Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов, IPA: [ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf] ; 26 September [O.S. 14 September] 1849 – 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on the physiology of digestion, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904.
Pavlov was born on 26 September 1849, the first of ten children, in Ryazan, Russia. His father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov (1823–1899), was a village Russian Orthodox priest. His mother, Varvara Ivanovna Uspenskaya (1826–1890), was a homemaker. As a child, Pavlov willingly participated in house duties such as doing the dishes and taking care of his siblings. He loved to garden, ride his bicycle, row, swim, and play gorodki; he devoted his summer vacations to these activities. Although able to read by the age of seven, Pavlov did not begin formal schooling until he was 11 years old, due to serious injuries he had sustained when falling from a high wall onto a stone pavement.
From his childhood days, Pavlov demonstrated intellectual curiosity along with what he referred to as "the instinct for research". He attended the Ryazan church school before entering the local theological seminary. Inspired by the progressive ideas which Dmitry Pisarev, a Russian literary critic of the 1860s, and Ivan Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, were spreading, Pavlov abandoned his religious career without graduating and devoted his life to science.
In 1870, he enrolled in the physics and mathematics department at the University of Saint Petersburg to study natural science. In his fourth year, his first research project on the physiology of the nerves of the pancreas won him a prestigious university award. In 1875, Pavlov received the degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences. Impelled by his interest in physiology, Pavlov decided to continue his studies and proceeded to the Imperial Academy of Medical Surgery. While at the academy, Pavlov became an assistant to his former teacher, Elias von Cyon. He left the department when de Cyon was replaced by another instructor.
After some time, Pavlov obtained a position as a laboratory assistant to Konstantin Ustimovich at the physiological department of the Veterinary Institute. For two years, Pavlov investigated the circulatory system for his medical dissertation. In 1878, Professor Sergey Botkin, a clinician, invited Pavlov to work in the physiological laboratory as the clinic's chief. In 1879, he graduated from the Medical Military Academy with a gold medal for his research work. After a competitive examination, Pavlov won a fellowship at the academy for postgraduate work.
The fellowship and his position as director of the Physiological Laboratory at Botkin's clinic enabled Pavlov to continue his research work. In 1883, he presented his doctor's thesis on the subject of The centrifugal nerves of the heart and posited the idea of nerves and the basic principles on the trophic function of the nervous system. Additionally, his collaboration with the Botkin Clinic produced evidence of a basic pattern in the regulation of reflexes in the activity of circulatory organs.
He was inspired to pursue a scientific career by Dmitry Pisarev, a literary critic and natural science advocate and Ivan Sechenov, a physiologist, whom Pavlov described as "the father of physiology".
After completing his doctorate, Pavlov went to Germany, where he studied in Leipzig with Carl Ludwig and Eimear Kelly in the Heidenhain laboratories in Breslau. He remained there from 1884 to 1886. Heidenhain was studying digestion in dogs, using an exteriorized section of the stomach. However, Pavlov perfected the technique by overcoming the problem of maintaining the external nerve supply. The exteriorized section became known as the Heidenhain or Pavlov pouch.
In 1886, Pavlov returned to Russia to look for a new position. His application for the chair of physiology at the University of Saint Petersburg was rejected. Eventually, Pavlov was offered the chair of pharmacology at Tomsk University in Siberia and at the University of Warsaw in Poland. He did not take up either post. In 1890, he was appointed the role of professor of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy and occupied the position for five years. In 1891, Pavlov was invited to the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg to organize and direct the Department of Physiology.
Over a 45-year period, under his direction, the institute became one of the most important centers of physiological research in the world. Pavlov continued to direct the Department of Physiology at the institute, while taking up the chair of physiology at the Medical Military Academy in 1895. Pavlov would head the physiology department at the academy continuously for three decades.
Starting in 1901, Pavlov was nominated over four successive years for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He did not win the prize until 1904 because his previous nominations were not specific to any discovery, but based on a variety of laboratory findings. When Pavlov received the Nobel Prize it was specified that he did so "in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged".
At the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Pavlov carried out his classical experiments on the digestive glands, which would eventually grant him the aforementioned Nobel prize.
Pavlov's laboratory housed a full-scale kennel for the experimental canines. Pavlov was interested in observing their long-term physiological processes. This required keeping them alive and healthy to conduct chronic experiments, as he called them. These were experiments over time, designed to understand the normal functions of dogs. This was a new kind of study, because previously experiments had been "acute", meaning that the dog underwent vivisection which ultimately killed it. Pavlov would often remove the esophagus of several dogs and created a fistula in their throats.
A 1921 article by Sergius Morgulis in the journal Science reported the effects of the Allied blockade on Russian scientists' access to scientific literature and resources. Morgulis quoted from a report by H. G. Wells (later collected in Russia in the Shadows) that Pavlov grew potatoes and carrots in his laboratory. He added "It is gratifying to be assured that Professor Pavlov is raising potatoes only as a pastime and still gives the best of his genius to scientific investigation". That same year, Pavlov began holding laboratory meetings known as the 'Wednesday meetings' at which he spoke frankly on many topics, including his views on psychology. These meetings lasted until he died in 1936.
Relationship with the Soviet government
Pavlov was highly regarded by the Soviet government, and he was able to continue his research. He was praised by Vladimir Lenin. Despite praise from the Soviet Union government, the money that poured in to support his laboratory, and the honours he was given, Pavlov made no attempts to conceal the disapproval and contempt with which he regarded Soviet Communism.
In 1923, Pavlov stated that he would not sacrifice even the hind leg of a frog to the type of social experiment that the Communist regime was conducting in Russia. Four years later, he wrote to Joseph Stalin, protesting at what was being done to Russian intellectuals and saying he was ashamed to be a Russian. After the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, Pavlov wrote several letters to Vyacheslav Molotov criticizing the mass persecutions that followed, and asking for the reconsideration of cases pertaining to several people he knew personally.
In the final years of his life, Pavlov's attitude towards the Soviet government softened; without fully endorsing its policies, he praised the Soviet government for its support of scientific institutions. In 1935, a few months before his death, Pavlov read a draft of the 1936 "Stalin Constitution" and expressed his pleasure at the apparent dawn of a more free and democratic Soviet Union.