Николай Иванович Пирогов

Nikolay ivanovich pirogov

(Nov. 13 (N.S. Nov. 25), 1810 – Nov. 23 (N.S. Dec. 5), 1881)

Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov was a prominent Russian scientist, doctor, pedagogue. He is the most famous figure in the history of Russian medicine and the greatest of all Russian surgeons.

Pirogov was born in Moscow. He was the 13-th child in the family. His father died in 1824, leaving his family without means. N.Pirogov intended to become a civil servant. However, the family doctor Efrem Mukhin, who was a professor of anatomy and physiology at Moscow University, persuaded the authorities to accept him as a student of the Medical Faculty of Moscow University in 1825, even though Pirogov was only fourteen.

Pirogov decided to specialize as a surgeon when he completed his studies in 1828. He was sent to Dorpat (now Tartu) to complete further studies. In 1832 he defended his doctor’s thesis.

He traveled in Germany, visiting the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen to observe the state of surgery, and became a professor at the German University of Dorpat in 1836, aged only 26.

In 1840 Pirogov took up an appointment as professor of surgery at the academy of military medicine in Saint Petersburg.

Pirogov worked as an army surgeon in the Caucasian war in 1847, in the Crimean war in 1854, in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and in the Russian-Turkish war in 1877. From his work in the Crimea, he is considered to be the father of field surgery.

He returned to Saint Petersburg after the end of the Crimean war in 1856, but withdrew from the academy. He wrote a paper on the problems of pedagogy, arguing for the education of the poor, non-Russians, and women. He was appointed a superintendent of schools for the south of Russia. While living in Odessa, Pirogov resided at Deribasovskaya 31 and first suggested the formation of Odessa State Medical University (as the medical faculty of Novorossiysk University).

In 1861 he retired to his estate in Vishnya in central Ukraine. He treated the local peasants, established a clinic, and learn the Ukrainian language as a show of respect. The composer Tchaikovsky was one of his visitors there.

The Pirogov Museum now exists at his former estate.