Lev Aleksandrovich Zilber is one of the founders of medical science in the USSR, a researcher whose ideas and results are recognized throughout the world and served as the basis for modern areas of microbiology, virology, immunology and oncology. The scientist’s life spanned the most tragic period of Russian history in the 20th century. - revolutions, civil and Patriotic war, great terror and late Stalinism. His name is associated with fundamental research into the nature of immunity and variability of bacteria, the organization of the country's first virological centers, the discovery of the virus and vector of tick-borne encephalitis, the creation and experimental development of a viral-genetic theory of the origin of tumors and a new direction in immunology - cancer immunology. For biologists, doctors and everyone interested in the history of science and the history of Russia in the 20th century.