Andrei Andreyevich Filaretov was the nephew of the Stoletov brothers and the son of Varvara Grigoryevna, their sister, and her husband Andrei Pavlovich Filaretov, a Vladimir provincial architect. He was a graduate of the Vladimir Provincial Men’s Gymnasium and the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. Even as a student, he took part in efforts to combat the cholera epidemic.
After graduating from the academy, Filaretov worked as a junior doctor at the Brest Fortress, the Kronstadt Hospital, and on naval vessels, participating in long sea voyages. In 1898, he completed his doctoral thesis. In 1900, he completed his service in the navy and joined the medical department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Filaretov repeatedly participated in efforts to combat the cholera and plague epidemics in various regions of the country. For his service, he was awarded the orders of St. Stanislav 2nd and 3rd Classes and St. Anne 2nd Class, and rose to the rank of state councilor.
Andrei Filaretov’s personal life was not very happy. His fiancée, Olga Tarasova, passed away suddenly just before their wedding. His friend, Lieutenant Colonel Rafail Zotov, offered him support and sympathy during that time. When he passed away, Andrei Filaretov felt it was his duty to support his family: he married his widow, Pelageya Ivanovna Zotova, and adopted her children, Mikhail and Elizaveta. When the children grew up, Elizaveta got married. Pelageya Zotova passed away in 1919, and Andrei Filaretov had to raise his stepson, Misha, alone.
Two years later, Andrei married Elizabeth Geftler, daughter of the artist and architect Karl Geftler. They had their first child in 1923, he was also called Andrei. Relatives visiting the Filaretov household noted that Andrei Filaretov was an exemplary family man and a caring and sensitive husband.
After the 1917 Revolution, he worked in the healthcare sector as an epidemiologist and government health inspector. In 1933, he was detained on charges of “counter-revolutionary activities and engagement in fascist propaganda targeting young people”. He was exiled to Novosibirsk for five years. His wife, Elizaveta Geftler, followed him there. In 1938, the Filarets family relocated to Krasnogvardeysk (now known as Gatchina) where they heard the news of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941. A few days prior to the arrival of German forces, they relocated to Leningrad. Due to the harsh conditions of the siege, Andrei Andreyevich Filaretov died from starvation on February 10, 1942.
