About the life and work of L. M. Horowitz-Vlasova (on the 85th anniversary of her death)

There are many names in the history of preventive medicine that have contributed to its formation and development. One of them was a doctor, microbiologist and hygienist, teacher, poet Lyubov Mikhailovna Horowitz-Vlasova, a wonderful highly educated specialist, a man with an extraordinary destiny, whose life path took place at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. The goal is to study the biography, highlight the attractive character traits of the scientist, show the thorny path to practical medicine and science, the research and discoveries she made. The work uses archival materials, publications, an electronic resource, statements about her by contemporaries and colleagues, photographs from a family album, as well as L. M. Horowitz-Vlasova’s diary, which was published in audiobook format by her granddaughter Irina Vlasova under the title «Notes of a zemstvo doctor.» Having received a higher medical education and a Doctor of medicine degree in Paris, inspired by the ideas of his teacher, the great Russian scientist I. I. Mechnikov, L. M. Horowitz-Vlasova returned to Russia and devoted herself entirely to domestic preventive medicine, becoming one of the founders of Soviet sanitary microbiology. This strong woman managed to go through a truly great but difficult path: from unique discoveries to political persecution and arrests. Since she received a «mark of unreliability» under Soviet rule, she was consigned to oblivion. They tried not to talk about it in scientific circles and higher educational institutions. The number of publications of contemporaries about the scientist and her contribution to microbiology and hygiene was limited. She endured the turning point of her life courageously and remained devoted to her country, profession and science until the end of her days.