Military Medical Academy

Military Medical Academy, the highest military-medical educational institution, founded on June 10, 1881, through the reorganization of the St. Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy (see Medico-Surgical Academies). The reasons for this reorganization were political in nature and consisted of the government's desire "to put an end to the disorders that constantly recurred among the large and undisciplined mass of students and listeners of the Medico-Surgical Academy" (from the resolutions of the Special Conference under War Minister Milyutin). The reform was planned by Milyutin as early as 1878 and was gradually to bring the Medico-Surgical Academy closer to the type of other military academies. The number of courses was reduced to three senior ones in order to staff it with young people who had completed the first two courses at medical or natural science faculties of universities. To facilitate the study of medical sciences by students transferring from natural science faculties, a "preparatory" course was established. Students of the Academy were considered to be on military-medical service, took a military oath, and received a state scholarship; according to the "Temporary Provision on the V.-M. A." of 1881, the veterinary department was abolished, and the pharmaceutical department ceased to exist legally from this year, as it had actually not existed since 1875 due to the lack of people wishing to study in this department. To monitor the behavior of students, positions of course staff officers were established. The reform, however, proved unviable, as due to the new regulations in the Academy, the desire of young people to enter it decreased and serious difficulties arose in staffing the Academy. Graduations of physicians from the Academy sharply decreased quantitatively and did not cover the army's need for physicians. The Provision on the military-medical Academy was revised again, and in 1890 the five-year system of study was restored, a system for appointing teaching staff and conferring academic titles analogous to that adopted for universities was introduced. Privat-docenture received very broad development. This was facilitated by the annual retention at the Academy of young doctors for preparation for scientific and educational activities (the so-called "Institute for the Improvement of Doctors"). During the period from 1890 to 1898, new departments of the history of medicine, infectious diseases with bacteriology, were established, and significant improvements were made in the equipment of educational and scientific laboratories and clinics. Some easing of the political regime contributed to the revitalization of scientific and educational activities. The socio-political sentiments of students found some legal outlet in active work to combat famine and epidemics of typhus and cholera (1891-1892), flying eye detachments founded by Prof. Belliarminov, in anti-epidemic detachments of zemstvos, in detachments of the Red Cross (such as in the Italo-Abyssinian War of 1896). The revolutionary movement of Academy students during this period of the Academy's history acquired a more ideologically expressed character, took place under the slogans of revolutionary workers' parties, and was often a response of solidarity to workers' and students' movements in other cities. In 1912 and at the beginning of 1913, student unrest, which arose in connection with the introduction of mandatory rendering of honors by Academy listeners, took on a wide scale, led to a number of bloody clashes with line officers, and was the reason for the arrest of several hundred listeners and the temporary closure of the Academy. On March 12, 1913, a new "Provision" was issued for the Academy, aiming at greater militarization of the Academy's listeners and establishing a closer connection with the Chief Military-Sanitary Inspector: the Academy was placed under the direct subordination of the Chief Military-Sanitary Inspector, a significant part of the matters previously decided personally by the War Minister was transferred to the competence of the Military-Sanitary Inspector. The right to approve professors elected by the conference, as well as their direct appointment, was retained by the War Minister. Listeners of the two junior courses were fully equated in military-legal terms to volunteer enlisted men of active service, and the three senior courses to acting physicians. A disciplinary committee of the Academy was established. The program of the academic course was expanded by the introduction of military law, military and military-sanitary administration, and the doctrine of troop diseases. Mandatory camp assemblies and duty in military hospitals were established for listeners. - The Provision on the Academy of 1913, enacted through military legislation, without the State Duma, did not find favor among broad circles of Russian society and was oppositionally received by listeners. During the years of the world war, the scientific and educational activities of the Academy weakened, as significant teaching forces were diverted to the active army, while the Academy was tasked with producing a number of early graduations of military physicians. - The general character of the pre-revolutionary Academy reflected all the negative features of the pre-revolutionary Russian higher medical school. There was a tendency to prepare a physician-therapist, preventive medical sciences were neglected, and the presentation of medical disciplines in the plane of socio-political analysis was absolutely not permitted. In teaching, purely lecture methods predominated, leaving little room for students' initiative. This last shortcoming was somewhat weakened by the highly qualified selection of professors and teachers and the rich educational equipment of the Academy. From the beginning of the revolution of 1917, the Academy experienced the fate of all higher Russian schools. The number of its listeners quickly reached over three thousand (instead of the regular 875). The management of the Academy passed to its conference and the president elected by it. The composition of the conference was democratized by the introduction of junior and senior teachers, and then listeners. Educational and scientific activities were significantly disrupted, both due to the overcrowding of the Academy and the insufficient general preparedness of listeners to complete the course, and as a result of its deteriorating material position. - After the October Revolution, the struggle within the Academy differentiated according to the socio-class composition of teachers and listeners. However, in 1919 these processes were essentially already completed, and irreconcilable opponents of the new state system completely lost their influence and left the teaching and listener staff of the Academy (some emigrated abroad, others fled to the white armies, etc.). The composition of the Academy was in its overwhelming majority determined as quite loyal and sympathetic to the new system, and on the basis of the requirements of the civil war, the Academy widely expanded its work. The organization of a series of accelerated graduations of physicians for the active units of the Red Army, the formation of sanitary detachments from the composition of the Academy for the most needy sections of the fronts, the personal and direct participation of professors and teachers of the Academy in the organization of certain types of sanitary service for active units, the compilation for the Red Army of a number of medical-sanitary guides and handbooks by the forces of the Academy and a number of other forms of participation of the Academy in the cause of contributing to the victories of the Red Army and the new socialist construction had great technical and political significance. The difficult economic situation of the country and the blockade hindered the proper material support of the Academy; however, even in the difficult years of the civil war, the scientific and educational work of the Academy was carried out without interruption. With the end of the civil war and the issuance in 1925 of a new "Provision" on the Academy, subsequently supplemented and clarified, the Academy received its current legal status and a precise definition of its tasks. According to current legislation, the Academy received the name of the Military Medical Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Its tasks are defined as: a) training of medical-sanitary personnel for the RKKA, b) improvement of the special qualifications of military doctors attached to the Academy for scientific improvement, c) training of scientific workers in the field of military and naval medicine and sanitation, as well as in other sciences taught in the Academy, d) contributing, through research work, to the development of the sciences taught in the Academy, with special attention to issues related to the healthcare of the RKKA, e) scientific and practical development, on assignments of the VSU RKKA, of issues of military-sanitary affairs, f) organization of special courses for the medical-sanitary personnel of the RKKA. At the head of the Academy are the Chief and Military Commissar of the Academy, subordinate directly to the Chief of the VSU RKKA. The scientific and educational activities of the Academy are carried out by professors, heads of departments, independent teachers conducting independent courses, senior and junior teachers, as well as doctors retained for preparation for scientific and educational activities and attached for improvement. To ensure greater completeness and clarity of teaching, extra-teaching staff are admitted. The appointment of teaching staff is made by competition, with appointments to senior positions made by the Chief of the VSU RKKA, and to junior positions by the Chief of the Academy. At the disposal of the Chief there is a Council of the Academy, which is a consultative body for discussing issues of scientific and educational nature.

The Council of the Academy includes the Commander and Commissar, their assistants, the Head of the Academic Department, all professors and independent instructors, representatives from the rest of the teaching staff, at the rate of 10% of its total number, representatives from students, one from each course, the chief physician and commissar of the military hospital. To ensure the most complete development of issues of organizational and academic nature and for the implementation of academic measures, the Academic Department has been created within the Academy. The fundamental library of the Academy is also under the jurisdiction of the Academic Department. The established number of students is 895. Students are recruited from persons seconded from the ranks of the Red Army, as well as from citizens aged 18 to 25, who have knowledge of general education sciences to the extent of the workers' faculty, who have passed entrance examinations and are fit for military service by physical condition. All students are considered to be on military service and receive all types of provisions due to the commanding staff of the Red Army. Upon completion of 5 years of study, they are obligated to serve in the Red Army at the rate of two years of service for each year of study. The academic programs and plans of the Academy have undergone a fundamental revision in the direction of creating military medical personnel who meet the principles of organization of the armed forces of the USSR and the preventive orientation of Soviet medicine. For these purposes, the courses of preventive medical disciplines have been significantly expanded. To ensure their development, the Preventive Institute named after Z. P. Solovyev was established (in 1925) at the Academy, consisting of departments: general and military hygiene, social hygiene, microbiology, military and military-sanitary courses. In addition, the department of labor physiology in the general department of physiology has been significantly developed, an independent course in psycho-physiology of military labor has been established, etc. Serious reform has been made in the teaching of military-sanitary and military sciences. Departments of field military surgery, courses in military hygiene, military-sanitary administration and tactics, military administration, military topography, general military tactics, history of military art, strategy, etc., have been established. The Academy's program has been supplemented by a cycle of socio-political sciences. The study of new languages has been made compulsory. For practical familiarization with the conditions of military medical activity, field camps and duty in military hospitals have been established for students. To provide the Academy with clinics, the military hospital has been included in its composition, uniting all previously separate clinical institutions (the hospital, the hospital named after Villye, the clinic for mental diseases, etc.). The Academy has been provided with the opportunity to use the military and naval hospitals of Leningrad for clinical teaching purposes. A disinfection station has been created at the Academy, schools for military medical assistants (1925) and courses for disinfectors (1926) have been established. In 1925, a military-sanitary museum was founded. The number of departments has increased to 32; independent courses to four. It has been established to annually leave five doctors for three years in a competitive order for preparation for scientific and teaching activities, and annually up to 100 military doctors are sent to the Academy for one and two years for improvement in various fields of military-sanitary affairs. Teaching methods have undergone significant changes in order to stimulate greater initiative among students, in accordance with which, along with lectures, seminar and other practical classes have been widely developed. The material equipment of the Academy, especially its academic and scientific laboratories and offices, which had significantly depreciated during the war years, has been significantly replenished and expanded over the last five years. The scientific activity of the Academy, which includes a number of outstanding scientists (S.P. Fedorov, G.I. Turner, G.V. Khlopin, V.I. Voyacheck, N.N. Anichkov, D.K. Zabolotny, etc.), by its significance far exceeds the borders of the USSR.