THE FIRST AZERBAIJANI WHO MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOVIET COSMIC MEDICINE

In this short essay it is very difficult to describe the life of this bright, gifted man who had to overcome many dif- ficulties and hardships in his walk of life. He died, what one might call, in the prime of years at the age of 54 and during this time had seen a good deal in his life besides the “enchantments” of exile where he spent his childhood years.

But he did not lose courage and achieved much in his life by gaining the gen- eral recognition in the field of medicine.

The man spoken of is a professor-surgeon who made significant contribution to the soviet space science, Nadjmeddin Aladdin oglu Gadjiev (Dilbazi), also a mountaineer who had won many a mountain top.
FOSTER CHILD OF THE ZEMSKY DOCTOR

He was born in 1926 in the village Khanlyglar of the Gazakh district in the bek family. However, he was not to enjoy happy childhood. He was only five, his sister Nazifa 3 years old and a younger brother one year old when in March 1931 the head of the family Aladdin aga Dilbazi the most hospitable and kind-hearted man was executed for the anti-Soviet propaganda and anti kolkhoz activity. Next, the Bolsheviks exiled the whole family to Kazakhstan including the children, their 80 year old grandfather Ibragim aga and grandmother Khadidja khanum, the mother Mirvarid khanum, paternal uncles and other relatives belonging to the bek Dilbazi family.

The family returned to native Gazakh without the grandfather who could not bear the severe Aral climate let alone the grief of losing his son. The exiled compatriots bur- ied the old man in the outland. Little Nusrat also stayed there forever. In Gazakh Mirvarid khanum reasonably fear- ing for the future of her children changed the famous bek surname Dilbazi to Gadjiev.

However, the “returnees” were to experience hard time. According to Nadjmeddin’s close relatives, in his childhood he was under the custody of his uncle Makhmud Dilbazi who worked as a school principal in Guba town, far from Gazakh. It happened so that the boy who studied in a town secondary school was later adopted by a childless couple - a former White Guard officer and afterwards zemskiy doctor David Ilyin and his wife Mariya Fyodorovna. Those kind Russian people saw the talent of the child from a noble family and surrounded him with care and kindness. They enrolled him into the Russian school and at the Ilyins’ house he got a perfect command of the Russian language. He also received musical education. In 1942 after finishing school David Ilyin brought the boy to Baku where Nadjmeddin was admitted to the medical pre- vention faculty of the Azerbaijan Medical Institute which was one of the most prestigious higher educational institu- tions of that time. With the doctor’s support who was fulfilling father’s role in the most difficult time of his life Nadjmeddin successfully finished his study.

 ONE CANNOT BE TOO CAREFUL
N. Gadjiev’s labour career began in 1947 when he started his work as a non-staff medical resident. In 1948 he was appointed a senior laboratory assistant of the chair of facultative surgery II. Next, he became a party member and was admitted into the party. That was not an easy thing for a man whose close relatives were repressed and executed by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. By the way, he never ever mentioned his bek origin and that his ancestors were large landowners in the Gazakh district of the Elizavetpol province.

Thus, his papers contain very cautious statements like “Father died in 1932”,”before the revolution he was en- gaged in farming”, “was born in 1905, before the revolution lived in dependence on father, after the revolution was en- gaged in farming”, “for family reasons I left for Guba town” and so on. In short, he never mentioned the repressions his family was exposed to. This was quite justified as the Sta- lin’s regime ruled in the country and each and every one was under his watchdogs’ vigilant eye on the 1/6 part of the Earth.And one cannot be too careful. 
YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS

 Until 1954 he worked at the above-mentioned chair which was founded and headed by unforgettable professor Fuad Efendiyev (today the city hospital ¹ 4 is named after him). Having decided to dedicate his life to science the young man pursued post graduate studies at the Azerbaijan Scien- tific-Research Institute of hematology and blood transfusion which he graduated in 1957. The next year he successfully defended his candidate’s thesis in Moscow at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the SSR under the supervision of the founder of soviet space medi- cine and biology academician Oleg Grigoriy Gazenko. From the medical point of view the subject of his thesis ”The changes of blood-clotting factors and morphology of periph- eral blood, C-vitamin balance of sportsmen-mountaineers” was of scientific interest.

He continued his scientific work in this direction and in

1967 defended his doctorate thesis. The subject of the thesis was “Clinical-physiological studies of mountaineers under the high altitude conditions and issues of mountain disease prevention”. And it was not by accident that clinical-exper- imental studies eventually led him to the just fledgling field of medicine - space science or as it was called at that time as- tronautics science. The study of the problems of blood pa- thology under the conditions of extreme altitude led him to the researches of the problems of blood pathology under the conditions of low partial oxygen pressure in space weightlessness. At that time medical professionals of the leading space power that was the Soviet Union were to solve the problem of pilot cosmonauts’ survival under the conditions of space weightlessness. Thus, Nadjmeddin Gadjiev was the first Azerbaijani scientist to contribute much to the de- velopment of the soviet space science. Besides, he was the pioneer among the soviet scientists who developed and in- troduced into modern practical medical science such nov- elty as pressure chambers and treatment in them.

According to his daughter Mirvari Gadjieva who is a doc- tor and scientist he was one of academician Oleg Gazenko’s favorite students who for many years prevented him from re- turning to Baku. The Russian scientist insisted on N.Gadjiev’s continuing work at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the SSR. As is seen from the articles and books by O.Gazenko the problems of blood pathology under the conditions of low partial oxygen pressure in space weightlessness and extreme altitude were always actual in the scientific activity of Professor N.Gadjiev.

 HE WAS ALWAYS AT HIS BEST BOTH LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY

 Doctor-surgeon, professor, doctor of medical sciences

N. Gadjiev was highly valued and respected in the scien- tific-medical circles not only in Azerbaijan but in the whole USSR. After defending his candidate’s thesis in Moscow he was promoted to a position of a head of the methodical de- partment of the Azerbaijan Scientific-Research Institute of Hematology and Blood transfusion. And on September 1959 he was appointed a senior scientific worker of this in- stitute. In September 1961 he was transferred to a position of a senior scientific worker of the Azerbaijan Institute of Experimental-Clinical Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. From 1963 he held a position of the head of department of this recognized medical center not only in Azerbaijan but also in the former Soviet Union.

In 1964 he started his work at the Azerbaijan Medical In- stitute named after N. Narimanov as an assistant of the chair of facultative surgery II and in 1966 became a docent of the chair. Professor Gadjiev was head of the chair of fac- ultative surgery until the tragic event which cut off his life. During these years he was granted titles of honour such as “Honoured Science Worker of Azerbaijan”, “Honoured Doctor of Azerbaijan”. He also had a few government awards of Azerbaijan and of Kabardino-Balkar ASSR for es- tablishing in this North-Caucasian Republic the medical faculty at the local state university in Nalchik.

He held successively high positions at the Azerbaijan Medical Institute named after N.Narimanov: secretary of the Komsomol committee, chairman of the local committee, chairman of the party committee, pro-rector for scientific work which speaks of his authority in the institute environ- ment. In the 50’s and 60’s of the last century he often represented the Azerbaijani surgeons at the all-union and international conferences and symposia in Moscow, Tallinn, Sverdlovsk, Vienna, Kiev, Sofia and Beijing.

 THE CONQUEST OF THE MOUNTAIN TOPS

 Mountaineering was his element. Actually, his whole short life was closely connected with sport. Professor was the master of sports of the USSR, international master of sports,life flag doctor of the Mountaineering Federation of the USSR, flag doctor of all large mountaineering expedi- tions to the Pamirs, the Alps, Tien-Shan, the Great and Lesser Caucasus. He especially enjoyed watching the vast- ness of his Motherland from the tops of the Caucasus Mountains. It may be beyond someone’s knowledge that professor Gadjiev was the founder and permanent chair- man of two federations: the Federation of Sport Medicine of Azerbaijan and Mountaineering Federation of Azerbaijan.

 AT THE RISE OF LIFE

 In 1980 his life tragically closed. N. Gadjiev died in an accident and was buried in Baku near his cousins - poetess Mirvarid Dilbazi and writer Yagut Dilbazi. Indeed, profes- sor Nadjmeddin Gadjiev lived a short but a very bright life of a brave and talented man. 
His three children Mirvari, Aladdin and Aygun have followed his path. Medicine has become their family tradi- tion. Mirvari Gadjieva is a graduate of the Azerbaijan Medi- cal University, ophthalmologist, and candidate of medical sciences. She worked for nine years in the University hospi- tal after king Abdulaziz in Saudi Arabia (Jidda). Aladdin Gadjiev is professor, doctor of medical sciences who has worked for many years in Russia. Aygun Gadjieva is an ophthalmologist, candidate of medical sciences. Currently, she is a leading scientific worker of the Scientific-Research Institute of ophthalmic diseases.