DOI: 10.17720/2409-5834.v4.2.2017.03c

Andrey V. Kartashev, Lyudmila I. Tsapko
FSBEI HE StSMU MOH Russia
310 Mira St., Stavropol 355017, Russia

Information on doctors who served in the Caucasus region (1802–1822 – the Caucasus province, from 1847 – the Stavropol province) is analyzed. The nature of the lives and activities of Russian doctors in the North Caucasus was dependent on their proximity to the theater of military operations. Due to these circumstances, many doctors from the civil department had experience with army service. The region was insufficiently inhabited, it had not yet been completely settled, and there were no representatives of the local population among its doctors. Graduates of the Saint Petersburg and Moscow medical and surgical academies were predominant among doctors. People of foreign origin often served on the Caucasus medical board. They were most common among the doctors of the Caucasus’ Mineralniye Vody. In society, doctors were noted not only for their professional knowledge, but also for their broad education. For example, Dr. F.P. Conradi helped military topographers to determine the exact height of Elbrus using a barometer. Representatives of the medical profession could be considered the cultural elite. Doctors’ work in the Caucasus was dangerous, but prestigious (the pay was higher than in other regions of the Russian Empire; in the Caucasus the assigning of extraordinary ranks was practiced). The doctors who worked in the Caucasus distinguished themselves with their attitude towards their service, the way they fulfilled their professional duty, and their patriotism. The authors used extensive materials from the archives of the Caucasus Medical Board, the Order of Public Charity of the Caucasus Region, the General Administration of the Caucasus Region, the Administration of the Caucasus Mineralniye Vody, State Archives of the Stavropol Territory.

Keywords: social portrait of a doctor, doctor’s service in the Caucasus, Caucasus medical board, N.V. Maier, I.E. Dyadkovsky, F.P. Conradi, A.B. Tseye, F.A. Heft