The future great doctor was born on November 27, 1810 in Moscow. His father Ivan Ivanovich Pirogov served as treasurer. He had fourteen children, most of whom died in infancy. Of the six survivors, Nikolai was the youngest.

He was helped to get an education by a family acquaintance - a famous Moscow doctor, professor at Moscow University E. Mukhin, who noticed the boy’s abilities and began to work with him individually. And already at the age of fourteen, Nikolai entered the medical faculty of Moscow University, for which he had to add two years to himself, but he passed the exams no worse than his older comrades. Pirogov studied easily. In addition, he had to constantly work part-time to help his family. Finally, Pirogov managed to get a position as a dissector in the anatomical theater. This work gave him invaluable experience and convinced him that he should become a surgeon.

Having graduated from the university one of the first in academic performance, Pirogov went to prepare for professorship at one of the best at that time in Russia, Yuryev University in the city of Tartu. Here, in the surgical clinic, Pirogov worked for five years, brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation, and at the age of twenty-six became a professor of surgery. In his dissertation, he was the first to study and describe the location of the abdominal aorta in humans, circulatory disorders during its ligation, circulatory pathways in case of its obstruction, and explained the causes of postoperative complications. After five years in Dorpat, Pirogov went to Berlin to study; the famous surgeons, to whom he went with his head bowed respectfully, read his dissertation, hastily translated into German. He found the teacher who more than others combined everything that he was looking for in a surgeon Pirogov not in Berlin, but in Göttingen, in the person of Professor Langenbeck. The Gottingen professor taught him the purity of surgical techniques.

Returning home, Pirogov became seriously ill and was forced to stop in Riga. As soon as Pirogov got out of his hospital bed, he began to operate. He started with rhinoplasty: he cut out a new nose for the noseless barber. Plastic surgery was followed by inevitable lithotomy, amputation, and tumor removal. Having gone from Riga to Dorpat, he learned that the Moscow department promised to him had been given to another candidate. Pirogov received a clinic in Dorpat, where he created one of his most significant works - “Surgical anatomy of arterial trunks and fascia.”

Pirogov provided a description of the operations with drawings. Nothing like the anatomical atlases and tables that were used before him. Finally, he goes to France, where five years earlier, after the professorial institute, his superiors did not want to let him go. In Parisian clinics, Nikolai Ivanovich does not find anything unknown. It’s curious: as soon as he found himself in Paris, he hurried to the famous professor of surgery and anatomy Velpeau and found him reading “Surgical anatomy of the arterial trunks and fascia.”

In 1841, Pirogov was invited to the department of surgery at the Medical-Surgical Academy of St. Petersburg. Here the scientist worked for more than ten years and created the first surgical clinic in Russia. In it, he founded another branch of medicine - hospital surgery. Nikolai Ivanovich is appointed director of the Tool Plant, and he agrees. Now he is coming up with tools that any surgeon can use to perform an operation well and quickly. He is asked to accept a position as a consultant in one hospital, in another, in a third, and he again agrees. In the second year of his life in St. Petersburg, Pirogov became seriously ill, poisoned by the hospital miasma and the bad air of the dead. I couldn’t get up for a month and a half. He felt sorry for himself, poisoning his soul with sad thoughts about years lived without love and lonely old age. He went through his memory of everyone who could bring him family love and happiness. The most suitable of them seemed to him Ekaterina Dmitrievna Berezina, a girl from a well-born, but collapsed and greatly impoverished family. A hasty, modest wedding took place.

Pirogov had no time - great things awaited him. He simply locked his wife within the four walls of a rented and, on the advice of friends, furnished apartment. Ekaterina Dmitrievna died in the fourth year of marriage, leaving Pirogov with two sons: the second cost her her life. But in the difficult days of grief and despair for Pirogov, a great event happened - his project for the world's first Anatomical Institute was approved by the highest authorities.

On October 16, 1846, the first trial of ether anesthesia took place. In Russia, the first operation under anesthesia was performed on February 7, 1847 by Pirogov’s friend at the professorial institute, Fyodor Ivanovich Inozemtsev.

Soon Nikolai Ivanovich took part in military operations in the Caucasus. Here the great surgeon performed about 10,000 operations under ether anesthesia.

After the death of Ekaterina Dmitrievna, Pirogov was left alone. “I have no friends,” he admitted with his usual frankness. And boys, sons, Nikolai and Vladimir were waiting for him at home. Pirogov twice unsuccessfully tried to marry for convenience, which he did not consider necessary to hide from himself, from his acquaintances, and, it seems, from the girls planned as brides.

In a small circle of acquaintances, where Pirogov sometimes spent evenings, he was told about the twenty-two-year-old Baroness Alexandra Antonovna Bistrom. Pirogov proposed to Baroness Bistrom. She agreed.

When the Crimean War began in 1853, Nikolai Ivanovich considered it his civic duty to go to Sevastopol. He achieved appointment to the active army. While operating on the wounded, Pirogov, for the first time in the history of medicine, used a plaster cast, which accelerated the healing process of fractures and saved many soldiers and officers from ugly curvature of their limbs. On his initiative, a new form of medical care was introduced in the Russian army - nurses appeared. Thus, it was Pirogov who laid the foundations of military field medicine, and his achievements formed the basis for the activities of military field surgeons of the 19th-20th centuries; They were also used by Soviet surgeons during the Great Patriotic War.

After the fall of Sevastopol, Pirogov returned to St. Petersburg, where, at a reception with Alexander II, he reported on the incompetent leadership of the army by Prince Menshikov. The Tsar did not want to listen to Pirogov’s advice, and from that moment Nikolai Ivanovich fell out of favor. He was forced to leave the Medical-Surgical Academy. Appointed trustee of the Odessa and Kyiv educational districts, Pirogov is trying to change the school education system that existed in them. Naturally, his actions led to a conflict with the authorities, and the scientist again had to leave his post. In 1862-1866. supervised young Russian scientists sent to Germany. At the same time, Giusepe Garibaldi successfully operated on him. Since 1866 he lived on his estate in the village. Cherry, where he opened a hospital, a pharmacy and donated land to the peasants. He traveled from there only abroad, and also at the invitation of St. Petersburg University to give lectures. By this time, Pirogov was already a member of several foreign academies. As a consultant in military medicine and surgery, he went to the front during the Franco-Prussian (1870-1871) and Russian-Turkish (1877-1878) wars.

In 1879-1881. worked on “The Diary of an Old Doctor,” completing the manuscript shortly before his death. In May 1881, the fiftieth anniversary of Pirogov’s scientific activity was solemnly celebrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, at this time the scientist was already terminally ill, and in the summer of 1881 he died on his estate. But by his own death he managed to immortalize himself. Shortly before his death, the scientist made another discovery - he proposed a completely new method of embalming the dead. Pirogov’s body was embalmed, placed in a crypt and is now preserved in Vinnitsa, within the boundaries of which the estate was turned into a museum. I.E. Repin painted a portrait of Pirogov, located in the Tretyakov Gallery. After Pirogov’s death, the Society of Russian Doctors was founded in his memory, which regularly convened Pirogov congresses. The memory of the great surgeon continues to this day. Every year on his birthday, a prize and medal are awarded in his name for achievements in the field of anatomy and surgery. The 2nd Moscow, Odessa and Vinnitsa medical institutes are named after Pirogov.

The article is devoted to a brief biography of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, the famous Russian surgeon.

Biography of Pirogov: main stages of life

Pirogov was born in 1810. He received a home education, which he continued at a boarding school. After graduation, Pirogov entered the medical faculty of Moscow University. After graduating from the university, he was sent abroad to continue his education as a doctor. In 1838, Pirogov became a professor at the University of Dorpat. After some time, he returns to Russia and works at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg.

Pirogov became famous for his exceptional kindness. He devoted himself completely to science. He treated the poor and students absolutely free.

A special place is occupied by Pirogov’s activities as a military surgeon. He took part in four wars: the Caucasian, Crimean, Franco-Prussian and Russian-Turkish. As a result of this activity, Pirogov became the founder of military field surgery. He published four voluminous works in this area, which became classics.

In 1846, Pirogov first performed an operation under ether anesthesia. The event became an epoch-making event in the history of world surgery. It marked the beginning of a new era in surgical treatment. Pirogov did not immediately become an ardent supporter of the new method. He conducted a large number of experiments on animals. Pirogov then performs a series of carefully controlled operations using ether in the hospital. Having extensive experience and one hundred percent success, he used anesthesia on a large scale for treatment on the Caucasian front in 1847. Work during military operations took place in very difficult field conditions. In primitively equipped infirmaries, the great surgeon performed complex operations on the wounded, inviting those who wished to be present. As a result, patients gained confidence in the new treatment method.

In general, during the Crimean War, Pirogov carried out about 300 operations using ether. He is constantly working to improve the technique, demonstrating, promoting and teaching treatment using ether. As a result of his stay on the Caucasian front, Pirogov practically proved the effectiveness and success of such treatment. Also on the Caucasian front, the great surgeon made a modern plaster cast for the first time in history.

Following the war, Pirogov published his notes, which contained very harsh reviews of the situation in the army. He repeated these same words at a personal reception with Alexander II. For speaking the truth, the surgeon was sent to Odessa, where he also did not find a common language with the authorities. When the reaction began in Russia, he was completely dismissed from service.
Pirogov settled on a small estate, where he opened a free hospital. The great doctor could not defeat only his own disease - cancer caused by smoking. Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov died in 1881.

Biography of Pirogov: general characteristics

One of Pirogov’s innovations was his introduction of female nursing care in the context of hostilities, from which the institute of military nurses arose. A simple soldier, being in very difficult conditions and being wounded, ended up in the hospital. The oppressive atmosphere of the room with the sick was dispelled by the female presence. This significantly improved the mood in the army. The soldiers spoke with great warmth and gratitude about the dedicated nurses who provided them with the necessary assistance.

Pirogov cared not only about improving medicine, but also about the administrative structure of military hospitals. He noted that in Russia, the normal work of a doctor at the front is very complicated by the lack of a clear organization. He proposed and introduced a system for distributing the wounded depending on the degree of injury. This had a beneficial effect on the provision of medical care; those who needed it most received it faster and more quickly.
Pirogov’s activities at the fronts became the basics of all subsequent military surgery. This was confirmed by leading foreign and domestic surgeons in subsequent years.

The great surgeon performed a huge number of operations. His work was preceded by numerous experiments that confirmed the effectiveness of the treatment. Pirogov dealt with many innovative issues in world medicine and became their discoverer. He left behind numerous descriptions of his activities, which were used by subsequent generations of surgeons. Pirogov’s contribution to domestic and world surgery is priceless.

Place of Birth: Moscow

Activities and interests: surgery, anatomy, military field surgery, embalming

Biography
Russian surgeon, naturalist, anatomist, teacher, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The founder of military field surgery in Russia, the creator of topographic anatomy, which has practical significance for modern medicine. He worked on the front line, operated on the wounded: in the active army in the Caucasus (1847), during the Crimean War (1855) he was the chief surgeon of besieged Sevastopol, during the Russian-Turkish War (1877 - 1878) he operated on soldiers in Bulgaria. In the field, he organized local treatment of soldiers and tested previously developed surgical methods in practice. He substantiated the tactics of surgical intervention, which turned surgery into a science. After the fall of Sevastopol and returning to St. Petersburg, he constantly conflicted with the authorities: in particular, he criticized the general state of the Russian army, for which he fell out of favor with Alexander II. He was exiled to Ukraine, where he tried to reform the school education system, but was eventually forced into retirement without the right to a pension. The last years of his life he worked as a simple doctor in a village hospital he organized.

Education, degrees and titles
1824, Moscow, private boarding house Kryazhev
1824−1828, Moscow State University Faculty: medical: graduate (doctor of the 1st category)
1832, University of Dorpat (Tartu, Estonia) Faculty: Medical: Doctor of Science

Job
1832−1835, Berlin and Göttingham hospitals, Germany, Berlin, Göttingham: practicing physician
1836, Obukhov Hospital, St. Petersburg, Fontanka: practicing physician, lecturer
1836−1841, University of Dorpat, Dorpat (Tartu): teacher of clinical, operational, theoretical surgery
1841−1856, St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy, St. Petersburg, st. Academician Lebedeva, 6: professor
1847−1855, Caucasus, active troops
1855, Crimea, Sevastopol
1858−1861, Kiev educational district, Ukraine, Kyiv: trustee
1866−1881, Village Vishnya: doctor
1870, International Red Cross, active troops (Franco-Prussian War)
1870s, Ukraine: trustee of the Odessa and Kyiv educational districts
1877−1878, Bulgaria, active troops (Russian-Turkish war)

House
1810−1832, Moscow
1832−1835, Germany, Berlin and Göttingham
1836, St. Petersburg
1836−1841, Dorpat (Tartu)
1841−1858, St. Petersburg
1866−1881, Podolsk province, p. Cherry (now in Vinnitsa)

Facts from life
He entered the university at the age of 14, adding two years to himself, graduated at 18, became a doctor of science at 22, and a professor of medicine at 26.
In Dorpat he became friends with military doctor Vladimir Dal, author of the Explanatory Dictionary.
Pirogov’s lectures at the Medical-Surgical Academy were attended not only by medical students, but also by military personnel, artists, and writers. Newspapers and magazines wrote about the brilliant speaker, and his passages about amputations and suppurations were compared to the divine singing of the Italian Angelica Catalani.
In 1855, the teacher of the Simferopol gymnasium, Dmitry Mendeleev, who was suspected of consumption, approached Pirogov. After the examination, the surgeon noted: you will outlive me. The prediction came true.
They say that when Pirogov demanded that surgeons show up for operations in boiled gowns, because their ordinary clothes could contain germs dangerous to the patient, his colleagues put the doctor in an insane asylum, from which Pirogov, however, came out three days later.
Having married Ekaterina Berezina, Pirogov took up her education: he locked her at home, canceled all visits from friends, balls, took away romance novels and embroidery, and handed her a stack of medical books in return. There were rumors that the scientist killed his wife with science, but in fact, after the second birth, Catherine began bleeding. Pirogov tried to save his wife, but she died during the operation.
He was a heavy smoker and died of cancer of the upper jaw. The diagnosis was made by N.V. Sklifosovsky.

Discoveries
He defended his dissertation on safe ligation of the abdominal aorta. Before Pirogov, such an operation was performed only once, by the English surgeon Astley Cooper, but with a fatal outcome.
He organized a hospital surgery clinic, where he developed a number of techniques to avoid amputation. One of them is still used in surgery and is called the “Pirogov operation.”
Having seen how butchers sawed cow carcasses into pieces, Pirogov noticed that the location of the internal organs was clearly visible on the cut and began sawing up frozen corpses, calling the experiments ice anatomy. Thus a new discipline was born - topographic anatomy, and the surgeon published the first anatomical atlas, “Topographic Anatomy, Illustrated by Sections Made through the Frozen Human Body in Three Directions,” which became a manual for surgeons in many countries.
During the Crimean War, Pirogov was the first in the history of medicine to use a plaster cast to heal fractures.
Working in Sevastopol, he was the first in the world to introduce a system for sorting the wounded, which still works: hopeless and mortally wounded; seriously and dangerously wounded requiring immediate assistance; lightly wounded or those who can be evacuated and operated on in the rear. This is how the direction that later became known as military field surgery was born.
On Pirogov’s initiative, sisters of mercy appeared in the Russian army.
During the fighting in the Caucasus, for the first time in history, Pirogov used ether anesthesia under military conditions.
Shortly before his death, he developed a new, unique embalming method. Using this method, Pirogov’s body was embalmed. In the mausoleum in the village of Vishnya (now Vinnytsia) it is kept to this day in a special sarcophagus.
Author of many textbooks, manuals and scientific works. In addition, he wrote the famous “Sevastopol Letters” and “Questions of Life. Diary of an old doctor."

ACTIVITY OF N.I. PIROGOV

1. Pirogov - founder of surgical anatomy.

The founder of surgical anatomy is the brilliant Russian scientist, anatomist, surgeon N.I. Pirogov. Issues of topographic anatomy are presented in his three outstanding works: 1. “Surgical anatomy of arterial trunks and fascia” 2. “A complete course of applied anatomy of the human body with drawings. Descriptive-physiological and surgical anatomy" 3. "Topographic anatomy, illustrated by sections drawn through the frozen human body in three directions."

In the first of these works, N.I. Pirogov established the most important laws for surgical practice of the relationships between blood vessels and fascia, which form the basis of topographic anatomy as a science. He described the position of the arterial trunks and the layers covering them as they appear to the surgeon when the vessels are exposed during surgery. It is precisely this kind of information that, in the opinion of N.I. Pirogov, should constitute the content of surgical anatomy.

N.I. Pirogov also used the cutting method to develop the question of the most appropriate access to various organs and rational surgical techniques. Thus, having proposed a new method of exposing the common and external iliac arteries, Pirogov made a series of cuts in directions corresponding to the skin incisions during these operations. Pirogov's cuts clearly show the significant advantages of both of his methods compared to others. The extraperitoneal lumbar-ilio-inguinal incision proposed by Pirogov served as an impetus for the further development of approaches to the retroperitoneal organs.

Pirogov said: There may be a different approach to information about the structure of the human body, and Pirogov writes about this: “... A surgeon should study anatomy, but not like an anatomist... The department of surgical anatomy should belong to a professor not of anatomy, but of surgery. .. Only in the hands of a practical doctor can applied anatomy be instructive for listeners. Let an anatomist study a human corpse to the smallest detail, and yet he will never be able to draw the attention of students to those points of anatomy that are extremely important for a surgeon, but may have absolutely no significance for him.”

2.N.I. Pirogov - founder of experimental surgery

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov(1810-1881) - Russian surgeon and anatomist, teacher, public figure, founder of military field surgery and anatomical and experimental trends in surgery, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1846).

One of Pirogov’s most significant works is “Surgical Anatomy of Arterial Trunks and Fascia,” completed in Dorpat. He doesn’t need everything that Pirogov discovered in itself, he needs all of it to indicate the best ways to perform operations, first of all, “to find the right way to ligate this or that artery,” as he says. Here begins a new science created by Pirogov - this is surgical anatomy. In 1841, Pirogov was invited to the department of surgery at the Medical-Surgical Academy of St. Petersburg. Here the scientist worked for more than ten years and created the first surgical clinic in Russia. In it, he founded another branch of medicine - hospital surgery. Nikolai Ivanovich is appointed director of the Tool Plant. Now he is coming up with tools that any surgeon can use to perform an operation well and quickly. On October 16, 1846, the first test of ether anesthesia took place. In Russia, the first operation under anesthesia was performed on February 7, 1847 by Pirogov’s friend at the professorial institute, Fyodor Ivanovich Inozemtsev. Soon Nikolai Ivanovich took part in military operations in the Caucasus. Here, in the village of Salta, for the first time in the history of medicine, he began to operate on the wounded with ether anesthesia. In total, the great surgeon performed about 10,000 operations under ether anesthesia. Pirogov in the anatomical theater, sawing frozen corpses with a special saw. Using cuts made in a similar way, Pirogov compiled the first anatomical atlas, which became an indispensable guide for surgeons. Now they have the opportunity to operate with minimal trauma to the patient. When the Crimean War began in 1853, Nikolai Ivanovich went to Sevastopol. While operating on the wounded, Pirogov used a plaster cast for the first time in the history of medicine.

In the history of Russian medicine there is no more famous name than Nikolai Pirogov. This purely peaceful man took part in four wars. Thousands of Russian soldiers and sailors owed their salvation to him, a surgeon from God.

Portrait of surgeon Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. Hood. I.E. Repin. 1881

The cause of the Crimean War was the struggle between Russia and the Western powers for the division of the possessions of Turkey - the “sick man of Europe”, as it was called Nicholas I. The emperor seriously planned to realize the dream of his ancestors by erecting an Orthodox cross on Hagia Sophia, which the Turks had turned into a mosque. But this did not fit into the plans of England and France, who jointly declared an ultimatum to Russia: do not touch Turkey, otherwise there will be war. The Russian Tsar did not listen and moved the army to the Danube, and in November 1853 the squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov sent the Turkish fleet to the bottom in Sinop Bay.

The response was the declaration of war, in which, in addition to the Ottoman Empire, England, France and the small Sardinian kingdom, the core of the future Italy, opposed Russia. Nicholas I had no allies; the monarchs of Austria and Prussia, whom he had recently saved from the revolution, turned their backs on him. The war unfolded slowly: only in the summer of 1854 did the Allied squadron approach the shores of Crimea, and in September troops were landed there. Anglo-French ships tested the strength of Russian defenses everywhere: in Odessa, the Baltic, the White Sea and even Kamchatka, but the Crimean front became decisive. The Europeans wanted to pin down and destroy the Russian Black Sea Fleet here, and with luck, their ground forces. The Turks had a different task: to return Crimea, which was taken from them 70 years ago.

Sad forty percent

The war quickly revealed the advantage of Western weapons over outdated Russian ones. Russian troops were defeated at Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman and were besieged in Sevastopol, which was subjected to brutal shelling from land and sea almost daily.

At first, the forces of the parties were almost equal: the city was defended by 48 thousand Russian soldiers and sailors, and the opponents numbered just over 50 thousand. But the coalition constantly received reinforcements (by the end of the siege it was already about 110 thousand), and the ranks of the defenders of Sevastopol quickly melted. They were incapacitated by the autumn Crimean fever and injuries, which, given the then level of sanitation, led to death in 40% of cases. The wounded lay side by side in rooms completely unsuitable for sick people, suffering from hunger and cold. Amputations were carried out without any anesthesia.

Reports of disorder in medical institutions even penetrated the Russian press, obedient to censorship, causing outrage in society. Elena Pavlovna, the widow of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the younger brother of Nicholas I, intervened in the situation. She came up with a bold plan: to send women who were eager to serve the Fatherland to help the wounded. In October 1854, the Grand Duchess, a German by birth, founded the Holy Cross community of sisters of mercy and issued an appeal “To all Russian women not bound by family obligations.”

Practical Elena Pavlovna understood that her charges would be able to cope with their task only in the conditions of more or less established field medicine. And only one person could fix it, to whom she turned. He was 44 years old Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov.

"For the benefit of the army on the battlefield"

He was born in 1810 into the family of a military treasurer and the daughter of a Moscow merchant, becoming the youngest of 14 children, most of whom died in infancy. His father's friend was a famous doctor Efrem Mukhin, who was the first to notice Nikolai’s interest in medicine. He helped the boy at the age of 14 enter the medical faculty of Moscow University. Nikolai earned his own tuition by working as a dissector in a hospital morgue, which gave him invaluable experience, since at that time medical students were prohibited from dissecting corpses.

Defense of Sevastopol. Hood. D.N. Kardovsky. 1910. Pirogov arrived in the besieged city to help the wounded in November 1854

After graduating from the university among the best, Pirogov went to Dorpat (now Tartu) to work on his dissertation and at the age of 26 received the title of professor of medicine. His studies continued: he spent some time in Germany, where he mastered the latest surgical techniques. Returning to his homeland, Pirogov stayed in Riga due to illness. There he opened a practice and immediately became known as a miracle doctor, having managed to carve a new nose for a local barber. In Dorpat, former teacher Pirogov Ivan Moyer entrusted him with his department, and already in 1841 the young surgeon moved to the capital, where he created the first hospital surgery clinic in Russia. Crowds gathered at his lectures at the Medical-Surgical Academy, just like at concerts of Italian tenors.

Reforming medicine, Nikolai Pirogov first of all established the production of high-quality medical instruments. Under him, the practice of regular ventilation and wet cleaning of hospital wards became mandatory, because once he himself almost died after inhaling hospital miasmas.

Portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. Hood. K.P. Bryullov. 1829. Elena Pavlovna - famous philanthropist, founder of the Holy Cross community of sisters of mercy

It was then that illness and the fear of being left without heirs inspired him with the idea of ​​family happiness, and at the age of 32 Pirogov got married. His chosen one was Ekaterina Dmitrievna Berezina, who bore him two sons - Nikolai and Vladimir (the first became a physicist, the second a historian, but neither of them reached heights in science). Constantly disappearing at work, Pirogov locked his young wife at home, did not take her out into the world, considering it a waste of time, and instead of French novels, he forced Ekaterina Dmitrievna to read books on medicine. Four years later she died in childbirth. Nikolai Ivanovich, having grieved a little, became interested in a new business that captivated him - the introduction of an effective method of pain relief, ether anesthesia.

In 1847 alone, he performed about 300 operations using anesthesia - half of those performed that year in all of Russia. Pirogov also tested this method when providing surgical assistance directly on the battlefields. Having gone to the Caucasus, where the war with the highlanders was in full swing, in the village of Salty, he carried out such operations in the field for the first time.

Soon he married again - according to convenience, which he did not hide at all - to the 22-year-old baroness Alexandra Antonovna Bistrom. Going to stay at her estate, for the sake of family peace, he asked his wife to find him more sick peasants in the area - treating them would make it possible to brighten up the idleness that was unbearable for him.

“THERE IS NO SOLDIER NEAR SEVASTOPOL, NO WOMAN SOLDIER OR SAILOR WHICH WOULD NOT BLESS THE NAME OF PIROGOV and I would not teach my child to pronounce this name with reverence.”

But if Pirogov’s family life improved, his career almost went downhill. When, returning from the Caucasus, he came to the Minister of War Alexander Chernyshev, instead of expressing gratitude, he rudely scolded the surgeon for the disorder in his military uniform. Then Pirogov also received a reprimand - his first during his service. Nikolai Ivanovich, also for the first time, became hysterical; he was about to quit and even leave his ungrateful Fatherland. The situation was saved by Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who invited the doctor to her place and managed to console him.

“The Grand Duchess restored my spirits,” he later wrote. “Her treatment of me made me feel ashamed of my momentary weakness and look at the tactlessness of my superiors as the willful rudeness of lackeys.”

It is clear why, a few years later, Elena Pavlovna turned to him with a request for help in organizing the rescue of the wounded, especially since Pirogov himself was eager to go to Crimea in order to “use his strength and knowledge for the benefit of the army on the battlefield.” All his requests were drowned in a bureaucratic swamp, but the intervention of such a famous philanthropist, a relative of the king, instantly decided the matter.

“Not medicine, but administration”

In November 1854, Nikolai Pirogov arrived in Sevastopol, accompanied by doctors Alexander Obermiller And Vasily Sohranicheva. His faithful assistant, a paramedic, was with him. Ivan Kalashnikov. Later, in the preface to “The Beginnings of General Military Field Surgery,” Pirogov described what he saw as follows:

“The entire road from Bakhchisaray for 30 miles was cluttered with transports of the wounded, guns and fodder. The rain poured down like buckets, the sick and amputees among them lay in twos and threes on the cart, moaning and shivering from the dampness; both people and animals could barely move in knee-deep mud; carrion lay everywhere; At the same time, the screams of the wounded were heard, and the croaking of birds of prey, whole flocks flocking to their prey, and the cries of exhausted drivers, and the distant roar of Sevastopol cannons. Involuntarily we had to think about the future fate of our patients; the premonition was disappointing. It came true."

An examination of the hospital located in the governor's house amazed the surgeon: the wounded lay interspersed with typhoid patients on dirty beds or right on the floor. There were not enough doctors, medicines, or dressings. Pirogov wrote bitterly:

“At a time when all of Russia was pinching lint for Sevastopol, the British were bandaging this lint, and we only had straw.” There were only 25 doctors for 3 thousand wounded, and for the first 10 days after his arrival, Nikolai Ivanovich performed operations from morning to evening, saving those who could still be saved. Then he took up the organization of treatment, having learned from his own experience that “it is not medicine, but the administration that plays the main role in helping the wounded and sick in the theater of war.”

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov wrote about the sisters of mercy: “The presence of a woman, neatly dressed and helping with her participation, enlivens the deplorable vale of suffering and disasters.”

First of all, Pirogov ordered the wounded to be divided into five categories:

1) hopeless;

2) dangerously wounded requiring immediate assistance;

3) heavy, capable of surviving delivery to the hospital;

4) to be sent to the hospital;

5) lightly wounded, who receive assistance on the spot.

This sorting made it possible to relieve the overwhelmed doctors. With great difficulty, the surgeon managed to organize the work of military transport teams with horses and comfortable carts, thanks to which the wounded were quickly transported to the hospital.

Plaster, disinfection, anesthesia and nurses

Only after this was he able to take on his main task - the introduction of new treatment methods. Pirogov was the first to apply plaster bandages to fresh wounds and fractures, which not only avoided bone displacement, but also provided protection against infection.

The surgeon attached great importance to disinfection: he required doctors to wash their hands with alcohol or a bleach solution, thereby removing “harmful enzymes.” Many of his colleagues considered such precautions excessive; It is worth recalling that back then they did not wear any white coats during operations, but, on the contrary, they looked for dirtier clothes - they would still be stained with blood. The widespread use of disinfection began only 10 years later, but Pirogov’s innovations were enough to minimize amputations, which had a high mortality rate.

Dasha Sevastopolskaya is one of the sisters of mercy. Sculpture on the building of the panorama “Defense of Sevastopol 1854–1855.”

The introduction of anesthesia reduced mortality even more significantly. Both ether and the newfangled chloroform, recently used by British doctors to relieve pain during the birth of Queen Victoria herself, were used as anesthesia. Despite this, the Allied army still did not resort to this method, and the mortality rate from wounds in their ranks was very high. Pirogov wrote proudly:

“Russia, having outstripped Europe with our actions... shows the entire enlightened world not only the possibility in application, but the undeniably beneficial effect of broadcasting over the wounded.”

Of course, the surgeon did not forget about the order of the Grand Duchess, making every effort to organize the work of the nurses. Twenty-eight of them arrived in Sevastopol 10 days after it. Having met the arrivals, he divided them into three groups: dressing workers, pharmacists and housewives, and soon appointed transport nurses, whose duties included accompanying the wounded on the way. For each category, Nikolai Ivanovich wrote detailed instructions.

Russian chemist D.I. Mendeleev (1834–1907) spoke with delight about Pirogov: “What a doctor he was!” / Reproduction of TASS Photo Chronicle

It must be said that he had to face such “charms” of the female team as gossip, quarrels, and the confrontation between the “noble” and the “simple”. The boss of the sisters, Alexandra Stakhovich, spoiled the blood of the famous surgeon enough, turning out to be especially rude, stupid and, moreover, distinguished by excessive religious zeal. Fortunately, Pirogov managed to send her to the “mainland” with the wounded officers, and put Ekaterina Bakunina, the field marshal’s great-niece, as her elder sister Mikhail Kutuzov. He wrote about working with her:

“This is an amazing woman: with her education, she works as a nurse, travels with the sick on transports and does not listen to any slander.”

Despite all the difficulties that arose, Pirogov valued the sisters of mercy very highly: they worked equally with men in dressing rooms and operating rooms, cared for the wounded, without fear of enemy bullets or “the horrific spectacle of the most terrible destruction of the human body.” They were also involved in cooking, cleaning and - most importantly - making sure that thieving quartermasters did not steal from the wounded. Pirogov noted in a letter to his wife:

“The presence of a woman, neatly dressed and helpful, enlivens the deplorable vale of suffering and disaster.”

Of the 120 sisters of the Holy Cross Monastery, 17 were killed and died of disease. But nothing could frighten those who responded to the call of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.

Among the sisters of mercy there were those who independently began to help the wounded. For example, the famous Dasha Sevastopolskaya(Mikhailova). The daughter of a sailor who died in the Battle of Sinop, even before the founding of the community in St. Petersburg, she wore men's clothing to combat positions with bandages and lint. Emperor Nicholas I awarded Dasha a gold medal and presented 500 silver rubles.

In the West, the first sister of mercy is considered to be an Englishwoman Florence Nightingale, but she arrived in Crimea, where coalition troops were besieging Sevastopol, in the spring of 1855 - much later than the envoys of Elena Pavlovna, not to mention Dasha. Nikolai Pirogov also pointed out this:

“Oh Miss Neutingel [as in Pirogov’s letter. – V.E.] and we first heard about her “lofty soul ladies” only at the beginning of 1855... We have a duty to claim the palm in a matter so blessed, beneficial and now accepted by all.”

To restore justice and preserve in the memory of the descendants the feat of the sisters of mercy, the surgeon wrote “Historical review of the actions of the Holy Cross community of sisters caring for the wounded and sick,” which became one of the sources of inspiration for the Swiss Henri Dunant- initiator of the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“That was the doctor!”

Of course, Pirogov was helped in Sevastopol not only by his sisters, but also by a friendly team of doctors, which included such future stars of our medicine as Sergey Botkin And Erast Kade, who later became the chief physician of the Mariinsky Hospital in St. Petersburg. Russian doctors were actively supported by their foreign colleagues, including 43 Americans who voluntarily crossed the ocean to defend Crimea.

The arrival of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov in Moscow for the anniversary of the 50th anniversary of his scientific activity on May 22, 1881. Hood. I.E. Repin (sketch). 1883–1888

Always busy, Nikolai Pirogov still found time to give lectures on military field surgery to doctors and anyone interested. A young officer attended these lectures Lev Tolstoy, who subsequently always spoke about Pirogov with great respect. When the surgeon went to Simferopol to buy medicine, a young teacher, a future great chemist, turned to him for advice. Dmitriy Mendeleev: local doctors found he had tuberculosis and predicted that he had six months to live. Having quickly examined the patient, Pirogov only muttered:

“You will live. Don't listen to any fools."

For many years Mendeleev recalled with delight:

“That was the doctor! He saw right through the person and immediately understood my nature.”

The surgeon was even more admired by ordinary soldiers. One day they brought him to the hospital the corpse of a soldier with his head torn off by a shell. The victim's comrades explained:

“We decided, we’ll give it to the doctor and he’ll sew it up. And what? He can do anything!”

Poet Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov wrote on the pages of Sovremennik magazine:

“There is not a soldier near Sevastopol, there is not a soldier or a sailor who would not bless the name of Mr. Pirogov and would not teach her child to pronounce this name with reverence.<…>If there are currently individuals to whom the heart willingly and undividedly gives its best sympathies, then, of course, Mr. Pirogov belongs to such individuals.”

Pirogov worked tirelessly, and as a result his health began to fail. On June 1, 1855, he left the besieged city for St. Petersburg, but not to rest, but “to somehow contribute to the change in military medical affairs in Sevastopol for the better.” In the capital, he handed over to the Minister of War Vasily Dolgorukov memorandum “On the organization of assistance to the wounded.” They thanked him politely and... put the note under the cloth.

Meanwhile, in Crimea everything was coming to a sad conclusion. On June 6, the allies launched an assault on the city. The defenders managed to repel him, but their situation was becoming desperate. Sevastopol was shot at point-blank range; there were no more safe places in it. The day after Pirogov’s departure, a cannonball destroyed his house on Ekaterininskaya Street. On June 28, the admiral was killed by a bullet Pavel Nakhimov.

In August, the Russian army made a last desperate attempt to break through to the city, but was defeated on the Chernaya River. On August 27, the French captured Malakhov Kurgan, a key point of Sevastopol defense. Further confrontation was pointless, and the commander of the Russian army, Prince Mikhail Gorchakov gave the order that same night to remove the defenders from the attack. Doctors and nurses left with the soldiers.

In September, Pirogov returned to Crimea, where he immediately began work: many wounded were waiting for him, taken from Sevastopol and somehow placed in tents. They were sent to Simferopol, but there was not enough room for them there either.

“I had to tirelessly complain, demand and write,” the surgeon himself later recalled. “This caused trouble several times.” Some of my expressions in written requests turned out to be “inappropriate” or not polite enough. The head of the hospital administration, Mr. Ostrogradsky, showed himself to be especially touchy on this score.

After my repeated and vain requests to him to supply us with firewood to heat our ice barracks and sisters’ quarters, Ostrogradsky... complained about me to Prince Gorchakov, and as a result of this complaint we did not receive firewood.” For “impoliteness,” Pirogov was reprimanded first from Gorchakov, and then from the new emperor Alexandra II, but the surgeon no longer cared about the insults. The main thing was to accommodate the wounded and save as many lives as possible.

After the fall of Sevastopol, the war ended. In March 1856, a peace was signed in Paris, according to which Russia received Crimea back, but lost the Black Sea Fleet. At the same time, the coalition’s losses were significantly greater than the Russian ones (170 thousand versus 140 thousand), and the financial situation of the allies was also unenviable.

Doctor from Vinnitsa

In Russia, under the new emperor, a “thaw” came, which also captured Pirogov. After resigning from the Medical-Surgical Academy, he unexpectedly became involved in pedagogy and educational problems. His article “Questions of Life,” published in 1856, aroused such interest (even Decembrists in Siberian exile read it) that the surgeon was offered the post of trustee of the Odessa educational district, from where he was then transferred to Kiev.

Nicholas Church-Tomb Vault of N.I. Pirogov in Vinnitsa

Pirogov's articles on universal equality, human rights, and the accessibility of science and education for all classes were loudly praised by the liberal public. But suddenly Nikolai Ivanovich “messed up”: during a discussion about the admissibility of corporal punishment at school, he publicly approved the use of rods. The liberals immediately ostracized their former favorite, and Pirogov, who took this seriously, resigned. He retired to his estate Vishnya near Vinnitsa, but the quiet life of a landowner quickly became boring to him.

In 1862, he went to Heidelberg as the leader of a group of Russian scientists preparing to defend their dissertation. Many famous naturalists owe their careers to him, including Ilya Mechnikov, whom Pirogov helped not only with advice, but also with money. This episode is interesting. Mechnikov's brother Lev, ally Giuseppe Garibaldi, asked the surgeon to examine the famous revolutionary, who was wounded in the leg in a battle with the royal army. Not a single doctor found a bullet in the wound - only Pirogov succeeded, saving Garibaldi’s leg, and possibly his life.

In 1870, the Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers (soon it was renamed the Russian Red Cross Society) sent him to the theater of war: the Franco-Prussian War began. In 1877, when Pirogov was already 67 years old, Alexander II himself remembered him and asked him to go to Bulgaria, where there was a war with the Turks.

Remembering the sad Crimean experience, the doctor agreed only if he was given complete freedom of action. In three months, he traveled 700 km in a sleigh and chaise, visiting 11 military hospitals and 10 infirmaries. Everywhere Pirogov organized assistance to the wounded and treatment, put supplies in order, and performed operations not only on Russian soldiers and officers, but also on local residents. One of the largest hospitals in Bulgaria still bears his name.

In May 1881, Moscow solemnly celebrated the 50th anniversary of Pirogov’s work “in the field of education, science and citizenship.” The hero of the day did not want to listen to laudatory speeches, but his wife persuaded him to go at least so that his colleagues could examine him: several months before, an ulcer appeared on his tongue that did not heal.

Outstanding surgeon Nikolay Sklifosovsky, who examined Pirogov, diagnosed cancer of the upper jaw. He insisted on an urgent operation, but Pirogov refused in confusion and went to Vienna to see his student, the famous doctor Theodor Billroth. He was immediately convinced that Sklifosovsky was right, but, seeing that the disease had gone too far, he told the teacher that there was no malignant tumor. Reassured, Pirogov returned to his estate, where he received patients and wrote his memoirs.

He worked on “The Diary of an Old Doctor” until his last days. Once he wrote there in his illegible, typically medical handwriting:

“Oh, hurry, hurry! Bad, bad! So, perhaps, I won’t have time to describe even half of St. Petersburg life.”

Sarcophagus with the coffin of N.I. Pirogov in the crypt

The doctor's will came as a surprise to everyone: he ordered his body to be embalmed and displayed in the family crypt. For a convinced Christian, as he became at the end of his life, such a desire was quite unusual. In this regard, there was even a version that Nikolai Ivanovich hoped for future medical successes that would someday allow him to be resurrected.

His student David Vyvodtsev carried out the embalming perfectly, and to this day Pirogov’s body rests in the church-mausoleum of the former Vishnya estate. There are monuments to the famous Russian surgeon in Moscow, Vinnitsa, Tartu and, of course, in Sevastopol - the city with which his fame is forever associated.

Vadim Erlikhman, Candidate of Historical Sciences