The Museum of the History of the Resort City of Sochi presents a personalized badge signifying the graduation from the Kharkov Imperial University. It belonged to Viktor Frantsevich Podgursky.
The Department of Medicine at Imperial Kharkov University was established in 1805 as part of its first four faculties, originally named the Faculty of Medical and Healing Sciences. Badges of graduation from educational institutions began to appear in Russia in the 19th century. Initially, these badges were created for graduates of military academies in the Russian Empire, leading to the term “academic badges”. Among civilian educational institutions, the first special badges of this kind were established for individuals awarded master’s and doctoral degrees by imperial Russian universities.
Viktor Frantsevich Podgursky (1874–1927) was a balneologist and one of the initiators and founders of the Matsesta resort. Born in 1874 in the Kharkov Governorate, he graduated from the Department of Medicine at Kharkov University. In 1898, he settled in Sochi and opened a physiotherapy clinic in 1903, which became one of the city’s first resort institutions. The clinic, located by the sea near the present-day Festivalny Concert Hall, offered warm sea baths and physiotherapy procedures to patients. Unfortunately, the building housing Dr. Podgursky’s clinic did not survive, as it was completely destroyed by a landslide.
Upon settling in Sochi, Viktor Podgursky studied the therapeutic effects of Matsesta water. In 1902, at his initiative, Matsesta was visited by Aleksey Yermolov, the Minister of Agriculture and State Property. In 1910, with the assistance of Podgursky’s father-in-law, the businessman M.M. Zenzinov, the Matsesta springs and the surrounding territory were granted to them on a long-term lease from the treasury for the purpose of creating a balneological resort. In 1912, the Matsesta Sulfur Springs Joint-Stock Company was formed, with Zenzinov serving as chairman of the board and Viktor Podgursky as managing director. After the October Revolution, Podgursky worked as a consultant balneologist for the Sochi resort district and the director of the resort clinic.
