The Orenburg (former Chkalovsky) State Medical Institute was organized in August 1944. The first deputy director for scientific and educational affairs was Professor Fedor Mikhailovich Lazarenko.
In the first years of the institute’s existence, a number of relevant scientific areas were formed and successfully developed: cardiovascular pathology (prof. R.G. Mezhebovsky, department of hospital therapy), abdominal surgery (prof. A.S. Altshul, department of general surgery), emergency and plastic surgery (Associate Professor S.P. Vilesov, department of hospital surgery), histogenesis and regeneration of epithelia (Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, prof. F.M. Lazarenko, department of histology), anatomy of the lymphatic system (prof. I.I. Kositsyn, department of human anatomy) and others. Two scientific conferences were held at the institute annually. In 1949, the first collection of scientific papers of the institute and the first collection of scientific students’ papers were published.
