YOUR EPOCH IS NOT FOR TRYING. IT’S FOR LIVING AND FOR DYING…

The article is devoted to biographies of three Russian physicians of the Silver Age (a period in the History of Russian culture between 1890 and 1917). They made early, significant and internationally recognized contribution into medical science and became eponymous, although social disasters of the twentieth century caused deep impact on their subsequent lives and careers, so their role was shadowed from global medical community. The article analyzes biographies and academic achievements of A-F.K. Siewert (aka: Zivert, Ziwert, von Siewert) (1872–1922), known for first description of the hereditary dyskinesia of cilia (as a triad of: situs inversus of the viscera, abnormal frontal sinuses producing sinusitis and bronchiectasis); S.S. Abramov (1875–1951), discoverer of primary idiopathic myocarditis, and N.I. Taratynov (1887–1919), who was the first in description of a local form of histiocytosis X (solitary eosinophilic granuloma) and predicted the eosinophilic origin of Charcot-Leyden crystals. The contribution of these scientists into Medicine is reviewed in context of historical epoch, on background of their different individual social choices and the fate of their families. Besides their eponymous descriptions, other medical priorities of these scholars are analyzed. Some previously unpublished materials from their family archives are presented, which witness for possible existence of unknown prototype for the main hero of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ novel by B. L. Pasternak and for probable priorities of doctor Zivert – in active diastole concept, or doctor Abramov – in description of dilated cardiomyopathy. The factors facilitating rapid development of theoretical and practical Medicine in imperial Russia of late XIX – early XX centuries are discussed. The conclusion of the author is that in any epoch, even the most cruel and unfavorable one, the creative activity is a way to social immortality (19 figs, 68 refs)