This mummy remains unchanged for 40 years longer than the mummy of V. Lenin.
In the Ukrainian village of Vishnya near Vinnitsa there is an unusual mausoleum - in the family crypt, in the church-burial vault of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the embalmed body of the world famous scientist, legendary military surgeon Nikolai Pirogov is preserved.
Scientists still cannot figure out the recipe by which Pirogov's body was mummified. And people come to the church to bow to him as to the holy relics and ask for help.
The Vinnytsia necropolis is unique: in no mausoleum in the world mummies have been preserved for more than a hundred years in this state.
Church-necropolis, which houses the sarcophagus of N. Pirogov
Local residents believe that the main secret of the excellent preservation of the mummy is in their collective prayers and the correct attitude towards the deceased: it is not customary to speak in the tomb, services in the temple are conducted in lowered tones, they come to the doctor's mummy to pray like to holy relics and ask for health …
A. Sidorov. N. I. Pirogov and K. D. Ushinsky in Heidelberg
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People believe that even during his lifetime, the hand of Pirogov was ruled by divine providence. M. Yukalchuk, a researcher at the National Museum-Estate of Pirogov, says: “When Pirogov did the surgery, his relatives would kneel in front of his office. And once during the Crimean War at the front, soldiers dragged a comrade to the hospital, whose head was blown off: "Doctor Pirogov will sew it on!" - they did not doubt."
Left - L. Koshtelyanchuk. N. I. Pirogov and sailor Peter Koshka. On the right is I. Tikhy. N. I. Pirogov examines the patient D. I. Mendeleev
Outstanding surgeon Nikolai Pirogov performed about 10,000 operations, saved the lives of hundreds of wounded during the Crimean, Franco-Prussian and Russian-Turkish wars, created military field surgery, founded the Red Cross Society, laid the foundation for a new science - surgical anatomy. He was the first to use ether anesthesia during surgery. He spent the last years of his life on an estate in the village of Vishnya, where he opened a free clinic and received patients.
The secret of the mummification of Pirogov's body has not yet been solved
The topic of embalming during his lifetime was of great interest to Pirogov. There is a version that the doctor himself bequeathed to mummify his body, but this is not true.
Nikolai Pirogov died of cancer of the upper jaw. He knew about his diagnosis and his imminent death. However, the doctor did not draw up any wills. It was his widow, Alexandra Antonovna, who decided to embalm the body of the deceased for history. For this she sent a petition to the Holy Synod and, having received permission.
And then she turned for help to a student of Pirogov, D. Vyvodtsev, the author of a scientific work on embalming.
I. E. Repin. Portrait of the surgeon N. I. Pirogov, 1881. Fragment
Scientists have repeatedly tried to unravel the secret of the mummification of Pirogov's body, but they only managed to get closer to the truth.
Professor of Vinnytsia National Medical University G. Kostyuk says: “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 was very dry on the eve of his death."
Mummy of surgeon N. Pirogov in the tomb
The mummy might not have survived to this day, because due to the historical events of the first half of the twentieth century, it was forgotten for a while. In the 1930s. the robbers broke the sealed coffin lid and stole Pirogov's pectoral cross and sword.
The microclimate in the crypt was disturbed, and when in 1945 a special commission examined the mummy, it came to the conclusion that it could not be restored. And yet the Moscow laboratory named after Lenina took up the rebalancing.
For about 5 months, they tried to rehabilitate the mummy in the basement of the museum. Since then, rebalancing has been carried out every 5-7 years. As a result, Pirogov's mummy is in better condition than Lenin's.