The Department of Surgery (Intermediate Level) was established in 1922. Prof. Alexey F. PONOMAREV was the first Head of the Department.
In 1930-1957, the Department was led by Assoc. Prof. A. P. POPOV, in 1958 – by Assoc. Prof. Alexey S. PANTUSOV, in 1958-1960 – by Prof. N. A. TELKOV. Those years had been marked by studying the issues of the surgical treatment of esophageal, lung, and mediastinal diseases, and the first-ever endotracheal anesthesia was used.
In the years 1961-1965, the Department was headed by Prof. Mark P. VILYANSKY, MD, PhD. During that period, suturing devices for abdominal surgery started to be applied; and vascular surgeries due to obliterating endarteritis and acute arterial occlusions had been performed.
From 1968 to 1998, the Department was led by Prof. Leonid V. POLUEKTOV, MD, PhD, Academician of RAMS. Under his supervision, the new methods of reconstructive surgery on the stomach and esophagus, surgical treatment of tumors and parasitic liver diseases, and surgical treatment of congenital and acquired heart defects, coronary heart disease, and complex arrhythmias were developed.
From 1998 to 2023, the Department was led by Prof. Vladimir L. POLUEKTOV, MD, PhD, who focused scientific interests on endoscopic methods of diagnosis and treatment of complications after stomach surgery in the early postoperative period.