Alexander Bogdanov was a Russian physician and polymath, a founder of Bolshevism who was later excluded from the party because he was unwilling to see communism ossify into dogma. He saw blood transfusion not only as replacement therapy, but also as a body stimulant and set out to demonstrate its mechanisms scientifically by establishing an institute of blood transfusion in 1926. Ironically, he died as a result of a hemolytic transfusion reaction. His successors put Russia in the forefront of the development of centralized national blood transfusion services.