Documentary archives of the Museum of History of Kazan state medical university as historical source

Abstract

The aim of the research - to evaluate complex documentary archives stored in the Museum of History of Kazan State Medical University as a source providing evidence needed for the reconstruction of various historic events linked to high medical education in Kazan. Source-classification methods, as well as external and internal criticism of historical documentary sources were applied. The article discusses the features of the documentary sources study analysis of the documentary archives stored at the Museum of History of the Kazan State Medical University. Stages of forming of a number of documentary collections that became the product of faculties, institute and later university clinical and theoretical departments’ activities, are characterized. While structuring an array of written sources, the decision to allocate three fundamental stages that determined the particular characteristics of documentary collections creation was made. The features of numerous documents were considered; their value for reconstruction of separate aspects of national medical science development in general, as well as the activities of the Kazan medical schools in particular, were defined. As a result of the source-study analysis of the written sources deposited in the Museum of History of Kazan State Medical University five independent groups were allocated. These are collection of business documents; collection of state certification documents; collection of personal papers; collection of official documents reserving copyrights; collection of manuscripts of scientific researches of scientists-physicians. Results of research allow to determine the source value and information potential of documentary archives of the Museum of history of the Kazan State Medical University. Written sources fund is an important historical source for studying the history of the Kazan medical schools, in general, and individual medical scientists, in particular. From the source-study point of view, an extensive array of documents that were not previously included in the scientific examination and require comprehensive analysis, are of considerable interest. Among them there are documents of healthcare manager V.V. Treiman, internist V.F. Bogoyavlenskiy, neurologist L.I. Omorokov, etc. Thus, documentary collections contribute to the expansion of the source base for researches.