The University started as Stalingrad Medical Institute founded in 1935. In 1993 it got the status of the Academy, and in 2003 it was granted the status of the University. The University is currently headed by the prominent Russian scientist, Academician of the Russian Academy for Medical Sciences, Professor Vladimir I. Petrov.

The Volgograd State Medical University is an active participant of a number of international projects promoting medical research and clinical practice. This accounts for a genuine interest in the activities of the University on the part of government officials of various countries. It has recently been visited by the ambassadors of the USA, Malaysia, India, the People’s Republic of China, Brunei, Bangladesh, etc., top officials of Medical and Dental Councils of different countries.

The Volgograd State Medical University has built up relationships with a number of foreign universities - the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (USA), Albert Ludwigs Universitaet (Freiburg, Germany), Martin-Luther Halle-Wittenberg Universitaet (Germany), Belgian, French, Chinese universities, etc. This collaboration has been fostering the advance of medical science in such fields as family medicine, poison control, family planning and reproductive health, arterial hypertension, epidemiology, tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, pharmacology, pharmacy, etc. One of the latest developments is the newly set up Russian-American Family Practice Clinic which is a unique clinic of this type in the whole of the south of Russia.

The University has been collaborating with the World Federation for Medical Education, with the World Health Organisation (WHO), with UNESCO, with the British Council, with the United States Agency for International Development, with the American International Health Alliance, and participating in a wide range of joint international research projects.