PROFESSOR JAROSLAV KULIK - A PIONEER OF CARDIAC SURGERY IN SMOLENSK REGION: BECOMING A SURGEON AND A SCIENTIST
In the article involving archive, printed, visual and verbal sources the scientific biography was studied, the facts and events of the initial period of the life and work (from 1928 to 1967) of a graduate of the Smolensk State Medical Institute (SSMI), Professor J.P. Kulik (1928 -2007) were reconstructed. Studying in 1954-1957 in clinical internship at the Department of General Surgery at the SSMI he participated in the first closed heart surgery in Smolensk. Heading from 1959 the Department of the Thoracic Surgery at the Regional Hospital, and in 1964 - the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery in 1<sup>st</sup> City Hospital of Smolensk, J.P. Kulik was the first in the region who began to perform heart surgery under direct vision. During 10 years of intensive scientific and practical activities after defending his thesis for the degree of a Candidate of Medical Sciences in 1965, J.P. Kulik was formed as a surgeon and scientist. After moving in 1967 to the Far East, he became a major heart surgeon, the founder of the clinical school, but the beginning of this path originated in the Smolensk region.