In one of his interviews, S. N. Fedorov said: “I realized that goodness needs to be done in large doses. I am confident that by the end of this century our medicine will be a fantastic industry of humanism: small hospitals will turn into powerful medical centers for early surgical prevention.”

A practical dreamer who devoted his life to creating an industry of humanism in a single clinic, with an attempt to expand it to a state scale.

Son of a Hero

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was born on August 8, 1927 in the town of Proskurovo (Khmelnitsky), in Ukraine. Father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was a blacksmith at 16, and a soldier at 18. His dragoon regiment was one of the first to support February revolution. After October, the regiment joined the Red Army. Red cavalryman, red Cossack, hero of the civil war, fanatically devoted to the revolution. He overthrew the monarchy in Petrograd, fought with the Makhnovists, Germans, and Poles. Svyatoslav’s mother is a beauty, half Belarusian and half Polish, Alexandra Danilovna, she is 20, her husband, deputy commander of a cavalry regiment, is 30. Her son’s favorite toy is his father’s revolver without cartridges.

In the early 30s, the family moved to Moscow, Colonel Fedorov entered the Frunze Academy. He always needs to be first - on a horse, on the football field, in school. Energetic, strong, explosive. Even a shattered knee did not stop him from playing football and being the captain of the team.

After graduating from the academy, my father was appointed commander of a cavalry division in Kamenets-Podolsky. Their house is located in a huge garden - a paradise for boys. The friends disappear in the stables, taking care of the horses. Slava learned to shoot well with a small-caliber rifle. A bicycle was bought for my son, for which he was dubbed Bourgeois.

But in 1938, Svyatoslav’s father was arrested for connections with “enemies of the people” - Demichev, Yakir, Tukhachevsky, along with 40 thousand other officers. The army was beheaded. In 1940, 100 division commanders whose last names began with the letters “A” to “P” in alphabetical order were released from prison: Stalin emphasized only the first half of the list of military leaders subject to rehabilitation.

We moved to Novocherkassk to live with our aunt. The son of the “enemy of the people” was shunned by both adults and children. The boy found friends in books. He signed up for three libraries at once—the local press even wrote about the young bookworm. The idols he wanted to be like were D'Artagnan, Pavka Korchagin, the heroes of Jack London - strong, obsessed with a dream. There was no need to go far: his father is an example for any boy. Could the hero's son be a weakling? Slava also sees himself in the military field. Wants to fight and win.

The war has begun. In October 1941, we had to urgently evacuate to Armenia. The train that followed them was bombed... In 1942, famine came to the village of Tsaghkadzor, Slava shot ducks and ducks, and caught fish.

In 1944, the young man and his friend submitted documents to the 19th Yerevan Artillery Special School. He lived on state support, but was oppressed by the senseless drill, and relations with his superiors became strained. Pilots are a different matter; they are their own masters in the sky. Thanks to an influential relative, he is transferred to the 11th Special Air Force School, which soon moves to Rostov-on-Don. The Fedorovs return to their native places.

He was surrounded by the same romantics, but he only had a chance to study for about a year. In March 1945, having put on his only weekend suit, Slava hurries to a festive evening at the school. He jumps onto the tram while it is moving and takes off. To avoid tearing his trousers, he lets go of the handrail and pulls his leg under the tram. The heel of the left foot is crushed. Doctors amputate both the foot and the lower third of the leg.

Slava did not panic; he joked in the hospital and calmed everyone down. I dreamed of flying like Meresyev. But, of course, his flying career did not take place.

I can do everything

IN regular school Suddenly it turned out that I had to pull up several objects at once. To pay tutors, my mother pounded away at night on a typewriter. I graduated from school with one C in chemistry. What's next? I decided to go into medicine and find a specialty there that was close to technical. In 1945 he entered the medical faculty of the Rostov Medical Institute.

In the first year, classmates ran away from boring subjects to the Don. He was almost expelled for missing classes, but his mother persuaded the dean’s office to keep her son at the institute.

He did not record lectures, but delved into the essence of the subject, its laws and, relying on them, reached the smallest details. Got addicted to chess.

In my second year, I fell in love with a student from Novocherkassk. Every weekend I rushed to her by train, then by bus, sometimes walking 6-7 km if I didn’t make it in time for the last one. Once Valya said: “I could only love a strong man, and you...” Life has set a new bar. We must become resilient, strong, worthy of it. He exhausts himself with training - doing pull-ups on the horizontal bar, doing handstands. He squeezes a pound weight 20 times. During these six months, the girl fell in love with someone else, but Fedorov is now an athlete, a strongman. Since then I have not parted with the weights, and acquired the habit of entering the room on birthdays from the hallway in my arms, holding a gift or flowers in my teeth.

He took up swimming seriously and did not feel his physical handicap in the water. Once I swam in a race with water polo athletes who were training on the Don, and the coach offered to compete for the team - just swim to the finish line for the classification. He hesitated and jumped last. I overtook two people in front. And then, according to him, such anger came over him! Suddenly I wanted to overtake and win. About 300 meters before the finish, he overtook the captain of the water polo team and became the winner. Everyone clapped and shouted something. “It was extremely pleasant to realize,” recalled Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, “that I can do something that not everyone can do. At that moment, for the first time, I realized, deeply felt, that I could do anything. I realized that if a person can overcome himself, then he can overcome any difficulties. It was then, on the banks of the Don, that an invincible confidence in myself and in my capabilities was born in me and remained for the rest of my life. Maybe this quality is the most important thing in my character. Standing on the embankment, not yet dry, I discovered a simple but incredibly important truth: you have to work hard until you sweat. Only under this condition can something be achieved. That victory, albeit modest and insignificant, became the starting point of my entire life. So, no matter how paradoxical and blasphemous it sounds, I think: to some extent, I was lucky that I lost my leg. If this had not happened, I probably would not have been able to develop within myself an active principle, will, and fidelity to the goal.”

They lived more than modestly. In the evenings he worked as an electrician. And in his old boots and sports jacket (and even the son of an “enemy of the people”) he was somehow forced to leave the wedding of one of his friends.

But sidelong glances did not bother him. You have your whole life ahead, and you need to find your place in medicine.

To dress up, he learned to take photographs, so much so that he began to earn more than his mother. I read a lot of professional books. His passion for photography logically led to ophthalmology. The eye is the same camera: the cornea with the lens is the lens, the retina is the film. Ophthalmic equipment resembles photographic equipment. Everything is clear and specific, like a man, the requirements are extremely strict, with no room for error.

This is how the character of the surgeon was forged. True, when he saw his eye removed for the first time, the young man ran out of the operating room.

The first operation was performed during internship, on March 8, 1951. A mechanic from the factory got a piece of a chisel in his eye. Fedorov assisted Associate Professor Lakshin. After anesthesia, the surgeon suddenly said: “You will operate yourself,” and left.

In 1952, the young graduate was sent to Tyumen, along with a classmate. But my mother remained in Rostov; trophic ulcers opened on her leg from the cold. Almost without a penny, the friends reached the capital and the USSR Ministry of Health changed their assignments.

Doctor from the village

Veshensky district of the Rostov region, the village of Veshenskaya, Sholokhov places, native Don. I did my internship here. A small regional hospital, an eye office without equipment. The first step was to obtain equipment. He performed operations, including cataract extraction and glaucoma. He received patients and went on calls as a therapist, in winter - on skis.

The days passed measuredly and monotonously. Gradually a slight disappointment set in. The soul demanded a big job, but in Veshki how can you become a great specialist...

And then Lilya, an acquaintance from Rostov, came to visit him for the holidays. Soon they got married. After graduating from university, Lilya was assigned to the town of Lysva, Perm Region, to teach chemistry at a metallurgical technical school. Svyatoslav also asked the ministry for a transfer to Lysva and became a doctor at a regional clinic with an eye department with 25 beds, and at the same time both the head of the ambulance station and an inspector of the city health department. On August 7, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed in Lysva on the wooden house where the Fedorovs lived.

The young doctor drew attention to the fact that during operations to remove cataracts, only the nucleus of the lens was removed, leaving behind the membranes, the capsule, which caused secondary cataracts. What if you remove the lens along with the capsule, hooking it with a special loop? This required accuracy and impeccable precision of movements. They heard about Fedorov's first operations in Perm and for the first time in his life he was invited to give a report. At a conference in Perm, Fedorov made a report on 20 similar operations, only one patient experienced vitreous prolapse. But colleagues considered the method dangerous for widespread practice. “Interesting, new, even revolutionary! - noted Professor Chistyakov, famous at that time. “But it’s not worth the risk.” How many more such words will Svyatoslav Nikolaevich hear in his life!

In 1954, daughter Irina was born, and her father returned from the camps.

Svyatoslav writes an official letter to the scientific secretary of the medical faculty of the Rostov Medical Institute with a request to accept him into clinical residency. On October 1, 1955, he entered residency. Rostov-on-Don again.

The residency was reduced to 2 years, and Svyatoslav set himself the goal of defending his Ph.D. thesis during this time. Topic: “Changes in the eye due to a brain tumor.” The day is filled to the limit: until 3 pm - operations in the eye clinic, then observation of patients in the neurosurgical clinic. In the evening I developed and printed photographs of the eyes. He worked, as he put it, like a beast - without days off, holidays and vacations. Data on 150 patients over time formed the basis of the dissertation. Fedorov’s idea refuted the generally accepted one: he argued that in case of eye diseases, its functions are initially preserved, and only then vision begins to deteriorate, which indicates a huge reserve of the body. His theory made it possible to predict how successful the operation to remove a brain tumor would be.

In May 1958, he defended himself, oddly enough, without a single black ball and became a candidate of medical sciences.

But in Rostov there is an overproduction of doctors. Fedorov is hired as a resident at a regional hospital and sent on business trips to examine pre-conscription prisoners—not the best use of energy for a young scientist.

One day he met a friend from his residency from the Cheboksary branch of the Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after. Helmholtz. It turned out that the cataract treatment department needed a director. Svyatoslav applied for the competition and won.

Artificial lens

In the Cheboksary branch of the Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after. Helmholtz, the young scientist thought about how to help patients who suffered from clouding of the lens and were quickly losing their vision.

And then he came across an article criticizing the operations of the English ophthalmologist Harold Ridley to replace the lens with an artificial one made of plastic. He became interested and began to study all the literature on this topic.

Casanova also wrote about the ophthalmologist Casamata from Dresden, who in 1775 proposed making artificial lenses from glass. At the same time, the Polish doctor Gadini proposed replacing the lens with a rock crystal lens, but paid with his freedom. In 1940, ophthalmologist Marchi made a lens from quartz. In 1949, Harold Ridley first replaced a cloudy lens with an artificial one, but the lens turned out to be too big. Then the Englishman Choice, the Dutchman Binkhorst, the Spaniard Barraquer and others did this. In Moscow, an attempt to implant an artificial lens was carried out by ophthalmologist M. M. Krasnov.

But some operations turned out to be successful! This means there is a rational grain here. And we must try to create a new, perfect lens.

The topic is unplanned, there are no materials, equipment, conditions, or funds. But there is the experience of predecessors, a great desire, faith in oneself, in the help of the people to whom Fedorov turned, in human talent.

The first tiny lens that turner Slava Bessonov made lacked transparency. Another volunteer assistant, 55-year-old patternmaker at the Cheboksary Aggregate Plant Semyon Yakovlevich Milman, produced a more successful option. In the evenings in the kitchen, under a microscope, they began making the first implants, attaching arms to plastic crumbs. The rabbit with an artificial lens and a blindfold on his good eye quickly rushed to the carrot. Other operated animals also saw perfectly well. 59th year.

Next year Fedorov goes to Moscow for a conference on inventions in ophthalmology. The audience received the message with excitement. Lens samples passed through the rows mysteriously disappear.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov dares to implant an artificial lens into twelve-year-old Lena Petrova, who suffers from congenital cataracts. The blind eye began to see 100%. All her life she will remember him with gratitude. Later Fedorov operated on her second eye. Then he operated on his eldest son Svyatoslav, named after him, to whom the cataract was inherited.

This is a breakthrough, the first successful operation in the surgical practice of the USSR to implant an intraocular lens to correct aphakia after removal of a cloudy lens. Fedorov is installing the lens on three more patients. Creates a lens model with more elastic arms.

The branch director proudly reports this at a meeting of the regional party committee. The regional committee secretary orders an article. An article appears in the local newspaper about “the creative collaboration of a young scientist and a skilled craftsman.” Pravda reprinted excerpts from it.

And there was a noise. The chief ophthalmologist of the USSR expressed his negative opinion to the rector of the Moscow Institute. Helmholtz, he called the director of the Cheboksary branch. It was forbidden to operate.

The Board of the All-Russian Society of Ophthalmologists convened a meeting and warned colleagues against the production and use of such lenses.

The disgraced surgeon was sent to Yakutia, but he refused because of his leg. Then the “link” was replaced with Tajikistan. During this month, experimental rabbits with precious artificial lenses in their eyes were starved to death, and the director of the branch published incorrect data from observations of operated patients: their diopters were measured immediately after being in the dark, which sharply reduces visual acuity.

Fedorov did not give up. He sent letters and petitions to the authorities, proved, convinced. IN Hard time a letter arrived from Kuibyshev from Professor T.I. Eroshevsky: “I believe that you should persistently continue your research with artificial lenses. It is wonderful that you managed to resolve the technology of the process in the conditions of your city and perform the operation on animals and humans. Now the priority is yours, and for us, Soviet ophthalmologists, this is important, since surgery with artificial lenses is still a monopoly of the West...” Eroshevsky will continue to support the innovator more than once.

Fedorov is being sand-fed in the party bureau, he is being obstructed by his colleagues. It was as if they had been waiting for his resignation from the research institute. Fedorov goes to the USSR Ministry of Health - he wants to continue his research somewhere. It took a long time to come to a decision.

And Svyatoslav Nikolaevich asked for a meeting with Izvestia journalist Anatoly Agranovsky, who then described his first impression of Fedorov: “He was a young man, broad-shouldered, energetic, impeccably dressed, and it was immediately obvious that he was smart. His face expressed will and calm self-confidence.” He liked Fedorov for his optimism, independence and directness of judgment. I remember the manner of looking your interlocutor straight in the eyes. And A. Agranovsky’s wife spoke about him like this: “Intellectual... Impudent... But the world rests on such people. When they are gone, civilization will die.”

“It’s a lie that there are many Fedorovs. This is a bad formula, that “there are no irreplaceable people,” Agranovsky wrote in the outline of the essay. Their meeting marked the beginning of a long-term friendship.

After a long conversation, Agranovsky called the Deputy Minister of Health. Fedorov was heard at the academic council and decided that the topic should be developed. An order was issued for reinstatement with payment for 20 days of forced absence. The directors of the research institute were obliged to create all conditions for work.

But in Cheboksary they did not welcome him with open arms. There were no rabbits, no laboratory, much less money.

“Will I really achieve the opportunity to work by the time I can no longer work? Will I really be able to implement my ideas when they become outdated?” - he wrote bitterly to Agranovsky.

Fedorov submits documents for a competition to head the department of eye diseases at the same time at the Vladivostok and Arkhangelsk medical institutes. In the end, Arkhangelsk was chosen because Leningrad is not far away, and the production of high-quality lenses requires a technological base.

The family had practically broken up by that time.

Fedorov later told journalist Evgenia Albats: “Somehow it turned out that I completely lack animal fear. When I was a kid, I wasn’t afraid of drowning, I wasn’t afraid that they would punch me in the face, that they would kill me in a dark corner... And then a lot different situations it was... I remember when in Cheboksary they took me by the throat, drove me into a corner - I didn’t sleep at night, I thought: why am I suffering so much, suffering? There is a head, there are also arms, one leg is also there after all - that’s enough! In the morning I went, wrote a letter of resignation, immediately packed my things, threw two suitcases into the car and - go ahead! As I drove, I stuck my head out the window and yelled like crazy: “I’m free! I am free!"

A new life begins. “Cheboksary has lost Fedorov,” Anatoly Agranovsky will write a few years later, in 1965, in his first essay about Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, “The Discovery of Doctor Fedorov.” And - “In 1960, Arkhangelsk got Fedorov.”

Arkhangelsk

So, in 1961, S. N. Fedorov headed the Department of Eye Diseases at the Arkhangelsk Medical Institute. He’s 33—“the age of Christ,” he jokes.

He was received wonderfully. Fedorov's lectures are popular among students.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich organizes a student circle. At first, the students poured out in droves. But in the end, only the most persistent and enthusiastic guys remained - Albina Kolinko, Lena Antonova, Yura Anisimov, Valera Zakharov, Tanya Kopylova and Valya Zolotilova. Later they would become famous ophthalmologists. The leader asked them strictly, did not allow them to relax, and demanded scientific research.

Club members operated on rabbits, studied vascular permeability, developed technology for making lenses, methods for their sterilization, and studied histology, histochemistry, and color photography.

Svyatoslav writes to A. Agranovsky: “...It is difficult with a vivarium that does not exist, it is difficult with the release of funds for the manufacture of instruments for lenses. But there is a team that can be directed towards one goal, there are more opportunities for struggle, there is independence.”

The creation of a laboratory for vision testing and eye examinations began. In Leningrad, Fedorov obtained A.I. Gorban’s installation for measuring the length of the eye using X-rays.

Fedorov began producing and implanting lenses. But the operations gave a negative result.

It became clear that the Danheim lens model was structurally imperfect. The Binkhrost lens seemed more promising. Fedorov began corresponding with Binkhrost, and he sent him the lens directly in an envelope with a reservation about its imperfection.

Svyatoslav Fedorov began to develop the technology of a new lens.

He was gladly helped by other experts in his field, the volunteers to whom he turns. People caught fire with his ideas.

Svyatoslav Nikolayevich involved watchmaker Viktor Smirnov in the work - he carved a new lens and made a miniature press for bending the arms. But you need the appropriate drills. Former theater artist Boris Mikhailovich Ventsenostsev undertook to sharpen microscopic drills, but they got stuck in soft plastic.

Fedorov was told that in Leningrad at the watch factory there was an excellent mechanic, Nikolai Vasilyevich Lebedev. And at the request of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, he actually made a machine, “an instrument of remarkable precision for drilling lenses.”

The most difficult thing remained - to find a magician who could make accurate molds for the manufacture of optical lenses. At the plant they remembered a foreman named Karan, who once worked here and lives in the basement on Vasilyevsky Island. The doctor searched all the basements until he decided to go to the address desk. There were four people with that last name in Leningrad. Finally, at the fourth address the right person was found, Alexander Modestovich Karan, “an academician in his field.” Proud to be remembered and appreciated, the old man worked the molds to perfection, doing the last polishing with silk. The lenses turned out clean and transparent. Karan was assigned to the clinic as a mechanic.

Physicists E. Kuvshinsky and S. Zakharov made instruments to determine mechanical properties eyes - elasticity, extensibility, strength. Optician A. Nizhin helped mold the lenses.

For Fedorov, on a voluntary basis, Leningrad chemists I. Arbuzova, L. Medvedeva and others synthesized hydrophilic plastic: only the 118th experiment produced working plastic.

Valery Zakharov became so skilled at soldering, drilling and stamping that he is called an “ophthalmologist”. He also made an original model of a clip lens, which can be easily inserted into the eye. Surgeon Vitaly Yakovlevich Bedilo not only mastered the surgical technique, but also invented several new instruments.

Even the sick are happy to help the holy cause! Watchmaker Viktor Smirnov spends his evenings in his workshop, an engineer from the Urals has set up a darkroom, a student from Gorky does optical calculations.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich is struggling to create a new model of the lens, different from the old one in the type of fixation. The Binkhorst model is difficult to insert into the eye and requires a large incision.

Particular difficulties arose with attaching the arms. It was necessary to drill the edge of the lens along the chord with a drill.

The order for a new model was accepted in March 1963 by the All-Russian Research Institute of Surgical Instruments and Equipment in Leningrad, but nothing was done in 9 months.

Help again came from enthusiasts.

Fedorov came to the Leningrad Watch Factory with a request to help drill a 100-micron channel in a new lens model. Watchmakers began to think together about the task. And after 2 weeks they wrote that the device and drills were ready.

The arms were replaced with antennas. But the lens held weakly in the rabbit's eye. Then they decided not to replace all six arches, but only three. Special supports for fixation behind the iris (arches) and in front (antennas) made the position of the lens in the eye more stable.

At that time, the fame of microminiature masters Syadristy and Sysolyatin thundered in Arkhangelsk. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich turned to them for help. Both responded and helped make the necessary instruments, real works of art.

Thus, together, the whole world, under the guidance of the Master, brought out and nurtured a new type of lens, “Iris-clip lenses”. Previously, the lens was held using the angle of the anterior chamber of the eye; now it is held on the iris thanks to two cross-shaped loops.

Thus was born the prototype of an intraocular lens (IOL) patented in many countries, called the “Sputnik” lens by American ophthalmologists. The Sputnik IOL is 40 times lighter than the natural lens and has 40% better optical properties. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich and Valery Zakharov made it from especially pure polymethyl methacrylate, from which they later began to make artificial heart and joint valves. The Sputnik IOL model became the standard design throughout the world and remained so for more than a quarter of a century.

Later, Albina Kolinko, married to Ivashina, a candidate of sciences, would derive a mathematical dependence of lens power on eye parameters, thanks to which tables and graphs were compiled, with the help of which lenses were selected individually for each patient. Previously, they first removed the cataract, then selected a lens, waited for healing and cut it again to insert an artificial lens, now all this began to take half an hour. For the development of optical problems of the new operation, A. Ivashina will receive the Lenin Komsomol Prize.

Lenses on the stream

In 1963, Fedorov began implanting artificial lenses. From 1963 to 1967, Fedorov and his team implanted three types of lenses of a new model. He established his own semi-handicraft production. The lenses were made using an electric stove: a mold filled with plastic was heated, pressed using a micro-vice, and cooled with a fan. Then the mold was pulled apart with special tools, sawed through, and so on.

Apart from Fedorov, artificial lenses were produced only by a small Dutch workshop and the English company Rainer.

The circle of like-minded people worked harmoniously, according to a strict schedule: until 4 o'clock in the evening they studied at the institute, until half past six - at home, by 7 they gathered again, made lenses, looked at patients, prescribed operations, prepared instruments, operated on rabbits.

In Svyatoslav Nikolaevich’s office there was a lathe on which parts for tools and sandpaper were turned. Special surgical needles were made.

Everyone became a bit of a chemist, optician, engineer, installer.

The laboratory served as a former toilet - a three-meter room. Then they reclaimed part of the veranda, where they placed a darkroom.

Thus, a clinic for artificial lens implantation was gradually formed. Patients flocked to Arkhangelsk from all cities of the Soviet Union.

Former patients with implanted lenses who were able to see write to the brave surgeon. Even more letters are from people who are waiting for this operation. To provide assistance to everyone, there are not enough beds, equipment, instruments and doctors.

In 1962 S.N. Fedorov was the first in the world to perform an ophthalmic operation under a microscope. He operated, covering the microscope with books so that it would not fall on the patient. Since 1964, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich began systematically performing operations under a microscope - IOL implantation, corneal transplantation, and operations for glaucoma. These were the first microsurgical operations in our country and the first step towards a scientific and technological revolution in ophthalmology.

With a magnification of 12-16 times, it is possible to examine the small vessels of the eye, particles of 20-30 microns. The microscope has opened up new opportunities for ophthalmologists to perform optical reconstructive operations.

At first, many colleagues were distrustful of this innovation. But soon ophthalmic operations became unthinkable without a microscope.

New operations in ophthalmology also required changes in medical equipment. Valery Zakharov improved the operating table. He made horseshoe-shaped tables above the patient's head. It became more convenient to operate; a good support for the surgeon’s hands was created. But the tables were too high. Then Valery, having mobilized the recovering patients, pulled out one table and set up an instrumental table, sawing off the legs to the required height and attaching a horseshoe-shaped attachment to the head.

In the morning, all the eye surgeons scolded the student. Only Svyatoslav Nikolaevich praised: “That’s right, we’ll operate while sitting. Not a single watchmaker would think of repairing a watch while standing, but we operate on the eyes while standing.” Gradually we got used to the new table.

We also worked on the problem of retinal detachment. In Moscow, a new liquid plastic was obtained, which Svyatoslav Nikolaevich became interested in. In 1963, chemists T. Krasovskaya and L. Sobolevskaya from the Moscow Institute of Organosilicon Compounds synthesized polymethylsiloxane, a liquid silicon-based polymer, for it. Liquid silicone plastic was successfully injected into the vitreous cavity of rabbits. After that, they performed several operations on patients with severe retinal detachments, introducing plastic liquid “fillings” into the eyes. The detachments fell into place. This technology is now widely used in the treatment of retinal detachments.

The circle also worked on the development of technology for manufacturing keratoprostheses. The equipment was created, the first samples were made. Experimental operations to change the cornea were performed.

But he wants to do more. From letters to A. Agranovsky: “10 days ago we performed 3 operations on patients with severe, almost hopeless retinal detachments... On Thursday we will operate on cataracts for the first time and at the same time insert an artificial lens into the eye. Previously, we always performed the operation in two stages... Letters are overwhelming. They brought me about 500 of them upon arrival, and now 30-40 arrive every day... There are even telegrams. After all, people are waiting, hoping... Time flies like crazy. That's how life flies by. A "time machine" is necessary. Shake your hand. Fedorov."

The more popular Fedorov becomes, the more dissatisfied his fellow ophthalmologists show. A central newspaper published an article by the country’s chief ophthalmologist criticizing “attempts to insert artificial lenses into the eye,” which “... pose more dangers than benefits,” because they are a foreign body.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich called patients for operations primarily from those areas where he was not recognized. When the patients returned home, local doctors could no longer dismiss Fedorov’s methods.

In April 1965, Izvestia published an essay by A. Agranovsky, “The Discovery of Doctor Fedorov.” Journalistic ethics and responsibility did not allow him to write about him earlier, without long-term results. Time has shown that Fedorov was right. Agranovsky describes the struggle of an innovator with scientific bureaucrats, his searches and successes.

“You dropped a powerful bomb. Thanks for the help! " - thanks Svyatoslav Nikolaevich. “The fight is just beginning,” was the answer.

The publication had an effect. In those days, the press was listened to. Soon, the Ministry of Health issued an order to organize an experimental research laboratory for artificial lenses in Arkhangelsk and obliged the “Bulletin of Ophthalmology” to publish Fedorov’s articles. The ministry's official response to the editorial office stated that it had "taken note of criticism regarding a certain tendency towards monopolism in this field of science."

A Ministry of Health commission headed by professors from Odessa Gundorova and Bushmich came to Arkhangelsk to personally verify the veracity of the publication. They were delighted. But having received a command from the director of the Helmholtz Institute, Trutneva, at a meeting of the academic council they gave a negative conclusion. Only thanks to the intervention of Agranovsky, who by chance was vacationing in Karlovy Vary with the Deputy Chairman of the Academic Council, Professor Gennady Konstantinovich Ushakov, the work was not closed.

New scientific direction

In 1966, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich went to London to attend a symposium of the international society on implantation. By that time, he had accumulated the wealth of experience: he had performed about one hundred and eighty operations. Fedorov managed not only to come up with a method of operation and a model of artificial lenses, but also to organize their production. It took a lot of effort back then. Only thanks to this titanic work, thousands of Soviet citizens were able to be treated in accordance with the most modern technologies, which the Western world had not yet adopted.

The report created a sensation. Svyatoslav Fedorov became the leading surgeon of the International Club of Implantologists.

The symposium recorded the emergence of a new scientific direction. Ophthalmology became a precise technological specialty that included lens manufacturing, eye calculations, and microscopic techniques.

Now it is necessary not only to prove that eye microsurgery is a leading branch of ophthalmology, but also to support this with documentation. Fedorov is working on his dissertation.

The symbiosis of chemistry, optics and ophthalmology bore its first fruits. The 256th implanted lens was not simple, but hydrophilic, soft, and elastic. The calculations were justified, the eye perceived the lens calmly.

At the end of the 60s, rumors about a doctor from Arkhangelsk who restored sight to hopelessly ill people spread throughout the country and began to penetrate abroad. But how could a doctor with a small team in a small hospital with overcrowded wards help them? Patients complained about unacceptable conditions in the clinic and cold. The roads in Arkhangelsk have wooden surfaces; in spring and autumn they were flooded with water, the boards floated up and flew out, and you couldn’t pass them by car.

Fedorov dreams of his own institute, with the best equipment in the world, unique operations, where people from all over the world will come for treatment and study.

In 1965, the Deputy Minister of Health came to Arkhangelsk to deal with complaints. It was decided to move the laboratory to Moscow and provide a clinic with the latest equipment.

However, the wait was prolonged. Fedorov did not sit idly by, but agreed with the director of the clinic in Kyiv, Professor Plytas, who was about to retire, to become his successor. But chance intervened, and another doctor took this place. In Moscow, Fedorov was supported by Minister Boris Vasilyevich Petrovsky.

Long farewells mean extra tears

In 1967, after the next ministerial commission arrived in Arkhangelsk, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was summoned to Moscow. In the capital, he received an order to be transferred to Moscow. They allowed us to take a few more people and some tools with us.

When Fedorov finally had the transfer order in his hands, he came to the rector of the institute to say goodbye. “Are you going to the capital for fame? — one could hear sarcasm in the rector’s voice. “Stay, we’ll create conditions for you.”

But Fedorov could not afford to wait, forcing patients to wait for years. The situation repeated itself.

And in Arkhangelsk they did not want to lose a doctor who had brought enormous fame to the institute. The matter was not limited only to persuasion and reproaches for desertion.

The regional party committee forbade Svyatoslav Nikolaevich to leave and forbade issuing them work books.

Leaving felt like escaping. Anticipating difficulties, Fedorov decided not to hesitate and called Zakharov: “I think we won’t be able to leave by train tomorrow. We urgently need to hand over our tickets and fly by plane.” Having given other people's names (Fyodorov was flying under the name Nikolaenko), we bought tickets for the first morning flight. And at the station in Arkhangelsk that morning they were actually waiting for them.

The work records were then requested through the prosecutor.

Capital

From 1967 to 1974, S. N. Fedorov was the head of the department of eye diseases at the Moscow Medical Dental Institute (MMDI), located at the Helmholtz Research Institute. At the department, Fedorov creates a problem laboratory in ophthalmology. The laboratory was located in two tiny rooms.

There was no room for an institute. The Moscow city health department held the defense.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich collects papers and sneaks behind the tightly locked office doors. Raises funds, knocks out equipment. Proves that it is high time to turn medicine into an industry. That the time of artisans has sunk into the past.

Fedorov writes to his friend and colleague A. Gorban: “Moscow is taking me with hostility, this is natural, I’m afraid for the clinic, equipment, staff, etc. Everything is going slowly, we have to literally beat out every little thing... I managed to agree on payment for domestic equipment at 15-20 thousand (already issued bills for 3.5 thousand), imported equipment for 7-8 thousand. I agreed with a watch factory for help and found an excellent die mechanic there. It may be possible to obtain equipment for a film laboratory; they promise to provide 3 typewriters.

Today I received tools from France, but the Swiss company refused delivery. I’m thinking of going to the Swiss ambassador and persuading him. They make too good tools there... City Health is dragging its feet with the base, probably because of some outside influence. The “fathers” are probably afraid that as soon as I have a base and patients start leaving our “conveyor belt”, they will have to make room for a lot of space... The Institute of Reconstructive Surgery will still exist! We just need to start operating as soon as possible.”

50th Hospital

In the early 70s, the premises were finally allocated - a department with 60 beds in city hospital No. 50 on the basis of MMSI. The department and laboratory were transferred there.

Next to him are the faithful Valery Zakharov, Albina Kolinko, Alexander Ivashin. He continues to assemble a team. Graduates of graduate schools and medical institutes come to him - E. Zakharova, I. Yartseva, E. Egorova, Z. Moroz, T. Grigoryants, V. Kopaeva and others. He did not promise mountains of gold and, on the contrary, warned that they would work for five kopecks, that they would have to fight for all their “want”. And they remained, fascinated by his ideas, energy and enthusiasm.

Refurbishment of premises for a clinic has begun.

“I’m having a fight, as always,” Fedorov writes to A. Gorban. - “I’m rushing into the clouds, but there are many who want to pull on the coattails. I'm tired of repairs; I have no time to operate on patients. I sit on the phone for half a day and knock out linoleum, moldings, and ceramics. I knocked out 5 scientific staff positions; a resolution of the Science Committee should be signed in a few days. They promise another 5-7 bets in the new year. I don’t know where I’ll place new personnel. He took over an entire room for new equipment. I went for days to receive 4 parcels from the imperialist powers. Great, devils make tools! Fairy tale! Come, I'll show you. Surgical tweezers have tips that are not visible to the naked eye. I received an operating microscope from Germany, and I enjoy the operations. The pleasure is greater than from Hemingway or Raikin..."

A vivarium was located in the transformer substation, and milling and turning machines were installed for making lenses. A laboratory was placed in a converted toilet. In a fruit and vegetable store, Fedorov knocked out a small room in the district executive committee for a histological laboratory.

In the same year, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich defended his dissertation on the topic “Correction of unilateral aphasia with intraocular lenses.” She refuted the established dogmas of ophthalmological science that artificial lenses have ceased to be implanted almost throughout the world due to alleged complications. T.I. Eroshevsky persuaded him to remove the heated controversy, because the facts are already quite eloquent. It worked. Opponents praised him “like at a funeral.” Approval by the Higher Attestation Commission was still pending. The work was sent for conclusion to none other than Professor Dmitriev in Krasnoyarsk, a long-time opponent of the method of implanting artificial lenses, expecting, naturally, a negative conclusion. For six months, the professor thought through the review, objective, but careful not to make enemies: he did not share the idea of ​​the dissertation, but since the applicant had well developed the problem in the experiment and had fully mastered the technology of making lenses, he earned the title of Doctor of Science. This sounded bold, since Fedorov was still not held in high esteem in the capital.

Hospital No. 81

In 1970, the clinic of Professor S. N. Fedorov moved to Moscow hospital No. 81. Here they are allocated 4 floors.

With the new surgical technique, when the sizes became smaller, patients were discharged not after 3 weeks, but after a week. And it turned out that you couldn’t let all the patients through one operating room with two tables. Contrary to the ban, Fedorov removed 20 beds and added two operating tables. The clinic began to treat 3,100 people per year instead of 1,600.

“It has been calculated,” wrote Deputy Minister of Health of the RSFSR A.V. Sergeev, “that by doubling capacity, the clinic saves the state about 150 thousand rubles... 30% of cured patients become fully able to work... Each of them produces products worth approximately 5 thousand rubles , and in total they will give the state 2.5 million rubles. Thus, the intensification of work in a hospital brings enormous economic benefits to the state (they don’t even talk about the most important thing - that the patients of this clinic have improved or restored their vision).”

Experiments are being conducted to study the biological properties of preserved and non-preserved corneas. The experimenters were interested in the viability of all parts of the cornea, but most of all, the inner layer. The ability of cells to maintain tissue respiration was studied. Experiments have shown that a few hours after the death of the donor, the activity of oxidative enzymes decreases, and after two days the cells’ ability to perform aerobic respiration is lost. Cells die. This was the basis for the use of non-preserved cadaveric cornea. Using fresh cornea, it is possible to perform a transplant for cataracts that were previously considered inoperable. For the first time in our country, Fedorov used non-preserved donor cornea for penetrating keratoplasty and improved the corresponding surgical technique, which made it possible to improve results even in that group of patients who were previously considered inoperable.

At the same time, the hospital is conducting research in the field of keratoprosthesis. In case of severe burn lesions and corneal dystrophy, keratoplasty is often ineffective. The institute managed to develop a keratoprosthesis. This is a thin support plate with window-type holes - an ocular prosthesis that is inserted into the cornea. The Fedorov-Zuev keratoprosthesis received an author's certificate. It is patented in many countries: the USA, Germany, England, Italy. The advantage of the model is its low weight. Relatively large holes facilitate rapid implantation of the plate into the cornea. Removable optics allows the model to be implanted in two stages, which reduces both surgical trauma and the number of rejections. You can quickly remove the retoprosthetic film that sometimes builds up on the optical part of the cylinder. The clinic operated on many patients who were considered hopeless due to chemical burns or severe degeneration of the cornea.

They began to use the method of indirect binocular ophthalmoscopy in the treatment of retinal detachment, which shortened the treatment period and made it possible to detect and localize retinal breaks directly on the operating table.

Fedorov opens his own clinic, with the latest equipment, but without doctors on staff. The patient will be examined by a doctor from the hospital and will be admitted to his ward for surgery. The same doctor nurses the patient and examines him in a month, six months. There is no duplication and dispersion of forces, the surgeon’s responsibility increases. He can observe the disease over time.

But the doctor may get sick and go on vacation. And Fedorov introduces a team method into the work of the clinic. The team divided into teams of 3-4 people and assigned them their chambers. Everyone has their own clinic day. Led by associate professors and candidates of science. The professor is involved in doubtful cases. At the end of the month, the performance indicators of the teams were compared publicly, at meetings, and posted on stands. All teams are equal, and the team of the “chief” himself is no exception. If a team performs poorly, it is disbanded and another leader is appointed.

The team method raises the professional level of doctors themselves. If on average in the country 12-13 patients were cured per year, then Fedorov’s clinic “saw the light” on 35 patients. The number of complications during operations has also decreased. “There is nothing surprising in this,” said Fedorov, “after all, when you do a lot of operations, you certainly become a good surgeon. Our young guys, literally a year or two after graduating from college, are already considered qualified specialists: they can implant a lens or perform surgery for myopia.” Fedorov was convinced that the sooner the burden of responsibility is placed on a young doctor, the faster he will develop as a specialist and as a person, the more hope there is that he will become a doctor of a new generation, a scientist with an open view of the problems of medicine.

In 1971, Fedorov proposed to the chairman All-Union Society blind people the paradoxical idea of ​​ophthalmological medical examination. Residents, graduate students, and doctors went to the factories where members of the society worked and examined several thousand people. 842 people were selected for clinical examination, and 493 were scheduled for surgery. 182 managed to restore vision from 0.1 to 0.7 diopters. A 42-year-old blind man left the clinic without a guide. The woman saw her children after surgery 17 years later. People in the wards learned to read not with their fingers using the Braille method, but using an alphabet book.

For his success in the field of health care, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Revolutionary techniques

S. N. Fedorov was one of the first to introduce laser into ophthalmology.

He opened the country's first laser surgery department, which was later transformed into the Laser Surgery Center.

Under his leadership, several generations of domestic infrared lasers for refractive surgery were developed, which made it possible to dose the thermal energy pulse in terms of power, time and depth of exposure.

In the field of laser surgery, Fedorov proposed new way treatment of secondary cataracts, glaucoma. He proposed treating retinal vein thrombosis using the method of occlusion (blockage) of arterial trunks, which improved vision in 60-65% of patients with chronic thrombosis.

Developed a new method for treating diabetic retinopathy using the combined effects of low temperatures and laser coagulation. In special cases, he practiced a combination of laser coagulation and vitrectomy. In this way, it was possible to help hundreds of patients with hemophthalmos and diabetic retinopathy.

Previously, patients with vitreous hemorrhages, inflammatory and degenerative opacities were considered hopeless. Fedorov designed an original device - a special Vitreoton device, which allows you to replace the vitreous body. If you remove it and replace it with a buffer liquid, the inflammatory process in the vascular tract stops. The device allows you to achieve tangible results in the treatment of vitreous opacities due to trauma, inflammatory processes, and hemorrhages. With the help of vitreoton it became possible to remove dislocated and subluxated lenses with minimal complications. A conventional operation required complex surgical techniques.

Vitreoton allowed us to solve the problem of cataracts in a new way. A method of lensectomy, mechanical destruction of the lens, using the Lensvitreotom device was developed and introduced. The cataract was removed through the pars plana of the ciliary body. The incision is small, which means the injury is minimal, and, as a result, rehabilitation occurs faster.

For patients with severe hemophthalmia, vitreoretinal destruction, retinal detachment, who were previously considered inoperable and were doomed to blindness, the developed original methods of endovitreal surgery began to be used: vitrectomy in combination with endolaser coagulation and the introduction of perfluoroorganic compounds into the vitreous cavity.

For correction high degree Myopia, for the first time in the world, operations were developed to implant negative soft collagen and silicone lenses onto the natural lens, as well as to remove the natural lens.

In 1974, Fedorov proposed a new, vascular, theory of the origin and development of primary open-angle glaucoma. On the basis of which he and his students managed to significantly change the methods and tactics of early diagnosis and treatment of this pathology. As a result of the research, a new tactic for surgical treatment of this disease in the early stages was developed. For this purpose, fundamentally new operations were proposed - vasoreconstructive and laser operations, non-penetrating deep sclerectomy. It represents the creation of a biological pump inside the eye. The operation takes only 10 minutes, and its reliability is 98-99%.

To correct hypermetropia, a fundamentally new method of thermokeratoplasty was developed, and subsequently laser keratoplasty.

Before Fedorov, no one had undertaken to treat optic nerve atrophy.

He developed a set of surgical methods to prevent the progression of myopia - scleroplasty, collagenoplasty, vasoreconstructive surgery. Using original surgical instruments, he successfully operates on astigmatism and farsightedness.

Operation Sunshine

Work is underway in all areas of surgery: myopia, farsightedness, astigmatism, glaucoma, cataracts, retinal detachment and much more. In a short period of time, the team has developed and implemented a huge number of treatment methods and operations that have not been used anywhere in the world.

The name of Professor Fedorov is associated with a new unique direction in ophthalmology - refractive surgery.

Moscow ophthalmologists still treat him with distrust. “In Moscow, the attitude towards me is cold,” Fedorov writes to A. Gorban, “they pinch me from time to time. This is good: it promotes the release of adrenaline into the blood. I’m in a fighting mood, I want to bite.”

But confidence was already growing that the blockade would be broken.

A young American ophthalmologist, Michael Gaylin, arrived at the clinic. When he saw the IOL implantation operation, he exclaimed: “A completely new approach to microsurgery! Your own lenses, your own devices, your own methods. This should be taken seriously." Geilin did not leave the operating room, worked almost without breaks, and bombarded Svyatoslav Nikolaevich with questions.

A year later, Fedorov visited America. He was amazed by the pace of work of American ophthalmologists. There he performed about a hundred operations to correct myopia using a technique developed by Colombian surgeon Jose Barraquer. But they did not give the desired effect.

Keratotomy (“kerato” - cornea) is an operation in which the surgeon makes non-through radial incisions on the cornea. The radius of its curvature changes, it becomes flatter, the shape of the eyeball changes, and myopia decreases.

Having returned, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich told everything he saw to the employees. Having compared all the results, the clinic decided to incise the cornea not from the inside, but from the outer, front surface, outside the central zone of the eye. Such operations turned out to be safe for the eye and significantly reduced myopia. Fedorov, his students and collaborators began to cut the cornea much deeper and closer to the optical axis of the eye. This requires precise calculations, and a computer center was brought in to help the doctor. Many parameters are stored in the computer’s memory, starting with the patient’s age and ending with the thickness of the cornea of ​​the eye. The machine determines how many notches need to be made - depending on the degree of the disease, there can be 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 - and what depth should be.

Simple surgical instruments were not suitable for such thin incisions. If earlier the error during an operation was 200 microns, now it is 20. Blades with a radius of curvature of no more than 20 angstroms or less are needed. And the doctors of Fedorov’s team first used a guitar string, and then ordinary Neva blades, prepared in a special way.

In the West, keratotomy began to be called “Russian”, and Fedorov’s people began to call it “Sun”: if you look at the eye after surgery through a slit lamp, in the middle you can see a small circle with diverging rays.

We teach the world

In the essay “10 Years Later,” A. Agranovsky wrote: “...He was entrusted with representing Soviet science in England, Holland, Vietnam, Hungary, the USA, he performed several operations at the New York Mayflower Hospital, he took his own lenses, and, by the way, our craftsmen managed to make tiny inscriptions on them. When American doctors examine the blind people to whom he restored their sight, they will read inside the eye, along the edge of the lens: “Made in the USSR.”

Fedorov and his students generously shared their knowledge and skills with their colleagues. For four years, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich went through the authorities, seeking permission to study for foreigners. Finally, having received permission, Fedorov began teaching courses.

Associate Professor Tost from the GDR, Professor Schmidt from the Federal Republic of Germany, Professor Forsius from Finland, the chief ophthalmologist of Cuba Palae, the chief ophthalmologist of Bulgaria Dybov, Professor Alpar from the USA and other leading specialists come for month-long internships.

He was reproached: how can Soviet doctors teach foreigners for foreign currency! And funds are needed to purchase equipment, medicines, build new facilities, and develop ophthalmology. Part of the funds received from training foreign specialists remains at the institute. Good equipment and tools mean people's health, and therefore income for the state.

Construction of the century

In 1974, the problem laboratory became the Moscow Research Laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Eye Surgery (MNIILEKHG) of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR and received the status of an independent scientific institution.

For her, by order of the Government of the RSFSR, a republican hospital with a whole complex of buildings began to be built in the north of Moscow, on Beskudnikovsky Boulevard.

The All-Russian Society of the Blind allocated several million rubles.

A concrete mixing shop was located at the construction site. But soon, thanks to the persistence of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, the site was cleared.

Everything was thought out in this diagnostic and treatment complex with a total area of ​​26 thousand square meters. meters, with a children's department, an operating block with 14 operating rooms, a scientific building, a vivarium, an experimental operating room, a film and photo laboratory, and a conference hall with 300 seats. A clinic, premises for production, and a building for after-care will be built nearby. The patient will not have to run to other clinics, because he will be provided with a full range of services.

“The most important joy is the start of construction. Every day I drive and admire the plank fence made from slabs. It looks, of course, terrible, but it’s still nice that something has already moved forward. Apparently, it will take four years for construction, and maybe more, but in a real clinic, although there is a shortage of space, you can still work effectively, and therefore the wait is not so hard,” Fedorov wrote to T. I. Eroshevsky .

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was aware of all events. He knew how many bricks were delivered and knocked out the required building material. He offered the directors a mutually beneficial exchange: in exchange for construction materials and blade workers, he treated the company’s employees. Or he interested directors by providing custom-made ophthalmological equipment, which they then sold together abroad.

“I always walk like a tank: I’ll turn the gun back and across the lawns,” he said about himself.

I went to the construction site every day. I loved bringing guests here. One day, in front of the amazed eyes of Anatoly Agranovsky, he personally caught up and stopped a thief who wanted to take away a new door.

Sputnik gains altitude

The fight against Fedorov's methods has noticeably weakened. As IOL surgery was finally recognized in the United States, a society of artificial lens surgeons emerged. For some reason, ideas brought to life by our enthusiasts are accepted with aggression in our country, until someone abroad says: “That was really great.” Fedorov called this state of affairs “slavery of thought” and fought against it all his life. He inspired his employees: “You are not slaves. Stop the slave mentality!”

In 1975, the method was officially legalized.

Anatoly Agranovsky writes a second essay about Fedorov, “10 years later.” “My hero was no longer a lone inventor. But every step was given to him by such hard work, such incredible tension, that, looking around this path, I am amazed today how he could complete it to the end.”

Svyatoslav Fedorov is introducing a new technology for cataract removal - phacoemulsification. Subsequently, this contributed to the development of small incision surgery and the development of a new generation of intraocular artificial optical lenses with elasticity and shape memory, which can be inserted into the eye through a small incision in a folded state using special injectors.

The development of various models of posterior chamber lenses begins, which are installed in the posterior chamber - the space between the iris and the capsule of the removed lens. The design of posterior chamber lenses, which are mounted in the capsule, is especially successful: they do not come into contact with the iris, so recovery after their installation occurs faster. Studies have shown that immature cataracts should be operated on when the capsule is still strong, then lens implantation gives the best results.

In 1976, Fedorov organized a production facility where a unique technology for large-scale production of intraocular lenses was developed.

The Fedorov-Zakharov Sputnik lens model was awarded a diploma and a bronze medal at the World Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva. And in Bratislava he will receive a gold medal.

A new lens design has been created with three rear loops.

Implantation of an artificial lens costs the state 90 rubles, and surgery using the old method costs 200.

At the end of the seventies, the production of lenses was put on stream. Each installer makes three to four lenses a day. It turns out about 300 pieces per day, 9 thousand per year. They are produced not only for Fedorov’s clinic, but even for export.

Based on the Sputnik model, dozens of others began to be manufactured. The clinic's surgeons develop new models, look for fresh solutions, invent, obtain patents, and sell licenses abroad.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich sought to develop his own tools and consumables, domestic, but at the world level.

Until the thing was brought to perfection, there could be no talk of vacation. Products manufactured by experimental technical production have a series of trademarks. All inventions made by Fedorov and his team have patents and copyright certificates. They were a young team, but they already included experienced surgeons, scientists, engineers, and technicians.

The Neva blade, which was used to make keratotomy incisions, gradually became obsolete, and was replaced by diamond knives and lasers.

At each operative, Fedorov said: “We have developed a unique thing! We need to implement it and replicate it.”

They produced collagen films, drainages used for healing postoperative scars, diamond and ruby ​​knives. A little later, the lens itself began to be made from collagen.

The biconvex lens, the Sputnik lens, was always in Svyatoslav Nikolaevich’s pocket, and he used this miracle in every case, raising funds for new equipment, for the construction of an institute, for the implementation of his ideas.

Many of Svyatoslav Fedorov’s plans seemed unrealistic, fantastic, and when he shared them at meetings with his employees, many were skeptical about them. But time passed, and Fedorov’s dreams took shape right before his eyes.

New technological techniques used in eye surgery radically changed the entire process of a surgeon’s work. The emergence of new apparatus and equipment required the development and application of new approaches to sterilization. It was necessary to change the entire operating unit, starting with the climate, to eliminate the possibility of dust in the air and fogging of the microscope eyepieces.

In a word, we need a modern institute where we can provide treatment, engage in scientific work, and produce equipment.

There will be an institute!

In the summer of 1978, the Minister of Health of the RSFSR V.V. Trofimov invited Fedorov to head the joint Helmholtz Institute of Eye Diseases and laboratory. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich refused.

In October 1979, he was invited to the Kremlin. Syrian President Hafez al-Assad wants to meet him. They are going to the clinic. The next day, the President of Syria spoke about his impressions to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin. He asked the Minister of Health B.V. Petrovsky to provide detailed information about the clinic. Petrovsky visited the complex under construction on Beskudnikovsky Boulevard. He was especially impressed by the new operating room: 16 halls, 32 operating tables.

After the tour, everyone gathered in Fedorov’s office in hospital No. 81. The operation was shown on the monitor. Valery Dmitrievich Zakharov began to operate. Suddenly the minister quickly stood up: “What is he doing?!” “Implants an artificial lens...” - "How so? After all, five minutes have passed since the start of the operation!” “Yes, it’s just that the whole operation lasts 10 minutes,” answered Svyatoslav Nikolaevich. Boris Vasilyevich's surprise knew no bounds. It turned out that recently, in a respected clinic, a respected ophthalmologist performed removal of both lenses with IOL implantation for the minister, but each operation lasted 1.5 hours.

At the end of the meeting, the minister said: “You have long outgrown your name. You are a real Institute." And he continued: “Unfortunately, my powers are not enough for this. It is necessary to obtain official support and consent of the Moscow City Council, the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR, the government of Russia, the Ministry of Health of the USSR, the State Committee for Science and Technology and, finally, the government of the Union. At the same time, you should keep in mind that the government of the country has taken a course to reduce the number of research institutes in Moscow and transfer them to other cities, since the number of research institutes in Moscow has exceeded reasonable limits. Thus, the path to promotion to the rank of the Institute is long and difficult. But, if he doesn’t scare you, I will help and assist you.”

When the issue was finally resolved, a discussion arose in the USSR Government. In Moscow there is the Moscow Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after. Helmholtz and the All-Union Research Institute of GB under the leadership of M. M. Krasnov. Why do we need a third Institute of Eye Diseases? The decisive speech was the speech of B.V. Petrovsky: “This will not be the third institute of eye diseases in Moscow. This will be the world's first and only Research Institute of Eye Microsurgery.

On September 11, 1980, the USSR Government issued an order to transform the MNIILEKHG into the Moscow Research Institute of Eye Microsurgery of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR. Production was converted into a technical department.

For the first implantation of an IOL into a human eye, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich almost lost his doctor’s diploma.

Many years later, Minister of Health N. T. Trubilin said: “I am ashamed of these walls, which witnessed our shameful past, when at the next board we almost deprived Dr. Fedorov of his medical diploma.”

In 1981, together with GOI named after. Vavilov created the world's first serial multi-purpose laser ophthalmoscopic complex “Liman-2” for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy, degenerative retinal lesions, and glaucoma.

In 1983, the complex was finally completed. The queues for appointments were hundreds of meters long.

In an effort to bring ophthalmological care closer to the residents of the country, Fedorov is introducing into medical practice a mobile operating room with a bus-based diagnostic complex. The operating room bus, equipped with the latest medical equipment, has traveled all over the world for 25 years. Soviet Union. Worked in India and Yemen, where 1224 operations were performed.

Line of epiphany

The huge number of patients queuing up for hospitalization at the institute required a radical change in the treatment process. Once Svyatoslav Nikolaevich visited a poultry farm, the structure of which delighted him. When he returned, he said: “We will also make a factory for restoring vision and a conveyor belt, which we will call the “Line of Insight.”

The Council of Ministers of the USSR allocated 12 million rubles to the institute for the construction of a new building.

And in the new building in 1984, an automated surgical conveyor was designed. The operations are divided into stages: auxiliary - preparation for the operation and its completion, and main - removal of the diseased lens and introduction of an artificial lens. Each surgeon performs his part of the work, much like on a factory assembly line. But every surgeon is able to perform all stages of all operations in their entirety. “Conveyor” surgery has increased the number of operations performed by one surgeon by 10 times. Doctors got the opportunity to practice a lot and, therefore, quickly improve their qualifications. At first they used a horizontal production line from the West German company Siemens, then in Cheboksary they started producing the domestic “Romashka”.

First

For the first time in the world, the institute began implanting intraocular IOLs in children.

For the first time, the lightest, functional, collapsible keratoprostheses, a biokeratoprosthesis and a corneal prosthetic complex were designed, which made it possible to transfer severe cataracts from the category of inoperable to operable.

For the first time in the world, keratomelosis was performed on a non-frozen eye.

For the first time in the world, methods of surgical correction of farsightedness were proposed and developed: thermocoagulation and implantation of a positive posterior chamber IOL.

For the first time, organ-preserving operations for eye tumors were developed and introduced into practice.

For the first time, a device has been created that allows quantitative assessment of the degree of damage to the optic nerve.

For the first time, a method of electromagnetic stimulation of the optic nerve was developed and a device was created.

A unique method of treating patients with diabetes mellitus complicated by traction retinal detachment has been developed.

For the first time, removal of preretinal tissue in a single block, combined tamponade in the vitreoretinal cavity with silicone and endolaser coagulation of the retina in a PFOS environment were developed and introduced into clinical practice.

Every year, 150-200 doctors from all over the country undergo training at the eye microsurgery courses advocated by S.N. Fedorov.

For the first time in Russia and the CIS, a licensed Eye Bank has been created at the level of broad standards. In 1983, at the Research Institute of Eye Microsurgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, a donor site was created in the department of experimental surgery, which, along with the preparation of native (fresh) donor material, collected cadaver eyes for the production of scleroplastic material. In 1987, the donor site was transferred to a specialized department of corneal surgery, and in 1988 it was transformed into an Eye Bank. This is a scientific-practical, scientific-methodological and scientific-production division of the institute, where, in addition to the tissue donation service, together with leading institutes of Russia, Scientific research in applied and fundamental areas at the intersection of biomedical sciences: morphology and pathophysiology, biochemistry and biophysics, immunology and pharmacology, immunology and epidemiology.

In 1984, experimental research began on the development of excimer laser technology. As a result, the first domestic excimer laser installation “Profile” was created, and in 1995 “Profile-500”. The technology of refractive surgery, developed by S. N. Fedorov and widespread in many countries around the world, has allowed more than 12 million people to get rid of glasses. The installation is unique in that, unlike foreign analogues, it made it possible to correct not only low and moderate myopia, but also high degrees. At the same time, a multifocal effect of refractive reshaping of the corneal surface was achieved, which provided patients with good vision both at distance and near.

MNTK

On April 9, 1986, it was decided to create the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery”. A meeting of the USSR Council of Ministers was scheduled for the end of April, where the issue of organizing the MNTK and building branches was raised. On April 10, someone came to Petrovka, 38, to confess: he accused Fedorov of bribery, saying that at the institute he had involved a doctor and a nurse in a deal. Two employees of the institute were arrested. They sought recognition. But thanks to the courage of the women, they were not able to create a “criminal case.” Nobody gave evidence. The investigation ended in failure. But while it was going on, the doctor served 1.5 years. Other doctors sewed up their pockets just in case - they were provoked into bribes, they tried to put money in... When leaving, they put a rag under the door so that nothing would be slipped.

On April 24, 1986, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the creation of the Intersectoral Scientific and Technical Complex "Eye Microsurgery" with full self-support and self-financing.

MNTK began to earn money for its own maintenance, including through paid operations for foreign patients.

The Cosmos Hotel was adapted for the treatment of foreign patients.

Financing was provided for each cured patient according to the industry average standard, the value of which was established by the state. The Ministry of Health paid the cost of treatment based on the negotiated price - 27% lower than in other eye clinics.

The money received according to the standard was distributed along the entire chain: for the maintenance of the premises, the preparation of the operating unit, for diagnostics, engineering services, surgery, after-care, and transportation costs.

The rights of the team expanded significantly - they themselves began to set the staffing schedule and the number of personnel.

The third innovation is team contracting and the piecework principle of remuneration.

Collective contracting is the distribution of income according to the percentage of participation in the total income. The method increased the team’s productivity in the first year by 82%. Everyone began to strive to obtain the maximum total income, and this is only possible if the quality of treatment improves. The number of complications decreased by 5 times.

Doctors began to receive 500 rubles or more, and work 7-8 times more efficiently. Instead of 21 thousand patients, the institute treated 31 thousand, then 42 thousand, then they began to perform 70 thousand operations a year. Nurses received 300 rubles, an operating room nurse received 500. At first, women were even afraid to take a salary!

The general director limited his salary to 4.5 times the salary of a nurse, since the Prime Minister of Sweden, U. Palme, at one time introduced a law according to which a minister could not have a salary greater than 4 times the salary of a skilled worker.

However, we had to think about ensuring that people took care of the equipment, the building, and the funds. Fedorov realized that only if employees become owners, shareholders, co-owners of the institution, will they think about the end result. Then the team leased the institute for 30 years with a rent payment to the state equal to 3% of the cost of the institute. Each employee contributed their share. At the end of the year, the team decided where to send her. If the profit was large, part of it was contributed to the equity fund, and everyone received dividends. Typically, in clinics, the salary fund is 41-47% of allocations. At MNTK, salaries were used only by 32%. But due to the flow of patients, the fund becomes quite large.

MNTK also finances science from self-supporting income. The operating principles of the parent institute were completely reconstructed: 8 of the most important ones were selected from 22 topics. Researchers receive salaries 2 times less than clinicians working using ready-made methods. But when they finish the topic, they are entitled to 8% of the economic effect obtained during implementation for 3 years.

Science became cramped within the walls of the institute. A new 9-story energy healing building has appeared next door. Here, scientific development of energy effects on eye tissue is carried out. New lasers are being developed that vaporize tissue. Impact being studied radioactive isotopes. Generators of pi-mesons and other types of energy are being created, with the help of which they correct myopia and farsightedness and change the properties of the cornea.

From self-supporting income, MNTK develops and social sphere. 2 recreation centers were built, on the Black Sea and near Moscow. A sports town was built in the former estate of the Baryatinsky princes. It was given to the institute on the condition that it would restore the church on its territory. This required 0.5 million rubles. They organized an equestrian sports section and started their own yacht club.

“What are the principles of collective creativity, the ethics of relationships in your research team? What is the optimal ratio of creative to support staff?” — journalists asked Fedorov. “No one here strives to stand out, if I have ideas in my head, then I give them away with pleasure, they are collectively developed and then accepted with five signatures. The relationship between employees is friendly and democratic, although I am a demanding person, especially if some mistakes are made when working with patients. This applies equally to nurses and researchers. I believe that the style of communication should be based on the principle of universal equality; no one can have any privileges.

Staff errors are corrected very quickly. We punish only economically, based on how much the team loses due to wrong decisions. This works fine. The punishment is not excessive, but quite sensitive.”

Young specialists who came to Fedorov had to put into action all their skills, knowledge and abilities. “Find me a young doctor, one who can come up with fresh ideas and is eager to move mountains, so that his eyes sparkle at the mention of work, so that he is ready to sit in the clinic until the night. Then he will overcome any difficulties, then he will become a real “conductor” doctor, a coordinating doctor.”

“The main thing, in my opinion, is a clear understanding of the goal. In a passionate desire to prevent hackwork. Don't have good equipment? Find it, get it! Don't have the needles you need? The patient should not know your problems, you must cure him in person modern level. Otherwise, you need to choose another profession.

For me, business is more important. Someone made a mistake - I can forgive you. If there is negligence or professional incompetence, we will not work together. And therefore, for me, the most unattractive thing is opportunism. Betrayal. I have been betrayed more than once. Forgave. But he preferred not to see anymore. He blamed himself: he didn’t understand the person in time...”

“All together - for the benefit of everyone and for the sake of the greatness of Russia” became the motto of the MNTK.

MNTK united two factories, including an optical one, which provided it with tools and equipment; the main research institute with a clinic, the Moscow Ophthalmological Center and branches.

The technical department was transformed into a pilot plant ETP (Experimental Technical Production), where ophthalmic surgical instruments, operating knives made of natural and artificial crystals with diamond, leucosapphire, cubic zirconia and steel blades - more than 150 types of instruments and devices - began to be mass-produced.

Artificial lenses are produced. 60 thousand girls under a microscope with 32x magnification collect up to 12 thousand lenses per year. About half goes to the foreign market, where one lens costs $80-100.

In parallel with ETP, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich creates NEP (Scientific Experimental Production) to study the pathogenesis of the most important diseases of the organ of vision and develop means and methods for their surgical and conservative treatment.

The most significant achievements of NEP are the creation of collagen coatings, drugs for corneal regeneration based on sulfated glycosaminoglycans (balarpan and glycomene), corneal endothelial protectors (visitil and visiton), collastop and scleroplastic materials for the treatment of progressive myopia, various soft models of artificial optical lenses (IOLs) from collagen copolymer, drainage from collagen, artificial iris, biokeratoprosthesis, etc.

To quickly implement new technologies, methods of examining and treating patients, Fedorov creates a patent and licensing information department and an information department with a library and a modern publishing base.

The first branch of MNTK opened in October 1987 in Cheboksary. By 1989, the network of branches covered the entire country - they appeared in 11 major cities Russia: Leningrad, Volgograd, Kaluga, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Tambov, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk. All branches were built on a turnkey basis by the Finnish company Polar. 100 million rubles were invested in the construction of their branches.

And these funds paid off. In all branches, diagnostic equipment is combined into a computer line, which made it possible to abandon paper media. The patient receives a special card, sits in a chair and travels along the diagnostic line, from machine to machine. The examination takes 40 minutes, 7-8 on each device. The results are immediately entered into the computer. And the doctor has all the data, even a preliminary diagnosis. If necessary, the patient will be immediately sent to the operating room, changed, given tea, and prepared. The operation lasts 15 minutes.

MNTK treats cataracts, glaucoma, myopia, astigmatism, farsightedness, progressive myopia in adolescents 14-16 years old. main part operations are performed by the most qualified specialists. This makes it possible to reduce the number of complications that occur during individual surgery by 5-8 times. The institute and its branches perform 1,400-1,500 operations per day, and more than 200 thousand per year.

Fedorov delivered the latest Soviet technology in medicine to different parts of the globe.

In 1989, the comfortable ship “Peter I” was accepted and launched, on the basis of which a specialized clinic was created with diagnostic departments, traditional and conveyor eye surgery, a laser department and a medical boarding house. This is the world’s first marine operating room and joint medical enterprise “Phlox” - “fleet-eye-service”, created by MNTK Eye Microsurgery, Sovcomflot and the West German company Lloyd Werft. More than 21,000 operations were performed in the floating clinic in the waters of the UAE, Cyprus and Gibraltar, Italy, Brazil, and Spain. For several months a year, the ship provided ophthalmological care to Soviet patients, and they only paid for their stay on the ship.

Since 1971, Fedorov has been pushing the idea of ​​a flying clinic. Finally, in 1989, MNTK got its own IL-86 airbus with an operating unit, a clinic, and a conference hall, which made ophthalmological “landings” to many countries of the world

An operational and diagnostic module was created on the basis of a railway car.

The Cosmos Hotel was adapted for the treatment of foreign patients. More than 70 thousand foreign patients from 122 countries have been consulted at MNTK and 36,320 operations have been performed.

Clinics and medical offices built according to Svyatoslav Fedorov’s designs have appeared in many cities around the world.

The Moscow People's Bank in London provided a loan for a joint Soviet-French venture - the construction of a hotel at MNTK upper class. MNTK "Eye Microsurgery", Vneshtorgbank of the USSR, the French companies "Bouygues", "Pullman" and four French banks created another joint Soviet-French enterprise "Iris" for the treatment of eye diseases on a commercial basis. A number of treatment centers have been built in the Canary Islands, Cyprus, and Kuwait. MNTK doctors operated there.

Automated MNTK clinics were built in Germany, the UAE, Jordan, and other countries. MNTK collaborated with China and other countries.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was fascinated by the ideas of Fidel Castro’s industrial clinic. In 1988, a branch of the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” was opened in Havana. The plan was carried out with the support of a large landing of specialists from the institute.

In 1994, at the International Congress of Ophthalmologists in Canada, S. N. Fedorov was recognized as an “Outstanding Ophthalmic Surgeon of the 20th Century.”

For the first time in the world it was created new material a collagen copolymer from which posterior chamber collagen IOLs and collagen coatings were made and introduced into clinical practice, and material for collagenoplasty was created for the treatment of progressive myopia.

The pinnacle in this area was the development in 1995, for the first time in the world, of a technology for the destruction and evacuation of cataracts of any degree of hardness using laser energy and an original vacuum installation. The use of this technology has expanded the age indications and does not require a postoperative suture.

Much attention in the scientific and inventive activities of S.N. Fedorov was interested in the problem of corneal surgery based on its transplantation, plastic surgery and prosthetics. A Fedorov-Zuev penetrating keratoprosthesis was developed for the treatment of burns and dystrophic corneal cataracts, which is still used today in many ophthalmological clinics, and a new method of keratoprosthesis for thinned vascular cataracts, which combines two types of surgical intervention - keratoplasty and keratoprosthesis.

A specially treated donor cornea with a keratoprosthesis support plate implanted into its layers increases the antiproteolytic strength of the cornea and stimulates the development of neovascularization of the graft, which improves the fixation of the prosthesis in the eye.

Revolution - to the village

Svyatoslav Fedorov rented an agricultural farm in Protasovo near Moscow. And he applied on the state farm the system by which MNTK lived - pay for labor the money it costs. Milkmaids milked 200 liters of milk from a cow, but they began to milk 650-700. He calculated: if half of the money earned from selling milk was given to peasants, there would be enough money for feed, equipment, and gasoline. Svyatoslav Fedorov wanted to prove that the principle of “to each according to his work” can work miracles. But on the condition that no one sets financial or other restrictions. He wanted the people to become independent. I wanted to prove to both agricultural officials and politicians that farming, the personal interest of the peasant who owns both personal tools of production and the field, is the path that will allow the country to get on its feet. He was convinced that universal rental of the means of production was necessary. First for 20-30 years, then for 100. When it becomes clear that the team or family is working productively, it will be beneficial for society to give away the tools of production for a long period. Property must belong to the worker. The income that ownership of the instruments of production can provide must belong entirely to the collective owner and be distributed according to labor.

When asked if Fedorov was a capitalist, he answered: “I profess socialism, and I put Marx’s theory into action, creating a comradely collective, carrying out more transactions than the Americans, I prove that Marx is right: political systems are determined by the principles of distribution or appropriation of surplus cost." K. Marx considered the “association of free producers” to be the main unit of socialism. To the people in the face government agencies management needs to regulate the work of these associations by creating an economic incentive to do good work.

He turned to Lenin’s thought: only cooperative ownership of the instruments of production will make it possible to sharply increase labor productivity.

For the benefit of society

Fedorov was glad that the logic of the economy, profits, and numbers was starting to work. He hoped to live to see the time when this logic would become decisive for the entire country. He believed that the people were thirsting for change, spiritual and economic freedom, that a socialist market would appear, where intelligence, talent, and individuality would be assessed. The market will teach you to respect a person and value personality. “What is perestroika? This is a won strike - a quiet, sit-in Russian strike that lasted several decades. And today we realized: we can’t sit and live like this anymore, we need to start working.”

He dreamed of a socialist market in which goods do not involve hired labor. He said that hired labor should be prohibited. That tariff rates do not reflect the quality and quantity of specific labor, the relationship between labor and the final product sold.

He cared what was happening in the country. And to bring the times of change closer, he also took up social activities.

In 1989-1993, Svyatoslav Fedorov was a people's deputy of the USSR. In the Supreme Council he was a member of the Committee on Economic Reform and was a member of the Interregional Deputy Group.

In 1993, he ran for the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the list of the electoral association "Russian Movement of Democratic Reforms". The association failed to overcome the five percent barrier.

In 1995, he became the founder and leader of the Workers' Self-Government Party. Fedorov's party did not get into the State Duma. He was elected as a deputy in single-mandate district No. 33 (Chuvash Republic). In the State Duma, he served as co-chairman of the parliamentary group “Democracy” and was a member of the Committee on Health Protection.

In June 1996 he ran for the post of President of the Russian Federation. In the first round he took 6th place, receiving 00.92% of the votes.

In 1996, he headed the Chamber of Science, Health, Education and Culture of the Political Advisory Council under the President of the Russian Federation.

In the fall of 1999, on the eve of the elections to the State Duma of the third convocation, together with the leader of the “Union of Democracy and Labor” Andrei Nikolaev, he created the electoral “Bloc of General Andrei Nikolaev, Academician Svyatoslav Fedorov.” At the same time, he ran for the State Duma in the Sheremetyevo single-mandate electoral district No. 205 in Moscow. In December 1999, the bloc of Nikolaev and Fedorov failed to overcome the five percent barrier; Fedorov received 15.99% of the votes.

Man with wings

He was a very brave man and always went all-in.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich said about himself: “Actually, I am a fatalist. I believe in my destiny. I believe that I will do everything that I have in mind - I will not die before. This is probably why I am not afraid of difficulties, nor obstacles, nor intrigues, nor heights, nor depth, nor speed. I believe that I am lucky. More than once I was two steps away from death, and yet fate did not abandon me.”

Fate kept him in order for him to fulfill his destiny - to raise ophthalmology to new heights.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich’s passion for flight remained with him from his youth throughout his life. “What a joy it is to feel like a person with wings. That’s why I’m drawn somewhere upward,” he said.

Fedorov received the license to fly a helicopter at the age of 72 and, like a boy, showed it to everyone he knew. In an inimitable manner, he invited business partners and friends to a meeting: “I will fly for you in a helicopter,” while a sunflower smile flashed on his lips.

On June 2, 2000, the four-seater helicopter of the MNTK "Eye Microsurgery" on which Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov flew to Moscow after anniversary celebrations on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Tambov branch of MNTK, crashed in one of the vacant lots in the north-west of Moscow. Academician Fedorov died tragically. The commission found that the accident occurred due to a malfunction of the aircraft.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was buried in the rural cemetery of the village of Rozhdestvenno-Suvorovo, Mytishchi district, 60 km from Moscow. The local Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was restored in 1989 with funds from the MNTK.

Academician Russian Academy Medical Sciences (RAMS), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), Full Member of the Russian Academy natural sciences(RAEN), for services in the field of public health S. N. Fedorov awarded with orders October revolution, Red Banner of Labor, Lenin, Badge of Honor and the title “Hero of Socialist Labor”. Awarded for scientific research in the field of ophthalmic surgery highest award Academy of Sciences of the USSR - Lomonosov Gold Medal - and the Prize named after. M.I. Averbakh Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. He is a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology, as well as a laureate of the Palaeologus Prize (USA), Pericles Prize (Italy). S. N. Fedorov was the Chairman of the Board of the All-Russian scientific society ophthalmologists, editor-in-chief of the journal Ophthalmic Surgery, member of the editorial boards of the journals Bulletin of Ophthalmology (USA), American Society of Implantologists, Refractive Surgery (USA), Eye Surgery News (USA), European Journal of Implantation and Refractive Surgery ", President of the International Society of Keratorefractologists, Honorary Member of the International Society of Artificial Lens Implantation, Member of the International Society of Phacoemulsification and Cataract Surgery, Honorary Member of the International Society of Corneoplastic Microsurgery, Member of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

He was strict with himself and his subordinates. The main qualities in a person for him were determination, professionalism and enthusiasm. They were afraid of the demanding boss, but they respected him. He said: “Nothing is impossible for a person.” He was quick-tempered, but cooled down easily. He loved a joke, an anecdote, a precise and to the point word spoken.

A year after the death of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, he was awarded the title “Best Ophthalmologist in the World.”

The Government of the Russian Federation assigned the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation the name of Academician S. N. Fedorov, perpetuating his memory.

The brainchild of Svyatoslav Fedorov, MNTK "Eye Microsurgery", is alive and well. MNTK has become not only one of the best medical centers in the world, but also a world-famous scientific school, which has produced hundreds of highly qualified specialists who have headed ophthalmological institutions in Russia and many countries.

On the second floor of the institute there is the office-museum of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich. Here he sometimes worked day and night, led, argued.

A spacious office with a huge bookcase, a lot of documents on the table, with photographs of Fedorov, his family members, friends, colleagues, teachers. Certificates and awards hang here, and there is even an Oscar, awarded not for acting, but for inventive merits. Behind the glass cabinet door are airplane models made from plastic construction sets.

His daughters continue the dynasty of ophthalmologists.

Irene Efimovna Fedorova created a foundation named after Fedorov, which established medals and diplomas (for doctors and prizes) of S. N. Fedorov in various categories - culture, politics, business, for organizing national enterprises, etc. There are four nominations in medicine.

Svyatoslav Fedorov is remembered and loved by grateful patients, students, and colleagues. His books remain scientific works, an interview where his words and ideas are captured.

“I want my life to help someone free themselves from the shackles of dogmatism in their consciousness, first of all. Understand that you can’t be “like everyone else” and keep your head down.”

“I am never afraid of real surgery. I'm careful - it happens. If the operation is new. Then you constantly check yourself, feel out the way... The operation, of course, has already been all calculated, drawn, erased times, “played in a brain video recorder”... You visually imagine each step, the sequence of steps. But new is new: surprises are possible.

I love to operate... You feel your power over the process, as if you are in flight: you need to gain altitude - you gain it, you need a turn - you spin it. And it’s as if you’re constantly walking along a razor blade 100 angstroms thick, thinner than a hair, but you know that you’ll get there, you won’t fall. A feeling of responsibility and usefulness of what you are doing: this patient, almost blind, will see normally tomorrow... I am an impulsive, explosive person by nature and therefore could not be, say, a therapist: I need to quickly see the result of what I have done. And patients, right in our clinic, throw away their glasses as unnecessary!

Operation is a dynamic process, always creative. No two are alike, you constantly change tactics.”

“I literally get sick if I don’t feel the dynamics in life. You see, I don't need to prove to people that I'm better. I said and say that this is a very convenient method for not doing anything yourself: “Can Fedorov succeed? - so this is Fedorov! And I’m just Ivanov, Sidorov, and I’m out of my depth. How convenient! I don’t have any super talents, except for wild perseverance, ability to work, the desire to achieve my goal if this goal will benefit people... I want things to be done normally, that is professional level... Injured professional pride is unpleasant. Not to mention the fact that there is also national pride. This is also the engine that pushes me, I really want to work no worse than my colleagues in the world.”

“For me, life is a constant climb to Everest. This is not an easy climb. You climb, you fall, your hands are bleeding. But the knowledge that there is a peak ahead and that we must overcome it, forces us to continue on our way.”

For quotation: Contribution of Academician S.N. Fedorov in the development of domestic ophthalmology To the 80th anniversary of the birth of academician Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov (1927–2000) // RMJ. Clinical ophthalmology. 2007. No. 2. P. 85

On August 8, 2007, the domestic and world ophthalmological community will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding ophthalmologist of the twentieth century, founder and general director of the Eye Microsurgery Institute of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (1986-2000), Hero of Socialist Labor, academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, LAR, member - Correspondent of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honored Inventor of the USSR, Chairman of the All-Russian Society of Ophthalmologists (1982-2000), Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov.

High energy potential, innovative, bold and original solutions and ideas allowed him to work in almost all areas and areas of ophthalmology.
S.N. Fedorov was the first ophthalmologist to introduce artificial lens implantation in our country to correct aphakia after removal of a cloudy lens. Thanks to the invention of new models of artificial lenses, which have gained recognition not only in our country, but also abroad, the institute, and subsequently the Interindustry Scientific and Technical Complex (INTK) “Eye Microsurgery”, headed by S.N. Fedorov, has become a center for the treatment of patients with eye diseases not only for residents of Russia and the CIS countries, but also abroad.
Thanks to his unique scientific developments, conviction, courage on the verge of risk, and ability to ignite people with his ideas, ophthalmology in the USSR reached the world level. A brilliant surgeon, talented scientist and organizer, he was ahead of his time all his life, amazing with his colossal efficiency and ability to find ways to implement his most ambitious and seemingly incredible projects.
On June 24, 1983, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “For the successes achieved in the development and implementation of inventions that have opened up new directions in the development of technology and technology and are of particular economic importance” S.N. Fedorov was awarded the honorary title “Honored Inventor of the USSR.”
The long journey of the scientist-inventor began in 1959 in Cheboksary, when S.N. Fedorov invented the first artificial lens (IOL) and implanted it into the eye of a rabbit.
In 1960, the first IOL implantation was successfully performed in a 12-year-old girl. In 1962 S.N. Fedorov was the first in the world to perform an ophthalmic operation under a microscope.
In 1964, he created a model of an intraocular lens - an “iris-clip-lens” with fixation on the iris, proposed an operating table, and ophthalmologists began operating while sitting. In the same year, he first used liquid silicone during surgery for retinal detachment and created a more advanced, original model of the Sputnik IOL, which became the basic design throughout the world and remained so for more than a quarter of a century. Fedorov always kept up with the times: new lenses were created that met the most stringent requirements - be it the T-26 IOL (basic for manual technology of small incisions and used in all ophthalmological institutions in Russia), silicone lenses or more modern IOLs, such as new generation FLEX PUMA lenses. All of them gave excellent results and had minimum quantity side effects, which allows them to be used today.

In 1965 S.N. Fedorov proposed a more advanced operating table with a horseshoe-shaped table to support the surgeon’s hands. Since 1966, he began performing operations to replace the vitreous body in cases of hemophthalmia. In December 1966, he implanted the first soft and elastic hydrophilic lens. Prior to this, 255 implantations used rigid polymethyl methacrylate (PMMC) lenses.
And only on February 16, 1967, after moving to Moscow, S.N. Fedorov received the first copyright certificate No. 3496 “Artificial lens of the eye.” From this time on, the official accounting of S.N.’s inventive activities began. Fedorov.
Evaluating the results of scientific work, especially in the medical field, is a difficult task. The result of any scientific research should be new data that makes a significant contribution to the problem being studied. It is not surprising that many scientific studies result in the development of inventions.
Scientific activity of academician S.N. Fedorov and the team he led was never an end in itself. Every step he took was caused by the organic need to provide the most effective assistance to the patient, improve his quality of life, and quickly restore his vision.
To speed up the process of introducing inventions as much as possible, S.N. Fedorov organized a production facility in 1976, where a world-unique technology for large-scale production of intraocular lenses was developed. When the Scientific Research Institute "Eye Microsurgery" of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation was created, production was transformed into a "technical department", which, with the advent of the MNTK "Eye Microsurgery" of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, was transformed into a pilot plant ETP (Experimental Technical Production), where artificial lenses, ophthalmic surgical instruments, operating knives made of natural and artificial crystals with diamond, leucosapphire, cubic zirconia and steel blades. A fundamentally new approach required the invention and creation of original micro-instruments, which ensured new quality and high operational results.
The joint work of doctors and engineers has produced tremendous results. The ETP product catalog contains more than 150 items of instruments, lenses, devices necessary for the daily work of an ophthalmologist. This is a clear confirmation of S.N. Fedorov’s statement about the “doom” for success of the union of medicine and technology.
In parallel with ETP, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich creates NEP (Scientific Experimental Production) with the aim of more detailed studying the pathogenesis of the most important diseases of the organ of vision and developing means and methods for their surgical and conservative treatment.
The most significant achievements of NEP were the creation of collagen coatings, drugs for corneal regeneration based on sulfated glycosaminoglycans (balarpan and glycomene), corneal endothelial protectors (visitil and visiton), collastop and scleroplastic materials for the treatment of progressive myopia, various soft models of artificial optical lenses (IOLs) from collagen copolymer, drainage from collagen, artificial iris, biokeratoprosthesis, etc.
For the speedy introduction of high technologies in medicine, the use of new methods of examination and treatment of ophthalmic patients, S.N. Fedorov created a patent and licensing information department and an information department with a library and a modern publishing base.
Thanks to the foresight and scientific flair of S.N. Fedorov began to develop such areas as operations to replace the vitreous body in hemophthalmia, operations for retinal detachments using liquid silicone and perfluoroorganic compounds, operations for myopia.
For surgery on the vitreous body, a new device “Vitreotome” was developed and, on its basis, “Lensvitreotome”, which made it possible to perform mechanical destruction of the lens through a small incision - lensectomy. In 1972, S.N. Fedorov was the first to perform a successful vitrectomy - an operation to replace the altered vitreous humor in a patient who had lost his sight as a result of a car accident.
Since that time, in patients with severe hemophthalmos of various etiologies, vitreoretinal destruction, retinal detachment, who were previously considered inoperable and were doomed to blindness, the developed original methods of endovitreal surgery began to be used: vitrectomy in combination with endolaser coagulation and the introduction of perfluoroorganic compounds into the vitreous cavity.
New operations have been developed to prevent the progression of myopia - scleroplasty, collagenoplasty, vasoreconstructive operations.
In 1972, S.N. Fedorov performed the first operation - anterior radial dosed keratotomy for myopia, which marked the beginning of a new direction in ophthalmology - refractive surgery. This was preceded by a lot of theoretical and experimental work in the field of the theory of cutting fabrics, and the creation of fundamentally new microtools. The pinnacle of this trend was the appearance of a dosed diamond knife and theoretical calculations of the operation.
To correct hypermetropia, a fundamentally new method of thermokeratoplasty was developed, and subsequently laser keratoplasty.
In 1974, at the Moscow Research Laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Eye Surgery with the clinic of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR, headed by S.N. Fedorov, a laser surgery department was created, which was later transformed into the Laser Surgery Center. Under the leadership of S.N. Fedorov, several generations of domestic infrared lasers for refractive surgery were developed, which made it possible to dose the thermal energy pulse in terms of power, time and depth of exposure. In 1981, together with GOI named after. Vavilov, the world’s first serial multi-purpose laser ophthalmoscopic complex “Liman-2” was created. Lasers have been widely used to treat diabetic retinopathy, degenerative retinal lesions, and glaucoma.
In 1984, extensive experimental research began on the development of excimer laser technology and its application in refractive surgery.
These studies led to the creation of the first domestic excimer laser installation "Profile", and in 1995 more modern model"Profile-500". The uniqueness of the installation was that, unlike foreign analogues, it made it possible to correct myopia not only of low and moderate degrees, but also of high degrees. At the same time, a multifocal effect of refractive reshaping of the corneal surface was achieved, which provided patients with good vision not only at distance, but also near.
To correct high degrees of myopia, operations have been developed to implant negative soft collagen and silicone lenses onto the natural lens, as well as to remove the natural lens.
In 1974, S.N. Fedorov proposed a new (vascular) theory of the origin and development of primary open-angle glaucoma, on the basis of which he and his students managed to significantly change the method of early diagnosis and treatment of this serious pathology. As a result of the research, a new tactic of surgical treatment in the early stages of the disease was developed. For this purpose, fundamentally new operations were proposed - non-penetrating deep sclerectomy, vasoreconstructive and laser.
Since 1975, the Moscow Research Laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Eye Surgery with the clinic of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation began to introduce a new technology for cataract removal - phacoemulsification, which subsequently gave rise to the development of small incision surgery and the development of a new generation of intraocular, elastic and shape memory, artificial optical lenses . This made it possible to introduce them into the eye through a small incision in a folded state using developed injectors. This was greatly facilitated by the creation and introduction into clinical practice of IOLs made of collagen copolymer in 1994.
The pinnacle of creative thought in this area was the development in 1995, for the first time in the world, of a technology for the destruction and evacuation of cataracts of any degree of hardness using laser energy and an original vacuum installation. The use of this technology has expanded the age indications and does not require a postoperative suture.
In 1979, mobile ophthalmological and diagnostic units were created on the basis of a bus, and in 1989 a motor ship was accepted and launched, on the basis of which a specialized clinic was created with diagnostic departments, traditional and conveyor eye surgery, a laser department and a medical boarding house, and an operational and diagnostic module was also created on the basis of a railway car. The use of mobile systems has confirmed their high efficiency in disseminating advanced technologies among ophthalmological and medical institutions located far from specialized centers, and has ensured that qualified ophthalmological care is brought as close as possible to areas remote from large clinics.
Much attention in the scientific and inventive activities of S.N. Fedorov was interested in the problem of corneal surgery based on its transplantation, plastic surgery and prosthetics. A Fedorov-Zuev penetrating keratoprosthesis was developed for the treatment of burns and dystrophic corneal cataracts, which is still used today in many ophthalmological clinics, and a new method of keratoprosthesis for thinned vascular cataracts, which simultaneously combines two types of surgical intervention - keratoplasty and keratoprosthetics.
A donor cornea treated in a special way with a keratoprosthesis support plate implanted into its layers increases the antiproteolytic strength of the cornea and stimulates the development of neovascularization of the graft, which improves the fixation of the prosthesis in the eye.
Under the leadership of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, a large complex of studies was carried out on the transplantation of fresh donor corneas. In 1983, at the Research Institute of Eye Microsurgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, a donor site was created in the department of experimental surgery, which, along with the preparation of native (“fresh”) donor material, collected cadaver eyes for the production of scleroplastic material. In 1987, the donor site was transferred to a specialized department of corneal surgery, and in 1988 it was transformed into an “eye bank”. This is a scientific-practical, scientific-methodological and scientific-production division of the Eye Microsurgery MNTK, where, in addition to the tissue donation service, scientific research in applied and fundamental areas at the intersection of biomedical sciences: morphology and pathophysiology, is carried out jointly with leading Russian institutes. biochemistry and biophysics, immunology and pharmacology, immunology and epidemiology.
Academician S.N. was driven by the desire to help everyone in need. Fedorov when creating a conveyor technology for cataract surgery (1984)
The introduction of a horizontal line manufactured by the West German company Siemens, and then the domestic “Romashka”, manufactured in Cheboksary and installed in all branches of the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, made it possible to increase the productivity of the surgeon by 4-6 times, without any damage for quality of work.
The pinnacle of S.N.’s creative activity. Fedorov was the creation in 1986 of the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” and the opening of 12 branches throughout Russia.
In the article by S.N. Fedorova et al. (1999), summing up the results of invention in the scientific activities of the State Institution MNTK "Eye Microsurgery" for 1989-1999, it is noted that over the decade 460 patents of the Russian Federation, copyright certificates, utility model patents, and positive decisions on the issuance of a patent were received. In quantitative terms, inventions were distributed in accordance with the “specific weight” of the significance of the main scientific areas developed at the institute. These were methods and devices for:
- cataract surgery and artificial eye lenses (245);
- refractive surgery (60);
- corneal surgery (46);
- treatment of chorioretinal pathology, pathology of the vitreous body and retina (36);
- treatment of glaucoma (34);
- treatment of optic nerve atrophy (27);
- treatment of eye tumors (12).
During this period, 120 foreign patents were received. Patenting of scientific developments abroad was carried out taking into account the scientific significance of the completed work and prospects commercial sale on the international market. The sale of licenses, especially to highly developed countries, was the pinnacle of scientific activity, proof of the global recognition of the team of the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, headed by academician Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov.
According to his colleague and long-term deputy for medical work, Professor A.I. Ivashina (2001), Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was the author or co-author of 240 inventions, 260 patents and utility models, 126 foreign patents.
Contribution of Academician S.N. Fedorov’s contribution to the development of world ophthalmology is highly appreciated abroad. He was a member of international societies and the editorial boards of many foreign journals, a laureate of many international awards. In 1994, at the International Ophthalmological Congress held in Canada, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was named an outstanding ophthalmologist of the twentieth century.
A short, tragically cut short life. But how much can fit into it!
Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was and will forever remain brightest star in our ophthalmic galaxy.

Literature
1. Bagrov, S.N. From science to production - NEP / S.N. Bagrov, T.I. Ronkina // Ophthalmosurgery.-1999.- No. 2.- P.- 16-23.
2. Eye bank MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” - 1988 - 1998 (ten years of experience) / S.N. Fedorov et al. // Ophthalmosurgery. - 1998. - No. 4. - P. - 54 - 64.
3. Deev, L.A. Svyatoslav Fedorov - Personal file No. ...... / L.A. Deev. // - Smolensk - 2006. - 139 p.
4. Doctor + engineer = success! / E.I. Degtev et al. Ophthalmosurgery. - 1999. - No. 2. - P. - 24-28.
5. Ivashina, A.I. The main milestones in the scientific creativity of academician Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov / A.I. Ivashina // - New in ophthalmology.- 2001.- No. 3.- S- 26 - 29.
6. Linnik, L.F. Moscow research Institute of Eye Microsurgery (a quarter of a century since its formation / L.F. Linnik // Ophthalmosurgery. - 2005. - No. 4. - P. - 4-6.
7. Fedorov, S.N. The role of invention in the scientific activities of the State University MNTK Eye Microsurgery” / S.N. Fedorov, L.F. Linnik, A.A. Karavaev // Ophthalmosurgery.-1999.- No. 2.- P.-5-8

Head of the Department of Eye Diseases, Doctor of Medical Sciences L.A. Deev
Smolensk State Medical Academy

Name: Svyatoslav Fedorov

Age: 72 years old

Place of Birth: Proskurov, Ukraine

A place of death: Moscow

Activity: Russian ophthalmologist, eye microsurgeon

Family status: was married

Svyatoslav Fedorov - biography

During his life, Dr. Svyatoslav Fedorov did many good deeds. Thanks to his talent, tens of thousands of people regained their sight. And he would have done even more if the helicopter he was flying in had not suddenly lost control 16 years ago.

Svyatoslav wanted to become a pilot since childhood. If this had happened, medicine would not have had a talented ophthalmologist. Everything was decided by an accident that closed Fedorov’s path to aviation...

Svyatoslav Fedorov was born in Ukraine in the city of Proskurov (now Khmelnitsky) in 1927. He belonged to a generation of guys who were literally obsessed with aviation. In those years, she experienced an unprecedented rise: the heroic flights of Chkalov, Baidukov, the rescue of the Chelyuskinites... The pilots were idols, idols, they were admired, films were made about them, songs were composed.

Svyatoslav’s father, brigade commander Nikolai Fedorov, supported his son’s aspirations. He himself was once a worker at the Putilov plant. Then, having passed through the fronts of the First World War and Civil War, became a professional soldier. Slava admired his father, but at the end of 1938 disaster struck: the brigade commander was arrested and sentenced to 17 years in the camps as an enemy of the people. This was a heavy blow for the boy. The radio thundered with victorious marches, optimistic songs, stories of glorious victories Soviet people, and Slava was isolated: friendship with the son of an enemy of the people was not welcomed. Nevertheless, the boy continued to dream of heaven, like thousands of his peers.

Fedorov's fatal tram

When the war began, the dreams of 14-year-old boys changed: to the front, to beat the Nazis! The boys were afraid that the war would end before they could take up arms. We managed... And to fight and lay down our heads. According to statistics, military pilots died after making only 5-7 sorties.

Svyatoslav was studying at a special Air Force school in Rostov when fate dealt him this blow. Having unsuccessfully jumped off the tram's steps, he fell and his leg got under the wheel. The teenager lost his foot. And how to live now? There will be no flights, no feeling of conquering the sky, no beautiful shape, no admiration from girls...

Having come to terms with the fact that his dream of becoming a pilot would never come true, he submitted documents to the Rostov Medical Institute. Of course, a doctor is not a heroic profession like a pilot, there is no romance in it, but a doctor saves lives, and this is the main thing. In 1952, Fedorov graduated from the institute and went to work in the village of Veshenskaya, Rostov region, and then to the Urals, to Lysva, where he became a surgeon in a local hospital.

Millions of doctors, having received a diploma, are eager to help people and dream of future achievements. But most of them gradually lose their former passion: no aspirations, the same thing from year to year. Fedorov’s enthusiasm and interest in the profession only grew. Just six years after graduation, he defended his Ph.D. thesis, and in 1960, in Cheboksary, where he then worked, he performed a revolutionary operation to replace the lens of the eye with an artificial one. Similar operations were carried out in the West, but in the USSR they were considered quackery, and Fedorov was fired from his job.

Having moved to Arkhangelsk, he became the head of the department of eye diseases at the medical institute. It was here that the “Fedorov empire” began in his biography: like-minded people gathered around the irrepressible surgeon, ready for revolutionary changes in eye microsurgery. People from all over the country flocked to Arkhangelsk in the hope of regaining their lost sight - and they actually began to see.

The surgeon was assessed “officially” - together with his team he moved to Moscow. And he began to do absolutely fantastic things: correct vision using keratotomy (incisions on the cornea), transplant a donor cornea, developed a new method for operating on glaucoma, and became a pioneer of laser eye microsurgery.

The scientific and technical complex “Eye Microsurgery”, which he led, had a foreign currency account, could serve foreign clients, independently set the number of employees and their salaries, and also engage in economic activities outside medicine. Fedorov actively led the construction of branches throughout the country and abroad.

Moreover, there was a sea vessel - the Peter the Great ophthalmological clinic, on board of which operations were carried out that brought in 14 million dollars a year. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich wrote dozens of articles, monographs, patented a huge number of inventions, received many awards, prizes, titles, and earned worldwide fame.

Svyatoslav Fedorov - personal life: favorite of women

Of course, such a bright man could not help but attract women, and he reciprocated their feelings.

My father was a real Don Juan. He had a damn, invincible charm that was impossible to resist. He could make any woman fall in love with him if he wanted,” said his daughter from his first marriage, Irina.

It was for this reason that Fedorov’s personal life began to crack: he broke up with his first wife Liliya Fedorovna, with whom he lived for 12 years.

Mom was raised in very strict rules; every physical betrayal of her father was also spiritual for her,” Irina admits. -She couldn’t turn a blind eye to his hobbies and filed for divorce. Her father wrote letters to her, asking her to forget everything, but she did not forgive.

However, Dr. Fedorov remained with his daughter in good relations. Irina followed in her father’s footsteps and became an ophthalmologist - like his daughter from his second marriage, Olga.

He also “bewitched” his third wife, Irene, with his specialization. A gynecologist by training, after meeting him she became an ophthalmological nurse and assisted him in operations. They met in a medical office. Irene came to Fedorov for an appointment to sign up her aunt for surgery.

I fell in love with it as soon as I walked in. I saw it and almost fainted. After our acquaintance with Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, I lost peace and sleep, I lived from one meeting to another, she later recalled.

Fedorov was married at that time, but could not resist such feelings: he left his family. And he created a new one - with Irene and her twin daughters from her first marriage, Elina and Yulia.

Svyatoslav Fedorova - death: Buried dreams

And yet, the main thing in his life always remained work.

In addition to the clinic, Dr. Fedorov directed the huge Protasovo-MG complex near Moscow, which included a dairy plant, a drinking water plant, two factories producing eyeglass frames, lenses, surgical instruments and electronic devices.

A helicopter, a hangar, a radio station, a gas tanker, and an Aviatika-890U aircraft were purchased for the complex, and a runway was built.

At the age of 62, Fedorov finally sat at the controls of the plane and began flying to the branches of the complex, even to remote regions. He was happy: his old dream of heaven had finally come true. But she also destroyed him.

June 2, 2000, Dr. Fedorov in last time rose into the sky. The helicopter in which Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was returning from a conference from Tambov crashed onto a vacant lot near the Moscow Ring Road. The cause of the plane crash was said to be a technical malfunction.

On the eve of today's holiday - Russia Day - the German magazine Superweib published an extraordinary rating. Observers of the publication compiled the Top 10 most beautiful names, but not German, as one might assume, but Russian.

According to the publication, among the female names popular in our country, the most harmonious are Alina, Polina, Daria, Mila and Victoria, and among the male names - Alexey, Nikolay, Maxim, Vadim and Nikita.

In principle, in the names journalists chose, preferences related to features are quite clearly visible. German language. As philologists joke, even if the light and fluttering word “butterfly” sounds like “schmetterling” in your language, you will probably like short, euphonious words with a simple alternation of vowels and consonants, without any diphthongs or deafening.

However, something else is more remarkable here. This material and the approach to it demonstrate an extremely humane view of Russians.

Russian names have long penetrated Germany. However, for those who still think only about Olga and Dmitry, we can teach something better. We have collected the most beautiful Russian names for newborn boys and girls, – says the text of the article.

For the modern Western press, such a view of Russia and its inhabitants is rather an exception to the rule. The norm so far is precisely the objectification of Russians: positive reviews about our people are often associated with mentions of nuclear reactors, weapons, tanks, and special forces. And there’s nothing to say about the quantity and quality of negativity.

However, there are no rules without exceptions. Behind Last year Foreigners have more than once admired the Russian people and their achievements, which have nothing to do with the war, the construction of huge bridges and icebreakers, and are extremely far from the iconic triad “bears - vodka - balalaika”.

French fashion - yesterday, Russian - tomorrow?

Since 2017, Russian style has clearly begun to gain popularity in the fashion industry. A group of Russian designers managed to become very famous in narrow but influential circles.

Surprisingly, the Japanese dudes were the first to fall for Russian things. They were followed by rich people from Saudi Arabia, who were close to the Byzantine motifs used by our fashion designers. Later, the first Russian brand, VASSA, entered the American market. Everything there was already grown-up: a show for buyers and journalists of fashion publications in one of the most prestigious hotels in New York - the Four Seasons, signing contracts.

However, Russian fashion is still the lot of a small circle of aesthetes, exotic for regulars of expensive boutiques. What you definitely can’t say... about Russian cartoons. In 2012, the triumphant promotion of the animated series “Masha and the Bear” by the Animaccord animation studio began on international platforms. Originally series translated into foreign languages, distributed through iTunes and Google Play applications; then such giants of the video streaming industry as Netflix and Amazon wanted to broadcast the series on their platforms.

By the way, the story about a mischievous girl and a bear with an endless supply of patience gained the greatest love in Germany. A large number of books, magazines, and educational toys based on the cartoon are sold in the country. According to experts, German parents are very impressed by the image of a good-natured bear, who at times gets very tired of the child’s tricks, but never takes out aggression on his little ward and is always ready to help in a difficult situation.

At the beginning of June, it became known that another Russian animated series, “Return to Prostokvashino,” was set to conquer the international market.

Representatives of Soyuzmultfilm reported that they are negotiating the distribution of the animated series in China and intend to present it at the animation market in Annecy (France). The company also noted that some countries in Eastern Europe are also showing interest in purchasing the cartoon, but reaching agreements is hampered by the fact that customers would like to purchase about 30 episodes, but only 15 have been made so far.

Russian meme instead of a British joke

However, promoting most products to the market is largely a matter of marketing, which may not directly correlate with the attitude of foreigners towards us. After all, in Russia there are also quite a few people driving Fords, but this does not mean that they are all in love with the American dream.

What is truly indicative in this regard is the story of Russian Internet humor. In August 2018, an epidemic of Russian memes swept across English-language social networks. It was started by a resident of Boston with the nickname Courtney. A 22-year-old American woman published on her Twitter a selection of photojabs and humorous photographs of various Russian amateur inventions, providing her with a rhetorical question: “How do you like this, Elon Musk?”

The appeal to one of the main newsmakers of the English-speaking world in an environment of strange, unexpected, and at times downright idiotic “know-how” delighted many Americans. In the first few days, the phrase And how do you like this, Elon Musk? was retweeted almost 25 thousand times. For comparison, the average popular tweet from Donald Trump receives about 10 thousand reposts in the same time.

Courtney soon found followers. A resident of the British city of Leeds registered the Russian Memes United page, where he began to introduce Russian online humor to the English-speaking public. In February of this year, the quantity of jokes finally turned into quality: Musk appreciated the “meme of his own name” and began to respond in Russian to users who approached him with a demonstration of the latest technical “miracles.”

Remembering ancestors

The trend towards Russianness was also supported by many celebrities who publicly declared their close connection with Russia and ethnic Russians. We are talking not only about the “tax Russian” Gerard Depardieu, honorary Chechen Steven Seagal, mixed martial arts fighter and Moscow region deputy Jeff Monson, Olympic short track champion Victor An, boxer Roy Jones Jr., Brazilian football player Mario Fernandez, star of “Wild Angel” and the idol of girls of the 90s, Natalia Oreiro, who has already asked for Russian passports. Celebrities who do not (at least not yet) have either Russian citizenship or business on Russian territory began to talk about internal ties with our country.

Last September, at the height of another Russophobic campaign, fanned by Western politicians and the media in connection with the “poisoning” of the Skripals, the Italian actress Ornella Muti made an ethnic coming out.

My grandfather was one of the Russian Tsar's doctors. My grandmother was a pianist, and there is also a singer in our family. Perhaps we are so artistic thanks to our Russian roots,– the European cinema star told reporters .

And in November, Mike Reiss, the screenwriter and producer of the famous American animated series “The Simpsons,” made a similar admission.

In a world full of turmoil, it is always good to have an alternate airfield. Russia might be a good option: I'm completely Russian on my mother's side, – he admitted at one of the press conferences.

All these statements, as well as Russian memes now circulating on the global Internet, can be considered a very good and positive sign. And that's why. All propaganda chaff, as we know, sooner or later is weeded out and flies away, but normal human relationships remain. This is exactly what will happen to the “Russian world”. Because in the modern world, sincere interest, people’s respect for each other, openness to communication and interaction must, simply must, be stronger than any propaganda.

So – happy holiday today to everyone who considers themselves involved in it! In Russia itself and beyond its borders.

Victoria Fomenko

A lot has been written about Svyatoslav Fedorov, an amazingly talented man, irrepressibly energetic, infinitely ambitious, amazingly responsive to other people’s pain and misfortune.He left to his relatives, friends, and colleagues the main thing in life - MNTK "Eye Microsurgery". He, the departed one, has something to be proud of. The rest of us have something to continue. Fedorov is a surgeon, a politician, a person... It is difficult to single out one thing, because always, no matter what he did, he was simultaneously one and the other, and the third: a professional, a fighter, a personality. Here are just some fragments of his biography. In April 1986On the basis of the Institute of Eye Microsurgery, an intersectoral scientific and technical complex “Eye Microsurgery” was created. The rights of the MNTK were unprecedented: it had a foreign currency account, could serve foreign patients, independently set the number of employees and their wages, and engage in economic activities outside of medicine.

Svyatoslav Fedorov led the active construction of MNTK branches throughout the country (opened 11 in total, the Ekaterinburg center of MNTK "Eye Microsurgery" was opened as the seventh) and abroad (in Italy, Poland, Germany, Spain, Yemen, UAE), equipped a vessel - ophthalmological clinic "Peter the Great", floating in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

During his life he managed to do many good and useful deeds. Tens of thousands of people regained their sight because Doctor Fedorov lived and worked in the world. But quite a few plans, ideas and plans remained unrealized due to the unexpectedly interrupted flight.

Some people accepted his ideas immediately, despite their unreality. Some categorically did not share his views, both in medicine and in politics, and did their best to interfere with their implementation. Fedorov left no one indifferent

On June 2, 2000, the life of the founder and general director of the MNTK Eye Microsurgery was tragically cut short. The death of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich - a world-famous ophthalmologist, an excellent organizer and public figure- shocked everyone who knew him.

Svyatoslav Fedorov - Biography

One of the outstanding ophthalmologists of our time,born August 8, 1927 in the city of Proskurov (now Khmelnitsky) in Ukraine in the family of the commander of a Red Army division. Russian. His father was repressed in 1938 and sentenced to 17 years in the camps.

After graduationin 1943entered the Yerevan Preparatory Artillery School. In 1944 he was transferred to the 11th Air Force Preparatory School, but was unable to complete his studies because in 1945 he lost his foot as a result of an accident. In 1952 he graduated from the Rostov-on-Don Medical Institute (RMI).

In 1958defended his Ph.D. thesis in1967- doctorate. He worked as a doctor in the village of Veshenskaya (Rostov region) and the city of Lysva (Perm region). Since 1958, he has been the head of the clinical department in the Cheboksary branch State Institute eye diseases named after. Helmholtz.

In 1960created an artificial lens and performed an experimental operation to implant it. As a result of a conflict with the director of the branch, Svyatoslav Fedorov was fired, and his research was declared unscientific. But, after the publication in Izvestia of A. Agranovsky’s correspondence about the results of implanting an artificial lens, he was reinstated at work. The publication helped create a problematic scientific laboratory. IN1961-1967worked in Arkhangelsk as head of the department of eye diseases at the Medical Institute.

In 1967was transferred to Moscow and headed the department of eye diseases and the problem laboratory for artificial lens implantation at the 3rd Moscow Medical Institute. In 1969, he began implanting artificial corneas. In 1973, for the first time in the world, he developed and performed operations to treat glaucoma in the early stages (the deep sclerectomy method, which subsequently gained international recognition).

In 1974The laboratory headed by Svyatoslav Fedorov separated from the institute and was named the Moscow Research Laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Eye Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR. In the same year, Svyatoslav Fedorov began performing operations to treat and correct myopia by applying anterior dosed incisions to the cornea using a technique he developed. This technique was subsequently widely used in the clinic of Svyatoslav Fedorov and its branches, as well as abroad. In total, over 3 million such operations have been performed worldwide.

In 1979On the basis of the laboratory, the Institute of Eye Microsurgery was created, the director of which was Svyatoslav Fedorov. As director, he introduced a number of innovations, such as a medical surgical conveyor (an operation is carried out by several surgeons, each doing a strictly defined part of it, and the main stage of the operation is performed by the most experienced surgeon), mobile operating rooms based on buses, and others.

In 1989was elected people's deputy of the USSR according to the CPSU quota. In the spring of 1989, before the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, he became one of the initiators of the creation of the Moscow Deputy Club. Many of the achievements of this club were used at the First Congress by democratically minded deputies, who later joined the Interregional Deputy Group. In the Supreme Council he was a member of the Committee on Economic Reform. At the Second Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, among 17 deputies, he voted for the abolition of Article 6 of the Constitution, which provided for the leading role of the CPSU.

Since February 1991 was a member of the Supreme Advisory and Coordination Council under the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, later renamed the Supreme Advisory Council (HAC) under the President of the Russian Federation (Svyatoslav Fedorov was not included in the Presidential Council that replaced the HAC in February 1993).

In October-November 1991 Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was considered as one of the likely candidates for the post of Prime Minister of Russia, but refused the offer to take this post.

In September 1993 signed a letter to President Yeltsin on behalf of the staff of the Eye Microsurgery International Scientific and Research Center demanding the cancellation of the decree on the dissolution of parliament and the restoration of the life support systems of the White House, where the deputies were located.

He was a member of the CPSU from 1957 to 1990.In 1991-1993Svyatoslav Fedorov participated in the creation of a number of parties and movements (DPR, PES, RDPR), and was a member of their governing bodies. However, for reasons of principle (disagreement with program guidelines and tactical actions), S. Fedorov left these public associations.

In January 1995 based on numerous proposals from Russian citizens, he created and led the Workers' Self-Government Party (PST). The PST program is to ensure free, highly productive labor, connecting the employee with property, income distribution, and active participation in production management. The main thing is the person, the family, whose condition determines the condition of society. According to S. Fedorov, tax policy is designed to stimulate human labor and the development of production. Categorically rejecting shock therapy, which led to the impoverishment of the people, the merging of the state apparatus with mafia structures, Svyatoslav Fedorov advocated a diverse economy, the protection of national natural resources, the evolutionary path, the use of government regulation, a national idea, and the revival of spirituality.

S. Fedorov's authority as a political leader was very high. Having a qualified team of professionals, he decided to head the party list in the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation inDecember 1995. Svyatoslav Fedorov received numerous appeals from citizens and work collectives, in which they asked him to nominate his candidacy for the post of President of Russia during the elections1996.

In April 1995Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS). He was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), a full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS).

Scientific activity of S.N. Fedorova was never an end in itself and did not contain abstract research. Each step was caused by the organic need to provide the most effective assistance to the patient, to restore high-quality vision to him as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is not surprising that the result of a huge number of scientific studies was the development of an invention.Svyatoslav Nikolaevich is the author of 523 scientific works, 7 monographs, 234 inventions, 108 patents. Under his leadership, 86 candidate and 25 doctoral dissertations were completed and successfully defended. .

For scientific research in the field of ophthalmic surgery S.N. Fedorov was awarded the highest award of the Academy of Sciences - the Lomonosov Gold Medal - and the Prize named after. M.I. Averbakh Academy of Medical Sciences. He was a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology, as well as a laureate of the Palaeologus Prize (USA), Pericles Prize (Italy).

S. N. Fedorov was the Chairman of the Board of the All-Russian Scientific Society of Ophthalmologists, the editor-in-chief of the journal "Ophthalmosurgery", and also a member of the editorial boards of the journals: "Bulletin of Ophthalmology" (USA), "American Society of Implantologists" (USA), "Refractive Surgery" (USA) , "News of Eye Surgery" (USA), "European Journal of Implantation and Refractive Surgery" Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was a resident of the International Society of Keratorefractologists, an honorary member of the International Society for Artificial Lens Implantation, a member of the International Society for Phacoemulsification and Cataract Surgery, an honorary member of the International Society for Corneoplastic Microsurgery , member of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. For great services in the field of public health S.N. Fedorov was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, the Order of Lenin / He had the title of "hero" socialist labor" and "Honored Inventor"

June 2, 2000Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov died tragically in a plane crash.

In memory of Svyatoslav Fedorov...

When the founder of the Eye Microsurgery MNTK, academician Svyatoslav Fedorov, tragically died, all branches of the complex began to think about how to perpetuate his memory. Some got busts of Fedorov, others got portraits. And we at the Yekaterinburg center of the MNTK “Eye Microsurgery” wanted to make not just a sculpture, but to create something special, unusual, large-scale and amazing - after all, this is exactly what Svyatoslav Nikolaevich was.

We did not rely only on ourselves and invited the most talented craftsmen of the Urals to work on the idea of ​​creating a future monument. Proposals came from both young graduates of the local Academy of Architecture and from seasoned artists. As a result, the project of the Sverdlovsk Art Foundation was recognized as the best. Its specialists decided to add a Ural touch to the memorial by making a mosaic portrait of Svyatoslav Fedorov from natural Ural marble.

The rock of the required shades was found at one of the enterprises Chelyabinsk region. By special order, the stone was delivered to Yekaterinburg and handed over to the artists. It should be noted that they did a colossal job, because matching pieces of marble to each other in such a way as to convey the soul of a person and achieve photographic resemblance is very difficult. Without exaggeration, the craftsmen approached the matter with pinpoint precision. In total, work on the memorial to Svyatoslav Nikolaevich lasted almost a year. But it was worth it. For fifteen years now he has been guarding the Yekaterinburg center of the MNTK "Eye Microsurgery", and Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov remains close to the patients - with those for whom he served.

There are always fresh flowers near the monumental portrait of Fedorov. And every year on June 2, the day of the death of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, patients, doctors, nurses and other clinic staff gather at the memorial to honor the memory of the great academician, teacher and doctor with a minute of silence...

And in 2015, Svyatoslav Nikolaevich’s daughter, Irina Fedorova, visited us. Today she is a titled ophthalmic surgeon, the head of a Moscow eye clinic and a successor to the work of her great father. Irina Svyatoslavovna came specifically to open – branch of the Ekaterinburg center MNTK “Eye Microsurgery”.

As a sign of friendship and respect, Irina Fedorova presented the Center staff with a portrait of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich. It was made by the talented Ural artist Nina Kostina. She portrayed Fedorov as we did not know him yet: young, full of hopes and grandiose plans. This picture took its rightful place in the new branch of the Laser Surgery Center on the street. Yasnoy, 31.

The Legend of the Legend: an essay by the famous writer and journalist A. Agranovsky

About young Svyatoslav Fedorov -"The Discovery of Doctor Fedorov" 1965