 This ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Dr. Robert White, who was inspired by Demikhov's work.Vladimir P. Demikhov was born on July 18, 1916, into a family of Russian peasants living on a small farmstead in the northern part of Russia's Volgograd region.His father, Demikhov Peter Yakovlevich, was killed during the Russian Civil War when Demikhov was about three years old, so he and his brother and sister were raised by their mother, Domnika Alexandrovna, who managed to provide them with a good education.