Moskovskaia Meditsinskaia Gazeta

(Moscow Medical Newspaper), a weekly journal for physicians that was published from 1858 to 1878; the first medical periodical publication in Russia. It was founded by F. I. Inozemtsev; from 1861 it was the periodical of the Society of Russian Physicians in Moscow.

The journal played an important role in the founding of social medicine in Russia. The fourth issue of the Moskovskaia meditsinskaia gazeta for 1858 contained the first article in Russian medical literature about the interconnection of medicine and society; the article was written by S. A. Smirnov. The Moskovskaia meditsinskaia gazeta supported the creation of medical societies and called for congresses of Russian naturalists and physicians. The journal served as a forum for the exchange of medical knowledge and for the discussion of problems related to improving the health care of the people, especially the peasants. It established standards for organizing medical service, which were subsequently adopted in zemstvo medicine [the district form of medical service for the rural population].

The Moskovskaia meditsinskaia gazeta opposed charlatanism in medicine and called for the study of folk medicine. It printed the proceedings of the Society of Russian Physicians in Moscow and of numerous provincial societies modeled on the one in Moscow; it also printed the proceedings of congresses of zemstvo physicians. In 1880, the journal Vrach (Physician) became the social forum of Russian physicians.