The XVIII century in the history of the military medical academy: on the question of the date of its foundation

One of the oldest medical universities in Russia, an object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation — the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy — over the course of its centuries-old history has repeatedly changed the date of its foundation, and even more often it has been disputed. For the first almost a hundred years after the acquisition of the status of “academy” the first meeting of the conference in 1800 was considered as the starting point of its foundation. Then, a repeated decree from 1798 on the construction of one of the academic buildings was taken as a starting point, although the commemorative plaque and documents indicate the time of construction in 1796–1808. Already in the 1730s. two imperial decrees were issued, which regulated the staff from the standpoint of education and stated the rules relating to training personnel. 12 years before its official foundation, the academy had already acquired the right to award the doctor`s degree of medicine. In 1937, the commission under the leadership of Professor V.N. Shevkunenko decided to consider the foundation date of the academy as 1786. In 1939, the academy celebrated its 140th anniversary, taking as a basis the approved report of Baron A.I. Vasiliev, where the word “academy” was first heard. Researchers of the XX – beginning of the XXI century stop at the dates of 1733 or 1735. In our article, we tried to draw the reader’s attention to inconsistencies in approaches and facts in order to re-initiate a discussion about the currently accepted date of the foundation of the Military Medical Academy. We believe that it is the formation of the personnel training system that should be the fundamental factor in determining the beginning of the academy (3 figs, bibliography: 12 refs).