Igor V. Karpenko¹,
Viktoriya A. Pakina¹,
Valery E. Kosachev¹,
Galina N. Volovchenko^1
1FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First MSMU MOH Russia (Sechenov University)
8 Trubetskaya St., building 2, Moscow 119991, Russia

The paper examines the training of military medical personnel in Russia and some countries in Western Europe between the mid-17th century and the early 20th century. It demonstrates that the establishment of a system for training medical personnel for the army in European countries is tied to the availability of surgical schools that had existed since the 15th century. In the Muscovite state, the first medical school opened as late as 1654. In spite of this, the advent of systematic training of military medical personnel in Europe and Russia virtually coincides and is associated with the 18th century. In Russia, this has to do with the establishment of the Moscow Hospital School in 1706, and in Europe, it is related to the opening of a medical-surgical college in Berlin in 1724. During this period, institutions for training military medical personnel emerged in other European countries as well (Austria, France). Comparative analysis of the system for training military medical personnel in Russia and European countries is provided. Common traits and fundamental differences in the system for training military medical personnel in Russia and Western Europe are highlighted. The paper demonstrates that the existence of specialised medical institutions set up at major military hospitals was the common thread in the training of military medical personnel in the 18th century. The characteristic feature of the training of military doctors in the first half of the 19th century was the level of training in these institutions rising to the level of training in universities. The main distinction between military medical schools in Russia and Europe, which became apparent in the second half of the 19th century, was the emergence of practical military medical schools in some European countries (Austria-Hungary, France, England) during this period. These schools trained doctors that had graduated from university medical faculties: the doctors took a short military medical training course (up to 6 months). By the early 20th century, this form of training military doctors had become basic in most European countries