Petr Sergiev

Born June 28 (July 10), 1893, in the village of Sretenskoe, in what is now Kirov Oblast; died July 12, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet parasitologist and epidemiologist. Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1944); vice-president of the Academy (1957–60). Hero of Socialist Labor (1963). Member of the CPSU from 1919.

In 1918, Sergiev graduated from the medical department of the University of Kazan. Beginning in 1927 he worked at the Tropical Institute (now the E. I. Martsinovskii Institute of Medical Parasitology and Tropical Medicine). From 1934 to 1969 he was director of the institute, and in 1969 he became the institute’s scientific consultant. In 1937, Sergiev was people’s commissar of public health of the RSFSR.

Sergiev primarily studied malaria and ways to control it. He directed the formulation of a state five-year plan for the control of malaria. The plan, which was approved by the Council of Peoples’ Commissars of the USSR in 1934, eventually led to the eradication of malaria as a major health problem. Beginning in 1934, Sergiev was editor of the journal Meditsinskaia parazito-logiia i parazitarnye bolezni (Medical Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases).

Sergiev became an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Hungarian People’s Republic in 1960. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and 1952 and the Darling International Award in 1965. Sergiev was also awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 2 other orders, and various medals.