Kseniya S. Barabanova

Independent Researcher

(St. Petersburg, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-135-143

Abstract. In the second half of the 19th century, the Omsk Medical Society began its work. The society included doctors who worked not only in Omsk, but also throughout Western Siberia and beyond. Over the years, the society became a platform for the exchange of knowledge between doctors working in different parts of the Russian Empire. Thanks to the minutes of the meetings of the Omsk Medical Society, we can trace the routes of spreading knowledge in the imperial context. Doctors from Western Siberia actively participated in the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of experience in epidemics control and in the study of new methods of disease treatment. They established contacts with colleagues in other parts of the Russian Empire and abroad. Omsk doctors used several channels to exchange knowledge. One of them, and the most well-established, was the bureaucratic channel through which official reports and recommendations were distributed. In this process, St. Petersburg was the administrative center that received reports and provided lists of events. The scientific ties formed between medical societies of the Russian Empire turned out to be important. The societies exchanged minutes of their meetings, monographs of their members and collections of scientific journals. The transfer of knowledge through personal connections of doctors is especially interesting. Omsk doctors had a wide network of correspondents, including those outside the empire. Due to the fact that Omsk doctors used several channels of knowledge transfer, they were familiar with the latest advances in medical science and their practical application.
Keywords: knowledge transfer, doctor, Omsk, cholera, diphtheria.

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For citation: Barabanova, KS 2025, ‘Omsk Doctors at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Knowledge Transfer in the Imperial Context’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (22), pp. 135–143, https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-135-143 (in Russ.)

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