The Military Medical Museum houses a collection of Nikolay Burdenko’s personal belongings, documents, and photographs. Having entered the Medical School of Tomsk University, he immediately became interested in surgery. To a great extent, his choice of specialization was influenced by the surgical operations of Erast Salishchev, professor at the chair of hospital surgery.

Nikolay Burdenko showed great interest in the profession from the very beginning of his studies. As a third-year student, he was already appointed an assistant prosector. For some time, Burdenko worked in the Kherson Governorate, where a typhus epidemic was raging at the time. In his own words, it was there that he became familiar with practical surgery.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Nikolay Burdenko joined the army as a volunteer. He was an assistant military surgeon and a member of a rapid response team. He carried the wounded from the battlefield and applied dressings.

Despite suffering an arm wound during one of the battles, Nikolay Burdenko remained on the frontline. He was awarded the Cross of Saint George. In 1906, he graduated from Yuryev University with honors, and three years later he defended his doctoral thesis.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Burdenko became a medical consultant on the Northwestern Front. He observed that the wounded often did not receive the necessary treatment in the field. To solve this problem, he organized special infirmary departments for skull, abdominal, and lung surgery. He was the first to start treating serious wounds in field conditions.

Burdenko became the chief neurosurgeon of the USSR, established a network of medical clinics, and organized the All-Union Congress of Physicians. In 1937, he was appointed the chief consultant surgeon of the Red Army Medical Corps. During each congress and meeting, he reiterated how important it was to train military doctors and supply the army with all necessary medications.

The USSR Academy of Medical Sciences was founded with the participation of Burdenko on June 30, 1944. Initially, sixty doctors became full members of the Academy. In his letter, Nikolay Burdenko informed Yefim Smirnov, Doctor of Medical Sciences, that the Presidium of the Academy of Medical Sciences was being established. Yefim Smirnov became a corresponding member of the Academy in 1945, and a full member three years later.