The outstanding physician Nikolai Pirogov, one might say, canonized as a saint. Not only did he perform miracles of surgery during his lifetime, after his death his embalmed body “survived” the revolution, war and perestroika ... And it survived better than the remains of the leader of the world proletariat. And in an ordinary rural church on the outskirts of Ukrainian Vinnitsa.

Scientists still cannot fully unravel the recipe by which he was mummified. Local residents are sure that there was a miracle here.

At the small church of Mykola the Wonderworker on the outskirts of the Ukrainian town of Vinnitsa, extraordinary silence reigns. The parishioners of the temple come to light a candle for the repose of the soul of the one whose body was never buried. True, there was an indication of the Holy Synod as early as 1881 ... And the fact that the body of Nikolai Pirogov has remained imperishable for more than a hundred years is partly considered by the inhabitants of the Cherry region to be their merit.

- It is supported by our prayers! my grandmother told me in a whisper at the gates of the temple.

It is generally not customary to speak in the tomb - this, even according to scientists, negatively affects the mummy. And the services in the temple are conducted in low tones.

“When Pirogov performed operations, relatives knelt in front of his office,” says Marina Yukalchuk, a researcher at the Pirogov National Museum-Estate. - And once during Crimean War at the front, soldiers dragged a comrade to the hospital, whose head had been torn off: “Doctor Pirogov will sew!” they had no doubts.

If Pirogov's patients believed that his hand was controlled by divine providence during his lifetime, people do not doubt his ability to work miracles even after death. Many treat the mummy as holy relics and come to ask for health for themselves and their loved ones.

“More than once we found kneeling parishioners in the tomb,” say the temple staff. - And, according to legend, the body continues to heal. Cancer patients also come to him - it is known that Pirogov was knocked down by a tumor of the upper jaw. But basically, Pirogov “works” as a dispensary: ​​they simply ask him for health. From the point of view of the church, this is not very welcome, on the other hand, they pray on the territory of the temple, which means that God will hear their requests.

An inconspicuous door leads to the crypt - like a descent to the basement, just a few steps. In front of the tomb there is a sign “Turn off mobile phones” to avoid loud sounds.

A glass sarcophagus opens before our eyes, the lid of the coffin lies separately. Behind an iron fence like a tomb, the tomb is buried in wreaths of artificial flowers. A crucifix is ​​nailed to the back wall of the crypt. Pirogov lies quietly. Like he just fell asleep. The yellowish tint of the skin is clearly visible in the pale rays of two special spotlights - bright light is contraindicated for mummies. The crypt is a little cooler than outside, but not damp.

- In winter, the temperature should not fall below zero, in summer it should not be more than 20 degrees, - Marina Yukalchuk explains. - Since the room is not specially equipped with air conditioners, and it is impossible to heat here, in cold weather sometimes you have to insulate the tomb on your own - plug the cracks in the doors.

A whole crowd of schoolchildren come to the next excursion to the entrance to the crypt - the children make noise and are not at all afraid to disturb the peace of the mummy: “Of course, we tell each other horror stories that Pirogov will someday wake up. But, to be honest, he is not scary at all and you can immediately see that he was a kind person”, the third graders smile.

Pirogov was embalmed by his wife

The Pirogov National Museum-Estate is located near the church. Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov acquired this estate 20 years before his death, being a renowned doctor, and at first considered this act absurd: "There is a share of charm in every stupidity." Did he know that someday crowds of tourists would pour into Vinnitsa to get in touch with the life of the great scientist.

“Nikolay Pirogov understood that the study of surgery is impossible without the study of cadaveric materials, so the topic of embalming was of great interest to him,” says Marina Yukalchuk. - He was the first in the world who began to store organs in the ice way - he covered the corpses with ice, and then with the help of tools he broke them, removing everything superfluous, isolating only those organs that he needed. And he wrote his teaching works on their basis.

On the showcase in the museum, several copies obtained in this way by Pirogov are still kept, now they are conserved in formalin and look completely unappetizing even for a medical student, but they are of historical value.

- There is erroneous information circulating on the Internet, as if Pirogov bequeathed himself to be embalmed. It’s not like that,” says an employee of the museum-estate. “He diagnosed himself, and shortly before his death, he was honored by all the major specialists of that time, so he had the opportunity to say goodbye to them. But he did not leave any wills. Cancer of the upper jaw did not allow the scientist to eat, he could only drink. They were also treated to champagne ... In a few days, the already medium-sized Pirogov completely lost weight, there is an opinion that death came, including from hunger.

And to embalm his body for history, but most likely mainly as a family heirloom, the widow Alexandra Antonovna decided. She turned to her husband's disciple David Vyvodtsev, and also sent a petition to the Holy Synod, which approved this proposal only four days after the death of the surgeon.

- The exact recipe of Vyvodtsev is still unknown, which kept Pirogov's body in an imperishable state for long years, - says Grigory Kostyuk, professor at Pirogov Vinnitsa National Medical University. - It is known that he definitely used alcohol, thymol, glycerin and distilled water. His method is interesting in that only a few incisions were made during the procedure, and part of the internal organs - the brain, the heart - remained with Pirogov. The fact that there was no excess fat left in the surgeon's body also played a role - he had shrunk badly on the eve of his death.

The funeral of the surgeon, which was attended by several thousand people, took place a month after the death of Pirogov, in January 1882 - the crypt was originally located in a wooden church, more like a barn.

- Then the church was on the territory of the estate - it was the Pirogov family crypt, under lock and key, there was no way for strangers to go there. Then Pirogov's wife also rested in the courtyard of the temple, - says Marina Yukalchuk. - The Pirogovs had two sons, one of whom was buried in the crypt with his father, as evidenced by the slab to the right of the coffin. From them, at the time of the 1917 revolution, two granddaughters, Alexandra and Lydia, lived on the estate. The first, fearing the Bolsheviks, after October events fled to Athens. The second is in France. And in that year, a retired colonel of the Greek army by the name of Gerschelman, the great-great-great-grandson of Pirogov, came to us. And literally kissed the ground near the necropolis. The rest of the descendants have not visited yet.

Naturally, the granddaughters could not transport the body of an outstanding ancestor with them abroad, so the crypt with the body of Pirogov was left to the mercy of fate for a long time.

Mummy comes back to life

Shortly after the revolution of 1917, the John Reed commune settled on the estate for a long time. Nobody touched the sacred remains.

“The great surgeon is still dressed in the uniform of the Privy Councilor in which he was buried. And the hands of the deceased close on an old pectoral cross. Previously, Pirogov's sword was also in the crypt. But in the 30s of the last century, while no one guarded the tomb, unknown robbers broke the first sealed coffin lid. The necropolis was then watched only by the caretaker of the temple, - continues the researcher of the museum. - They also stole the first pectoral cross.

But the worst thing is that the microclimate in the crypt was thus disturbed - Pirogov's body was forgotten for almost 50 years, and when he was remembered in 1945, a special commission that examined him on the orders of the party concluded that the body cannot be restored.

“Although Hitler’s headquarters was in Vinnitsa and much was stolen from the museum, the invaders did not disturb Pirogov’s peace,” continues the employee of the estate museum. “They even put guards on it to prevent looting.

And yet, the Lenin Moscow Laboratory, which monitored the condition of the embalmed leader, took up the first reembalming of Pirogov's body. Especially for this, a laboratory was equipped in the basement of the museum, where the mummy was rehabilitated for about five months.

“The body is all overgrown with mold and fungus due to the cadaveric secretions of fat wax,” says Professor Grigory Kostyuk. “This is the worst thing for us. Pirogov's uniform was also restored at the same time. A new glass coffin was installed, lined with metal from the inside, which is not affected by cadaveric secretions.

A special commission at Vinnitsa University constantly monitors external state bodies - periodically make special masks on the skin. And after the war, this duty was performed by Kharkov specialists. On the basis of Pirogov, scientists from Vinnitsa have long established close cooperation with the Research and educational and methodological center biological and medical technologies, which also monitors the condition of the bodies of Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. At the same time, re-embalming every 5-7 years is carried out by Moscow specialists who do not share the “recipe” of their miraculous balms with Ukrainian ones, because it is classified as “secret”. Ukrainian colleagues also monitor the cosmetic condition of Pirogov.

- After the first reembalmation, Pirogov's body did not last long - it again began to be covered with fat, - says Grigory Kostyuk. - We realized that in Ukraine there is no technology to "bring it back to life." To save the exhibit, in 1979 and 1988 it was taken to Moscow: on a plane that landed at a military airfield near the capital. The surgeon was "soaked" in the same laboratory where they monitor Lenin's condition. Then an amazing thing happened: Pirogov, who was embalmed 40 years earlier than Lenin and remained without proper care for half a century, as a result looked “fresh” the body of a politician. We believe this is the merit of Vyvodtsev's recipe.

In total, eight reembalmings were performed on Pirogov's body, the last one took place in 2005.

“In the 90s, it was not easy - the state did not have money to maintain Pirogov's body, since this is our exhibit - and Ukraine is spending on it,” the museum staff say. - More or less the situation improved in 1997, when the estate acquired the status of a museum and organized excursions began to be led to the necropolis. Political relations have never interfered with scientific Russian-Ukrainian friendship. Although there were rumors in the press that Moscow could take Pirogov's body for itself. But his estate is here. And in fact, everyone understands that disturbing the peace of the mummy is not pleasing.

Just these days, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the surgeon, the so-called Pirogov Readings gathered in Vinnitsa medical workers from all over the world. And for the next memorial service for the repose of the soul of Nikolai Pirogov, a thousand people gathered in the courtyard of the church of St. Nicholas the Saint.

“Pirogov knows everything and hears our prayers,” his admirers are sure.

Vinnitsa-Moscow.

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov is a recognized anatomist of world renown. He founded military field medicine, developed many methods of treatment, as they would say now - innovations. Creator of the first surgical clinic in Russia. Pirogov - a participant in the Crimean War and the defense of Sevastopol. By the end of his life, Pirogov developed a unique method of embalming bodies, with the help of which he was embalmed after death.
The body of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov rests in the mausoleum church near Vinnitsa (Ukraine). The Russian National Research Medical University is named after Pirogov.

133 years since the body of the great scientist Nikolai Pirogov has been kept in a family vault near Vinnitsa. The locals call it their mausoleum. The fact is that the deceased after death was embalmed according to his own recipe, and since then his body has not undergone decomposition or decay. Unlike the ashes of the leader of the world proletariat, no one cared for Pirogov at all for many years, which did not prevent him from remaining safe and sound.

Pirogov was born in Moscow in 1810. At the age of 14, he managed to enter the Medical University. At the same time, Pirogov managed to get a job as a dissector in the anatomical theater. Probably here the future scientist first encountered the secrets and mysteries of the human body. Seeing how everything in this world is perishable, the student was apparently possessed by the dream of someday achieving, if not immortality, then at least the first step towards it.

Graduated from the university one of the first in terms of academic performance. Pirogov went to prepare for a professorship at Yuriev University in the city of Tartu. At that time, this university was considered the best in Russia. 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.

Then the scientist worked in Tartu, where he defended his doctoral dissertation, which made a lot of noise in medical world. He explained the location of the human aorta, which was very important for that time, since abdominal surgery was considered impossible at that time. Suffice it to recall Pushkin's mortal wound in a duel.

Then there was Berlin, where Pirogov studied wisdom, surgical skills, and then returned to his homeland. On the way home, the scientist fell ill and had to spend a long time in Riga. However, barely getting out of bed, he began to carry out plastic surgery. He began with rhinoplasty: he carved out a new nose for a noseless barber. Then he recalled that it was the best nose he had ever made in his life. For that time, Pirogov was considered the best plastic surgeon.

Years go by. Pirogov creates a science - surgical anatomy. Thanks to the discoveries of the scientist, anatomical atlases were created for the first time.

IN personal life, like all great Pirogov showed himself to be a despot. he simply locked his wife within the four walls of a rented and, on the advice of acquaintances, furnished apartment. He didn’t take her to the theater, because he disappeared until late in the anatomical theater, he didn’t go to balls with her, because balls were idleness, he took away her novels and slipped her scientific journals in return. Pirogov jealously pushed his wife away from her friends, because she had to belong entirely to him, just as he belongs entirely to science. And for a woman, probably, there was too much and too little of one great Pirogov.

Ekaterina Dmitrievna died in her fourth year of marriage, leaving Pirogov two sons: the second cost her her life.

Subsequently, Pirogov marries once again the baroness, Bistorm.

One day while walking through the market. Pirogov saw the butchers sawing the carcasses of cows into pieces. The scientist drew attention to the fact that the location of the internal organs is clearly visible on the cut. After some time, he tried this method in the anatomical theater, sawing frozen corpses with a special saw. Pirogov himself called this "ice anatomy". Thus was born a new medical discipline - topographic anatomy.

With the help of cuts made in this way, Pirogov compiled the first anatomical atlas, which became an indispensable guide for surgeons. Now they have the opportunity to operate, causing minimal injury to the patient. This atlas and the technique proposed by Pirogov became the basis for the entire subsequent development of operative surgery.

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov bought the estate near Vinnitsa at the end of his life. Then there was the village of Cherry, later renamed Pirogovo. During these years, the elderly doctor was mainly engaged in administrative and pedagogical work - he opened, for example, Sunday schools. But he did not leave medicine either. By this time, Pirogov had become a convinced Christian, and his professional skills had reached their peak. On his estate, he opened a free hospital and planted various medicinal plants for its needs. In this paradise, planted with lindens and permeated with the smell of a thousand herbs, treatment gave a 100% result, because there were no various hospital infections and stealing quartermasters

Shortly before his death (November 23, and according to the old style on December 5, 1881), he received a monograph by the famous St. Petersburg surgeon, embalmer and anatomologist, a native of Vinnitsa D. Vyvodtsev "Embalming and methods of preserving anatomical preparations ...". In it, the author described the method he found for embalming with a liquid, which included in certain proportions: alcohol, thymol, glycerin and distilled water. This composition drowned out the microbial environment and preserved body volumes.

This was confirmed by the embalming in St. Petersburg of the bodies of the ambassadors of the United States and China for transportation to their homeland. Pirogov, as evidenced by the notes of his wife, very carefully read the work. Perhaps he shared with her the impression of what he had read. In an effort to implement the idea of ​​​​preserving her husband’s body, Alexandra Antonovna ordered a special coffin during his lifetime in Vienna, received consent from the Holy Synod so as not to give the body to the ground, as Christian custom dictates, and writes to David Vyvodtsev with a request to embalm the body of her teacher . He agreed, and after the death of Nikolai Ivanovich, he arrived at the estate, where on the 4th day, in the presence of a priest and a paramedic, he embalmed the body. After embalming, Vyvodtsev excised part of the tumor. It was histologically examined in Kyiv by Professor Ivanovsky, who gave the conclusion: "Characteristic horny cancer." During embalming (unlike Lenin), Vyvodtsev left the brain and internal organs intact, released blood and, under pressure, filled the large and small arteries of the deceased with embalming solution. A few days later the body was transferred to the village church.

The question arose, where to keep the body permanently? The widow found a way out. At this time, a new cemetery was being laid near the house. She buys a plot of land for a family crypt from a rural community for 200 silver rubles, encloses it with a brick fence, and the builders begin the construction of the crypt. The construction of the crypt and the delivery of a special coffin from Vienna took almost two months.

Only on January 24, 1882 at 12 noon did the official funeral take place. The weather was cloudy, the frost was accompanied by a piercing wind, but, despite this, the medical and pedagogical community of Vinnytsia region gathered at the rural cemetery to see off the great doctor and teacher. An open black coffin is placed on a pedestal. Pirogov in the dark uniform of the Privy Councilor of the Ministry public education Russian Empire. This rank was equivalent to the rank of general.

If capital reembalming had not been carried out in Moscow, then, according to the professor of the Vinnitsa Medical University named after. N. I. Pirogov P. Shaporenko - executive secretary of the coordinating Council of anatomists of the CIS countries - the body of the great scientist would have been buried. Reembalming in 1994 and 2000 was carried out in Vinnitsa by Moscow specialists from the Center for Biological Structures. A special laboratory equipped with the necessary equipment is equipped in Vinnitsa. The preservation of the body of an outstanding scientist is monitored by a special regional commission headed by the rector of the Vinnitsa Medical University named after N. Pirogov, Professor Vasily Moroz. For 133, one case of vandalism was noted. At the end of the 20s, robbers visited the crypt, they damaged the glass lid of the coffin, stole Pirogov's sword and pectoral cross. During the years of the civil war, revolution, famines, neither the "whites" nor the "reds" raised their hand to the luminary of medicine. During the Great Patriotic War the body of N. Pirogov was in the crypt, and the Nazis did not touch him.

photo from a newspaper in 2005

Mummification of the body of Vladimir Lenin marked the beginning of the practice of embalming deceased communist (and not only) leaders in the countries of the world. Georgy Dimitrov, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, Klement Gottwald, Evita Peron - they all shared the posthumous fate of the leader October revolution. However, Lenin is not the only mummy in national history. Whose bodies were preserved contrary to the laws of nature?

Pirogov

The famous Russian surgeon Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov became famous as the founder of military field surgery. He operated on the wounded during the Crimean War and during the fighting in Bulgaria in 1877-1878.

The scientist died on November 23, 1881 from cancer. His students and wife, Baroness Alexandra von Bistrom, decided to embalm his body for posterity. On this account, official permission was received from the Holy Synod, which stated that the surgeon was an "exemplary Christian", and his "bright appearance" would inspire the successors of his work.

The mummification procedure on the fourth day after the death of the surgeon was carried out in 4 hours by his colleague David Vyvodtsev, who had previously published a book on embalming. At that time, it was the only description of this kind in Russia. Vyvodtsev, as described in an article published by the Pirogov Museum-Estate in Vinnitsa, proposed using a mixture of alcohol, distilled water, glycerin and thymol to preserve corpses. It was this antiseptic composition that was tested on the surgeon's body.

Its effectiveness can be judged by the fact that for more than 135 years the mummy has not collapsed and retained its original features, although maintaining it appearance was spent negligible compared to the body of Lenin. For more than half a century, there was no care at all.

For the first time, Pirogov's coffin was opened in 1940 - it turned out that in some places the body was covered with mold. In part, it has turned into a fat wax. In 1945, reembalming was carried out for 115 days, which significantly slowed down the decay of tissues. For world science, this was a unique result. Similar works were conducted in the Soviet and post-Soviet times several more times. At present, everyone can see the body of Nikolai Pirogov - it is in a glass sarcophagus in the necropolis church on the territory of his family estate.

Kotovsky

If the body of the surgeon Pirogov was preserved for posterity for his Christian virtues, then Grigory Kotovsky was mummified for the exact opposite qualities. A revolutionary raider from Bessarabia, famous for bank robberies, Kotovsky rendered faithful service to the Bolsheviks during civil war in Ukraine. In 1925, the red commander was killed at his own dacha near Odessa.

The Soviet authorities gave him almost the same magnificent funeral as Lenin, who had died a year earlier. The body of Kotovsky was decided to be placed in a mausoleum in the city of Birzula, later renamed Kotovsk.

The corpse was embalmed by Professor Vladimir Vorobyov, who had previously received a similar experience during the mummification of the leader of the world proletariat. The work went on for several days.

The fate of Kotovsky's mummy turned out to be very sad. On August 5, 1941, German and Romanian invaders entered Kotovsk, and the very next day they pulled the corpse of Kotovsky from the sarcophagus and threw it into a trench dug for the burial of executed Jews and communists.

Parts of the body of the "Bessarabian Robin Hood" were collected in a bag by one of the local residents and kept until the arrival of the Red Army. The mausoleum was restored in 1965, however, already on a reduced scale. In the 1990s, it was locked, the room was regularly flooded with water.

Currently, Kotovsky's body is in a deplorable state. Blogger Denis Kazansky published photographs in 2016 showing that the mummy is a skeletal remains. The vandals ravaged the mausoleum and smashed the window of the coffin, so the exposed bones of the skull lie almost unprotected.

Stalin

Like the mummy of Kotovsky, the body of Stalin, since 1961, when it was taken out of the mausoleum and reburied, has probably already undergone severe decomposition.

Meanwhile, the initial conditions for embalming were quite favorable - specialists began mummification almost immediately after the death of the “father of nations”. According to eyewitnesses, it was possible to achieve the impression that the almighty dictator was simply sleeping in a coffin - outwardly, unlike Lenin, he looked almost like a living one.

Meanwhile, the embalming technology was quite "Leninist" - before mummification, the internal organs were removed and burned. The contents of the skull were transferred to the Brain Institute. Ironically, it was Stalin's body, which could have been better preserved than other domestic mummies, that was on public display for an extremely short time - only 8 years.

100 Great Mysteries of Russian History Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolayevich

Pirogov was dying of starvation

After passing several dozen steps down a steep staircase, you find yourself in a cool and semi-dark room. Lights snatch out of the semi-darkness a sealed glass sarcophagus made at one of the military factories in Moscow, and in it is a coffin. For more than a hundred years now, the body of the world-famous scientist, legendary military surgeon, hero of the Crimean War of 1853-1856, Nikolai Pirogov, has been resting on such an unusual deathbed. All these years he lies in his tomb in the uniform of the Privy Councilor of the Ministry of Public Education of the Russian Empire.

The uniqueness of the Pirogov necropolis is undeniable. Firstly, in no country in the world where embalmed bodies are now buried historical figures- Lenin, Ho Chi Minh City and Kim Il Sung - there is no example of such a long (more than a hundred years) preservation of the remains in a "normal" state. Secondly, we are talking about the mausoleum, which was created in a remote province, in the estate of the deceased - the village of Vishnya, Vinnitsa province.

How is it possible to preserve the body of a man who for the first time in the world used ether anesthesia during surgical operations, the author of the famous book "Fundamentals of General Military Field Surgery" for so many years? This question is still open.

And knowing some of the details from the history of his illness and death, the details of the embalming process in the cold December 1881, one involuntarily admires the talent of Nikolai Ivanovich's student, David Vyvodtsev. He embalmed, among other things, the bodies of the US and Chinese ambassadors who died in St. Petersburg at one time, so that they could be delivered to their homeland.

It was D. Vyvodtsev’s book “On Embalming”, which a grateful student presented to his teacher, that made Pirogov’s wife Alexandra Antonovna, during the life of her husband, who was dying of an incurable disease, decide to save his body. “Most Gracious Sovereign David Ilyich,” she writes a letter to Vyvodtsev, “please forgive me generously if I disturb you with my sad news ... Wouldn’t you consider it hard work, when it pleases the Lord God to call Nikolai Ivanovich to him, to come to the village. Cherry and embalm his body, which I would like to preserve incorruptible for me and posterity. Vyvodtsev agreed, writing to Pirogov's wife that for this it was necessary to prepare alcohol, glycerin, thymol ...

N.I. Pirogov. Photo 1855

When N. Pirogov died on December 5, 1881 (the Holy Synod had already agreed to his wife not to betray Nikolai Ivanovich to the ground, as Christian custom dictates), Vyvodtsev arrived at the estate. By that time, a string had been delivered from Vienna, ordered in advance by Alexandra Antonovna. In it, according to the museum staff, he lies to this hour.

Only on the fourth day after his death, Vyvodtsev began embalming. The paramedic helped him. The process, at which the priest was present, lasted several hours. When relatives were allowed to enter the room, they saw the deceased father and husband as if sleeping. It has been this way for over 60 years! Until 1944-1945, when immediately after the liberation of Vinnitsa from the German invaders, on the orders of Voroshilov, preparations began for the first re-embalming of the body of the legendary surgeon. Throughout the war, by the way, it was in the estate, the Germans did not touch it.

Curious details that speak of high skill D. Vyvodtsev and the uniqueness of his embalming technique. He left intact both the brain and internal organs. To this day, only a few incisions remain on the body of Nikolai Ivanovich - in the area of ​​​​the carotid artery and groin. Using the law of physics about communicating vessels, Pirogov's student filled under pressure the large blood arteries of the deceased with a special solution, which ensured the safety of the body for more than half a century.

In all likelihood, such a striking effect was also achieved due to the fact that Pirogov was a man of "small bones". He never suffered from obesity, was lean and fit all his life. And what, apparently, is also significant - in fact, he left the other world from starvation.

Pirogov fell ill unexpectedly, when he was already living permanently in his estate Cherry. An ulcer formed in the upper part of the jaw. As it turned out later - malignant.

- With such a disease, - said Galina Semyonovna Sobchuk, director of the museum-estate of N. Pirogov, - Nikolai Ivanovich was not even able to simply swallow. To somehow support life, he was given small doses of champagne and expressed breast milk.

... The tomb of Nikolai Pirogov is now, as it were, in the basement of the church-necropolis, built more than a hundred years ago on the edge of the rural cemetery. It was here that Alexandra Antonovna prudently bought a piece of land for 200 silver rubles from the village community under the mausoleum of her husband. Here everything is well-groomed, everything is in the colors that the famous surgeon loved so much. In his estate, according to eyewitnesses, there were more than a hundred varieties of roses. Varieties, not bushes. Nikolai Ivanovich himself grew them, as well as his magnificent garden.

In the ritual church-necropolis above the tomb there is a beautiful iconostasis, ancient icons. It was restored, but actually recreated anew in accordance with a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1980s. It appeared after the Minister of Health of the USSR Academician Boris Petrovsky visited here in 1978 and saw the deplorable state of the building. That year, a group of specialists from the unique Moscow Center for Embalming Problems arrived here. Pirogov's body was decided for the first time post-war years send to the laboratory at the mausoleum of V.I. Lenin. And then - in 1994 and later, reembalming was carried out by Moscow specialists.

Alas, in last years caused a storm of political rumors: they say, Muscovites, Russia want to take Nikolai Pirogov from us.

How can one not recall the words that sounded from the stands of congresses of Ukrainian doctors back in the 1920s: “Pirogov belongs not only to the country in which he was born, he belongs to world medicine. The mission to preserve his remains fell to the lot and honor of Ukraine.”

This text is an introductory piece. From the book Russian. History, culture, traditions author Manyshev Sergey Borisovich

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Professor Pirogov The capture of Salt was Vorontsov's first victory over Shamil. But the viceroy's triumph was overshadowed by the fact that neither one nor the other took a direct part in the battle. As well as huge material losses (more than 12 thousand artillery pieces were fired

From the book 900 DAYS OF BLOCKADE. Leningrad 1941-1944 author Kovalchuk Valentin Mikhailovich

5. Elimination of the consequences of the hungry winter of 1941/42

From the book Great People Who Changed the World author Grigorova Darina

Nikolai Pirogov - a surgeon from God The name of the Russian surgeon and anatomist Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov is known not only to doctors, but to all cultured people. Pirogov in the history of surgery took the same place as Mendeleev - in the history of chemistry, Pavlov - in the history of physiology,

From the book One Hundred Stalin's Falcons. In the battles for the motherland author Falaleev Fedor Yakovlevich

Hero Soviet Union guards Captain Pirogov V.V. “Free hunting” of a bomber - a low torpedo bomber In December 1943, the German command, taking advantage of the duration of the dark time in the north, conducted transports in the Honningsvåg - Kirkines section.

From the book One Hundred Stories about Crimea author Krishtof Elena Georgievna

Pirogov and sisters She walked next to a tall wagon loaded with wounded. More recently, in the same wagons, the dead were brought to the Grafskaya pier, and then the non-commissioned officer, nicknamed Charon, transported them to the North side - to bury ... Now between the South and North sides

Pirogov Nikolay Ivanovich (1810-1881)
surgeon, teacher, public figure,
corresponding member Russian Academy Sciences.

Born on 13 (25) 11/1810 in Moscow in large family employee. In 1828 he graduated Faculty of Medicine Moscow University, then at Derpt (now Tartu) University he defended his doctoral dissertation, which solved the difficult problem of the method of ligation of the abdominal aorta; in 1836-40 he was a professor of theoretical and practical surgery at this university. In 1841-1856. - Professor of the hospital surgical clinic, pathological and surgical anatomy and head of the Institute of Practical Anatomy of the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy. He performed a fantastic number of surgeries. He recorded the history of each disease in detail and consistently, which allowed him and other doctors to constantly look for new methods of treatment and check the results. Pirogov is one of the founders of surgery as a scientific medical discipline. With the works "Surgical anatomy of arterial trunks and fascia" (1837), "Topographic anatomy illustrated by cuts through frozen human corpses" (1852-1859) and others, Pirogov laid the foundation for topographic anatomy and operative surgery. Developed the principles of layer-by-layer preparation in the study of anatomical regions, arteries and fascia, etc.; contributed to the widespread use of the experimental method in surgery. For the first time in Russia, he came up with the idea of ​​plastic surgery ("On plastic surgery in general and on rhinoplasty in particular", 1835); for the first time in the world put forward the idea of ​​bone grafting. He developed a number of important operations and surgical techniques (resection of the knee joint, transection of the Achilles tendon, etc.). The first to offer rectal anesthesia; one of the first to use ether anesthesia in the clinic. Pirogov was the first in the world to use (1847) anesthesia in military field surgery. He suggested the existence of pathogens that cause suppuration of wounds ("hospital miasms"). Performed valuable research on the pathological anatomy of cholera (1849).
In 1855 he participated in the defense of Sevastopol (1854-1855). He was a trustee of the Odessa (1856-1858) and Kyiv (1858-1861) educational districts. In 1862-1866, he supervised the studies of young Russian scientists sent abroad (to Heidelberg). Since 1866, as a consultant on military medicine and surgery, he took part in the Franco-Prussian (1870-1871) and Russian-Turkish (1877-1878) wars. Pirogov was remembered as a philanthropist, showing by his example that a military doctor should not be limited to distributing powders and amputating limbs. He himself searched the warehouses for blankets for the wounded, knocked out firewood for hospitals, checked the pharmacist's reports and sealed the pots of soup so that the quartermasters would not steal food for the soldiers on the way to the soldiers.
Pirogov is the founder of military field surgery. In the works "The beginning of general military field surgery" (1865-1866), "Military medical business and private assistance in the theater of war in Bulgaria and in the rear ..." (1879) and others, he expressed the most important provisions about the war as "traumatic epidemic", about the dependence of the treatment of wounds on the properties of the injuring weapon, about the unity of treatment and evacuation, about sorting the wounded; for the first time proposed to arrange a "storage place" - a prototype of a modern sorting point. Pirogov pointed out the importance of correct surgical treatment, recommended the use of "saving surgery" (refused early amputations for gunshot wounds of extremities with bone injuries). Pirogov developed and put into practice methods of limb immobilization (starch, plaster bandages), he was the first to apply a plaster bandage in the field (1854); During the defense of Sevastopol (1855), he created the Exaltation of the Cross Community of Sisters of Mercy, which provided invaluable assistance in caring for the wounded during the war. Pirogov emphasized the great importance of prevention in medicine, and also preached the principles of careful treatment of patients, especially during the operation, using all possible methods of anesthesia to eliminate discomfort as much as possible. As a teacher, Pirogov fought against class prejudices in the field of upbringing and education, advocated the so-called autonomy of universities, for increasing their role in disseminating knowledge among the people. Striving for the implementation of the universal primary education, was the organizer of Sunday folk schools in Kyiv.
Pirogov died on November 23 (December 5), 1881. Shortly before his death, the scientist made another discovery - he proposed a completely new way of embalming the dead. And in this way the body of N.I. Pirogov, at the request of the widow, was embalmed by his student D. Vyvodtsev and is stored in the village of Pirogovo (former Cherry) in Vinnitsa region (Ukraine). Above the crypt, where in a special hermosarcophagus in the black uniform of a Privy Councilor under glass lies the body of the great surgeon, a temple was built, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra.

Text from Big Soviet encyclopedia. edited by P. E. Zabludovsky, M. B. Mirsky. (abbreviated with additions).