
Academician Pavlov was one of those scholars whose names live on through the ages. His long, intense and exceptionally fruitful scientific career not only made Russian physiology outstanding in the world, but created a new era in biology and medicine. This fact had to be acknowledged also by bourgeois scientists. The Dutch physiologist Jordan wrote that Pavlov's work made Leningrad a kind of Mecca, a place of pilgrimage for the physiologists of the world.
The British scientist Berger, addressing Pavlov at the XV International Physiological Congress on behalf of the foreign delegations, said: "I think there is no field in the natural sciences where one person is so outstanding as you are in the field of physiology.”
At that Congress (1935) Pavlov was proclaimed the Princeps physiologorum mundi, i. e., the world's foremost physiologist. This was a triumph of Soviet science. It was another striking proof that in our socialist country the great Belensky’s prophetic words are being realized: "In the future, in addition to the victorious Russian sword, we shall lay the weight of Russian thought on the scales of European life.”
Pavlov had to tread a thorny path in his life, one full of bitter trials, disappointments and relentless struggle. In the dark days of the tsarist regime when the universities were controlled despotically by bureaucrats of high and low rank, it was very difficult for such simple, direct, truthful and conscientious people of democratic views and unsubmissive nature as Pavlov to live and study and especially to carry on experimental work. His fate in this respect had much in common with that of other famous progressive Russian biologists, such as Sechenov, Mechnikov, Timiryazev and Michurin. But whereas Sechenov came to the end of his difficult unsettled life long before the Great October Socialist Revolution and Mechnikov died on its eve and moreover in a foreign land; whereas Timiryazev had caught only a glimpse of the Soviet Era's first rays, Pavlov and also Michurin had the good fortune of living under Soviet rule for two decades. He was able to realize all his grand visions and cherished thoughts, to become an active participant in the building of our new joyous life and its ardent spokesman.
The history of physiology both native and foreign is certainly not lacking in noted scholars, but no name in that field shines so brilliantly as that of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.
Details
- Publication Date
- Jun 21, 2022
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781387851416
- Category
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Copyright
- All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License
- Contributors
- By (author): E. A. Asratyan, Editor-in-chief: Laika Press
Specifications
- Pages
- 186
- Binding Type
- Paperback Perfect Bound
- Interior Color
- Black & White
- Dimensions
- US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm)