Draft:Sergey Zatravkin

Sergey Zatravkin
Сергей Наркизович Затравкин
Born	(1968-11-01) November 1, 1968 Moscow, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Russia
Education	I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (1993)
Occupation	Historian of medicine
Years active	1993–present
Employer	N. A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health
Known for	History of medical education, scientific revolutions in medicine, history of Soviet healthcare
Notable work	History and Philosophy of Medicine: Scientific Revolutions in Medicine (2020); "Clubs" and "Ghettos" of Soviet Healthcare (2022)
Title	Professor
Awards	Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in Education (2002); D. S. Sarkisov Prize of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (2001)
Website	orcid.org/0000-0002-2930-1873

Sergey Zatravkin (born November 1, 1968, Moscow) is a Russian historian of medicine, Doctor of Medical Sciences (1999), and Professor (2005).

Biography

He graduated in 1993 from the Faculty for Training Scientific and Academic Personnel at the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.

From 1993 to 2006, he worked at the Research Association "Medical Encyclopedia" of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, serving as Research Fellow (1993–1994), Head of the Laboratory of Historical and Medical Studies (1994–2001), and Chief Research Fellow and Head of the Department of the History of Medicine (2001–2006). From 2006 to 2013, he headed the Department of the History of Medicine at the Research Institute for the History of Medicine of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 2013, following its merger with the N. A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health, he has led the Department of the History of Medicine and Healthcare, the only specialized center for historical medical research in Russia.

At the same time, from 1998 to 2011, he held a concurrent position at the Department of the History of Medicine and Cultural Studies at the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, serving as Lecturer (1998–1999), Associate Professor (1999–2002), and Professor (2002–2011).

From 2018 to 2022, he was a Chief Research Fellow at the Poletaev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (IGITI) at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).

He is deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal Problems of Social Hygiene, Public Health Organization and History of Medicine, and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Remedium and Bulletin of the N. A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health.

Academic work

Zatravkin's research into the history of Russian medicine began with reconstructing the development of medical education in the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Drawing on archival materials from the Medical Collegium, the Ministry of Public Education, and Moscow University, he identified the goals and content of key reforms in higher medical education during this period. He formulated models of physician training and types of educational organization, and analyzed the ideological foundations and institutional forms of clinical training.

The results of these studies were presented in five monographs and formed the basis of the research project The History of Higher Medical Education as a Source of Ideas for Improving the Training of Modern Physicians (co-authored with RAS academicians M. A. Paltsev and A. M. Stochik), which received the 2002 Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in Education.

In 2001, his research on the history of medical disciplines (pathology, pathophysiology, and pathological anatomy) was awarded the D. S. Sarkisov Prize of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences for the best scientific work in pathomorphology.

In the 2010s, working with RAS academicians V. S. Stepin and A. M. Stochik, he developed a concept of scientific revolutions in medicine, presented in the monograph History and Philosophy of Medicine: Scientific Revolutions in Medicine, 17th–21st Centuries. Applying the philosophical and methodological concepts of the structure and dynamics of scientific knowledge developed by V. S. Stepin, he argued that five disciplinary scientific revolutions occurred in Western medicine between the 17th and 21st centuries. Each of these led to a radical revision of ideas about the fundamental principles of life processes, the causes and nature of diseases, and approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. He identified the causes and mechanisms of each revolution, reconstructed the scientific worldviews that emerged during these transformations, and analyzed the ideals, norms, and philosophical foundations of medical research for each period.

Since 2017, he has collaborated with the Poletaev Institute at HSE and conducted joint research with the historian Elena Vishlenkova. Between 2019 and 2021, they participated in an international project on the history of medical geography in the Russian Empire. Their 2021 book, The History of Medicine and Medical Geography of the Russian Empire, analyzed how the immense size of the empire affected the study of public health. Using medical-topographical descriptions, statistical data on morbidity and mortality, and archival materials from the medical councils of various ministries, the authors demonstrated how a specifically Russian model of the medical profession emerged, characterized by physicians' deep involvement in state administration and their expertise in geographic, climatic, and sanitary conditions.

He also studied the history of healthcare in the Soviet Union with Vishlenkova. Their research showed the processes by which complex historical realities were transformed into Soviet "articles of faith" and then deconstructed these narratives. They argued that the concept of "Soviet healthcare" is an umbrella term encompassing several distinct systems that evolved or coexisted over time, including "red medicine" of the 1920s, "class-based medicine" of the 1930s, and both "civilian healthcare" and "Kremlin medicine" from the 1940s to the 1980s. They also systematized extensive empirical data on public health in the USSR, using it for the first time to assess state health policy. The results were published in the book "Clubs" and "Ghettos" of Soviet Healthcare.

Zatravkin is also the author of two utility model patents. From 2020 to 2025, he carried out a project on the historicization of the Russian pharmaceutical market with Elena Vishlenkova and Fyodor Genin. This research identified developmental trajectories and dead ends in the evolution of the pharmaceutical market economy. The authors analyzed formal and informal market rules, their origins and conditions of revision, the production of pharmaceutical information, the specifics of Russian entrepreneurial culture, and the negative health consequences of unregulated market mechanisms. The results were published in a series of articles and in the book Playing One's Own Game: The History of the Pharmaceutical Market in Russia.

In 2026, the book Playing by Its Own Rules received the "Platinum Ounce" award at the Russian national competition for professionals in the pharmaceutical industry.

Selected works

• Stochik, A. M.; Zatravkin, S. N. (1996). The Medical Faculty of Moscow University in the 18th Century. Moscow: Meditsina. (2nd ed. 2000)
• Stochik, A. M.; Paltsev, M. A.; Zatravkin, S. N. (1998). The Medical Faculty of Moscow University in the Educational Reforms of the First Third of the 19th Century. Moscow: Meditsina. (2nd ed. 2001)
• Stochik, A. M.; Paltsev, M. A.; Zatravkin, S. N. (2004). Moscow University in the Reform of Higher Medical Education in the 1840s–1860s. Moscow: Shiko.
• Paltsev, M. A.; Stochik, A. M.; Zatravkin, S. N., eds. (2008). Figures in Medical Science and Healthcare — Staff and Alumni of the I. M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy. Biographical Dictionary. 1758–2008. Moscow: Shiko. ISBN 5-900758-40-0.
• Stochik, A. M.; Paltsev, M. A.; Zatravkin, S. N. (2009). Pathological Anatomy and Its Establishment at Moscow University. Moscow: Shiko. (1st ed. 1999)
• Stochik, A. M.; Zatravkin, S. N. (2012). The Reform of Practical Medicine in the Course of Scientific Revolutions of the 17th–19th Centuries. Moscow: Shiko.
• Stochik, A. M.; Zatravkin, S. N.; Stochik, A. A. (2013). The Emergence of Preventive Medicine in the Course of Scientific Revolutions of the 17th–19th Centuries. Moscow: Shiko.
• Stepin, V. S.; Stochik, A. M.; Zatravkin, S. N. (2020). History and Philosophy of Medicine: Scientific Revolutions in Medicine from the 17th to the 21st Centuries. Moscow: Akademicheskiy Proekt.
• Vishlenkova, E. A.; Renner, A., eds. (2021). The History of Medicine and Medical Geography of the Russian Empire. Moscow: Shiko. p. 388.
• Zatravkin, S. N.; Vishlenkova, E. A. (2022). "Clubs" and "Ghettos" of Soviet Healthcare. Moscow: Shiko. p. 352. ISBN 978-5-907348-26-4.
• Zatravkin, S. N.; Vishlenkova, E. A.; Genin, F. V. (2025). Playing One's Own Game: The History of the Pharmaceutical Market in Russia. Moscow: Shiko. p. 480. ISBN 978-5-907348-42-4.

External links

• "ORCID: Sergey Zatravkin". Retrieved 2023-01-16.
• "Scopus: Sergey Zatravkin". Retrieved 2023-01-16.

Category:Russian historians Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:People from Moscow