garden, vegetable garden, cellar - everything that a person has created all his life, finally, contacts are lost, the usual social structure is lost. You need to rebuild your life, this is a very strong psychological stress, it often has a much worse effect on health than radiation. Now unfortunate emigrants are returning to these areas, and they are living well there.
“Rare examples of return to active work, including patients who have suffered moderate ARS, their high performance and a completely satisfactory state of health once again confirm the determining role not of the disease, but of personal attitudes and the previous level of education.”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
– Angelina Konstantinovna, how important is it to develop the radiological direction in medicine today. After all, cases of radiation damage and radiation sickness are quite rare in our time?
- Not that rare. To date, five cases of acute radiation sickness have been recorded. But it's not even about these numbers. Now attention has been paid to the role of radon; it is necessary to correctly assess the possibility of living in houses, and develop recommendations for the proper organization of life. Another range of issues relates to medical research. A huge number of people, almost every one of us, are subjected to diagnostic radiation testing. There was fear in society. For example, we paid for it with an outbreak of tuberculosis after Chernobyl because people refused to get diagnosed. Finally, there are approximately two million people in the country - mind you, two million! - cured of cancer, all of whom received radiation therapy. And finally, the industry itself, especially the scope of the use of sources, it is so wide. In the Moscow region there are one and a half thousand devices of varying degrees of usefulness. A huge number of sources circulate wherever possible. The report by the director of the St. Petersburg All-Russian Center for Emergency and Radiation Medicine, Nikiforov, said that in the Leningrad region there are burial grounds, cesium emissions were noted, and there are a huge number of flaw detection sources. In Germany, for example, they take this problem very seriously. When the unification of Germany was underway, the Germans called me there to give lectures about “orphan sources”, about the danger they pose to the population. Even punctual Germans were afraid that sources of ionizing radiation would spread throughout Berlin.
The damaging levels of radiation affect a few people, but it makes it even more difficult to identify the thousands involved. Selection required. Not every doctor can immediately recognize the disease. Negative selection is the most difficult: to say that a person is sick is much easier than to say that he is not sick, at least from radiation. Therefore, continuous training of medical staff is necessary.
Historically, our field has been home to a scientific elite.
Radiation medicine developed along with the nuclear industry, and often ahead of it. It is important to use this experience, this model for the future. Whatever we build, ships, airplanes, other types of reactors, we need to organize the work in such a way that doctors and biologists walk alongside, study the new factor, and prevent its negative impact on the body. Society is technogenic!
– Permissible radiation doses during diagnostics. What are they? If I took a dental x-ray today, tomorrow, for example, I need a chest x-ray, no one asks me when I took the previous x-ray, what dose of radiation did I receive?
– Such registration is now being introduced. But the fact is that introducing such controlling things scares people. Since a person does not feel radiation, he does not know how to relate to the number, with what to identify its weight. He hears only the word “radiation”, and associates the number with danger. It is quite difficult to achieve balance here. On the one hand, people need to know more about the level of radiation, on the other, they need to be trained so that they know which dose is dangerous and which is not. When a person goes outside in 25-degree frost, he feels the cold through the skin receptors. Another thing is radiation. You won't feel it right away. Excess information with a lack of knowledge plays a negative role here.
“Along with explaining the safety and benefits of the atom... it is also necessary to cultivate a culture and rules of behavior in conditions of unforeseen radiation danger. This needs to start at least from school years, gradually increasing the volume of specialized knowledge with its targeted orientation to various specialties and places of residence: those who will work and live near nuclear power plants, who will teach physics to children, treat people, determine moral legal issues related to contact with radiation sources of different groups of people, etc.
Probably, it is also necessary to intensify the joint work of doctors with the heads of safety departments of Rosenergoatom enterprises, organized on the basis of the IBP center and in the training center at the Balakovo NPP.”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry of the Country Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
– How important is psychological attitude during radiation sickness?
– The more severe the disease, the more important a person’s personal characteristics are. In my book there is a photograph of a patient missing three limbs. He has no legs or left arm. He drives a car, tends to his garden, and has wide boundaries so he can use a stroller. And he tenderly cares for his plants. He donates all his apples to kindergartens. And when it was the fiftieth anniversary of the emergency room, which he had to resort to because of phantom pain, he gave the doctors fifty bouquets of chrysanthemums. When I came to Chelyabinsk, he took me to the grave of my grandfather.
– What has changed in the treatment of radiation sickness now?
– In the treatment of acute radiation sickness, there is general success associated with blood diseases. Now leukemia is cured in 35–40%, and this is a great success; in the past there was a 100% mortality rate. As for cancer patients, the number of patients diagnosed with cancer approximately doubles in heavily exposed people. We are losing to Western countries in terms of the number of cancer patients, but we are gaining somewhat in reducing mortality rates due to qualified medical care.
– Has the state’s attitude towards people working in the nuclear industry changed?
– It has changed for the worse. Why am I so eager to see the president? It seems to me that the president does not understand the threat of what is happening in the nuclear industry. Medical problems are directly related to the state of production. We now charge treatment fees for people at high occupational risk. How is this possible?! Our attempt to switch to insurance medicine brought nothing but harm. Insurance companies have small insurance funds and are ineffective. A person is admitted to the hospital, and according to his form of illness, he is entitled to a free electrocardiogram, one blood test and, say, one urine test. And at his age, along with the main disease, there are concomitant ones: hemorrhoids, suspected tumor... He must pay for these studies and pay a very high amount. And he refuses to do research. What about medications? There is a certain set of medications that are paid for by the insurance company. The set is limited, and the patient must purchase many modern and more effective drugs at his own expense. Our knowledge has increased, but the patient’s ability to implement it has decreased.
“Physicists, experimental biologists, dosimetrists, shipbuilders and installers interested in the activities of industrial radiographers, and the radiographers themselves, manufacturers and testers of X-ray tubes, radiologists, geologists and radiochemists, miners and machine builders who widely use isotopes, workers of radon laboratories , engineers and mechanics of the central halls of reactors - this is an incomplete list of professions that address their requests to us. They trust us with their health and require reasonable recommendations for organizing their work and lifestyle. This was the case in the nuclear industry, an industry with particularly high responsibility for the fate of the personnel who formed it. This experience has been successfully transferred to the widespread use of ionizing radiation sources in the country.
One can only regret that this branch of medical-hygienic science has ceased to exist in the structure of the country’s leading Institute of Occupational Medicine. Not only did “orphan sources” emerge, but people who worked with these sources also lost organized medical supervision.”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry of the Country Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
– In what ways are we superior and in what ways are we lagging behind foreign radiological medicine?
– I think our amateurish breadth and our lack of technical equipment are becoming our advantage; we are broader in ideas. But we are inferior in terms of equipment and state attention.
– How is life at the Institute of Biophysics now?
- Lives poorly. We are losing young shoots. Young people leave the institute after completing residency or graduate school. If decent conditions had been created, many would have returned to us. The school is being lost. She is still holding on in the Urals. The unique archives of the Ural Institute of Biophysics have become the object of great interest among foreigners. By paying for access to archives, foreigners, in fact, support the Ural institution. But this is a rather humiliating position. Since foreigners pay inadequately little for fairly valuable materials. Secondly, foreigners put their “paw” first on joint publications, and then on their own publications. And having “crossed out” the source of information, they, of course, will refuse further funding.
– What is your attitude to reforming science, to the government’s idea of leaving 20 state research institutes and privatizing the rest?
– Government reform is not just some evil action, there is something reasonable in it. But to implement it, we need thoughtful experts who see not only today, but also tomorrow. What will the future need? Are institutes that “chew up” old material, living off coupon clippings, or are they a promising institution? This requires thoughtful expert work to determine which scientific centers the country needs and which are not needed. If the industry needs them, then let them be of sectoral and regional subordination. But those few who are truly needed and valuable should be given students and equipment so that they can pass on something to future generations. They will lay off, first of all, pensioners, believing that they are more or less well off, and this is the most selfless group with the romance of previous years, with an attitude towards the state somewhat different from that of pragmatic youth. They will be fired. And there are almost no middle management, forty or fifty-year-olds, those who could pass on experience to the young.
– How did the idea to write the book “The Nuclear Industry of the Country Through the Eyes of a Doctor” come about?
– When I was writing the book in September last year, my friend and colleague for the last fifty years, Georgy Davydovich Baisogolov, died. We discussed everything with him, did everything. I understood that no one knows as much as we knew together. If I don’t write this, it will simply sink into oblivion. And experiencing the death of my friend so hard, I went into this work, as if continuing our common memories. I wrote the book in six months and gave myself this gift for my eightieth birthday. On the cover of the book is the emblem of a badge given to me by the family of Georgy Davydovich after his death. One of the patients gave Baisogolov this badge, with a heart on the stone in the hands of a radiologist.
“M. Montel also said that a fruitful and natural desire of society is the ability to listen to scientists. It is probably necessary for the country’s leadership to find time for this and listen to the opinion of scientists and radiation medicine specialists, taking into account both the threat of nuclear terrorism and the expanding list of countries that own nuclear weapons in the modern world.”
From the book “The Nuclear Industry of the Country Through the Eyes of a Doctor”
