Objective — to estimate the prevalence of smoking and characteristics of smoking behavior among healthcare professionals adjusting for gender and occupational structure of the state-funded healthcare facilities. Subject and methods. In 2013, an anonymous survey using a modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) questionnaire (a cross-sectional study) was conducted among physicians and nurses from two randomly selected state-funded general hospitals with both inpatient and outpatient departments. A total of 774 healthcare professionals were surveyed (64% response rate); 90% of them were women, of whom 67% worked as nurses. The median age of respondents was 44 years. The survey sample accurately represented the demographic characteristics and occupational structure of the healthcare system of the Russian Federation. Results and discussion. The prevalence of smoking among healthcare professionals was 23.1%, which was 16% lower than in the general population, but consistent with the frequency of smoking among women in the Russian Federation. Among nurses 22.8% were smokers, also nurses accounted for 62% of all smokers in the hospitals. Among female physicians 13.5% were smokers, which was two times less compared with women with higher education in the general population. The physician status per se substantially reduced the prevalence of daily tobacco smoking regardless of gender and age of the respondents: an adjusted prevalence ratio was 0.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.41—0.90. Healthcare professionals smoked fewer cigarettes per day and were significantly more motivated to quit than were smokers in the general population. Conclusion. The prevalence of smoking among nurses corresponds to the general population data with female nurses constitute the main group of smokers in the state healthcare facilities. The prevalence of smoking among physicians, especially among women, was significantly lower compared with nurses and persons with higher education in the general population. Healthcare professionals had a lower smoking intensity and a higher motivation to quit compared with smokers in the general population.