Chirkovsky

Chirkovsky Vasily Vasilyevich (born in 1874), a prominent ophthalmologist, professor at the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute. He graduated from the medical faculty in 1899 at Kazan University, where the greater part of his scientific, teaching, and public activities subsequently took place. He completed his internship under the guidance of one of the founders of Russian ophthalmology - Professor Adamyuk, after which he was an assistant to Adamyuk's successor, Professor Agababov, for many years. In 1904, he defended his dissertation on the innervation of pupil movements. He devoted much effort to the study of the bacteriology of the eye, having completed an extended internship at the Kazan Bacteriological Institute. He made several scientific trips abroad, where between 1907-1910 he worked with a number of the most prominent authorities in the field of ophthalmology (Axenfeld, Fuchs, and others). He was elected professor twice (Yuryev, Saratov), but was not confirmed by the reactionary minister Kasso. Chirkovsky's scientific activities particularly developed under Soviet power, when in 1919 he received the chair of ophthalmology at Perm University, and in 1922 in Kazan, where he remained until 1929, after which he was elected to the chair of ophthalmology at the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute. While working intensively on a number of issues in his specialty, Chirkovsky devoted the most attention to the study of trachoma, publishing a number of most valuable works on this topic and devoting much effort to the fight against this disease, which was a scourge of Tataria and the surrounding national republics. In 1922, he was appointed director of the Trachoma Institute in Kazan. Being a major scientist, teacher, and specialist in his field, Chirkovsky always paid much attention and time to public activities, holding a number of elective positions (rector of Kazan University, 1923-1925); member of the Central Executive Committee of the Tatar Autonomous SSR, member of the Central Council of the Scientific Workers' Section. After moving to Leningrad, he continues his multifaceted activities in his new place, and his clinic becomes a base for VIEM. He has published over 60 scientific works in total. Chirkovsky takes an active part in the work of medical journals, and serves as co-editor of the Great Medical Encyclopedia.