In the 1960s he studied the pioneering work of the English ophthalmic surgeon Sir Harold Ridley, the inventor of the intraocular lens (IOL).

[2] In 1986, Fyodorov designed the first posterior chamber phakic IOL in the "collar-button" or "mushroom" configuration and manufactured the pIOL from silicone.

[4] Considered to be on the center-left of the Russian political spectrum, Fyodorov was the founder and leader of the Party of Workers' Self-Government, which was one of the most influential social-democratic movements in Russia during the 1990s.

[6][7] In 1994 Fyodorov had described his political objective by stating, "I want peasants to own farms, workers to own factories, physicians to own clinics, and everyone to pay a 30% tax, and the rest is theirs.

[7] Fyodorov advocated for economic freedom, simple and moderate taxation, stimulation of production, and a ban on exports of most raw materials.

In 2013, a profile of Dr. Fyodorov was included in a book called Saving Sight: An eye surgeon's look at life behind the mask and the heroes who changed the way we see, by Andrew Lam, M.D.