Caesar Korolenko

Caesar Petrovich Korolenko (Russian: Це́зарь Петро́вич Короле́нко; 3 October 1933 – 14 July 2020) was a Russian psychiatrist. His scientific work was mainly on addictive disorders.

Caesar Korolenko
Born	(1933-10-03)3 October 1933 Brest-on-the-Bug, Polesie Voivodeship, Poland (now Belarus)
Died	14 July 2020(2020-07-14) (aged 86) Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
Citizenship	Russia
Awards
Scientific career
Fields	Psychiatry
Institutions	Novosibirsk State Medical University

Biography

Caesar Korolenko was born on 3 October 1933 in the city of Brest-on-the-Bug (then part of Poland).

From 1941 to 1943, Korolenko’s family lived in the occupied territory. After the arrival of Soviet troops, the family moved to relatives in Novosibirsk. There he completed school and was admitted to the Faculty of Medicine of the Novosibirsk Medical Institute, from which he graduated in 1956.^[1]

From 1956 to 1958, Korolenko was a clinical resident; from 1958 to 1961, a postgraduate student; and from 1961 to 1964, he worked as an assistant at the Department of Psychiatry of the Novosibirsk Medical Institute. In 1962, he defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation titled “Clinical Data and Pathogenesis of Alcohol Delirium,” and in 1966, he defended his doctoral dissertation “Clinical Data and Pathogenesis of Alcoholism and Alcohol Psychoses.” In 1968, he was awarded the title of professor.^[2]

Korolenko developed an interest in psychiatry and psychology after graduating from the institute, when he began working at the Department of Psychiatry and Narcology of the Novosibirsk Medical Institute, which at the time was headed by Professor M. A. Goldenberg. After Goldenberg’s death in 1964, Korolenko became head of the department and held this position until 2006.^[1]

Main stages of scientific activity

At the early stage of his scientific career, Korolenko studied alcohol-related disorders, including the clinical features and pathogenesis of alcoholism and alcohol psychoses. These works led to the development of the concept of addictive disorders. The term “addictive disorders” was first introduced in Russia (then the USSR) by Korolenko in the early 1970s.^[3]

He is regarded as one of the founders of modern addictology. He established a scientific school of psychiatrists working in this field, who defended more than 50 Candidate and Doctoral dissertations. In 2001, he proposed the first Russian classification of non-chemical addictions.^[4]

Korolenko authored 25 monographs and more than 300 scientific publications. One of his articles,[6] co-written with Dikovskiy during the Soviet period, could not be published in the USSR due to ideological restrictions in Soviet psychiatry. The state’s control limited the possibility of analyzing and describing alcoholism even from a strictly biological perspective. As a result, the article, which proposed a classification of alcoholism based on distinguishing psychological and physical dependence, was published in Yugoslavia.^[5]

Korolenko presented papers at numerous international congresses on psychiatry and addictology, including those held in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Andorra, Quebec City, and Warsaw. He spoke several foreign languages, including English, German, Polish, and Hungarian.^[6]

Christian Faith

Caesar Korolenko (far left) meeting with Evangelical Christian leaders in Novosibirsk to discuss matters of faith. (2017)

During the latter years of his life Caesar became friends with an American evangelical pastor and through this relationship, became a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.^{[citation needed]}

Death

He died on 14 July 2020 at the age of 87 from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia and was buried at the Zayeltsovskoye Cemetery.^[6][7]

Membership in scientific societies

• The New York Academy of Sciences, a full member
• Anthropology & Medicine, a member of the editorial board^[8]

Awards

Professor Korolenko held the title of Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation (ru).

Publications in English

Books

Segal, Bernard E.; Korolenko, Caesar, eds. (January 1991). Addictive Disorders in Arctic Climates: Theory, Research and Practice at the Novosibirsk Institute. Drugs and Society Series. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-56024-036-5Has also been published as Drugs & society, volume 4, numbers 3/4, 1990 – T.p. verso. Includes papers translated from the Russian.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Papers

• Korolenko, C.; Dikovsky, A. (1972). "The Clinical Classification of Alcoholism". Anali Zavoda Za Mentalno Zdravlje. 1: 5–10.
• Korolenko T. P. (1992). "Addictive Behavior: Its General Traits and Regular Development". Bekhterev Review of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, Inc. pp. 5–9. ISBN 978-0-88048-667-5.
• Korolenko, Caesar; Kensin, Dennis (2002). "Reflections on the past and present state of Russian psychiatry". Anthropology & Medicine. 9 (1): 51–64. doi:10.1080/13648470220130017. PMID 26953493. S2CID 34122656.