Our story is about the prominent Russian doctor Matvei Mudrov, the founding father of Russian therapeutics who introduced the practice of examining patients and writing down case histories. And who also was the first director of the Moscow University’s Medical School. 

Matvei Mudrov was born in 1776 in Vologda in northern Russia.  His father was a priest and the four sons were supposed to follow in his footsteps. Tall and handsome, with a shock of curly black hair, Matvei immediately grabbed  everyone’s attention including of the local young ladies who were quick to appreciate the physical attractiveness of the young seminarian. A neighbor, a book binder, taught Matvei the secrets of his trade which later stood him in very good stead as he started earning money binding his friends’ notebooks.  Father instilled in him an undying love for the books, that’s why Matvei was the best psalm reader in town. He would probably have become a good priest if it had not been for his lucky for Russian medicine encounter with Osip Kirdan, a medic, an encounter that turned Matvei’s life all around. It was Osip Kirdan who talked Matvei into studying medicine which the young man viewed just as ancients did - as an addition to religion encouraging people to care for their near and dear and make them happy.

Moscow University director Pavel Fonvizin gave the young man a hearty welcome. After a brief exchange with Matvei he was impressed by the young man’s intelligence and knowledge. Back in those days there were a mere 100 students studying at the university. Matvei Mudrov was making excellent progress winning a gold medal after his very first year there. One of the many chance occasions that radically changed his fate was his meeting members of the Turgenev family who were a well known name in Moscow. It was with their help that the young would-be doctor got acquainted with many outstanding members of the late 18th century Russian society. One day Matvei was asked to cut open a blister on the face of the 11-year-old Sofya who happened to be the daughter of Moscow University professor Khariton Chebotarev. Sofya later became Matvei’s wife and bore him three children. The marriage into the family of one of the city’s best known university mentors opened for Matvei the door into the city’s high places and helped his career growth. 

Graduating with honors, Matvei Mudrov, now 24, spent the next seven years interning at medical schools in Berlin, Paris and Vienna.  The 1812 Napoleonic invasion forced him to get back to Russia where he cared for the wounded and shared notes with his young Russian colleagues. In 1807 Matvei Mudrov published a book on field surgery – the first such manual ever written by a Russian. Mudrov worked hard training military surgeons and organizing field hospitals during the war with Napoleon. 

In the spring of 1812 Matvei Mudrov was elected the head of Moscow University’s medical department, while simultaneously running a therapeutic clinic.  Mudrov is a father figure of Russian therapeutics which views an illness as the suffering of the whole system. Always underscoring the importance of diagnosing and explaining the disease and preventing it as a topmost priority for any doctor, Matvei Mudrov unveiled the very notion of preventive medicine. From virtually day one of his medical practice he was meticulously scribbling down medical history sheets which 22 years later made a whole 40 thick tomes some of them the size of an encyclopedia…

In the late 1829 Russia was grappling with a cholera epidemic that was moving up from neighboring Persia. Half of those who contracted the deadly virus never recovered… Matvei Mudrov was appointed to the head of a special commission set up to check the spread of the epidemic. Working day and night, he finally managed to localize the flare points in the lower reaches of the Volga River. Two years after, however, fate handed Mudrov a very unpleasant surprise with the epidemic suddenly cropping up in St. Petersburg causing widespread panic. Ordered back into the fight, Matvei immediately got down to work. Never believe people who say doctors never get ill. Matvei Mudrov did... The deadly disease he was fighting finally caught up with him and in July 1831 this outstanding man and doctor died in a St. Petersburg hospital… “I sacrifice my life so that other people can live on…” The life lived by Matvei Mudrov serves a living proof of this aphorism…
 

03/02/2006