I. M. Obolenskyi was born in 1841 in Tula in the family of a teacher at Tula Theological School. On his father's advice, he entered the theological seminary, graduating with a first class degree in 1862. As one of the best graduates, he was offered to enter the Theological Academy to study at the expense of the state budget. By this time, however, Ivan Obolenskyi had shown a great interest in medicine, and despite his parents' strong protest, meager means, and future deprivation, he refused the pleasant offer and in 1862 entered the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. He took all the disciplines seriously, so he set himself the goal of studying the basic subjects in depth and comprehensively. This aspiration led him to the laboratory of the founder of the St. Petersburg pathological and anatomical school, M. M. Rudnev, where he, then a 4th year student, prepared and published two scientific papers. Obolenskyi also diligently attended the therapeutic clinic of the greatest domestic therapist of the nineteenth century, S.P. Botkin, and adopted the main ideas of his scientific school.

After graduating from the Academy with honors in 1867, he continued his research under the guidance of M. M. Rudnev, which made it possible to complete his thesis "On purulent forms of inflammation of the soft meninges in humans and animals" and defend it in 1868. 

In 1869, after giving two trial lectures at the Academy, he was awarded the title of private associate professor and was soon elected as a prosector of the pathological department of anatomy.

In April 1870, I.M. Obolenskyireceived a foreign scientific trip, where he stayed until the end of 1871, working in laboratories and clinics in Germany, including with such luminaries as Rudolf Virchow and Ludwig Traube.

In May 1871, the Kharkiv University Council elected Ivan Mykolayovych as an extraordinary professor of the Department of General Pathology, which he was heading for 14 years. Less than a year later, he was promoted to the rank of ordinary professor. The Department of General Pathology, established by the statute of 1863, was vacant for several years, and the teaching of this subject was delegated to representatives of other disciplines. Therefore, Prof. I.M. Obolenskyi was the first head of the Department of General Pathology. His activity began in difficult conditions: first in someone else's place, then in cramped rooms in the backyard with minimal funds for the purchase of instruments. He often had to buy the necessary equipment at his own expense. The professor's efforts immediately made the department attractive to students due to the high level of teaching and to researchers who wanted to work under the guidance of a scientist with a very broad erudition.

At the same time, from 1877 to 1884, Prof. Obolenskyi headed the Department of Therapeutic Hospital Clinic, which was opened at Kharkiv University in 1877. Here, as well, he became the first head of the department and did much to strengthen its authority.

In 1886, I.M. Obolenskyi was transferred to the Department of Pathology of Organs and Systems and Therapy, and in 1888 he was promoted to Professor of the Faculty Therapeutic Clinic and its director, and until his retirement in 1903, he headed this most prestigious therapeutic department. It was during these years that his talent as a clinician, teacher, and scientist was particularly evident. Professor Obolenskyi taught students to carefully analyze the patient's condition, using the latest research methods and collecting a detailed anamnesis, to consciously understand each individual case, to observe the patient throughout his stay in the clinic. I. M. Obolenskyi i's obligatory requirement was humane treatment of patients, impeccable cleanliness and rational nutrition. The professor paid serious attention to outpatient reception, often conducting it himself, and then the room was rapidly filled with students who absorbed the precious experience of the teacher. As the director of the clinic, he attached great importance to the laboratory, where all clinical patients were examined without exception.

Ivan Obolenkyi's scientific research covered a wide range of problems: balneology and phthisiology, infectious diseases and endocrinology. His works on the vagus nerve and angina pectoris, influenza and pneumonia, therapeutic effect of mineral waters, treatment of uric acid diathesis, hydrotherapy, etc. became famous.

Honored Professor I. M. Obolenskyi (he was awarded this title in 1897) showed an incredibly heartwarming, truly fatherly attitude to his students, who were convinced of his exceptional care from their own experience. It often happened that at his expense, one student was preparing for a doctoral degree, another received a subsidy while waiting for a full-time residency, the third was on a business trip abroad for scientific purposes, etc. The students could always count not only on the teacher's financial assistance but also on his mental support in difficult life circumstances. The teacher constantly cared about the professional growth of his students. He sent the resident S.H. Surukchi for a special study of otorhinolaryngology, and then organized an outpatient reception for ear, nose and throat diseases and entrusted it to Dr. Surukchi. I. M. Obolenskyiis rightly considered one of the founders of Kharkiv scientific school of clinicians and pathologists. Among his famous students, in addition to S.G. Surukchi, we should mention Professors P. I. Kovalevskyi, M. V. Kraiinskyi, and M. K. Kulchytskyi.

Ivan Obolenskyi 's desire to help people was also embodied in the fact that he took on numerous public duties. During the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, he was the head of the therapeutic department in the Red Cross barrack infirmary.

In 1889, he was elected as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Alexander's Hospital, and held this public position for 15 years (until 1910); in 1880, he became a consultant in internal medicine at the hospital. In 1874, he was elected as a secretary of the medical section of the Society of Research Sciences, which was opened at the university, and two years later he was elected as its vice-leader; after the medical section was transformed into an independent Society of Scientific Medicine and Hygiene in 1893, he became its leader, and in 1903 he was elected as an honorary leader. For several four-year terms, he was a member of the Kharkiv City Council. In 1883, he was a comrade (deputy) of the head of the Kharkiv Medical Society, of which he was elected as an honorary member in 1893. During his work at the university, I. M. Obolenskyi was repeatedly appointed as a member of the commission for making important decisions to improve teaching and making recommendations for combating infectious diseases. In 1904, he was appointed as a member of the Council of the Ministry of Public Education. From 1908, he was the head of the Kharkiv branch of the Red Cross and helped expand its activities during the typhoid epidemic of 1909. He also served as a head of the city sanitary commission.

The top of I. M. Obolenskyi i's socially useful activity was the creation of an ambulance service in Kharkiv. Responding warmly to the urgent need of the time, he organized this service. During his research trips abroad, Professor Obolenskyi i, whose close attention was drawn to everything new in premedical care, became acquainted with the activities of ambulance stations that were starting to work in Europe. He found the ambulance service in Vienna to be particularly successful, and used it as a model for creating a similar service in Kharkiv.

This idea caught on with I. M. Obolenskyi , and with the help of personal contacts, he involved a group of influential people in its implementation. We can be sure that he had the talent of convincing others of the usefulness and necessity of the undertaking. And Kharkiv citizens, whom he inspired by his example, willingly provided both spiritual and material support for the realization of his plan.

On May 1, 1909, a group of enthusiasts gathered to discuss this issue and decided to organize an ambulance company. The governor immediately responded to the request of the initiators and gave a positive answer in two days. On May 4, 1909, the Ambulance Society was established, consisting of 12 people, including university professors M. Kulchytskyi, S. Popov, Y. Anfimov, publisher of the newspaper "Yuzhnyi Krai," O. Josefovych, and others. I. M. Obolenskyi was unanimously elected as a head of the organization. The Society also included the professor's wife, Daria Obolenska, who became a supporter and partner of her husband in this endeavor. She was instructed to organize a "Ladies' Association" that was to participate in fundraising by organizing parties, lotteries, and other events. At the meeting, on the initiative of I. M. Obolenskyi , the first collection of donations among the committee members was held. It raised 4550 rubles. In addition, the Obolenskyi couple contributed 3000 rubles. (To understand the significance of the contributions, we can cite the following data: a cow cost 25-30 rubles at that time, and a horse cost up to 60 rubles. Thus, the Obolenskyi 's donation was equivalent in value to a herd of 100 cows or more).

Since the city administration did not agree to fully fund the ambulance station, allocating no more than 7,000 rubles per year for this purpose, an ambulance company was established on the basis of shares contributed by the members of the company. Full members paid 5 rubles per year, honorary members paid 100 rubles or more, and those who donated large sums of money or material assets became lifetime members. Kharkiv society's enthusiastic support of the ambulance idea was evident in the fact that in the first years 35 people were listed as life members: industrialists, university professors, Archimandrite Anthony, governor M. K. Katerynych, architect V. E. Morokhovets, I. M. and D. D. Obolenskyi , and others.

On November 16, 1909, the statute of the Ambulance Society was approved and its tasks were defined. The main goal of the Society was to provide free emergency medical care in accidents occurring on the streets, in public places, in factories, and manufactures in Kharkiv. Since the station initially did not have its own building, an outbuilding and a stable were allocated to it in the Oleksandrivska (now 1st City) Hospital, and a telephone connection was established. M. O. Molokhov, who was appointed senior doctor of the station at the suggestion of I. M. Obolenskyi, thanks to his extraordinary organizational skills and energy, was able to do a great deal of work in four months and prepare everything for its opening. A carriage was bought and equipped, horses were bought, staff was selected, and the necessary documentation was prepared.

I. M. Obolenskyi , the Head of the Ambulance Society, donated a carriage with all its property and several carriages he had ordered in Vienna for the transportation of patients to the station. 

On April 23, 1910, "The Kharkiv Provincial Vedomosti" newspaper published the rules for calling an ambulance. Among the numerous explanations of when and what kind of help an ambulance should provide, and how to make a phone call, a separate significant point stands out: no fee is charged for the help provided, regardless of the victim's ability to pay. And then there is an appeal to the citizens: "The ambulance station asks not to disturb doctors with a vain offer of a fee, which they cannot accept in any case. Paramedics and coachmen who accept the fee will be immediately dismissed from the service."

On April 25, 1914, the ambulance station was officially opened, and at the same time a second ambulance was put into service and outpatient care was started at the station's hospital. Portraits of the donors were hung in the meeting room of the station's building. Among them, the most honorable place was given to the portraits of I. M. Obolenskyiand D. D. Obolenskyi i. A memorial board with the names of the honorary members of the Society was mounted on one wall. On the occasion of the Station's opening, I. M. Obolenskyi , Head of the Ambulance Society, hosted a reception for the honored guests at his home.

Inspired by its incredible success, the Ambulance Society decided to build a 200-bed hospital and even purchased a land plot next to the station building, but then the First World War broke out, which prevented the realization of this intention. The Ambulance Society was one of the first public organizations in Kharkiv to take an active part in organizing assistance to wounded and sick soldiers. In the station building, it opened an infirmary with 40 beds for soldiers and 2 beds for officers. In addition, a collection of donations was organized for poor disabled war veterans. The infirmary was opened on September 1, 1914. At a meeting of the Ambulance Society's board, it was decided to create training courses for nurses, to allocate two carriages to transport the wounded from sanitary trains to city hospitals, and to organize additional fundraising, clothing, and footwear for the wounded.

There is no information about I.M. Obolenskyi 's further participation in the work of the Ambulance Society, nor about his life. It is only known that Professor Obolenskyi died in 1920.

The fate granted Ivan Mykolaiovych ten more years of life after the Ambulance Station, his most significant work, was launched. His contemporaries highly appreciated his merits, always paying him honor and love. We would very much like the current generations of Kharkiv citizens, unfortunately infected with the pursuit of material well-being, learn about this wonderful man. And perhaps his example will help the citizens to unite their efforts to achieve a high goal - to turn our Kharkiv into a city where you want to live.

Reference: Создатель службы скорой помощи в Харькове Иван Николаевич Оболенский (к 170-летию со дня рождения) / Лесовой В. Н., Петрова З. П.  // UNIVERSITATES. Наука и просвещение : научно-популярный ежеквартальный журнал. – 2012. – Т. 48, № 1. – С. 76-82.

Translated into English by Yevheniia Hromko