Nikolai Kulchitsky

Nikolai Konstantinovich Kulchitsky

Nikolai Konstantinovich Kulchitsky (Николай Константинович Кульчицкий; January 16, 1856, Kronstadt – January 30, 1925, Oxford) was a Russian anatomist and histologist, the last Minister of Education of the Russian Empire.

Born into a family of a naval officer. In 1874–1879 he studied at the Medical Faculty of Kharkov Imperial University. In 1882 he became a doctor of medicine. In 1893 he became professor of histology at the university of Kharkov and was later appointed director of education in Kasan. In 1897 he described the endocrine cells of the small intestine which now bear his name (Kulchitsky cells).

In 1916 he was appointed Minister of Education of the Russian Empire, a post he held until the February Revolution. In 1918, he was arrested by the Bolsheviks, but was soon released, and then went to Kharkov, then arrived at Sevastopol. In 1921 he emigrated to England. In London he worked in the Anatomy Department at the University College. He died in 1925 after an accidental fall in the University College.