Soviet microbiologist Z. V. Ermolieva in the struggle for the release from imprisonment of epidemiologist A. A. Zakharov: archival evidence from the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Authors:   Reaviz Medical University, Samara, Russia, Gorshenin Alexander V. 
Published: December 2024

Published are documents from the investigative file of the Soviet scientist-microbiologist and epidemiologist Alexei Alexandrovich Zakharov, who was arrested in February 1938 and shot in October of the same year. The relatives, including the wife, the prominent Soviet microbiologist Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermolieva, were not informed about A. A. Zakharov's execution. They were informed that the scientist was given 10 years in camps without the right to correspondence. In this regard, Z. V. Ermolieva took all possible steps to revise the case. One of such attempts is presented in the publication - an appeal to the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR I. T. Golyakov. This appeal contains a number of arguments demonstrating that the prosecution is based on falsifications, slander and intimidation of persons arrested in this case to give “necessary” testimony. Z.V. Ermolieva's letter was not a substitute for the lawyer's appeal, rather it was supposed to be a supplement to it. The scientist attached to her statement a number of characteristics about the personality of A. A. Zakharov and reviews of the importance of his scientific achievements. Among those who were not afraid to sign such characterizations and reviews were colleagues, famous writers, and acquaintances of the scientist, among whom were world-renowned researchers, such as one of the founders of microbiology, N. F. Gamaleya. Three such documents are cited in the publication, along with a statement by Z. V. Ermolieva. V. Ermolieva. The mentioned documents date from the period of 1938-1940. A. A. Zakharov (1895-1938) was a prominent Soviet scientist-microbiologist and epidemiologist, a pupil of V. A. Barykin. He made a significant contribution to the victory in the USSR over the epidemics of cholera, typhoid and typhus, Beck's disease, Transbaikal epidemic polyarthritis and a number of others. Among the charges brought by the investigation against him were: creation of a counterrevolutionary organization aimed at killing the USSR leadership; purposeful contamination of wells with typhoid bacilli, which led to an epidemic outbreak in Zaraisk; involvement of his scientific collaborators in an alleged counterrevolutionary organization. The investigative file of A. A. Zakharov, the documents from which are cited in the publication, was deposited in the fonds of the Department of the State Security Committee for Moscow and Moscow Region of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). The introduction of these documents into the scientific turnover is explained by a number of reasons. Firstly, the presented selection allows to show the personality of Z. V. Ermolieva far away. V. Ermolieva's personality far beyond her scientific image. Secondly, through the prism of A. A. Zakharov's fate it is possible to reconstruct the mechanism of such arrests among scientists during the repressions of 1937-1938. Thirdly, the story in question allows us to demonstrate the involvement of Soviet science and its representatives in the political processes of the second half of the 1930s.