Sergej Saltykow was born to a wealthy Russian family in Kharkov on April 1, 1874. He received secondary education in Kharkov and then enrolled into a local faculty of medicine. Saltykow developed a passion for scientific research from the earliest age. As the family was well-off, Saltykow’s parents provided their son with a home laboratory when he was still a child. Saltykow later used the laboratory to give private lessons to his colleagues. During his studies, he became particularly interested in histology, topographical anatomy as well as general pathology. He graduated in medicine in 1897. 

It is unknown whether Saltykow travelled anywhere during his studies, but he did go abroad to broaden his experiences shortly after graduation. In the period from 1897 to 1904, when he was habilitated as a private docent, Saltykow visited a number of European cities – Leipzig, Bern, Zurich, Marburg, Prague, Paris, Gronningen and Basel. Saltykow’s main motivation for travelling abroad was to acquire new knowledge. In 1906, after he found a job in St. Gallen (Switzerland), Saltykow bought a house and decided to settle there. Even after he eventually moved to Zagreb, he kept Switzerland in fond memory.

While visiting the many research centers, Saltykow had the opportunity to meet numerous eminent researchers of the time. By the time he arrived in Zagreb, he had already made a good career for himself as a university teacher and a prosector. From 1900 to 1902, he was an assistant at the pathology institute of the University of Groningen. Then, from 1902 to 1905, he worked as an assistant at the pathology institute in Basel. After Basel, he was given employment as a prosector at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, where he stayed until 1915, when World War I broke out. 

Although he was not called to serve in the army, he returned to his hometown and took over as the head prosector of Hospital IX, which was established in Kharkov by an association of cities. Saltykow founded and rebuilt the central pathology institute for the 13 hospitals which constituted the association and in 1916, he was appointed director of the institute. He also served as the combat medic of the bacteriological laboratory of the 87th military hospital for infectious diseases. After the war ended in 1918, Saltykow was appointed full professor of pathology in Yekaterinoslav. The change in political circumstances, however, did not work in his favor, since he was an anti-Bolshevik who came from a wealthy family. Saltykow once again left Russia, this time for good.  He returned to St. Gallen in November 1921, although it soon became clear that he could not stay there either. At the faculty session held by the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb on January 5, 1922, Saltykow was unanimously elected professor of pathology, which marked the end of Saltykow’s migration movements.

Saltykowl’s arrival in Zagreb was of great interest to the public. Silvije Novak (1900-1988), a medical student at the time, said that Saltykowl’s arrival was “immediately felt at the Faculty and in Zagreb (...), given that an important figure had arrived to train a generation of eminent researchers”. From 1922 to 1952, Saltykow was the head of the Department of Pathology and played a key role in the first decades of the department’s existence. He became a dean in the academic year 1932/33. By 1959 he published 12 volumes of the first Croatian textbook of general and special pathology and a a total of 109 scientific and research articles. In 1959, he became a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (JAZU). Sergej Saltykow and Ljudevit Jurak were key figures in the formative period of Croatian pathology. Saltykow taught pathology classes and conducted relevant scientific research, by which he laid the foundations for the further development of pathology in Croatia. For the 50th anniversary of Saltykow’s honorary doctorate, the University of Basel once again held a solemn academy in his honor in 1954.

Prepared by: Marko Kolić

Source: @mef_zagreb