Moscow Medical Institute, Second

(full name, N. I. Pirogov Second Moscow Medical Institute), one of the largest teaching and scientific medical centers in the USSR.

The history of the institute began in 1906, when a medical faculty was created within the Moscow Advanced Courses for Women. A prominent role in the organization of the medical faculty and in the teaching of the faculty’s courses was played by several well-known Russian scientists, including the anatomist D. N. Zernov, the physiologist M. N. Shaternikov, and the psychiatrist N. N. Bazhenov. In 1918 the medical faculty of the Advanced Courses for Women became the medical department of the Second Moscow State University. Since 1930 this department has been an independent institution of higher learning—the Second Moscow Medical Institute; in 1957 the institute was named after N. I. Pirogov. Many scientists have been involved with the founding and development of the institute, including Z. P. Solov’ev, A. A. Kisel’, M. N. Konchalovskii, S. I. Spasokukotskii, I. V. Davydovskii, A. N. Bakulev, L. A. Tarasevich, E. I. Martsinovskii, A. V. Mol’kov, P. N. Diatroptov, F. A. Rein, A. B. Fokht, and V. S. Gulevich.

As of 1973 the institute included departments of clinical medicine, pediatrics, advanced medical training, and medical biology; the last, founded in 1963, is the first such department in the USSR. The institute has an evening division, a graduate program, and programs for internship (internatura) and residency (ordinatura). The institute also has 75 subdepartments, including 36 clinical subdepartments based on a system of municipal clinical hospitals that total more than 10, 000 beds. Five special-problems laboratories and 16 scientific research laboratories are run by the subdepartments. Other facilities at the institute include a central research laboratory, an anatomical museum, and a library containing more than 500, 000 volumes.

During the 1972–73 academic year, about 7, 000 students were enrolled at the Second Moscow Medical Institute. The faculty comprised more than 1, 000 teachers and research workers, including seven academicians and nine corresponding members of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, 92 doctors of sciences and professors, and more than 500 docents and candidates of sciences. The institute publishes collections of scholarly works and is authorized to accept doctoral and candidate’s dissertations for defense. Since its inception, the institute has trained more than 30, 000 specialists, including 1, 600 before the 1917 October Revolution. It was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966.