On the history of teaching the course of military field surgery in Russia

A modern military physician can perform their duties at a high professional level only when they are au fait with a complex of military medical disciplines, such as military field surgery, military hygiene, organisation and tactics of medical service and some others, along with general medical knowledge. Back in his time, our great fellow countryman N.I. Pirogov described war as a "traumatic epidemic". Hence the importance of knowledge of military field surgery for a military physician, which is difficult to overestimate. This article presents the historical picture of the introduction of issues of military field surgery, first in hospital schools, then at the Saint Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy (MSA), and then, during Soviet times, at the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy (the Military Medical Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' of the Red Army). It is shown that particular issues of military surgery were sporadically taught in hospital schools since the 18th century. Usually, it would happen on the brink of or during military conflicts, and the students attending would be graduates of hospital schools going to the front. First, particular issues of military surgery can be found in the programme of the Department of Theoretical Surgery of the Saint Petersburg MSA introduced by Professor P.A. Dubovitsky in 1844. The next stage was the establishment in the academy in 1869 of the first independent course of military field surgery which was addressed to military physicians who were annually seconded to the academy for improvement in military field surgery. Since 1879, this course was also studied by students of the Saint Petersburg MSA. The opening in the Academy in 1936 of the first independent Department of Military Field Surgery in the USSR, headed by the well-known scientist and surgeon V.A. Oppel, can be considered the completion of the development of the teaching of this academic discipline