This article is the first part of two articles on Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov. In this article we will discuss how Pirogov developed in his early professional career his unique scientific attitude toward medical problems. He extended this scientific view already before his appointment as Professor of Applied Anatomy and Hospital Surgery at the Medical-Surgical Academy and chief surgeon of the Second Military Landforce Hospital (with 1000 beds) in 1841. After his resignation as Professor in 1860 and during his retirement he used his views and skills towards the management of mass casualties during wars or others, which eventually developed into the International Red Cross.In the second article "Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov as an innovator in anatomy, surgery, and anaesthesiology." we will highlight his professional career as an anatomist, surgeon and anaesthesiologist. The authors of these two parts want to emphasize that these two articles are an extract from previously published extensive articles related to Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov. You can find these articles in the reference list under the name of the first author [20][21][22][23][24][25].

Surgeon Nikolay I. Pirogov and Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Romanova, née Württemberg, contributed substantially to the emergence of neutral organised care to soldiers during times of war and victims of epidemics. They closely cooperated in organising and training women as nurses to care for the wounded at the battlefront during the Crimean war. Russia became the first country to send trained nurses to the Crimea. They became a model for other women to train as nurses by the Red Cross. Their expertise was precious during the famine and cholera epidemics. During the Crimean war, Pirogov pleaded for the establishment of an international treaty to oversee the provision of medical help, including civilian volunteers, to both civilian and military victims of war, regardless of rank or nationality. Pirogov was a founder and Privy Councillor of the Russian Red Cross. Internationally he acted as Inspector-General for the Red Cross to report on the medical care in the Franco-German and Russian-Turkish War.

The Dutchman Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) and the Russian Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810–1881) were brilliant physicians who made significant contributions to the practice of medicine. Herman Boerhaave graduated as a doctor in 1693 and eventually became professor of medicine, botany and chemistry at the University of the city Leiden. He is perhaps best known as a teacher and for introducing bedside teaching to the medical curriculum. Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov qualified as a physician in 1828 at the Moscow University, was awarded with his PhD at the German-Baltic University of Dorpat in 1832. In 1836 he was appointed as a professor in Dorpat and in 1841 as professor of surgery and applied anatomy at the Imperial Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Scientific achievements of N. I. Pirogov in medicine are multifaceted: he is the originator of unique technologies for studying the structure of a human being and developed anatomical atlases on these technologies. He was a virtuoso surgeon, an early adopter of ether anaesthesia, and innovator of medical triage and evacuation of the wounded. Why in one article a comparison the scientific achievements of these two brilliant personalities, who have entered the world history of medicine, are investigated, becomes clear from the words of N. I. Pirogov, who greatly appreciated Herman Boerhaave. Pirogov wrote that “…he did not consider himself an equal to Herman Boerhaave…” Was Pirogov right or were it modest words, this is up to the reader to decide. The influence of Anglo-Saxon literature and scientific schools, the role of Herman Boerhaave in the professional develop ment of N. I. Pirogov, and the innovations created by them in medicine were analysed on basis of archival documents.