"My great countrymen" project: Lev Tarasevich

155 years have passed since the birth of the famous resident of Tiraspol, immunologist, microbiologist, the man who essentially invented universal vaccination. Representatives of the “The Obnovlenie” (Renewal) Republican Party and the "Future of Pridnestrovie" foundation spoke about Lev Tarasevich to students of the medical faculty of Pridnestrovian State University within the framework of the educational project "My great countrymen".

The project "My great countrymen" of the "Renewal" party is about famous Pridnestrovians. Scientists, artists, writers – all of them find their place not only in history, but also on the pages of a special edition published with the support of the party and the Future of Pridnestrovie Foundation. The authors of the project want as many people as possible to know about the compatriots who glorified our region. There are articles about the famous artists Mikhail Larionov and Alexander Foinitsky, about the veteran of the Great Patriotic War, journalist and publicist Boris Chelyshev, about the first President of the Academy of Sciences of the MSSR Yakim Grosul, scientists Konstantin Gedroits and Lev Tarasevich in the collection today.

Lev Tarasevich was born in Tiraspol, graduated from the gymnasium of Chisinau, and the Imperial University in Odessa. He studied in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Paris, was a favorite student of the Nobel Prize winner in medicine Ilya Mechnikov. He achieved world recognition, becoming one of the founders of immunology as a science. The Metropolitan Medical College bears his name today.

A world-famous immunologist actively promoted the idea of mass vaccination, first in Tsarist Russia and then in the USSR. He made a huge contribution to the prevention of tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, malaria. Lev Tarasevich together with other scientists developed such areas as microbiology and epidemiology, studied allergy as a phenomenon.

Lev Tarasevich during the First World War was the chief military field sanitary inspector of the army. It was under his leadership that a program of anti-epidemic measures was developed for the Medical Council under the Provisional Government. The scientist actively promoted and popularized the ideas of vaccination in Russia and immunization of the population.

Thanks to his work in Russia, the military and refugees were vaccinated against cholera and typhoid fever, and newborn children were also vaccinated against tuberculosis. It saved millions of lives.