After visiting the Republican museum of medicine in Minsk, you will learn how our ancestors diagnosed and treated. What diseases were the most common and dangerous? What did magic mean in medicine? Where were future doctors trained? You can also see all the tools used by dentists, surgeons and other specialists with your own eyes.

The museum’s history began in around 1952, when Professor G.R. Kryuchyok headed the courses of Belarusian medical history at the Department of the Medical Institute. The main museum direction at that time was the collection of museum exhibits, their processing and storage. The first museum exhibit was recorded in 1958. At the time, G.R. Kryuchyok headed the museum group, which included the best Belarusian scientists, and he also attracted students, who managed to find over 2000 valuable historical exhibits during a year. The painstaking work of the museum founder, science representatives, medical workers, students, common people and the support of the Medical Institute helped to open the first exposition in 1965, dedicated to the history of medicine in Belarus of the 20th century.

Now the Republican museum of medicine is an institution, that has no analogues in Belarus and has more than 33 thousand museum exhibits. What exhibitions can you visit at the museum?

- "The appearance of folk hygiene and healing in Belarus", where you will be told in detail about the customs and traditions of ancient hygiene, about silicic, bronze, porcelain, wooden instruments with which people were treated. Magic took not the last place in medicine, people believed that many diseases arose because of all kinds of spirits taking over the human body. Amulets were created, and people worshipped sacred stones for protection fr om evil spirits. You will be told about the main ailments of an ancient person as well: dental diseases, indigestion, tumors ...

Visiting the exposition of traditional medicine and healing, be sure to look into the department of medical development in the Middle Ages - the time of bloody wars, epidemics and terrible infections. The picture of Francisk Skorina, the first doctor of Belarus, during passing an exam at the university takes a separate place in the exposition. The main treatment methods in the Middle Ages are presented in the picture of an unknown artist "Allegory of Medicine".

In the third hall of the museum, you will get acquainted with the history of medicine development in the XIX-XX centuries and visit one of the medieval, well-equipped, Belarusian pharmacies. By the way, Belarus supplied the entire Russian Empire with pharmacy utensils at that time.

The department of dentistry is no less interesting to visit: a frightful wooden armchair, the first dentist’s drill, ancient toothbrushes, tongs for teeth removal...

One of the most important and interesting expositions is the gallery dedicated to medicine development in military and postwar years, wh ere you can see rare photos, medical documents, personal belongings of military doctors, therapeutic and surgical instruments with your own eyes, as well as secrets of treatment of the wounded during the Great Patriotic War.

It should be mentioned that the museum fund is constantly updated, new expositions are to be opened. You can find out more about the latest news from the Museum life on social networks in Vkontakte, Instagram, Facebook, as well as on the official website of the Republican Scientific Medical Library.