Soviet Experiments in the Revival of Dead Organisms

An experimental medical procedure breathes life into a severed dog head in this 1940 film Soviet documentary.

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms is a 1940 film documenting Soviet research into the resuscitation of clinically dead tissue.

The film shows the use of a heart-lung apparatus called the autojektor to revive a heart, a lung, and a severed dog head. It then shows a severed dog head connected to the machine, and it seems to be alive. After that, a dog is slowly brought to clinical death by draining its blood, and then revived.

According to the film, the dog recovered and continued to live a healthy life.

The film states that several dogs were resuscitated in the same way, including one which was the offspring of parents who were both also resuscitated.

British scientist J. B. S. Haldane appears in the film’s introduction and narrates. The operations are credited to doctors Boris Levinskovsky and Sergei S. Bryukhonenko.