The article presents the organizational development criteria of a new scientifi c discipline – clinics of internal medicine in the Soviet Union – and information about the tragic fate of the fi rst therapeutic institutions in the USSR. It describes in detail the history of the formation of the clinic complex at the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences' All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, and the establishment of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences' Therapeutic Institute. The role of the fi rst directors of the institute – V.F. Zelenin and A.L. Myasnikov – in its founding, creation and development is analyzed. The role of the Therapeutic Institute in the development of cardiology and the organizational formation of gastroenterology in the USSR is evaluated.