In Russia, scientific medicine appeared and developed rapidly in the 18th century. Among the physicians who contributed to the development of Russian medicine, the disciples of Russian hospital schools, who vigorously fought the epidemics of plague, smallpox, and other epidemic diseases, played a great role. It was during this historical period when in Russia the teaching of contagionists came into contention in the struggle against the miasma theory. The study of their works written in the footsteps of controlling epidemic diseases gives every reason to believe that scientific epidemiology as an integral part of Russian scientific medicine began to take shape in the second half of the 18th century. As a historical argument in favor of the latter statement, the authors give an analysis of the events occurred 245 years ago during the 1770–1772 plague epidemic in Moscow.

Keywords: Russian scientific epidemiology, plague, history