The article presents information about Ilya Vasilyevich Buyalsky - an outstanding anatomist and surgeon. In anatomy, as in surgery, Buyalsky was an innovator. He invented a new way of embalming the corpses and was considered the only doctor who perfectly mastered this art. In 1828 he published the initial part of the outstanding work, which marks a new stage in the development of surgery and anatomy “Anatomical and surgical tables”, explaining the production of operations of dressing large arteries, drawn from nature and engraved on copper with a brief anatomical description - the first domestic atlases on operative surgery and topographic anatomy. As a surgeon, Ilya Vasilyevich Buyalsky possessed an exceptionally high operational technique. Perfect knowledge of anatomy, systematic exercises on corpses gave the scalpel in his hands that accuracy, proportionality and speed of movements, which was so necessary during times of lack of anesthesia and asepsis. Particularly great elegance and beauty distinguished the operation of Buyalsky on blood vessels. He was the first in Russia to successfully impose a ligature on the brachial head. Under the leadership of Buyalsky, many students of the academy - S. P. Tomashevsky, P. S. Kareisha, brothers Naranovichi, were trained in anatomical methods. Three of the latter became further professors of anatomy at universities and academies. I. V. Buyalsky was an academician, a member of Russian and foreign scientific societies and the director of the St. Petersburg Instrumental Plant. In all his positions, he worked creatively, energetically, met the general respect of his subordinates, he wasa very bright and comprehensively talented person, his role in the history of Russian medicine is exceptionally great (6 figs, bibliography: 13 refs).