Gartokh, Oscar Oscarovich

Born into the family of Oscar Yulievich Gartokh ( German Oscar Hartoch ; 05/02/1845 - 09/11/1901) ^[3] - a native of Cologne , who emigrated first to the United States in his youth, and later became the hired director of the St. Petersburg oil refinery of the American company V. Roops and Co. ° ^{[4] [5]} . In Germany ( Westphalia ) was born the wife of Oscar Yulievich - Adolfin Gartokh ( German: Adolfine Hartoch geb. Graf 1850-1885).

Oscar Gartoch received his primary education at the Katarinsenshule Gymnasium at the Lutheran Church of St. Catherine , after which in 1899 he graduated from the full course of the famous German private gymnasium Karl May .

In the same year, O.O. Gartoch entered the medical faculty of the Rhine University of Bonn, Friedrich Wilhelm , who successfully graduated in 1905 with a defense of his dissertation for the title of Doctor of Medicine. The next year, after passing the qualification exams at the Imperial Yuryev University, Oscar Oskarovich was awarded the title of doctor ^[6] .

Returning to St. Petersburg, O.O. Gartokh began his professional career as a private pediatrician. At the same time he took the post of doctor of the Nikolaev children's shelter ^{[7] [8] [9]} and the supernumerary resident of the Alexander Male Hospital, established by the citizens of the German Empire ^{[10] [11]} .

In 1907, Oscar Oskarovich was accepted as a supernumerary employee of the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine . Three years later, he was enlisted as a doctor ^[12] in the staff of the institute and almost immediately, on the initiative of Professor A. A. Vladimirov ^[1], went on a long trip to Europe. First , he trained in the experimental therapy department of the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Berlin under the guidance of Professor E. Friedberger , then at the Department of Hygiene and Bacteriology of the University of Berne he worked as an assistant to the closest student of the famous microbiologist Robert Koch - Professor W. Kolle .

The internship was adjusted by the outbreak of the First World War . Professor W. Kolle was drafted into the German army, and the representative of the opposing power O. O. Gartoch for several months served as his head of the department in Bern . Only in the spring of 1915 he returned to Petrograd ^[13] , to his Institute of Experimental Medicine and was immediately sent to the head of the Military Sanitary Unit of the Petrograd Railway Junction. This position was held by his teacher A.A. Vladimirov. The detachment located in Krasnoye Selo , where all the reserve battalions of the Moscow guard were stationed, was assigned the responsibility of solving the constantly arising sanitary and epidemiological tasks not only of the capital's railway junction, but of the entire Northern Front with adjacent rear areas.

The detachment continued its work after the October Revolution. Only in 1918, after the conclusion of the Brest Peace and the dissolution of the old army, did O. O. Gartokh return to his institute. Now it was called the State Institute of Experimental Medicine. Recently, it was led by Professor A. A. Vladimirov, who in this position continued to lead his epizootic department (later, the department of comparative pathology of infectious diseases).

In 1920, during the reorganization of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Military Medical Academy (VMA), it was headed by Professor S.I. Zlatogorov (Goldberg) . As part of his course, he decided to organize the teaching of the basics of microbiology. To this end, S. I. Zlatogorov invited O. O. Gartokh to his place. For four years, Oscar Oskarovich was an employee of the Academy and returned to his institute only after Professor DK Zabolotny organized an independent department of microbiology with epidemiology and the doctrine of disinfection in the VMA in 1923 ^[14] . O. O. Gartokh took a direct part in the organization and formation of this department.

Since 1924, at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, O. O. Gartokh worked as an assistant to Professor A. A. Vladimirov in the department of comparative pathology of infectious diseases, which he himself headed in 1930. He soon transformed it into a department of medical microbiology and led it until the end of his career in May 1941 .

In addition to working at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, from 1924 to 1928 . O. O. Gartokh headed the bacteriological laboratory in the hospital. Erisman ( 1st Leningrad Medical Institute ).

In 1928, Oscar Oskarovich headed the department of bacteriology at the Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Pasteur ^[15] , while becoming deputy director of the institute for scientific work.

In the same year, O. O. Gartokh would be invited by the head of the bacteriology cabinet to the newly organized NPI for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy (MatMlada) in 1925, which was transformed in 1935 into the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute. In 1931, in the rank of associate professor Oscar Oskarovich took the position of one of the scientific leaders of this institute, and in 1933, with his efforts, the bacteriology cabinet was transformed into the department of microbiology, which he headed with the title of professor. In 1935, O. O. Gartokh transferred the management of the department to his student Professor V. M. Berman ^[16] .

Perhaps it was precisely the work at the Scientific and Research Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy and an understanding of the specifics of childhood diseases in 1933 that led O. O. Gartokh to think about the need to create an independent department for childhood drip infections at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, which was headed by his closest student, future academician V. I. Joffe .

In the grip of the NKVD

O. O. Gartokh was arrested three times in his life in the USSR. A German by nationality, whose two sisters lived abroad, and his father, being a large industrialist until the end of his days, remained a citizen of another state, he could not but arouse suspicion. Moreover, as a scientist who was educated in Germany, worked for a long time at European universities and had extensive contacts abroad, O. Gartokh, by the logic of the Chekists, was certainly an enemy.

The first time Oscar Oskarovich was arrested on August 13, 1930 . Then the NKVD (until 1934 - the OGPU ) was headed (still in the rank of deputy chairman) by G. G. Yagoda , and when conducting investigative actions, the appearance of legality was to some extent respected. After two and a half months, due to the absence of corpus delicti, O. O. Gartokh was released and returned to his duties. Perhaps his famous guarantors played a role: academician I.P. Pavlov , the famous French writer, Nobel laureate Romain Rolland and writer Maxim Gorky . One can most likely assume that it was Romain Rolland, who maintained close relations with the Gartokh family, who turned for help to M. Gorky, who was, moreover, a close friend of G. G. Yagoda.

Again, already in the time of People's Commissar N. I. Ezhov, Oscar Oskarovich was arrested on August 2, 1937 , when neither I. P. Pavlov nor M. Gorky were already alive. Only Romain Rolland stood up for him, writing a letter to Stalin. It is difficult to judge the role played by the intercession of Romain Rolland, but O.O. Gartokh was released - however, almost a year later, on May 20, 1938 . The fact that he was on the verge of death, and the fact that his release was only a small delay was evidenced by a record in the case of his colleague, microbiologist professor A. A. Miller ^[17] , who was sentenced to be shot in 1938 : “.. . engaged in espionage, collecting and transmitting to secret agents of German intelligence O. O. Gartokh and M. I. Stutzer secret information about the latest scientific works ” ^[18] . Confirmation of this can be found in V. A. Kaverin in his memoirs “Epilogue”. He described the dramatic events of 1938 in the chapter, which describes the arrest and death of a close friend of his brother (the famous immunologist Lev Zilber ), microbiologist A. A. Zakharov ^[19] :

“On February 12, 1938, he [Zakharov] was arrested, and on March 9 he signed a statement confessing that“ together with Prof. O. O. Gartokh, he created a counter-revolutionary organization with the aim of killing the Leader and Friend of humanity I. V. Stalin, espionage in favor of fascist Germany, sabotage work in the form of infection in the event of war sources of water supply and sabotage at the front of the fight against epidemics. "
He admitted that he was a member of a battle group led by fascist intelligence agent O. O. Gartokh, who was preparing the assassination of members of the Soviet government. ”

- ^[20]

The last time O.O. Gartokh was taken into custody on May 31, 1941 , when only three weeks remained before the start of World War II . As the front approached Leningrad, many prisoners in the pre-trial detention center were evacuated. O. O. Gartokh was out of luck. He was transported to Saratov - the place of compact residence of ethnic Germans of the Volga region . At the end of August 1941, the Supreme Council of the USSR decided to deport them. Under these conditions, those of them who were under investigation most often began to use firing articles.

O. O. Gartokh was detained in Saratov Prison No. 1 . Somewhere in one of the neighboring cells was academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov . Convicted in July 1941 to capital punishment, he will die here on death row from complete exhaustion in a year and a half - January 23, 1943 ^[21] . As for O. O. Gartokh, on November 28, 1941, he was sentenced to death. He spent the last month of his life in the same cell with N. I. Vavilov. Oscar Oskarovich was shot on January 30, 1942 - exactly one year before the death of Nikolai Ivanovich, who was the last to shake his hand.

An excerpt from the following report by the People’s Commissar of the State Security Service of the USSR V. N. Merkulov dated April 10, 1942 can testify to the NKVD’s methods of knocking out evidence against itself:

“... Among the German intelligence agents associated with Zeiss ^[22] , the NKVD of the USSR arrested professor microbiologist German O. O. Gartoch , who on October 4, 1941 showed that he was in Germany in 1923 while staying in Germany. was recruited by intelligence, and since 1925, on the instructions of Zeiss, he conducted espionage and wrecking work in the field of microbiology.
Gartokh O. O. took an active part in the creation of an anti-Soviet organization among microbiologists. The practical subversive work of this organization consisted in the production of substandard bacteriological preparations (vaccines, serums) and in the development of the most effective methods of bacteriological sabotage at the time of the German war against the USSR. "

- Decree of the NKVD of the USSR No. 144 on strengthening the fight against bacteriological diversion of the enemy of April 10, 1942

In 1956, after a review of the case, the judgment against O. O. Gartokh was quashed. Due to the lack of corpus delicti, he was completely rehabilitated.

From a letter from David Vladimirovich Ioffe - the son of a student, friend and receiver O. O. Gartokh as head of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology of IEM Vladimir Ilyich Ioffe :

• Wife: Mary V. (Vasilievna) ur. Pullman (1881–1933, Leningrad) - the daughter of an English industrialist who owned a plant in St. Petersburg. She was buried with her parents in the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery in Leningrad.
• Sister: Elsa (Elsa Hartoch, 1879, St. Petersburg – 1981) - teacher. After the revolution, she took German citizenship, from the 1920s. worked in Geneva as secretary of the director and founder in 1924 of the International School ( Ecole Internationale de Geneve ) Adolf Ferrier .
• Sister: Henrietta (Frida), in the marriage of Semenov (1880-1972) - graduated from the University of Zurich and since 1910 she lived and worked as a pediatrician in Zurich.

• In his young years, while working abroad, O. O. Gartokh, together with E. Friedberger, studied immunity factors, in particular complement in experimental infections, and also performed a number of works on anaphylaxis that occurs with the use of immune sera. In those same years, one of the first he turned to the study of pathogenic viruses.
• At the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Oscar Oskarovich paid great attention to the development of specific prevention of dangerous infections (glanders, cholera, plague), and in Germany - vaccination against typhoid fever, the use of antitoxic serum for diphtheria.
• During the First World War, while working in the Military Sanitary Detachment, O. O. Gartokh was primarily engaged in solving epidemiological problems. Skillfully using the results of his research and theoretical knowledge to solve practical issues, in 1916 he contributed to the successful elimination of the cholera outbreak in parts of the guard in Krasnoye Selo.
• During the Civil War and the devastation, O. O. Gartokh played a significant role in restoring the sanitary-epidemiological service in the army.
• O.O. Gartokh paid special attention to the study of pathogens, intestinal infections, their immunology and epidemiology, and vaccination prophylaxis. The results of research on bacillary dysentery, typhoid fever and paratyphoid were summarized by him in a series of reports VIEM for 1933-1937, 1938-1939. During this period, under the leadership of Oscar Oskarovich, his department conducted extensive research on the physiology of pathogenic microorganisms, the experimental study of infectious processes, and the use of quantitative microbiological analysis.
• Particular attention was paid to O.O. Gartokh education of young scientists. Among his students are academicians of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR V.I. Ioffe and A. A. Smorodintsev , professors V. M. Berman , E. T. Vasiliev, M. A. Zelikin, M. I. Kanevskaya, K. P. Muratova, S. S. Kazarnovskaya, P. I. Benevolensky , M.A. Linnikova, V.A. Shtriter and many others. Oscar Oskarovich is one of the authors of Russia's first three-volume guide to microbiology, edited by L. A. Tarasevich (1912-1915).
• For many years, Oskar Oskarovich was the chairman and member of the board of the microbiological society, a member of the scientific council of the Lenzdorzotvotdel, a member of the epidemiological meeting at the city health department, a member of the scientific council of the People’s Commissar, worked as a lecturer on sanitation and epidemiology at the House of Sanitary Centers.

O. O. Gartokh is the author of more than 100 publications in Russian and German. The names of some of them are given below:

• Gartokh O. O., Agranovsky Z. M., Ignatovich Z. A. To the problem of food toxicoinfections. - L .: Laboratory of food hygiene Lengorzdravotdela, 1940 . - 28 p.
• Gartokh O.O. On the mechanism of action of bacterial culture filtrates on the local infectious process / From Dep. will compare. pathology state. Institute of Experiment. medicine and bacteriological. laboratories of them. Erisman. - Kharkov: Scientific Thought, 1928 . - 10 s.
• Gartokh O.O., Ioffe V.I. To the biology of the dysentery group: From Dep. comparative pathology Institute experiment. medicine (prof. A.A. Vladimir). - Kharkov: Scientific Thought, 1925 . - 10 s.
• Berman V. M. Course of private epidemiology / V. M. Berman, A. M. Levitov, I. I. Rogozin; under the general. ed. V. M. Berman from the previous. prof. O. O. Gartokh. - L .: Biomedgiz, 1936 . - 519 p.
• Orelkina E.S. Bibliography on bacillary dysentery from 1900 to 1983 / under the editorship of prof. O.O. Gartokha. - L. , 1939 . - 306 p.
• Gartokh O. O. Struggle with consumption: A schematic draft of a lecture drawn up on April 20th. 1912 by members of Enlightenment. Dep. St. Petersburg islands to combat tubercle / O.O.G., V.V.G. and V.N.M. - L. , 1939 . - 16 p.
• Hartoch O. Beitrag zur Lehre vom Myxoedem an der Hand von 2 Fallen der Bonner medizinischen Klinik. Inaugural Dissertation. - Bonn, 1905 . - 306 p. - (Defended on August 4, 1905 at the Rheini-schen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Bonn).
• Gartokh O. O., Yakimov V. L. On the issue of complement fixation in experimental trypanosomiasis. - Medical newspaper, 1908 , No. 20.
• Friedberger E., Hartoch O. Ueber das Verhalten des Komplements bei der aktiven und passiven Anaphylaxie. - Ztschr. f. Immutats forsch. u. exper. Therapie, 1909 , Bd. 3. H. 6 ..
• Friedberger E., Hartoch O. Der Einfluss intraveoser Salzinjektionen auf die aktive und passive Anaphylaxie beim Meerschweinchen. - Berl. klin. Wochenschr, 1909 , No. 36.
• Hartoch O., Sirenskij N. Ueber die Rolle des Komplementes bei der Anaphylaxie. - Ztschr. f. Immutats forsch. u. exper. Therapie, 1911 , Bd. 12. H. 1 .. - 85-90 s. - (from IIEM).
• Hartoch O., Sirenskij N. Ueber die Beeinflussung der opsonischen Index durch subkutane Seruminjektionen. - Ztschr. f. Immutats forsch. u. exper. Therapie, 1911 , Bd. 8. H. 5-6 .. - 602-610 s. - (from Bern University).
• Gartokh O. O. On serum anaphylaxis // The first meeting on bacteriology, epidemiology and leprosy / St. Petersburg, January 3-9, 1911: materials of the meeting. - SPb. , 1912 . - 48-53 s.
• Gartokh O. O. Filtered viruses // Medical Microbiology / ed. L.A. Tarasevich. - SPb., Kiev, 1913 . - T. 2. - 523-543 s.
• Gartokh O. O. On the issue of pest control in military units and its significance in the fight against relapsing fever. - New in medicine, 1915 .
• Gartokh O. O., Sternberg A. Ya. On the issue of measures to combat acute infectious gastrointestinal diseases in military units. - New in medicine, 1915 .
• Gartokh O. O. Medical Microbiology. A manual for doctors and students, in three volumes. (chapters) / ed. Tarasevich L. A. .. - SPb., Kiev, 1912 - 1915 .
• Gartokh O. Modern views on the pneumococcal group / Report at a meeting of the Society of Pediatric Physicians of Leningrad. - 04/19/1929 .

• Nazarov P.G., Vikhman A.A. Oscar Oskarovich Gartokh (1881–1942) - Russian microbiologist and immunologist / In the book: Germans in St. Petersburg: Collection of articles / Ed. Ed. T.A. Schrader. - St. Petersburg: MAE RAS, 2008. Issue. 4. - S. 299-320. ;
• Nazarov P.G., Vikhman A.A., Sofronov B.N., Golikov Yu.P., Totolyan A.A., Derevyanko Yu. M.V. I. Ioffe at the Institute of Experimental Medicine (1923-1979). / holes ed. - prof. I. S. Freindlin. - St. Petersburg: Research Institute of Experimental Medicine RAMS, 1998. - 71 p. .
• Gartokh Oscar Oskarovich on the website of the Karl May School ;
• Masing Yu. A. Leningradskaya Apartment ;
• Gartokh, Oskar Oskarovich / Gartoch, Oskar Oskarovič ;
• Forsius Arno Oskar Hartoch (1881-1942) - venäläinen lääkäri stalinismin uhrina ;
• Gartokh Oskar Oskarovich / kakula - diary of the lover of antiquity ;
• Gartokh Oscar Oskarovich
• Nazarov P.G. Details of liquidation at VIEM of the Department of General Biology of E.S.Bauer // In the book: Days of Medicine and Biology in St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg: 1998. - Days of medicine and biology in St. Petersburg. " St. Petersburg: 1998 .-- S. 62-70.
• Nazarov P.G., Andryushkevich T.V. Personal contacts of microbiologists and immunologists in 20-30. XX century (according to autographs on reprints from the archive of OO Gartokh) // In the book: Days of medicine and biology in St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg: 1998 .-- S. 115-135.
• Nazarov P.G., Andryushkevich T.V. Germanic roots of the microbiological school of A.A. Vladimir Vladimirov - O. O. Gartokh. Russian-German links in biology and medicine: 300-year experience of interactions. (Russian-German relations in biology and medicine: experience of 300 years of interaction). St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, September 14-16, 1999