The Ukrainians are capable of far more than just creating a holiday spirit; they help save lives. Vinnytsia region, specifically, is the birthplace of the three people who were particularly successful at that.

Danylo Zabolotny, a native of the Vinnytsia region, traveled half of the globe in his pursuit to study the two terrible diseases, plague and cholera. It was this Ukrainian who proved that people get the plague from the wild rodents who are carriers of the disease. He experimented with vaccines, using himself as a test subject to prove the effectiveness of his medicine.

Eventually, Zabolotny created effective medicines that he personally administered to people in Ukraine, Portugal, Scotland, China, India, Persia, Mongolia, and Arabia, saving their lives. The French distinguished the scientist by the National Order of the Legion of Honor, their highest order of merit, both military and civil. Later, after Zabolotny’s participation in the 1928 Serological Conference in Copenhagen, the immensely grateful Danes were printing his portraits, captioning them “the renowned fighter against the plague.”

Another Ukrainian-born scientist set himself against an equally horrific disease, tuberculosis. Selman Waksman, born and raised in the Vinnytsia region, later emigrated to the US, where he presented streptomycin — the first antibiotic used to cure the disease. Such was the importance of his work, that he received a Nobel Prize for it.

Mykola Pyrohov is the third prominent physician with strong ties to the Vinnytsia region. It was he who became the creator of the first anatomical atlas, the Topographical Anatomy of the Human Body, and became the visionary of surgical anesthesia. Besides — and here, alas, we once again return to the topic of war — Pyrohov is credited with developing an entire concept of caring for the wounded, which is still used by military medics all over the globe. This, again, is a vivid example that Ukrainians value human life above anything else.