And what did pavlov do. Ivan Pavlov: world discoveries of the great Russian physiologist. Life and scientific activity

At all times, the Russian land was famous for talented people who were able to accomplish both a military feat and a great scientific discovery. Each such person deserves the closest attention from the public. One of these pundits is Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose brief biography will be studied in the article as detailed as possible.

Birth

The future brilliant scientist was born on September 26, 1849 in the city of Ryazan. The progenitors of our hero, both on the father's side and on the mother's side, devoted their entire lives to serving God in the Russian Orthodox Church. Ivan's father's name was Pyotr Dmitrievich, and his mother's name was Varvara Ivanovna.

Education

In 1864, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose biography is interesting to numerous readers even many years after his death, successfully graduated from the theological seminary. However, while studying in the last year of this educational institution, he read a book about the reflexes of the brain, which completely turned his mind and worldview.

In 1870, Pavlov became a full-time student at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. This is largely due to the fact that the former seminarians at that time were very limited in choosing their future fate. But literally two weeks later he was transferred to the natural department. Ivan chose the study of the physiology of various animals as a specialization.

Scientific activity

Being a follower of Sechenov, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (his biography contains many interesting facts) for ten years sought to get a gastrointestinal fistula. The scientist also experimented with cutting the esophagus in such a way that food did not enter the stomach. Thanks to these experiments, the researcher found out the nuances of the secretion of gastric juice.

In 1903, Pavlov acted as a speaker at an international conference in Madrid. And the very next year, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize for in-depth study of the functional features of the glands of the digestive system.

Loud performance

In the spring of 1918, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose brief biography can let the reader understand his impressive contribution to science, gave a course of burning lectures. In these scientific works, the professor spoke about the human mind in general and about Russian in particular. It is worth noting that in his speeches the scientist very critically analyzed the subtleties and nuances of the Russian mentality, especially noting the lack of discipline of an intellectual nature.

Temptation

There is information that during the period of civil armed confrontation and total communism, which did not allocate any money to Pavlov for research, he received an offer from the Swedish Academy of Sciences to move to Stockholm. In the capital of this Scandinavian state, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (his biography and his merits command respect) could get the most comfortable conditions for his scientific work. However, our great compatriot categorically rejected this proposal, arguing that he loves his native land very much and is not going to move anywhere.

After some time, the top Soviet leadership issued an order to build an institute near Leningrad. In this institution, the scientist worked until 1936.

curious moment

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (the biography and interesting facts of the life of this academician cannot be ignored) was a very big fan of gymnastics, and in general he was an ardent supporter of a healthy lifestyle. That is why he created a society in which hardened fans of exercise and cycling gathered. In this circle, the scientist was even the chairman.

Death

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (a brief biography does not allow describing all his virtues) died on February 27, 1936 in Leningrad. According to various sources, the cause of death is considered pneumonia or the effect of poison. Based on the will of the deceased, he was buried according to Orthodox canons in the church in Koltushi. After that, the body of the deceased was transported to the Tauride Palace, where they held an official farewell ceremony for him. Near the coffin was put up a guard of honor from among the scientists of various educational institutions and members of the Academy of Sciences. They interred a scientist in a cemetery called Literary Bridges.

Scientific contribution

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose biography and scientific achievements did not go unnoticed by his contemporaries, even after his death had a significant impact on medicine. The deceased professor became a truly symbol of Soviet science, and many considered his achievements in this area as a real ideological feat. Under the guise of "defending Pavlov's heritage" in 1950, a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences was held, at which many luminaries of physiology were seriously persecuted, expressing their vision of some fundamental positions of research and experiments. In fairness, it should be said that such a policy was contrary to the principles that Pavlov professed during his lifetime.

Conclusion

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose brief biography is given above, had many awards. In addition to the Nobel Prize, the scientist was awarded the Kotenius medal, the Copley medal and the Krunov lecture.

In 1935, the man was recognized as "the elder of the physiology of the world." He received this title during the 15th International Congress of Physiologists. We point out that neither before nor after him, not a single representative of biology could receive the same title and was not so glorified.

The great Russian scientist, physiologist, creator of the materialistic doctrine of the higher nervous activity of animals and humans. Graduate of St. Petersburg University (1876) and Medical-Surgical Academy (1879). Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1907), Russian Academy of Sciences (1917), USSR Academy of Sciences (1925). Nobel Prize winner (1904).

Main scientific works

"Centrifugal nerves of the heart" (1883); "Lectures on the work of the main digestive glands" (1897); “Twenty years of experience in the objective study of the higher nervous activity (behavior) of animals. Conditioned reflexes "(1923); "Lectures on the work of the cerebral hemispheres" (1927.

Contribution to the development of medicine

Since 1878, he headed the research laboratory at the clinic of S.P. Botkin at the Military Medical Academy.

He headed the physiological department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and the Department of Pharmacology of the Military Medical Academy (since 1890).

In 1904, he received the Nobel Prize for his work on digestion.

From 1907, he headed the physiological laboratory of the Academy of Sciences (which in the Soviet period became the largest physiological institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, now bearing the name of I.P. Pavlov).

He supervised the work of the biological station, organized for his research by decision of the Council of People's Commissars (1921) in the village of Koltushi (now Pavlovo) near Leningrad.

The scientific significance of the works of I.P. Pavlov is so great that the history of physiology is divided into stages - pre-pavlovsk and pavlovsky.

He created fundamentally new methods of research, introduced into practice the method of chronic experiment, which makes it possible to study the activity of a normal organism in its connection with the environment.

The most outstanding studies of I.P. Pavlov relate to the field of physiology of blood circulation, physiology of digestion and higher nervous activity.

For the first time on the heart of a warm-blooded animal, he showed the existence of special nerve fibers that enhance and weaken the activity of the heart. In the future, this served as the basis for the development of his theory of the trophic function of the nervous system.

He showed that the activity of the digestive tract is under the regulatory influence of the cerebral cortex.

The completion of physiological work on blood circulation and digestion was his teaching on higher nervous activity.

He showed that at the heart of the so-called. mental (mental) activity are material, physiological processes occurring in the higher part of the central nervous system - the cerebral cortex.

He discovered and studied the conditioned reflexes underlying higher nervous activity. Revealed a number of the most complex processes occurring in the brain.

He explained the mechanism of sleep, hypnosis, characterized the types of the nervous system, explained the essence of a number of human mental illnesses and suggested methods for their treatment.

Studying the higher nervous activity of man, he developed the doctrine of the second signal system, which, unlike the first signal system inherent in man and animals, is characteristic only of man (articulate speech and abstract thinking). Through signaling systems, the human brain reflects all the diversity of the external world, analyzes and synthesizes incoming stimuli, which constitutes the physiological foundations of human thinking.

For the first time in the history of physiology, he applied sterile operations on animals on a large scale.

The teachings of I.P. Pavlov had a huge impact on the development of physiology, medicine, psychology, and pedagogy.

In 1935, the International Physiological Congress, chaired by I.P. Pavlov in Leningrad and Moscow, awarded him the title "Elders physiologists of the world" (princeps physiologorum mundi).

In the 1920s and 1930s, IP Pavlov repeatedly spoke out (in letters to the country's leadership) against arbitrariness, violence, and the suppression of freedom of thought.

In "Letter to the youth" (1935) I.P. Pavlov wrote: “Learn the basics of science before you try to climb it... Learn to do the dirty work of science... Never think you know everything. And no matter how highly you are valued, always have the courage to say to yourself: "I am an ignoramus."

Not a single physiologist of the world was as famous as Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the creator of the materialistic doctrine of the higher nervous activity of animals and humans. This doctrine is of great practical importance in medicine and pedagogy, in philosophy and psychology, in sports, work, in any human activity - everywhere it serves as the basis and starting point.

The main directions of Pavlov's scientific activity are the study of the physiology of blood circulation, digestion and higher nervous activity. The scientist developed methods of surgical operations to create an "isolated ventricle" and the imposition of fistulas of the digestive glands, applied a new approach for his time - a "chronic experiment", which allows observations to be made on practically healthy animals in conditions as close as possible to natural ones. This method made it possible to minimize the distorting effect of "acute" experiments requiring serious surgical intervention, separation of parts of the body and anesthesia of the animal. Using the "isolated ventricle" method, Pavlov established the presence of two phases of juice secretion: neuro-reflex and humoral-clinical.

The next stage in the scientific activity of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov is the study of higher nervous activity. The transition from work in the field of digestion was due to his ideas about the adaptive nature of the activity of the digestive glands. Pavlov believed that adaptive phenomena are determined not just by reflexes from the oral cavity: the cause should be sought in mental excitation. As new data were obtained on the functioning of the external parts of the brain, a new scientific discipline was formed - the science of higher nervous activity. It was based on the idea of ​​dividing reflexes (mental factors) into conditional and unconditional.

Pavlov and his collaborators discovered the laws of formation and extinction of conditioned reflexes; proved that conditioned reflex activity is carried out with the participation of the cerebral cortex. In the cerebral cortex, the center of inhibition was discovered - the antipode of the center of excitation; different types and types of braking (external, internal) were investigated; the laws of distribution and narrowing of the sphere of action of excitation and inhibition - the main nervous processes - were discovered; the problems of sleep are studied and its phases are established; the protective role of inhibition was studied; the role of the collision of the processes of excitation and inhibition in the emergence of neuroses has been studied.

Pavlov became widely known for his doctrine of the types of the nervous system, which is also based on ideas about the relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition.

Finally, another merit of Pavlov is the doctrine of signal systems. In addition to the first signal system, which is also inherent in animals, a person also has a second signal system - a special form of higher nervous activity associated with speech function and abstract thinking.

Pavlov formulated ideas about the analytical and synthetic activity of the brain and created the doctrine of analyzers, the localization of functions in the cerebral cortex and the systemic nature of the work of the cerebral hemispheres.

The scientific work of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov had a huge impact on the development of related fields - medicine and biology, left a noticeable mark in psychiatry and psychology. Under the influence of his ideas, large scientific schools were formed in therapy, surgery, psychiatry, and neuropathology. psychology nervous pavlov

In 1904 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize for research into the mechanisms of digestion.

In 1907 Pavlov was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; foreign member of the Royal Society of London.

In 1915 He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London.

In 1928 became an honorary member of the Royal Society of Physicians of London.

In 1935 at the age of 86 (!) Pavlov chaired the sessions of the 15th International Physiological Congress, held in Moscow and Leningrad.

Analysis of the biographical creative path of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

As I read various biographies of Ivan Petrovich, an image of an icebreaker, a tank, which makes its way through the jungle, ice, through, leading people like a tug of a caravan of ships, was created in my imagination. Feeling the inexhaustible energy that bubbles up from this great human being, the feeling of unshakable power, closely intertwined with a passion for science. A man with self-respect, a brilliant thinker, at the same time he was a very modest patriot of his Motherland who did not tolerate admiration for himself.

One gets the impression that it was not the circumstances, not the people around him that formed him as a scientist, but he himself! Exclusively due to his diligence, perseverance in achieving the goal, his ardent love for physiology. Moreover, by his example, assistance, Ivan Petrovich helped the formation of many other scientists.

None of the Russian scientists of that time, even Mendeleev, received such fame abroad. “This is a star that illuminates the world, shedding light on paths not yet explored,” HG Wells said about him. He was called "a romantic, almost legendary personality", "a citizen of the world".

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 26, 1849 in Ryazan. His mother, Varvara Ivanovna, came from a family of a priest; father, Pyotr Dmitrievich, was a priest who first served in a poor parish, but thanks to his pastoral zeal, over time became rector of one of the best churches in Ryazan. From early childhood, Pavlov took over from his father perseverance in achieving goals and a constant desire for self-improvement. At the request of his parents, Pavlov attended the initial course of the theological seminary, and in 1860 he entered the Ryazan Theological School. There he was able to continue studying the subjects that interested him most, in particular, the natural sciences. Seminarian Ivan Pavlov excelled particularly in terms of discussions. He remained an avid debater for life, did not like it when people agreed with him, and rushed at the enemy, striving to refute his arguments.

In his father's extensive library, Ivan somehow found a book by G.G. Levi with colorful pictures that once and for all struck his imagination. It was called "Physiology of everyday life". Read twice, as his father taught him to do with each book (a rule that his son followed strictly in the future), "Physiology of Everyday Life" sunk into his soul so deeply that, even as an adult, "the first physiologist of the world", at every opportunity to memory quoted entire pages from there. And who knows - he would have become a physiologist if this unexpected meeting with science had not happened in childhood, so skillfully, with enthusiasm set forth.

His passionate desire to study science, especially biology, was reinforced by reading the popular books of D. Pisarev, a publicist and critic, a revolutionary democrat, whose work led Pavlov to study the theory of Charles Darwin.

At the end of the 1980s, the Russian government changed its prescription, allowing students of theological seminaries to continue their education in secular educational institutions. Fascinated by the natural sciences, in 1870 Pavlov entered St. Petersburg University in the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.

Student Ivan Pavlov plunged headlong into the teachings. He settled with one of his Ryazan friends here, on Vasilievsky Island, not far from the university, in the house of Baroness Rahl. Money was tight. The koshta was not enough. Moreover, as a result of transfers from the legal department to the natural sciences, student Pavlov, as a latecomer, lost his scholarship, and now he had to rely only on himself. I had to earn extra money with private lessons, translations, in the student canteen, lean mainly on free bread, flavoring it with mustard for a change, since they gave it as much as they wanted.

And at that time, Serafima Vasilievna Karchevskaya, a student of women's courses, became his closest friend, who also came to St. Petersburg to study and dreamed of becoming a teacher.

When she, having finished her studies, left for a remote province to work in a rural school, Ivan Pavlov began to pour out his soul in letters.

Best of the day

His interest in physiology increased after he read I. Sechenov's book "Reflexes of the Brain", but he managed to master this subject only after he was trained in the laboratory of I. Zion, who studied the role of depressor nerves. As spellbound, the student Pavlov listened to the professor's explanations. “We were directly struck by his masterfully simple exposition of the most difficult physiological questions,” he wrote later, “and his truly artistic ability to set up experiments. Such a teacher is not forgotten for life. Under his guidance, I did my first physiological work.

Pavlov's first scientific study was the study of the secretory innervation of the pancreas. For him, I. Pavlov and M. Afanasiev were awarded the gold medal of the university.

After receiving the title of candidate of natural sciences in 1875, Pavlov entered the third year of the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg (later reorganized into the Military Medical Academy), where he hoped to become an assistant to Zion, who shortly before that was appointed ordinary professor of the Department of Physiology. However, Zion left Russia after government officials blocked the appointment after learning of his Jewish heritage. Refusing to work with Zion's successor, Pavlov became an assistant at the Veterinary Institute, where he continued to study digestion and circulation for two years.

In the summer of 1877 he worked in Breslau, Germany, with Rudolf Heidenhain, a specialist in digestion. The following year, at the invitation of S. Botkin, Pavlov began working in the physiological laboratory at his clinic in Breslau, not yet having a medical degree, which Pavlov received in 1879. In the laboratory of Botkin, Pavlov actually supervised all pharmacological and physiological research. In the same year, Ivan Petrovich began research on the physiology of digestion, which continued for more than twenty years. Many of Pavlov's studies in the eighties concerned the circulatory system, in particular the regulation of heart function and blood pressure.

In 1881, a happy event took place, Ivan Petrovich married Serafima Vasilievna Karchevskaya, from whom he had four sons and a daughter. However, the decade that began so well was the most difficult for him and for his family. “There was not enough money to buy furniture, kitchen, dining and tea utensils,” his wife recalled. Endless wanderings in other people's apartments for a long time, the Pavlovs lived with their brother Dmitry in the university apartment that was supposed to be for him. The gravest misfortune is the death of the first-born, and literally a year later again the unexpected death of a young son, the despair of Serafima Vasilievna, her long illness. All this unsettled, took away the strength so necessary for scientific studies.

And there was a year that Pavlov's wife would call "desperate," when Ivan Petrovich's courage betrayed him. He lost faith in his abilities and in the ability to radically change the life of the family. And then Serafima Vasilievna, who was no longer the enthusiastic student who began her family life, began to cheer and console her husband and finally brought him out of deep melancholy. At her insistence, Ivan Petrovich came to grips with his dissertation.

After a long struggle with the administration of the Military Medical Academy (with whom relations became strained after his reaction to Zion's dismissal), Pavlov defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1883, describing the nerves that control the functions of the heart. He was appointed Privatdozent to the Academy, but was forced to refuse this appointment due to additional work in Leipzig with Heidenhain and Karl Ludwig, two of the most eminent physiologists of the time. Two years later, Pavlov returned to Russia.

Subsequently, he will write about this sparingly, describing such a difficult decade in a few phrases “Up until the professorship in 1890, already married and having a son, it was constantly very tight in terms of money, finally, at the 41st year of my life, I received a professorship, received my own laboratory ... So, all of a sudden, there were both sufficient funds and ample opportunity to do whatever you want in the laboratory.”

By 1890, Pavlov's works were recognized by scientists around the world. Since 1891, he was in charge of the physiological department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, organized with his active participation; at the same time, he remained the head of physiological research at the Military Medical Academy, where he worked from 1895 to 1925.

Being left-handed from birth, like his father, Pavlov constantly trained his right hand and, as a result, owned both hands so well that, according to the recollections of colleagues, “assisting him during operations was a very difficult task, it was never known which hand he would act with. at the next moment. He stitched with his right and left hand at such a speed that two people could hardly manage to feed him needles with suture material.

In his research, Pavlov used the methods of the mechanistic and holistic schools of biology and philosophy, which were considered incompatible. As a representative of mechanism, Pavlov believed that a complex system, such as the circulatory or digestive system, can be understood by examining each of their parts in turn; as a representative of the "philosophy of wholeness" he felt that these parts should be studied in an intact, living and healthy animal. For this reason, he opposed the traditional methods of vivisection, in which living laboratory animals were operated on without anesthesia to observe the functioning of their individual organs.

Considering that an animal dying on the operating table and in pain cannot respond adequately to a healthy one, Pavlov acted on it surgically in such a way as to observe the activity of internal organs without disturbing their functions and the state of the animal. Pavlov's skill in this difficult surgery was unsurpassed. Moreover, he insisted on maintaining the same level of care, anesthesia and cleanliness as in human operations.

Using these methods, Pavlov and his colleagues showed that each section of the digestive system - salivary and duodenal glands, stomach, pancreas and liver - adds certain substances to food in their various combinations, breaking it down into absorbable units of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. After isolating several digestive enzymes, Pavlov began to study their regulation and interaction.

In 1904, Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on the physiology of digestion, which has led to a clearer understanding of the vital aspects of this subject." In a speech at the C.A.G. Merner of the Karolinska Institute praised Pavlov's contributions to the physiology and chemistry of the digestive system. “Thanks to Pavlov's work, we have been able to advance our study of this problem further than in all previous years,” Merner said. “Now we have a comprehensive understanding of the influence of one section of the digestive system on another, that is, how the individual links of the digestive mechanism are adapted to work together.”

Throughout his scientific life, Pavlov retained an interest in the influence of the nervous system on the activity of internal organs. In the early twentieth century, his experiments on the digestive system led to the study of conditioned reflexes. In one of the experiments, called "imaginary feeding", Pavlov acted simply and in an original way. He made two "windows" one - in the wall of the stomach, the other - in the esophagus. Now the food that was fed to the operated and cured dog did not reach the stomach, fell out of the hole in the esophagus. But the stomach had time to receive a signal that food had entered the body, and began to prepare for work intensively secrete the juice necessary for digestion. It could be safely taken from the second hole and examined without interference.

The dog could swallow the same portion of food for hours, which did not get further than the esophagus, and the experimenter worked at this time with abundantly flowing gastric juice. It was possible to vary the food and observe how the chemical composition of the gastric juice changes accordingly.

But the main thing was different. For the first time, it was possible to experimentally prove that the work of the stomach depends on the nervous system and is controlled by it. Indeed, in the experiments of imaginary feeding, food did not enter directly into the stomach, but it began to work. Therefore, he received the command along the nerves coming from the mouth and esophagus. At the same time, it was worth cutting the nerves leading to the stomach - and the juice ceased to stand out.

It was simply impossible to prove the regulatory role of the nervous system in digestion in other ways. Ivan Petrovich was the first to do this, leaving far behind his foreign colleagues and even R. Heidenhain himself, whose authority was recognized by everyone in Europe and to whom Pavlov had recently traveled to gain experience.

“Any phenomenon in the external world can be turned into a temporary signal of an object stimulating the salivary glands,” wrote Pavlov, “if the stimulation of the mucous membrane of the oral cavity by this object is re-associated ... with the impact of a certain external phenomenon on other sensitive surfaces of the body.”

Struck by the power of conditioned reflexes, which shed light on psychology and physiology, after 1902 Pavlov concentrated his scientific interests on the study of higher nervous activity.

At the institute, which was located not far from St. Petersburg, in the town of Koltushi, Pavlov created the only laboratory in the world for the study of higher nervous activity. Its center was the famous "Tower of Silence" - a special room that made it possible to place an experimental animal in complete isolation from the outside world.

Investigating the reactions of dogs to external stimuli, Pavlov found that reflexes are conditional and unconditioned, that is, inherent in the animal from birth. This was his second major discovery in the field of physiology.

Devoted to his work and highly organized in all aspects of his work, be it operations, lecturing, or conducting experiments, Pavlov took a break during the summer months; at this time he was enthusiastically engaged in gardening and reading historical literature. As one of his colleagues recalled, "he was always ready for joy and drew it from hundreds of sources." One of Pavlov's hobbies was playing solitaire. As with any great scientist, many anecdotes have been preserved about him. However, among them there are none that would testify to his academic absent-mindedness. Pavlov was a very neat and precise person.

The position of the greatest Russian scientist protected Pavlov from the political conflicts that abounded in the revolutionary events in Russia at the beginning of the century. So, after the establishment of Soviet power, a special decree signed by Lenin was issued on the creation of conditions that would ensure the work of Pavlov. This was all the more remarkable since most scientists were at that time under the supervision of state bodies, which often interfered in their scientific work.

Known for his tenacity and perseverance in achieving his goal, Pavlov was considered by some of his colleagues and students to be a pedant. At the same time, he was highly respected in the scientific world, and his personal enthusiasm and cordiality won him numerous friends.

Speaking about his scientific work, Pavlov wrote "Whatever I do, I constantly think that I serve it, as much as my strength allows, first of all, my fatherland, our Russian science."

The Academy of Sciences established a gold medal and the I. Pavlov Prize for the best work in the field of physiology.

71 years ago died the great Ryazan, physiologist, creator of the doctrine of higher nervous activity - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

The name of Academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the first Russian Nobel Prize winner, has forever entered the golden fund of world science. The largest scientific discoveries were made by him in the field of physiology of blood circulation, digestion.

He also owns the discovery of a natural scientific objective method for studying the function of the brain - the method of conditioned reflexes, using which he created the doctrine of higher nervous activity that has immortalized his name. Ivan Pavlov was born on September 26, 1849 in Ryazan. After graduating from the theological school in 1864, he entered the Theological Seminary, but, without graduating from it, in 1870 he entered the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, but soon moved to the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. He studied at the Medico-Surgical Academy, after which he took the place of the head of the physiological laboratory at the therapeutic clinic.

Pavlov was the founder of the most numerous and fruitful scientific school of physiologists (more than 300 students and employees), the creator of the Russian Society of Physiologists, the Russian Physiological Journal (1917), the Physiological Department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine (1890), the Physiological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1925), the Biological Station in Koltushi ( 1926), for twenty years (1893-1913) led the Society of Russian Doctors in St. Petersburg. All scientific and professorial activity of Pavlov was permeated with the idea of ​​the leading role of physiology as a fundamental science, the scientific basis of biomedical disciplines, psychology, pedagogy and sociology, psychiatry and neuropathology. Pavlov's research enriched physiology with fundamental discoveries and ideas. Ivan Pavlov met the February Revolution with caution, he experienced the October Revolution extremely painfully. Relatives and acquaintances, scientists from the USA, Germany, Sweden, Czechoslovakia persistently called him abroad, but the Soviet government did everything to keep Pavlov from emigrating.

In 1918, V.I. Lenin signed a special decree on the creation of conditions that ensure the work of the first Russian Nobel Prize winner, and in the 1920s, during the civil war and intervention, the young republic created the necessary conditions for Pavlov's scientific work. The Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the conditions that ensure the scientific work of Academician I.P. Pavlov and his employees", signed by Lenin on January 24, 1921, is one of the most famous acts of the Soviet government. This decree became a kind of safe-conduct for many years. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov lived a long and happy life. Of the 86 years, 62 were devoted to science, higher medical education, and the organization of research in the field of physiological sciences. He died on February 27, 1936 in Leningrad, and was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery. On his tombstone are the words: “Remember that science demands from a person his whole life. And if you had two lives, then they would not be enough for you.”