Issues related to the beginning of teaching forensic medicine in Russia, the date of foundation of the first department and the emergence of the first professors of forensic medicine are considered. We studied publications on forensic medicine of the 18th—19th centuries, the work of authoritative researchers in the history of medicine of this period. Study methods: systemic, comparative historical, analytical. An original periodization of the formation of the teaching of forensic medicine in Russia is proposed. The first period (since 1707) is the universal period of hospital schools; without isolation of forensic medicine as a separate medical discipline. The second period (from 1765) is the course period; the one of primary university education and hospital schools, or the initial isolation of forensic medicine. The third period (1798—1805) — the departmental period; the one of academic and university education, or the completion of the separation of forensic medicine. The names of the first domestic forensic professors who taught it as a separate medical discipline are established: Francis Keresturi, Johann Conradi, Johann Ringebroig, the first adjunct professors: Gabriel Popov Grigory Sukharev. It was confirmed that the first department of forensic medicine in Russia was the Department of Matter of Medicine and Forensic Medical Science of the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy, formed in 1798. The first head of the department was Professor Johann Ringebroig.