Vladimir Germanovich Shtefko

Abstract

The article is devoted to the life and creative path of the famous Russian phthisiopathologist, biologist, anatomist and anthropologist, scientist, talented educator and organizer, patriarch of the national school of phthisiopathology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Vladimir Germanovich Shtefko (1893–1945), who was born in Moscow in the family of an employee. After graduating from the Moscow Real School, he entered the Medical and Physics and Mathematics Faculties of the Imperial Moscow University. In 1911, the pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed, which accompanies him throughout his life and for which he is being treated in Switzerland, where he continues his studies at the University of Lausanne. After returning to Russia, he graduated with honors from these two faculties in 1916 and devoted himself to devotion to science. The scientific interests of V. G. Shtefko and his students were primarily tuberculosis issues. He is the author of about 300 scientific papers, including 24 monographs. V. G. Shtefko was the founder of the Moscow school of phthisiopathologists, as well as comparative anatomical and age-morphological directions in medical research. He established the phenomenon of dyschronic development of intraorgan structures and concluded that the cultural races of humanity, such as Europeans have a more complex protein molecule structure than lower races. In fact, he refuted the well-known postulate that all people are brothers. Moreover, in 1929, scientists led by V. G. Shtefko developed a classification of five normal types of the human constitution (asthenoid, digestive, thoracic, muscular, abdominal, as well as mixed types), which was the reason for his political persecution, and therefore in 1938 the work had to be stopped, nevertheless, this did not stop the anger of his detractors and on October 3, 1945 in Moscow, V. G. Shtefko committed suicide at the age of 52.