The Life and Work of Ural Pathologist Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the life and creative path of the Ural pathologist, poet, translator, artist, sculptor Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov

Keywords:Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov, Ural pathologist, Poet, Translator, Painter, Sculptor

Short Communication

September 28, 2025 marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Ural pathologist, poet, translator of Armenian poetry into Russian, artist and sculptor Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov [1] (Figure 1,2).

Figure 1:Ryzhkov Mark Nikolaevich (09/28/1935–12/15/1988).

Figure 2:Ryzhkov Mark Nikolaevich (09/28/1935–12/15/1988).

Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov was born on September 28, 1935 in the village of Khanzhenkovo in the Stalin region of the Ukrainian SSR of the USSR (now the Sovetsky district of Makeyevka, DNR, Russian Federation). He graduated from high school and graduated with honors from the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute (now Ural State Medical University) in 1959 [2].

From 1959 to 1963, M.N. Ryzhkov worked as a pathologist at a hospital in Nizhny Tagil, and after moving to Sverdlovsk, from 1963 to 1971, he was a pathologist, and from 1971 to the end of his life, he was the head of the pathology department at the city Clinical Hospital No. 1. (at that time, it was also called the city Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medicine (CCHEM). However, this hospital building, located at 78a 8 Marta Street, was an object of cultural heritage- an architectural monument of the Sverdlovsk region, but due to its dilapidated condition it ceased to meet the requirements and it became impractical to have such a hospital, therefore, in 1999. it was closed, and in 2000, by a decision of the Council of the Sverdlovsk Ministry of Health, it was disbanded. Based on an act of the Government of the Russian Federation, the object was excluded from the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects due to the loss of historical and cultural value, and the building was demolished in December 2022).

M.N. Ryzhkov was distinguished by his versatile, integral, gifted and extraordinary personality, hard work, kindness, determination, desire to help people in need, boundless love for Armenia, its people, culture and history

Since childhood, Mark Nikolaevich loved poetry and wrote poetry, and the study of the Armenian language and his passion for translating Armenian poetry sunk into his soul forever, especially after participating in the 1970 All-Union Congress of Pathologists in Yerevan. That’s why Mark Ryzhkov’s name is included in Add the Hayazg Armenian electronic encyclopedia to the “Friends of the Armenian People” section. In addition, his interests were photography, painting and sculpture. So, in the late 1970s, bronze memorial plaques to doctors-scientists David Grigoryevich Schaefer, Arkady Timofeevich Lidsky and Boris Pavlovich Kushelevsky with bas-reliefs by M.N. Ryzhkov were installed on the building of the CCHEM in Sverdlovsk [3].

M.N. Ryzhkov is the author of the collection of poems “Sonnets of Pathology”, written in the 1970s and dedicated to his profession (20 sonnets were first published in 2005 in the collection of medical poets of the Sverdlovsk region “Times of the Soul”). In the 1970s and 1980s, Mark Nikolaevich’s translations from Armenian of such poets as Hovhannes Shiraz, Silva Kaputikyan, Sevak Amroyan, Emin Saakyan, Gevorg Emin, Yeghishe Charince, Paruyr Sevak, were published in newspapers and journals “New World”, “Friendship of Peoples”, “Neva”, “Ogonyok”, “Our Sovremennik”, “Ural”, “Ural Pathfinder”, “Literary Armenia”, “Etchmiadzin”, as well as in poetry collections published in Sverdlovsk, Yerevan and Moscow. M.N. Ryzhkov wrote his own poems: about life, death, and love. His poems about Armenia were translated into Armenian-by-Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan. In 2014, a collection of poems “Poetry of Armenia translated by Mark Ryzhkov” was published. Edited by M.P. Nikulina. Ekaterinburg: “Taxes and Financial Law”. 2014: 368 p., which was a success among poetry fans [4].

M.N. Ryzhkov died on December 15, 1988 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) at the age of 53. He was buried at the Shirokorechenskoye cemetery in Yekaterinburg Figure 3. Mark Nikolaevich has a worthy successor to his family, a talented son Alexey, an artist and writer, and a grandson Dmitry, who live in Yekaterinburg. In 2012, 51-year-old Alexey Markovich became the winner of the P.P. Bazhov Literary Prize for the book “The Painted City” (Figure 3).

Figure 3:The national Armenian tombstone monument is installed on the grave Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov, made of tuff, a soft and durable stone of very beautiful texture and color at the Shirokorechenskoye cemetery in Yekaterinburg. The sculptor Henrikh Ambartsumyan.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Acknowledgement

None.

References

1. Zubritsky A N (2023) In memory Mark Nickolaevich Ryzhkov (28.09.1935-15.12.1988). MathematicalElectronicMathematicalandBiomedJ 22(4): 1-3.
2. Mikhalkina MV (2020) Mark Nikolaevich Ryzhkov:doctor,poet,UralMedJ 1989 (6): 197-198.
3. Ryzhkov Mark Nikolaevich (2023) Wikipedia.
4. Ryzhkov Mark Nikolaevich (2023) Encyclopedia of the Hayazg