French-Russian surgeon and philanthropist, and intern of the Paris School of Medicine and the Imperial Military Academy of St. Petersburg.
He was appointed director of the French Hospital of Petrograd in 1905, and called regularly to the bedside of the members of the imperial family.
At the declaration of war, he enlisted in the Russian forces and converted a train into an ambulance, a mobile operating theatre, to rescue wounded Russian soldiers on the front of East Prussia. This travelling lazaretto, which saved many lives, earned him the gratitude of the sovereign. Captured and imprisoned by the Germans, he was released in 1916 and immediately joined Russia as a medical inspector and director of the French military medicine mission.
Condemned to death by the new Bolshevik government for insubordination, he was forced to flee, taking refuge in France; He quickly set up an interallied dispensary in Villejuif, with the support of the Red Cross, where he operated free of charge the white Russians, who had no resources in their vast majority.
He became head surgeon (1926) of the hospital of Montmorency, and converted a pavilion into a surgical center, making this establishment one of the most modern in pre-war France.
He was appointed head of the Spontini and Violet clinics, then head surgeon of Beaujon Hospital.
During the Second World War, he worked to operate the wounded soldiers from the front, and saved many Jews from the deportation by producing medical certificates.
He died on 28 February 1945, aged 70, in Enghien-les-Bains.
Link to Wikipedia biography (French)