Medvedev Zhores Alexandrovich

Medvedev Zhores Alexandrovich

Genus. in 1925 in Tbilisi. In February 1943 he was drafted into the army. He took part in the battles on the Taman Peninsula in May 1943, was seriously wounded and demobilized in September 1943. Entered the Moscow Agricultural Academy. K. A. Timiryazev, from which he graduated in 1950. In the same year he defended his Ph.D. thesis. In 1962, he was fired in connection with the writing of the book “Biological Science and the Cult of Personality,” which was widely circulated in “samizdat.” He went to work at the Institute of Medical Radiology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in Obninsk, where he organized a laboratory of molecular radiobiology. In 1969, he was fired due to the publication of a book in the United States in English, “The Rise and Fall of TDLysenko.” In 1969-1970 wrote books - “International Cooperation of Scientists and National Borders” and “The Secrecy of Correspondence is Protected by Law” - in which he criticized restrictions on scientific cooperation and travel abroad, as well as censorship of mail and journals and books received from abroad. These works circulated widely in samizdat.
In May 1970 he was forcibly placed in the Kaluga psychiatric hospital. Three weeks later he was released due to protests from respected academicians.
At the end of 1970, he got a job at the Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry of Farm Animals in Borovsk. In 1972, he received an invitation to work for a year in the genetics department of the National Institute for Health Research in London. In December 1972, the management of the institute in Borovsk granted a year's leave to travel to London. In January 1973, he came to England with his wife and youngest son and began working at the institute. In August 1973, on charges of anti-Soviet activities, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Since 1974, the National Institute for Medical Research has invited him to a permanent position as a senior researcher in the department of genetics. After his retirement in 1991, he continued his author and journalistic work. Soviet citizenship was returned in August 1990 by Decree of USSR President Gorbachev. Died on November 15, 2018 in London.