Two notable pathologists in Latvia in the 20th century – Vitolds Kalinka and Ludmila Sokolova

Objectives are to reflect the contribution of two excellent doctors to the academic, scientific, and practical work of Latvian pathology. For the research we used documents, photos of the Department of Pathology, RSU archive materials and testimonies of time members. Vitolds Kalinka (1923-2011) graduated from the Riga Medical Institute in 1953, then completed postgraduate studies at the Department of Pathological Anatomy and Forensic Medicine. He has been a lecturer at the 2nd Medical School, head of the Pathology department at Riga 1st Hospital, chair of the department of Pathological anatomy (1980-1981), assistant professor. From 1981 to 1987, he was an expert-histologist at the Forensic Medicine Examination Bureau of the Ministry of Health. He has published countless scientific articles about gastropathology. Ludmila Sokolova (1937) began her career in the Department of Maternal and Child Protection at the Central Research Laboratory (RMI), with research on congenital pathology with geneticists. This was followed by the work of a children pathologist at Riga 5th Hospital and Pathology Office of CCUH. Assistant professor Sokolova was the head of the department of Pathological anatomy (1983-1988), her research was about placental and pediatric pathology. In the 1990s, residency at AML was established, where the great contribution of Sokolova to the education of future gynecologists' and pathologists should be noted. When colleagues worked, teaching methods were different: the lecturers drew pictures on the board, morphology was demonstrated by slides, overhead projector films. Students created summaries of lectures, worked with microscopes, examined surgical and autopsy material which together with books in Russian were the only materials in pathological anatomy. We want to emphasize the invaluable contribution of both colleagues in the work of various commissions of the Ministry of Health, Association of Pathologists of Latvia, as well as consultations of pathologists in rural hospitals and in the student’s scientific research.