The article is devoted to discussion of a number of controversial issues in the history of cardiology and cardiac surgery. The authors substantiate the view that cardiology is an older and extensive science, while cardiac surgery is a new and highly specialized discipline. It can be noted that the impetus for the emergence of cardiac surgery in the first quarter of the 20th century was provided by cardiology when it revealed the inability to conservatively treat some serious heart diseases, compared to the expected benefits from the use of surgical techniques based on manually fixing basic mechanical obstructions to cardiac functioning.