by Academician Anatoly GRIGORYEV, RAS Vice-President, Noravard GRIGORYAN, Dr. Sc. (Med.), Chief Research Assistant of the RAS Institute of History of Natural Sciences and Technology named after Vavilov The Miraculous Doctor (1897) is the name of a story by the famous Russian writer Alexander Kuprin dedicated to the physician Nikolai Pirogov. This year we celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of this eminent Russian surgeon and anatomist, teacher, public figure, father of field surgery, inventor of a number of effective treatment methods and author of fundamental medical papers, including The Topographical Anatomy atlas of worldwide fame. His scientific and pedagogical heritage has not lost its significance-namely, his concept of the development of secondary and high school is topical even in the 21st century. THE ROAD TO SCIENCE Nikolai Pirogov was born on November 13, 1810, in Moscow and was the 13th child in a large family. His father Ivan Ivanovich worked as a treasurer at the Moscow Provisions Depot, and his mother-Yelizaveta Ivanovna-dedicated herself to the upbringing of 14 children. The future surgeon studied at home. At the age of 12, he entered one of the best private boarding schools of the capital-there he studied arithmetic, algebra, geography, logic, Russian, French and other subjects. In 1824, when he was 14, Pirogov, with the assistance of Yefrem Mukhin, Professor of the Moscow University, author of the first in Russia textbook in surgery, entered the Department of Medicine of this well-known educational establishment. As a student, Pirogov assessed the system of medical education as follows: "I passed the exam for a physician's degree without a single operation on a cadaver observed or made. The similar situation was in some remote universities of Europe, where anatomy was taught using figures and dummies, not cadavers". At the same time he gratefully recalled: "Science in Moscow, despite its back- стр. 46 ... Читать далее