In 2025, Vasily Vasilievich Sochnev, Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honoured Veterinarian of the RSFSR, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, Professor, Honoured Worker of the Higher Vocational Education of the Russian Federation, Honoured Worker of the Agro-Industrial Complex of the Russian Federation, outstanding Russian scientist in the field of infectious animal diseases, and Member of the Union of Writers of Russia, is celebrating his 90th anniversary, and 67 years of his life are dedicated to veterinary medicine.

Vasily Vasilievich Sochnev was born on July 26, 1935, in the village of Kryukovka, Lukoyanovsky District, Gorky Region, in a family of farmers.

His father, Vasily Dmitrievich Sochnev, was a livestock farmer and later on — the head of an animal husbandry farm that participated in the USSR Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy early in 1939. In 1940, and during the first year of the war, his father was appointed the chairman of the Kryukovka Village Council. His mother, Anna Vasilyevna Sochneva, also worked on the collective farm.

His father was respected by his fellow villagers and worked hard to support his large family. Of the twelve children born in the family, only six survived to the post-war period — three brothers and three sisters, and Vasiliy was the youngest. When his father and older brothers were mobilized to serve in the army, little Vasya and his sister helped the adults in the fields and in the vegetable garden. When he was eight years old, he was already entrusted with tending to horses — he herded at night time the animals brought back from the front for recuperation. The boy spent entire nights on horseback.

After the war, his father didn’t return to his native village: as a political commissar, he was sent to restore the Tula coal basin. There, while teaching carpentry to the young men in the mines, he was injured and died at the age of 50.

After graduating from the village school at the age of 14, Vasily entered the Lukoyanovsky Veterinary College, and became the youngest student there. After graduating with honours, he was among 5% of the best graduates who were sent to Moscow Veterinary Academy. In 1953, he arrived to the capital with a small bundle, settled in the dormitory, and found himself under the care of the senior students who returned from the war. Together they unloaded barges with vegetables and potatoes, earning little money

The young man got interested in photography and, in his free time, worked part-time in the printing and retouching department of the Serpukhov Photography company. Another his part-time job was distribution of theatre tickets to students. Throughout his studies, Vasily was getting the increased scholarship, and thanks to his part-time work, he supported his mother by sending food parcels to his native Kryukovka.

Starting from his third year of study, in summer, at the invitation of the Ministry of Agriculture, the talented student departed to fight against epizootics. He worked in Kalmykia, Stavropol and Volgograd Regions. He was lucky to be taught by the outstanding specialists: Generals M.S. Gannushkin, Ya.E. Kolyakov, N.M. Shpayer; Chief Surgeon of the Soviet Army I.D. Medvedev; Academicians I.E. Mozgov, K.I. Skryabin, S.N. Vyshelessky; Professors S.V. Ivanov and I.F. Ivanov, B.K. Bolya, V.M. Koropov, S.I. Afonsky and many others.

By the time of graduating from the Academy, Vasily Vasilyevich was already well equipped with  knowledge and practical experience. Having received the honours degree, entitling him to choose the place of further work, he didn’t hesitate to move to the Far East, to the Khabarovsk Territory. There, he worked as a senior veterinarian on a state farm (sovkhoz) located in the virgin lands, and then became the chief veterinarian at one of the region’s largest farms, the sovkhoz “Birobidzhan”, where the livestock of thousands of cattle and pigs was reared, as well as the flock of million of ducks.

The state farm stretched over the half of the Oktyabrsky district and was located on the Russia-China border. The central farmstead was located in the village of Blagoslovennoe, which was flooded every year by the Amur River. During five years of his work there, Sochnev managed to improve the state of animal husbandry on the farm. The achievements of the enterprise were reported in the national media: the newspaper “Pravda” published an article “White Gold of the Far East”, about breeding Pekin ducks.

The chief veterinarian, who was at the same time a chief zootechnician, of such a livestock farm, not just played the central role in the production process but also was largely responsible for the well-being, technological discipline, and biological safety of the border territory. The criticism and the number of rewards during this short period were countless! As Vasily Vasilyevich once said: “The greatest rewards of that time were the watch engraved with my name, received from the First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU, and the trust of the state farm employees, district and regional authorities” During those years, the future scientist got acquainted with the prominent leaders: N.D. Khalfin, A.P. Shitikov (First Secretary of the Khabarovsk Territory Party Committee), A.K. Chernyy (First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Jewish Autonomous Region), and A.I. Okovitov (Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee of the Jewish Autonomous Region).

In 1964, the 28-year-old specialist was offered to head the regional veterinary service. The territory from Volochayevka to Oblutchye, from Kuldur to Amurzeta, became his area of responsibility. These were difficult times: deterioration of relations with China, the incident on Damansky Island, and the threat of conflict near Nagibovo.

In 1967, with the approval of the Minister of Agriculture of the RSFSR, L. Ya. Florentyev, Vasily Vasilyevich had been reassigned to the Rostov Region —first as a state veterinary inspector, and from 1972, as the Director of the Regional Veterinary Laboratory, where he worked until 1982, being involved in construction of the laboratory complex and conducting research. In 1979, after completing postgraduate degree studies in absentia at Don Agricultural Institute, he defended his Cand.Sci. dissertation under the supervision of Professors V. Kh. Paracan, F.P. Loktevoy, A.K. Golosnitsky, V.P. Urban, A.H. Sarkisov, R.A. Zion and others.

In 1982, upon a proposal from the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL), the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Vasily Vasilyevich headed the Veterinary Research Institute of the Non-Chernozem Zone of the RSFSR, and held this position until 1993. During this time, under his leadership, the laboratory building was reconstructed, the experimental base was built, and research departments were established in Sverdlovsk, the Komi Republic, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Kaliningrad, and the Mari El, Chuvash, and Mordovian Republics.

In 1989, Vasily Vasilyevich defended his Doctoral dissertation, and in 1990, he received the title of professor. He was then elected a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and joined its Presidium. For many years, he was a Deputy Chairman of the Research and Engineering Council of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, a consultant for the non-governmental organisation “Siberian Consent”, a member of the Russian Pharmaceutical Council, an expert of the Higher Attestation Commission, Deputy Chairman of the dissertation council in St. Petersburg, and a member of dissertation councils in Novosibirsk and Ivanovo. Since 2001, he has been a Chairman of the dissertation council at Nizhny Novgorod State Agricultural Academy (now Nizhny Novgorod State Agrotechnological University named after L.Ya. Florentyev). Under his supervision, 18 Doctors and 84 Candidates of Sciences defended their dissertations, and now work in Russia and abroad.

The research interests of Vasily Vasilyevich include infectious and invasive animal diseases, as well as the issues of biological and food security of the country. He has published over 700 scientific papers, individually and in co-authorship, and is the author or co-author of 65 copyright certificates and patents of the USSR and the Russian Federation, and of 45 regulatory legal documents on animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, and biology. Professor Sochnev’s most important works include: a science-based system of measures for combating brucellosis in the Non-Chernozem Zone of the Russian Federation, which was published in several editions (1987, 1991, 1995); differential diagnostics of brucellosis and yersiniosis and preventive measures (1991); a science-based system for combating rabies; a science-based system for combating bovine leukemia; a science-based system of measures for combating yersiniosis in animal husbandry farms; epizootological monitoring of animal helminthiases (in co-authorship with V.A. Dushkin); formation of immunity against Newcastle disease in birds with  background of enzootic heterakidosis (in co-authorship with A.V. Arinkin); an integrated system of anti-leptospirosis measures in the conditions of the European North of Russia (in co-authorship with N.A. Rybakova); non-traditional methods of research in differential diagnostics of brucellosis (in co-authorship with N.G. Gorchakova). Seven new medicinal products were developed in co-authorship: glucogemovit, furazol, biosyn, furacicline, sulfatetrin, novosulgin, and neosulfazol, and their production was organized at a pilot plant. The therapeutic and prophylactic products developed with participation of Vasily Vasilyevich have been repeatedly exhibited in Russia at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VDNKh), in Brazil, and in the Republic of Cyprus.

Since 1993, Sochnev has been a professor of the Epizootology, Parasitology, and Veterinary-Sanitary Expertise Department of Nizhny Novgorod State Agrotechnological University named after L.Ya. Florentyev. He established branches of the Department in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, and Nizhny Novgorod, as well as founded the Research and Implementing Centre for expert assessment of anti-epidemic state and biological safety of the agro-industrial complex of Russia.

In 1985, he was awarded the honorary title of “Honoured Veterinarian of the RSFSR”; in 1995, “Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation”; and in 2005, he became the Grand Cross Laureate of the European Academy of Natural Sciences. He is a Laureate of three Russian Government prizes, and has been awarded certificates of honour and diplomas from the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after Lenin (VASKhNIL), the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (RAAS), and the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1995, he was elected an academician of the Peter the Great (Petrovskaya) Academy of Sciences and Arts, and in 2014, he became the Honoured Professor of Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology named after K.I. Skryabin.

For over 20 years, Vasily Vasilyevich has headed the scientific school “Infectology and Biological Safety” at Nizhny Novgorod State Agricultural Academy. The research results of the school are presented at the annual conferences and exhibitions (“Golden Autumn”, etc.), and are awarded gold and silver medals.

As for the literary work of Vasily Vasilyevich, he says, “I'm not a professional, but I’ve been writing poetry almost all my life”. His poems feature remarkable people, residents of Nizhny Novgorod region, as well as rural life, nature, social and scientific achievements, and everyday concerns, experiences, and passions. With Yulia Drunina’s blessing, his works are periodically published in various professional and non-professional publications. In 1995, “Rassvet” Publishing House in St. Petersburg published a book of his poems “Beyond the Limit of Insight”. In 2007 and 2014, “Dialogue of Cultures” Publishing House in Nizhny Novgorod published a collection of poetry “Blow Embers into a Flame”. Sochnev’s poems have been published in the almanacs “Vozrozhdenie” (2007, issue 1–4), “Nizhegorodtsy” (2014, issue 13), and in the supplement to the almanac “Nizhegorodtsy” (Nizhny Novgorod: BIKAR Publishing House; 2014). In 2015, Vasily Vasilyevich was admitted to the Union of Writers of Russia.