In ancient Russia, preparation of drugs and treatment of diseases was a function of wise men and later monks. Over time, monasteries started to collect and categorize information about medicinal herbs, and to write manuscripts on pharmaceutical lore. One of the examples of such work is Izbornik Svyatoslava ("Svyatoslav's Herbal Anthology") dating back to 1073. In the late 15th century, the feudal Muscovite State emerged as a consolidator of isolated Russian princedoms. The first apothecary's termed zeleinaya lavka (herb shop) were established in many cities. Owners of the drugstores, zeleiniks, prepared and sold powders, ointments, tinctures and other remedies. They were often highly educated people with good knowledge of the properties and action of medications, mainly of plants. Their knowledge was captured in handwritten books termed herbals, or zeleiniks, and in those termed vertograds ("flower garden"). The most acclaimed was the onetitled ?Blessedly shaded flower garden. Vertograd to health? (1534) (fig. 9). This Vertograd contains a number of examples when a mojo turns into a cure. So, crystal is described as 1) "the one that is chained to the neck... bans away unnecessary sleep"; 2) if someone "thirsty holds it in the mouth, the thirst will be quenched" and 3) the same stone "ground and mixed with fresh honey makes mothers produce more milk".
In 1581, Tsar Ivan the Terrible issued the Decree to open the first pharmacy in Moscow. It served only the Tsar and his court. In order to manage healthcare business, the Aptekarsky Prikaz (Apothecary Supervision office) was founded in the early 17th century. Among its functions were medicinal plant harvesting, teaching physicians and specialists in drug preparation, providing medicines and treatments to the army, evaluating the medical expertiseof doctors and pharmacists arriving in Russia. Apothecary gardens, where people could cultivate medicinal plants, appeared in many cities. During Peter the Great's reign, pharmacology and pharmacy business underwent significant changes: widespread opening of pharmacies, emergence of the pharmaceutical industry associated withapothecary gardens in St. Petersburg on the Aptekarsky Island (which literally means Pharmacy Island), and in Lubny, a town in the Poltava region. In 1701, Czar Peter the Great issued an order to close