Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky (6 April 1836 — 13 December 1904) was a Russian surgeon and physiologist of Moldavian origin. He was born near the town of Dubăsari, which is now in Transnistria. Sklifosovsky was a professor of medicine in Saint Petersburg, Kiev, and Moscow. He was a founder of the «Clinical Town» at Devichye Pole. In 1870, on the recommendation of Pirogov, another prominent Russian surgeon, Sklifosovsky was invited to head the department of surgery at Kyiv University. However, he did not stay in Kyiv for long: soon he went to war again, this time to the theater of the Franco-Prussian war. About 10,000 wounded passed through Sklifosovskyi. The doctors and nurses, among whom was the surgeon's wife Sofya Oleksandrivna, supported Nikolai Vasylievich's strength by occasionally pouring a few sips of wine into his mouth between separate operations.

Legacy

The N. V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine, often nicknamed as Sklif, has borne his name since 1923. In 2001 the Central Bank of Transnistria arranged for the minting of a silver coin featuring this native of today's Transnistria, as part of a series of commemorative coins honoring The Outstanding People of Pridnestrovie.