Tezyakov, Nikolai Ivanovich

TEZYAKOV, Nikolai Ivanovich (1859–1925), sanitary physician. After graduating from the medical faculty of Kazan University in 1884, he managed a district hospital in the village of Aryash, in the former Perm Governorate. As a sanitary physician for the Alexandriya Uyezd of the Kherson Governorate, Tezyakov conducted a survey of hired agricultural laborers, which revealed organized exploitation of workers who labored 15–17 hours a day and lived in unhygienic conditions. Their medical and sanitary care was expressed in the creation of medical-food stations, which became widely distributed in other governorates as well and took on the character of a kind of labor exchange. He conducted similar surveys in the Voronezh, Saratov, and other zemstvos. Tezyakov authored an extensive study, which was widely used by V. I. Lenin for his book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" ("Agricultural laborers and the organization of sanitary supervision over them in the Kherson Governorate according to materials from medical-food stations in 1893–95", Kherson, 1896). Tezyakov's works on the study of infant mortality among the peasant population and the organization of village nurseries are of great scientific and practical interest. Tezyakov was a pioneer in the issue of using diphtheria serum in the village. Being a major theoretician,

an expert in public sanitation and sanitary statistics, Tezyakov was an outstanding organizer of sanitary affairs, in particular in the former Saratov Governorate. In the beginning of 1911, on behalf of the Saratov zemstvo, Tezyakov organized the zemstvo department at the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden. Tezyakov was an organizer and participant in many congresses of physicians and a participant in the Pirogov congresses.

After the October Revolution, in March 1920, Tezyakov moved to Moscow and took the position of head of the department of health resorts of the People's Commissariat of Health. Under his leadership, the collection and restoration of state-wide resorts, which had suffered during the imperialist and civil wars, began. With the most active participation of Tezyakov, 4 scientific and scientific-organizational congresses on resort affairs were held. A great merit of Tezyakov is the creation of the first printed organ on resort affairs—the journal "Kurortnoye Delo" ("Resort Affairs"), the first responsible editor of which he remained until the end of his life. Distinguished by enormous capacity for work and a desire to share his vast experience, Tezyakov released a large number of printed works (over 85). Tezyakov died while performing his official duties on the premises of the People's Commissariat of Health. Literature: Dobrenier I., My memories of N. I. Tezyakov, Gig. i epidemiol., 1925, No. 1; Yanovskoye E., My memories of N. I. Tezyakov, ibidem.