Background
Zhdanov was born in the village of Shtepino (in present-day Donetsk Oblast).
Zhdanov was born in the village of Shtepino (in present-day Donetsk Oblast).
After Zhdanov graduated from Kharkiv Medical Institute in 1936, he spent the next decade working as an army doctor, where he became interested in epidemiology. This work would directly lead to his doctoral thesis on Hepatitis A. In 1946, Zhdanov was invited to become Chief of the Epidemiology Department of the I. I. Mechnikoff Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Kharkiv, becoming its director two years later.
He was instrumental in the effort to eradicate smallpox globally. His work in virus classification saw him admitted to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses as a life member. In 1958, Zhdanov, as Deputy Minister of Health for the Soviet Union, called on the World Health Assembly to undertake a global initiative to eradicate smallpox.
The proposal (Resolution WHA1154) was accepted in 1959.
Zhdanov left the Ministry of Health in 1961, and focused on scientific research for the rest of his career. This work included studying influenza, hepatitis, and in the 1980s, Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
Religion discourages exploration of science and universe by suppressing curiosity, and denies its followers a broader perspective.
Marxism–Leninism as the only truth could not, by its very nature, become outdated.
Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1960.