Kashchenko biography

Hummical psychiatrist. In the history of Russian psychiatry, probably there are no more people whose surname would be so firmly associated with this medical sphere. Since then, the name has become a household name: the expression “go to Kashchenko” and now, when for a quarter of a century as it is not his name, it means “to go to a psychiatric hospital”.

And few people think that the most interesting fate of our violent history is hidden behind this household name. The father of the family, Pyotr Fedorovich Kashchenko, was a native of the Cossack class, thanks to the work and perseverance, who was knocked out into the doctors. He graduated from the Medical and Surgical Academy and devoted his life to the service of an army doctor.

The mother of the family, Alexander Pavlovna, was the daughter of a college assessor. She gave birth to seven children. Pyotr Petrovich Kashchenko, who will continue the medical dynasty, was born on December 28 according to the new style - January 9 of the year in the city of Tambov. His childhood was not much different from the children of representatives of the Cossack estate, although his father was a man of advanced views and, most likely, the beginnings of his passion for revolutionary ideas grew from the earliest years.

When the time came, the boy was given to the Yeisk Kuban military gymnasium. He was sixteen when his father died. Home later, in the year, Pyotr Petrovich entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. The family of his wealth did not acquire, but the young man received a special scholarship, which allowed him to study. After some time, the young man showed the remarkable abilities for medical work was transferred to the Imperial Moscow University.

The great reforms of Alexander II changed many spheres of public life, and education, especially the highest, was no exception. Universities became centers of advanced thought, sometimes radicalizing into revolutionary extremes. So the excellent student Pyotr Kashchenko turned out to be the son of his active time. From among his comrades, he created an illegal circle, studied the literature prohibited by censorship.

With caution, the young nihilists did not shine, as a result of which they were quickly exposed by the gendarmes and fell under their unspoken supervision. The murder of Emperor Alexander II terrified most of the Russian society. And even among the most disloyal royal regime of students there were many those who wanted to express condolences. A number of students raised funds on a wreath and intended to elect a deputation to St.

Petersburg in order to take him to the place of mourning events. And in the midst of this discussion, Kashchenko, who remained only a couple of months to learn, made a defiant speech that condemned such an idea. The time for such attacks in the direction of the authorities was chosen extremely unsuccessfully - the “Regulation on increased and extraordinary protection” was introduced, they were also unfortunate for less misconduct, and Pyotr Petrovich was listed among them for several years.

So the excellent student did not go to final exams, but to the Caucasus, to the link. He was not even allowed by medical practice, allowing only the teaching of singing in the Stavropol Provincial Gymnasium. Only four years later, Kashchenko received a medical diploma at Kazan University. Here he met the director of the Kazan Psychiatric Hospital, Professor Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev and the outstanding psychiatrist Lev Ragozin.

So he decided on his scientific orientation. Together with his teachers, he was destined to become one of the founders of Russian psychiatry. I must say that psychiatry in the Russian Empire in the form in which we imagine it, at the time only laid down new principles in the treatment of mentally ill people. After hitherto she was backward, cruel, and the patients were almost like animals.

But in the last quarter of the 19th century, humanistic principles began to penetrate into psychiatric treatment, and Kashchenko and Bekhterev were destined to become at the helm of these transformations. In the year, Kashchenko was sent to Nizhny Novgorod - a large city, an important economic center of Russia. He headed a local psychiatric hospital there.

It was there that he was the first to reform the approach to the treatment of patients, introducing what seemed unthinkable yesterday. Pyotr Petrovich sincerely believed that patients should not be subjected to harsh restrictions, but, on the contrary, should try to socialize them as much as possible. Among the first, he introduced labor therapy, which later became widespread practice.

A small colony appeared on the basis of the hospital, where patients worked in the subsidiary farm and in workshops. For patients, he organized theatrical productions, tried to instill a love of reading, and arranged a tea party. Kashchenko was also an outstanding propagandist of his work - newspapers soon began to write about him, extoling his method, and rich merchants began to give donations.

For fifteen years, Kashchenko worked in Nizhny Novgorod, turning the local hospital into an advanced medical institution.In the year, he received an offer to head the Moscow Psychiatric Hospital at the Kanatchikova dacha, it was this hospital that will then become his name. Here I must say that Kashchenko over the years did not at all abandon his youthful revolutionary aspirations, moreover, he carried them through his life, unlike many.

The next year, the revolution broke out the year, and in December Moscow was covered by a fire of a bloody armed uprising, Kashchenko with his younger brother, a prominent defectologist Vsevolod Petrovich, helped the rebels not only financially, but also professionally - having created medical flies, he actually organized a medical care system for the presne of workers' squads.

When the uprising was crushed, Kashchenko helped to hide the wanted rebels. This was not a secret for the police and the security department, but they did not dare to touch the authoritative doctor. After some time, Kashchenko headed the Zemstvo Psychiatric Hospital in St. Petersburg, quickly taking it to advanced not only in the country, but throughout Europe.

His clinic was a number of specialized awards at domestic and international exhibitions. Kashchenko summarized his rich experience in his works on the organization of treatment of mental patients, relevant today. During the First World War, he was engaged in the study of mental illness of military personnel. Kashchenko paid much attention to statistics, believing that outbreaks of mental illness are interconnected with the situation in society.

Unlike many of his colleagues, Kashchenko enthusiastically accepted the revolution and went to the service of Soviet power. The civil war was also in full swing, and he was already developing a plan for organizing psychiatric medical care in Soviet Russia. In August, he spoke at the All -Russian meeting on psychiatry and neurology, where, in his program report, he outlined his vision of the new Soviet psychiatry, which, as he believed, is possible to make the best in the world.

But the implementation in life was not destined for him. He was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery of Moscow. Also in Nizhny Novgorod in his honor the street is named. Cover: Peter Kashchenko.