Amosov, Nikolai

Amosov, Nikolai [Амосов, Николай; or Микола; Mykola (aka Amosoff)], b 19 December 1913 in Olkhovo, Vologda gubernia, Russia, d 12 December 2002 in Kyiv. Surgeon; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) from 1969, corresponding member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR from 1961, and full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine from 1993. He completed his studies at the Cherepovets College of Mechanics (1932), the Arkhangelsk Medical Institute (1939), and, by correspondence, the Soviet Industrial Institute (1940). From 1952 to 1983 Amosov was the director of the thoracic and heart surgery clinic at the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute for Tubercular Heart and Artery Surgery, becoming the institute’s assistant director in 1968 and serving as director from 1983 to 1988. In 1955 he founded the first heart surgery clinic in Ukraine, which later became the Kyiv Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. He was also a founder of the Ukrainian school of biological, medical, and psychological cybernetics. Amosov is the author of more than 400 scholarly works and 19 monographs, which include an outline of thoracic surgery (1958), a guide to surgery for heart defects (1969), and a study of algorithms of the mind (1975). His monographs on biocybernetics have been translated into English and Bulgarian. Amosov also wrote several novelistic works: Mysli i serdtse (Thoughts and the Heart, 1964; English translation The Open Heart [1966]), Zapiski iz budushchego (Notes from the Future, 1966; English translation 1970), and PPG-2266: Zapiski voennogo khirurga (1974; English trans PPG-2266: A Surgeon’s War [1975]). He also wrote about his life and times and personal credo, including Kniga o shchast’e i neshchast’iakh (English translation Against All Odds: A Book of Joy and Sorrow with Diary and Digressions [1990]). Amosov was held in high regard for his personal integrity and the breadth of his interests.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]