Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko: the role and significance in the development of the healthcare system of Belarus

Objective. To conduct the analysis of works devoted to the professional activities of Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko, to evaluate his contribution to the creation and development of the healthcare system of Belarus.Materials and methods. Historical, analytical, logical, and bibliographic methods were used for conducting this study. The primary material was the scientific works published by Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko and his associates, the search of which was carried out in the electronic scientific libraries eLibrary, CyberLeninka, PubMed, Google Scholar, the Central Scientific Medical Library of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Library, using the keywords: Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko, Belarus, history of medicine from 1918 to the present.Results. The analysis of the works devoted to the professional activities of Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko, revealed the effectiveness of the organizational measures he had taken, including those influenced the creation of the modern healthcare system in Belarus.Conclusion. The activity of Nikolay Alexandrovich Semashko contributed to the creation of the unified healthcare system in the BSSR for the provision of medical assistance to the residents of the Republic. His achievements in the introduction of anti-epidemic measures, which improved the well-being of the population, contributed to the training of specialists, and increased sanitary literacy of the population, were particularly noteworthy. The principles of local division and dispensary observation were introduced, the provision of emergency and planned medical assistance was organized, insurance medicine was introduced, the role of preventive activities was emphasized. All these measures were aimed at the functioning in the long term.