Vladimir Kirillovich Trofimov – Doctor of Medicine, a surgeon. He was born on August 5, 1872 in the village of Sorokino, Ostrovsky district of the Pskov province, in a peasant family.
Trofimov graduated from the Pskov classical gymnasium (1889) and the following year entered the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he studied for three years only. He continued his studies (1896-1899) at the medical faculty of the Yuryev University (the present name of the city is Tartu, Estonia), where he was on friendly terms with N. N. Burdenko.
In 1889, Trofimov graduated with honors from the University of Yuryev, then for two years he mastered his skills at different medical courses and in surgical departments of hospitals in St. Petersburg. Besides, he worked as an assistant in the surgical department of Professor V.G. Tsege-von-Manteuffel in the city of Yuryev. From 1901 to 1904 Vladimir Kirillovich worked as a doctor at the Lgov district hospital in the Kursk province. During this time, he encouraged surgical activity in this medical institution (he himself made 587 operations). From April till September 1904, together with N. N. Burdenko,V.K. Trofimov served as a Red Cross doctor on the fronts of the Russian – Japanese War in the detachment headed by Professor Tsege-von-Manteuffel. He worked near Wafangoo and at the forward hospitals of Gaydzhoa, Laoyang and Gongzhuling. From 1904 till 1905 Trofimov had operative surgery internship training in the clinics of St. Petersburg.
From 1905 to 1913 he was resident doctor and the head of the surgical department at the Penza Regional hospital.
In 1906, Trofimov was trained in St. Petersburg in the clinics of professor G.F. Zeidler and professor S.P. Fedorov. In the summer of 1908, he visited a tuberculosis sanatorium in Vindava, Latvia. In 1908 – 1909 he headed the Penza Medical Society. In 1909, Trofimov wrote a thesis “On the blind seam of the bladder with high lithotomy.” He presented his thesis in the walls of the Military Medical Academy. The following year he was appointed the acting resident doctor of the Penza Regional hospital. In March 1911, he took an active part in the 10th Congress of regional hospitals doctors of the Penza province, which took place after an 11-year break and became an anniversary one (25 years had passed since the 1st Congress).
In 1912 Trofimov was added to the staff of the Sisters of Mercy Community in the name St.Olga. In 1913, the Red Cross Hospital (later named after Semashko) was arranged on its base, and Vladimir Kirillovich became the first doctor there. At the same time he held the post of medical inspector assistant at the province medical board. Trofimov was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus of the 2rd degree. In 1915, he served as a consultant doctor at the Penza Regional hospital. For his activities during the war Trofimov was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 3rd degree.
When he was working in Penza, Trofimov gained a reputation as a competent surgeon: he constantly followed up the innovations in medical science, maintained communication with leading contemporary surgeons. He was uncompromising in terms of sustaining asepsis and antiseptics standards in hospital rooms; he introduced the principle of segregating patients with septic wounds. Apart from that, he made an important contribution to the development of abdominal surgery, surgical treatment of urolithiasis and cholelithiasis and even tuberculosis. In fact, the idea of opening a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Penza province was put forward by Trofimov, though it was implemented only under Soviet power. Vladimir Kirillovich advocated the creation of a special surgical ENT department. He initiated the opening of an X-ray room at the Regional hospital and became the first radiologist in Penza. He became the teacher of a whole series of well-known Penza doctors, such as I.V. Alipov, V.P. Bodulin and others. Vladimir Kirillovich wrote and published a number of works on various issues of surgery and put a lot of efforts to turn the Regional hospital into a cultural medical center. The time when he worked there has been called the heyday of the hospital.
In 1918-1921 Trofimov was an active parishioner of the Penza churches and a spiritual son of the Bishop of Penza and Saransk Ioann (Pommer), who was Latvian by nationality. Having witnessed the horrors of the revolution and persecution of the Penza clergy, he courageously spoke in support of the Penza church and its leader. In 1921, when the Bishop Ioann was appointed as the Archbishop of All Latvia, Trofimov started seeking out the possibility to follow him, and he soon got the chance. In 1920, his homeland appeared to be on the territory of Latvia and on August 1, 1923, having confirmed his citizenship, he moved there.
Vladimir Kirillovich settled in Augšpils that was the current name of former Vyshgorodets. At that time he collected, classified and systematized detailed sanitary and statistical data about his native land. In 1924 he participated in a meeting of the Riga Society of general practitioners and the same year on June 2, he was offered a post of privat-docent at the Medical Faculty of the University of Latvia. He also got a job as and teacher of desmurgy (a section of surgery that studies methods of applying bandages and treating wounds), which he taught in the 1st Riga City Hospital. Trofimov participated in the congresses of Latvian doctors which took place in1925 and 1928. During this period he was engaged in orthopedics and apparently was a personal physician of Archbishop Ioann. In 1931, Vladimir Kirillovich had to leave the university walls, because as a result of a secret vote his position was transferred to a doctor of Latvian nationality (the university was becoming increasingly national, and Dr. Trofimov lectured in Russian). He earned his living by private practice at his home, in the Augšpils volost of the Abren district.
In the autumn of 1944, during the liberation of this territory by the Red Army, Trofimov was arrested by SMERSH (Counteragency for Sabotage and Espionage) on charges of belonging to the Russian National Committee of the Abren district. On December 10, 1944, he died in prison at the age of 73.
From the letters of V.K. Trofimov
“You cannot remain silent when a crime is committed in your eyes. Moreover, this crime must be considered the gravest one, since it is directed not only against a person who enjoys universal esteem and love, but also against the Church, of which he is a minister. If you read the latest articles in the newspapers you will shudder at the dirt and insinuations these articles are full of concerning Archbishop Ioann. It is just inadmissible that intellectual people, whatever good intentions they might have, could use the press to profane the Holy of Holies of Russian believers. You, gentlemen, should choose a different topic for your crude campaign oratory, but not touch the one who is worshiped by thousands and thousands of deeply religious people, however mistaken they are from your point of view. Stop your persecution. It does not only hurt the person it is aimed at but also all those for who the Church and its guardians is the only refuge left in their life. Give up your tricks. In fact, they resemble so closely the techniques of those who ruined not only our personal life but our spiritual wealth too. Do not give the cause for thoughts that there are no decent people left among the Russians who could find strength and courage to make an appeal to the public in a time of terrible trials: “No more dissension, let us drop mutual enmity and hatred; the hour has come when we must rise as one man to the defense of Archbishop Ioann, whom they want to discredit in the eyes of the entire population at all costs.”
Anyone who has ever visited the cathedral and listened even a little of the sermons of the church hierarch and has seen enthusiasm of parishioners and their ardent admiration for the mind and heart of this great man will understand why the temple of God cannot accommodate all that huge crowd of people who constantly seek to meet their spiritual leader. And here in Latvia you can ask people who come from Penza about several years of the hierarch’s episcopal service, and you will know about abiding reverence he was treated with, honor and worship he enjoyed among Russian believers of all ranks and positions. A thousand crowd of people always accompanied the hierarch at his every move. The witness will never forget the Intercession Church and the monastery where the hierarch lived and prayed, and those processions to the Myrrh-bearing Cemetery he was involved in, which were full of rare spiritual and religious enthusiasm.
Penza residents know well about oppression and persecution the hierarch suffered from the local rulers and their servants. They also know well how he carried his cross with Christian humility being assigned to Latvia. How could we keep silent when certain people who came from nowhere and had forgotten that personal interests cannot be superior to collective interests of a community, call us to enmity and hatred against the one we believe in and to whom we worship? [No, we will say] to those people: “Hands off the altar, do not dare to profane its ministers. For any of your further action against the hierarch you will be anathematized by the entire Russian population of Latvia, who still cherish the interests of the Orthodox Church.”
From a group of Orthodox who know Archbishop John on the activities in Russia Penza citizens. Malaya Nevskaya Str. d. 14 sq. m. 8. Alexandra Vasilievna Melnalksnis, born. Belova. Pillar 37 square meters. 1. VK Trofimov.”
Sources: Materials of the funds of the Penza Museum of the History of Medicine (Burdenko House Museum); K. K. Vasiliev, A. A. Viksna. Surgeon VK Trofimov (1872-1944): Zemsky doctor and privat-docent of the University of Latvia. // Bulletin of SumDU. Series Medicine, № 2, 2008, v. 1; Yu. Sidyakov. From the archives of Archbishop John (Pommer).
