The story
On 2 February 1920, Swedish professor Gaston Bakman held the first lecture on human anatomy in the Theatrum Anatomicum Rigense (currently Anatomical Theatre in Riga). This lecture was the forebearer of higher education in medicine in Latvia. Professor Gaston Bakman believed that this was also the beginning of the Institute of Anatomy and Histology, as well as the Museum of Anatomy in Riga.
After World War II, only two professors of medicine remained in Latvia, one of whom was Professor Pauls Stradiņš, who in a very short time as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine managed to rebuild and renew the education and science of medicine from scratch. In 1950, during the Soviet occupation, the Riga Medical Institute (Latvian: Rīgas Medicīnas institūts; Russian: Рижский медицинский институт, romanized: Rizhskiy meditsinskiy institut; Latin: Institutum Medical Riga) was established on the basis of the Faculty of Medicine of the State University of Latvia. Initially the institute included the faculties of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, as well as 45 departments.
In 1990, the institute was renamed Medical Academy of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Medicīnas akadēmija, Latin: Academia Medicinaei Latviensis), but already on 5 April 1998, the Constitutional Assembly made the decision to rename Medical Academy of Latvia, based on its actual activities as Riga Stradiņš University. Riga Stradiņš University in time developed into a university type higher education institution, as it trains experts not only in the fields of medicine and pharmacy, but also offers study programmes in social sciences, natural sciences, public health and law. On 13 June 2002, Riga Stradiņš University Act came into effect and Medical Academy of Latvia was renamed Riga Stradiņš University.
From Wikipedia’s article on Riga Stradiņš University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4