Moscow Hospital School

Among the innovations introduced during the dynamic reign of Peter the Great in his attempt to bring Russia in line with countries in Western Europe was the foundation of the Moscow Hospital School in 1707. He entrusted the direction of the school to the Dutch physician and surgeon, Nicolas Bidloo, who dedicated himself to his students and to the organisation of the school and was an excellent teacher as well as an expert in anatomy. The large number of surgical instruments listed in a catalogue drawn up when the hospital was damaged by fire in 1738 testify to the quantity and variety of surgical procedures carried out at the hospital. Equal importance was given in the courses to theory and practice, and surgery was considered on a par with medicine at a time when surgeons in most European countries were considered to be an inferior category. The high standards of the school soon won it great renown and later medical schools in Russia were modeled on this first medical institution of higher education in the country.