A physician involved in frontline medicine and radiation research
Called up in 1943 at the age of fifty-seven, he served as chief physician of the 2nd Ukrainian Front with the rank of colonel of the medical service, and in 1946 he appeared as a medical expert at the Nuremberg trial.
Born in Kronstadt, the son of a naval doctor, he graduated with distinction from the Military Medical Academy in 1910 and at twenty-six earned his doctorate in 1912 for research on circulation. He taught at the Academy until 1924, then headed the propaedeutics department at Voronezh University and in 1935 became professor of hospital therapy at the Moscow Regional Clinical Institute. Named in testimony during the 1933 investigation of homosexual men, he was not arrested. In the war he was chief physician of the 2nd Ukrainian Front as a colonel of the medical service; he was chief physician of the USSR Health Ministry in 1945–47 and an expert at the Nuremberg trial in 1946. In the 1950s he led research on radiation sickness and helped found a clinic for it, winning the Lenin Prize in 1963. He died in 1973.
Activities and affiliations
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1910–1917
Russian Empire state institutionsResearcher, diagnostics department, Military Medical Academy
Science and technology -
1918–
Soviet Union state institutionsProfessor and head of therapy departmentsMain
Science and technology -
1943–1945
Soviet Union state institutionsChief physician of the 2nd Ukrainian Front
Military command -
1945–1947
Soviet Union state institutionsChief physician of the USSR Health Ministry
Science and technology -
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Science and technology
Career Timeline
- 1910Graduated with distinction from the Military Medical Academy; kept on in the diagnostics department
- 1912Doctorate for research on circulation
- 1918–1924Taught diagnostics and general therapy at the Military Medical Academy
- 1925–1935Head of the propaedeutics of internal medicine department, Voronezh University
- 1935–1950Professor and head of hospital therapy, Moscow Regional Clinical Institute (except 1942–45)
- 1943–1945Colonel of the medical service; chief physician of the 2nd Ukrainian Front
- 1945–1947Chief physician of the USSR Health Ministry — expert at the Nuremberg trial in 1946
- 1950Research on radiation sickness and founding of a clinic for it; Lenin Prize 1963
Related historical events
Internal medicine and military medicine
Kurshakov graduated from the Military Medical Academy in 1910 and completed a doctorate on circulation in 1912. He participated in wartime medical care and organisation and later studied radiation illness, combining clinical and teaching work in Moscow.
Named in 1933 but not arrested
Testimony examined by Roldugina mentioned a relationship between Kurshakov and the actor Prince Sergei Golitsyn. Golitsyn was executed in 1938, while Kurshakov avoided arrest and continued his career in Moscow from 1935.
Roldugina argues that the authorities did not arrest everyone they knew about and raises the possibility that information was retained for informal pressure. The article does not establish that Kurshakov was actually coerced into collaboration.