Bulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthBulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health2415-84102415-8429FSSBI «N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health»285010.69541/NRIPH.2024.03.022Научная статьяNikolai Aleksandrovich Semashko, Professor of the First Department of Social Hygiene (150th anniversary of his birth)PashkovKonstantin A.historymed@mail.ruhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9155-4006TopolyanskiyAleksey V.historymed@mail.ruhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6900N. A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthFSBEI HE «ROSUNIMED» OF MOH OF RUSSIA01102024314414727052025Copyright © 2025,2025<p>The establishment of social hygiene as an independent specialty in the USSR is inextricably linked to the name of the first People's Commissar of Health of the RSFSR. N.A.Semashko, a physician and Bolshevik, believed that improving working and recreational conditions, housing and living conditions, nutrition, and, most importantly, the proper education of Soviet people would not only prevent social diseases and improve the health of the population, but would also make it possible to create a new man. Believing that knowledge of social hygiene is absolutely necessary for all doctors, regardless of their specialty, in 1922 he founded the first department of social hygiene in the country, which he headed until the last days of his life.<br /><br /></p>department of Social HygieneN.A.Semashkoкафедра социальной гигиеныН.А.Семашко[Ratmanov P.E. Soviet health care in the international arena in the 1920s-1940s: between «soft power» and propaganda (Western Europe and the USA). Khabarovsk: Izd-vo DVGMU; 2021 (in Russian).][Semashko N.A. «Died of heartbreak». Why deaths from heart diseases are becoming more frequent. Moscow Evening. [Vechernaya Moskva]. 1928;(251):2 (in Russian).][Semashko N.A. Prophylactic direction in medical treatment. Bulletin of modern medicine. [Vestnik sovremennoy meditsiny]. 1928;(1):33—39 (in Russian).][Kirik Y.V., Ratmanov P.E., Shenoeva P.A. Institutionalization of social hygiene in Soviet Russia in 1920-1930s in the international context. Far Eastern Medical Journal. [Dal'nevostochnyy meditsinskiy zhurnal]. 2020;(1):85—94 (in Russian).][Petrov B.D. N.A. Semashko as an organizer of sanitary business and hygienic science. Hygiene and sanitation. [Gigiena i sanitariya]. 1977;(11):7—12 (in Russian).][Vigdorchik N.A. Sketches on professional hygiene. M.-L; 1925 (in Russian).][Semashko N.A. Social hygiene, its essence, method and significance. Social Hygiene. [Sotsial'naya gigiena]. 1923;(1):5—11 (in Russian).][Tregubov V.N. Organization and conduct of scientific work at the department of social hygiene of the medical faculty of the I Moscow State University in the period from 1922 to 1930. Bulletin of the N.A.Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health. [Byulleten' Natsional'nogo nauchno-issledovatel'skogo instituta obshchestvennogo zdorov'ya imeni N.A.Semashko]. 2022;(4):99—103 (in Russian).][Semashko N.A. Clinic of social and professional diseases of Moscow state universities. Social Hygiene. [Sotsial'naya gigiena]. 1926;(8):7—8 (in Russian).][Semashko N.A. Department of Social Hygiene of the I Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute (Historical sketch). Soviet Health Care. [Sovetskoe zdravookhranenie]. 1947;(3):38—42 (in Russian).][Yakushina I.I., Trefilova O.A., Shastina V.R., Papicheva M.A. Origins of the department of social hygiene. Prehistory. Epidemiology and Vaccine Prophylaxis. [Epidemiologiya i vaktsinoprofilaktika]. 2022;21(2):111—116 (in Russian).][Reshetnikov V.A., Strizhkova Z.A., Kinyabulatov A.U., Hazimanova A.A., Strizhkov A.E. Activity of N.A.Semashko in the years of evacuation with the 1st Moscow Order of Lenin Medical Institute to Ufa (1941—1942). Therapeutic Archive. [Terapevticheskiy arkhiv]. 2023;95(1):103—107 (in Russian).][Chernichenko M.Y. N.A. Semashko — the first People's Commissar of Public Health: new century — new research horizons. History of Medicine. [Istoriya meditsiny]. 2014;3(3):73—81 (in Russian).][Nogaller A.M. Collection of documents, memories and photographs. Dynasty. Vyp. 5. Ryazan. 2014 (in Russian).][Prishvin M.M. Diaries. 1944—1945. Moscow: New Chronograph; 2013. 587 p. (in Russian).]