TO THE 160TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF SERGEI IAKOVLEVICH KULNEV

Professor Sergei Iakovlevich Kulnev, student and follower of the founder of the Russian syphilidology Veniamin Mikhailovich Tarnovsky, was the head of the Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases at St. Petersburg Medical Institute for Women in the difficult years of its formation – from 1903 to 1924. In fact, the merit of establishing the Department with clinic in the newly formed educational institution for women belongs to him. In 1913, with the active participation of S.Ia. Kulnev, the separate building for the Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases was built, and to this day, it is still located at this premise. Also, for almost a quarter of a century (from 1901 to 1924) S.Ia. Kulnev was the chief physician of the Kalinkinsky Hospital, the oldest specialized dermatological and venereal hospital in Russia and in Europe, where, in fact, Russian syphilidology was born.

In Soviet times, the merits of S.Ia. Kulnev who was an actual state councillor and representative of the famous noble Russian family, as an organizer of the Department with Clinic of Skin and Venereal Diseases, was undeservedly ignored.His activity appeared to be in the shadow of achievements of his brightest students, graduates of Medical Institute for Women A. A. Sakhnovskaia and O.N. Podvysotskaia, who alternately headed the Department after the death of Sergei Iakovlevich.

The objective of the article, dedicated to the 160th anniversary of the birth of Professor Kulnev, was the desire to pay tribute to the memory of a remarkable physician, teacher and man, whose whole life was devoted to the development of Dermatovenereology and the organization of women’s medical education in Russia. The property of S. Ia. Kulnev is not only a thing of the past. His works laid the foundation of today’s educational, scientific and medical activities of the Dermatovenereology Department of Pavlov First St. Petersburg State Medical University. 

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