PIROGOV, NIKOLAI°

PIROGOV, NIKOLAI° (1810–1881), Russian physician-surgeon and civic leader. From 1856 to 1858 he was a trustee for the Odessa education district and from 1858 to 1861 he served in the same capacity for Kiev. In south and southwest Russia he came into contact with the Jewish population and became their defender. In a letter to the Ministry of Education, dated Feb. 4, 1857, he argued for compulsory general education which would, at the same time, respect the religious sensitivities of the Jews. He proposed a cadre of Jewish teachers who would have the same rights as their non-Jewish colleagues, and opposed the idea that Christian trustees should be assigned to Jewish educational institutions. In his writings Pirogov pointed out the traditional respect of Jews for education and culture, and supported O. Rabinovich\>\> and J. Tarnopol\>\> in their efforts to publish a Jewish periodical in Russian. He also supported A. Zederbaum\>\> for his publication of a Hebrew periodical. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Morgulis, in: Voskhod, 5 (1881), i–iv, 1–13; Gessen, in: Perezhitoye, 3 (1911), 1–59; L. Greenberg, The Jews in Russia, 1 (1944), 102–3.