Reorganization of the management of the Medical Office and the activities of the Doctoral Council in September 1730 — January 1732

Abstract. The paper is devoted to the history of the healthcare management body of the Russian Empire of the early 1730s, the Doctoral Council. Despite references to it at the number of studies devoted to the reign of Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740), the Doctoral Council had not previously been the subject of special study. The study is based on a set of archival materials and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The paper presents biographical information about the personal composition of the Doctoral Council and analyzes the issues that its members were engaged in resolving. Analysis of the studied documents allows us to conclude that these issues concerned, first of all, the audit of the activities of the head of the Medical Chancellery I.L. Blumentrost, and were also related to the work of pharmacies in Moscow and other cities of Russia, the quality of medical care for army units, and medical personnel. Special attention is paid to the physician-in-ordinary J.H. Rieger, who probably unofficially supervised the work of the Doctoral Council, but was not a member of it. The author comes to the conclusion that the Doctor’s Council successfully coped with the tasks set, after which it was abolished by the Empress. Since 1732, Anna Ioannovna returned to the traditional management system of the Medical Chancellery, placing J.H. Rieger at its head.

Keywords: Medical office, Doctoral Council, Empress Anna Ioannovna, pharmacies, I.L. Blumentrost, I.H. Rieger.