CONFERENCE OF THE EDUCATION COMMITTEES OF THE PAVLOV INSTITUTE OF PHYSIOLOGY, THE INSTITUTE OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE USSR, AND THE LENINGRAD SOCIETY OF PHYSIOLOGISTS, BIOCHEMISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00039R000200140028-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: September 18, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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Conference of the Education Committees of the Pavlov Institute of
riat122.2011e Institutt2LIMILIPIEDIaLk01912L9.11 the 49ALMI_SS
Science USSR and the Lenin rad Societ of Ph siolo ists Biochemists
by B. Pavlov
Fiziologichesky Zhurnal CCCR imII. M. Sechenov,
Vol 37, 1951, No 3, pp 385-388, Russian per.
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THE MEETING OF THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCILS OF THE INSTITUTE OF
PHYSIOLOGY IMENI I P PAVLOV OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES USSR
THE INSTITUTE OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE OF THE ACADEMY OF MEDICAL 6
SCIENCES USSR AND THE LENINGRAD SOCIETY OF PHYSIOLOGISTS
BIOCHEMISTS AND PHARMACOLOGISTS
Sources The USSR Fiziolooicheskil Zhurnal imeni I M. Sechenov
(The USSR Physiological Journal imeni I. M. Sechenov),
Volume 37, No 3 May.June, 19510 Pages 385.3880 The
Press of the Academy of Sciences USSR, Moscow.
A general session of Scientific Councils of the Institute of
Physiology imeni I. P. Pavlov of the Academy of Sciences USSR, the
Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences
USSR, and the Leningrad Society of Physiologists Biochemists and
Pharmacologists imeni I. M. Sechenov, convened in Leningrad on
28 June 19510
The meeting was devoted to consideration of the results ob.
tamed in April and June of 1941 at the Third 1 g and Fourth Zfq
Sessions of the Scientific Council on the problems of the physio.
logical teachings of Academician I. P. Pavlov, sponsored by the
Academy of Sciences USSR, at which there was sharp criticism of
the anti.Pavlovian attitude of Academicians I. S. Beritashvili
and L. A. Orbeli. President of the Scientific Council
presenteLLLEELMari?va?flirtrclutzstiono
After a general characterization of the work of the III and
IV Sessions of the Scientific Council) Academician K. M. Bykov emits
phasized that the brilliant work of I. V. Stalin published a year
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STAT
ago, "Marxism and Questions of Linguistics", was not only a valuable
addition to the science of linguistics, but also had tremendous
significance for all fields of Soviet science. Physiologists must
understand the contentions of Stalin and make them their guide in
scientific.research worko
Then Academician K ? M. ay
kov considered the significance of
the sessions the two academies held last year, which dealt with
the development of Pavlovian physiological teachings. The past
year has shown that the decisions of this session, which marked the
road for further development of the materialistic teachings of I*
P. Pavlov, have been transformed into reality by- Soviet physiologists
both from the theoretical viewpoint and in the practice of medicine
and agriculture.
At the same session K. M. Bykov noted that the work plans
of several leading physiological, scientific-research institutions
of Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilis and Kiev, heard and discussed at the
meeting of the Scientific Council, have shown that there are still
some physiologists who do not stand firmly on the correct material.
istic Pavlovian position and so hinder,the successful development
of Pavlovian teachings.
The report of I. S. Beritashvili, "The Practical and Method?.
logical Basis for Teachings on Reflexes and Reactions", which was
heard at the III session of the Scientific Council and subjected to
4.4
profound criticism from all sides, has shown that Academi.ciin I. S.
Beritashvili continues to support an anti.*Pavlovian position, that
his conceptions exhibit an outspoken dualism and contradict the
Pavlovian teachings about higher nervous system activity. As a
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AP. ?
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result of the discussion I. S. Beritashvili admitted the error of
his position and expressed a readiness to correct his previous mis-
takes in future work.
Characterizing the work of the IV session of the Scientific
Council, K. M. Bykov disclosed in detail the essence of the ideal-
istic outlook of Academician L. A. Orbeli.
The speaker pointed out that the neo.Kantian idealistic
position maintained by Academician Orbeli in the past has been re.
fleeted in all his subsequent work. In his idealistic outlook
Academician Orbeli set himself against the materialistic view of
I. M. Sechenov and I. P. Pavlov. "Synthesizine the Pavlovian
position with the views of his western European teachers .. Hering,
Garten, Lengli, and others, L. A. Orbeli arrived at a revision of
the teachings of I. P. Pavlov; psychophysical parallelism in the
study of the sensory organs; incorrect formalist genetics; study of
the types of nervous systems isolated from external environmental
influences; incorrect treatment of the role of the sympathetic
nervous system (giving it the role of regulating and controlling all
functions of the organism, including higher nervous activity); dis-
regard for the leading role of the cerebral cortex in all processes
taking place in the organism; mistakes in comprehending the secondary
perceptive system, etc.
Academician K. M. Bykov paid sfildial attention to the question
of analyzing the secondary perceptive system on the basis of Stalin's
teachings on language, which must be the methodological basis for
the experimental and clinical development of the given problems,
........
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* * V.4.0* *
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The teachings of comrade Stalin disclose the socialist
systematic pattern of language, while the teachings of I. P. Pavlov
about the secondary perceptive system touch on the same problem,
but from the standpoint of the physiological study of the nervous
mechanisms of speech, language and thought*
Special attention must be given to the criticism by Stalin
of the theoretical mistakes of Academician N. Ya. Marr, since the
mistakes tolerated by some physiologists, for example L. A. Orbeli,
are of the same type.
The mistakes of Academician Marr are an instructive lesson
for physiologists studying the secondary perceptive system* Acada.
emician Marr put the accent on semantics, separating it from phonetics,
while Academician Orbeli put the accent on the abstract-thinking side
of the secondary perceptive system, separating it from the speech.
making and artiaulative side. In his book, 222EL12111_21.11d2E
Nervous Activit (1949, page 585), L. A* Orbeli points out, ".00
the study of the act of speaking in itself is extremely important
and necessary, but it is still not the study of the secondary per-
ceptive system".
Acgdemician K. M. Bykov gave a detailed analysis of the
methodological mistakes tolerated in the treatment of the secondary
perceptive system. On the one hand idealistic mistakes have been
tolerated, particularly by L. A, Orbeli, including separation of the
secondary perceptive system from the primary; on the other hand
there have been mistakes of a mechanistic type, especially by Prom
Lessor S. M. Dobrogayev: the secondary perceptive system has been
reduced to a combination of "speech reflexes", with disregard for
10
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r-
,
the abstract.thinking side of the activity of the secondary per..
ceptive system. Such a simplified mechanistic approach to this
problem is found in the article of Professor S. I. Gal,perin, "The
Importance of the Teachings of I. P. Pavlov on the Secondary Percep-
tive System" (Vestnik 254erald7 of the Leningrad State University,
Number 2, 1950)0 So I. Gal,perin reduces the physiological nature
of the second perceptive system to the speech function.
Academician K. M. Bykov pointed out that L. A. Orbeli still
has not really acknowledged the essence of his idealistic, anti.
Pavlovian mistakes and has not written a penetrating analysis of
them, limiting himself only to a formal admission.
"The great Pavlov", said Academician K. M. Bykov in conclusion,
"was not afraid to admit his mistakes, he was not afraid to point
out the shortcomings of his work, emphasizing that it was impossible
to progress without an analysis of mistakes. Only thorough -.going
Bolshevist criticism and self-criticism, which completely exposes
the idealistic concepts of I. S. Beritashvili and L. A. Orbelis
will help Soviet physiological science, rmed with the general in-
structions of the leader of science Comrade Stalin, to develop still
more fruitfully the materialistic teachings of I. P. Pavlov."
Secretary of the Scientific Council E. Sh. Ayrapet?yants
11:LIU-tb,a-dvelliblirs737?-G-Faiarric Council
concerning the physiological teachings of Academician I. P. Pavlov
and strongly criticized the position of Academician Orbeli.
He emphasized that even though the reports of Orbeli and
teritashvili were considered separately, with a twowconth interval,
ea
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one had the impression that the same question had been considered
twice the struggle of materialism with idealism, the disclosure
of the anti-Pavlovian positions of Academicians Beritashvili and
Orbeli. As it turned outs the intellectual positions of these two
physiologists, while diverging on particular scientific questions,
are parallel in their contradiction and idealistic appraisal of
Pavlovian teachings, around which all Soviet physiologists have
united,
E. Sh. Ayrapetlyants noted that Academician Orbeli decided
to use waiting tactics after the session of the two academies.
He
remained silent and withdrew from active work upon realisation of
the decisions of the session. Instead of admitting his mistakes
fully, Orbeli attempted to discredit the founders of our national
physiology -- I. M. Sechenov and I. P. Pavlov, negating their
materialist views, one after the others presenting I. P. Pavlov as
an empiricist stepping aside from the struggle of materialism with
idealism.
In conclusion E. Sh. Ayrapetlyants reminded his audience that
foreign assailants of the teachings of I. P. Pavlov have always
resorted to discrediting his teachings and to forcing an intensifi-
cation of the struggle for purification of Pavlovian materialist
teachings.
Regular member of the ANN USSR, P. So Kupalovs noted that
Academitia44.0irbeli maintained a Kantian idealist position, as is
evident from his doctoral dissertations and still has not given a
criticism of his idealistic outlook.
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Professor P. S. Kupalov presented an analysis of the mistakes
and distortions in the teachings of I. P. Pavlov on higher nervous
system activity which have been tolerated by L. A. Orbeli. Kupalov
considered at length the mistakes of Orbeli on the question of
applying the evolutionary principle in physiology.
Professor Orbeli insisted incorrectly that animals which are
born with an incompletely-formed nervous system have advantages
over animals born with determined hereditary characteristics which
cannot evolve greatly in subsequent life. However, it is difficult
to imagine that a kittens which is born blind, somehow surpasses a
horse, which is born with a number of formed hereditary reactions.
Academician Orbeli insists that newly acquired functions are super-
imposed oh former ones and, applying this to man, says that a
half-monkey resides inside everyone of us. In this way, according
to Orbeli? during the process of evolution there is a mechanical
building-up and superimposition of new functions on old, which does
not correspond at all to reality and is methodologically incorrect.
L. Ao Orbeli in a similar manner approaches the question of
the origin of the secondary perceptive system. Orbeli assumes that
a child's first sounds (gurgling, hissing, etc.) lead to the for-
mation of speech condition reflexes which are reinforced by parents
and other people which surround the child. From this it follows
that words arise from the accidental snortings of the child, from
spraying of saliva, which do not correspond to the actual process
of speech development*
Corresponding member of the ANN USSR, Professor D. A. Biryukovs
noted in his talk that Academician Orbeli biologizes the problem of
7 es
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the secondary perceptive system, finding the rudiments of the purely
human speech function of the secondary perceptive system in animals.
Falling mechanistically into the biologism of the problem of the
secondary perceptive system, Academician Orbeli also slides into an
idealistic conception of it in a spirit of psycho"-physical parallelism?
Professor Biryukov pointed out the con'eptual proximity of
Academicians Orbeli and Beritashvili in their struggle against the
teachings of I. P. Pavlov. If Beritashvili defended an idealistic
conception of psycho-nervous activity, Orbeli would also be inclined
to accept it in essence, only with the correction that it should be
neuro.psychic.
Academician Orbeli made a gross idealistic mistake in his
insistence that animals inherit some kind "of potentiality, which
guarantees future generations more and more adaptability to new
conditions". Biryukov emphasized the Pavlovian concept that the
only form of adaptation is conditioned reflexes. Attempts to find
some other kind of special 'potentiality" are attempts to revise
the Pavlovian teachings and in essence are close to the lies that
Academician Beritashvili taught about "psychoe0nervous activity".
In analyzing the problem of the specificity of function of
various parts of the nervous system and saying that the teachings
of I. P. Pavlov about analyzers ensues from this point, Academician
Orbeli belittles the role of the external environment in the for..
mation of nervous system activttylr'TMT-Academician Orbeli ignores
the teachings of I. M. Sechenov and I. P. Pavlov which show the
identity and interaction of the organism with its external environ-
ment. This puts him on the antio?Pavlovian course denying the role
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of training in the processes of the higher nervous system. This
is, in essence, a renovated statement of "the law of specific
energy in the sensory organs" of Johannes Muller, which was suba.
ject to sharp criticism in its time by V. I. Lenin. By means of
similar statements, Academician Orbeli is trying to drag a unique
fighter for materialism
I. P. Pavlov -- into the camp of the
"physiological idealists" -- the Kantians Jo Muller, Helmholtz, etc.
At times Academician L. A. Orbeli tried to degrade I. P.
Pavlov and his teachings. Unadmittedly, according to Orbeli, it
was really Sherrington, Hering and Hess who laid the foundation for
the teachings of I. P. Pavlov, while at the same time everyone knows
that he got his ideas from our Russian materialistic philosophy and
our progressive national science,
Professor A. G. Vbronin noted that while the two formidable
physiologists -- I. S. Beritashvili and L. A. Orbeli .. diverge on
a number of particular problems of physiological science, their
methodological mistakes have the same root .- idealism.
Academician Beritashvili carried on an unyielding struggle
against the progressive physiological teachings of I. P. Pavlov for
many years* Siding with foreign obstructionists in physiology ..
the Englishman Sherrington and American Fulton Beritashvili used
every means to prove that the teachings of Pavlov were hypothetical,
that it is not possible to explain the "psychic" activity of man
and animals with the help of the physiological law discovered by
Pavlov. I. S. Beritashvili belittled the significance of the laws
of conditioned-reflex activity which were disclosed by Pavlov*
Individual creative ability) according to I. S. Beritashvili) would
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appear to be determined by a higher, opsycho-nervous activity";
psychologists conceived this notion in the form of ideas about the
soul, which stands above physiological laws.
This frankly idealist conception, which attempts to take
science back to pre-Pavlovian times, was exposed at the joint session
of the two Academies and the III Session of the Scientific Council.
The flowering of the idealistic activity of I. S. Beritashvili
was assisted by the circumstance that Academician Orbeli? who super-
vised the leading Pavlovian institutions, several scientific journals
and physiological societies, held a conciliatory attitude towards
hostile theories, and in a number of cases, as was shown at the
IV Session of the Scientific Council, suppressed the development of
criticism and self-criticism. Academician Orbeli did not make one
statement against the anti.Pavlovian Beritashvili, against the
attempts by some of his students to revise the teachings of Pavlov.
He also offered no resistance to the hostile enemies of Pavlov.
This is explained by the fact that Orbeli, who affirmed anti.
Pavlovian ideas in science, WAS not able to conduct the struggle
for clarifying the conceptual basis of, the physiological teachings
of Pavlov*
Unanimous criticism of the idealistic views of I. S.
Beritashvili and L. A. Orbeli by a great association of Soviet
physiologists attests to the victory in our science of a new$ pro-
gressive approach for the de2aapmettnit-thE7HYgrological tea ngs
of Pavlov?
The director of the State Institute of Natural Science imeni
11.10.*
,
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Admitting his mistakes formally, L. A Orbeli started to justify
himself and transfer his blame to others, in particular, to I P.
Pavlov.
? 4 woo.of
Up to the present time Academician Orbeli has had pathological
attitude towards criticism and critics, which does not permit him
to appraise correctly the fundamental significance of the criticism
of his address.
The unwillingness to reexamine his erroneous methodological
position may eventually lead Academician L. A. Orbeli into the
reactionary camp, the camp of our enemies, which he may or may not
want*
At the end of the discussion, a resolution was adopted in which
the participants in the meeting affirmed the decisions of the III and
IV Session of the Scientific Council on the problems of the physio-
logical teachings of Academician I. P. Pavlov and condemned the
anti-Pavlovian position of Academicians Beritashvili and Orbeli,
The resolution states that L. A. Orbeli has still only formally
accepted the criticism of his erroneous viewpoint and has not pub.
lished a deep critical analysis of his anti.Pavlovian position in
the press..
The participants in the meeting admitted the necessity for
carrying on the struggle against all attempts at revision and ideal*
.4.4vbitra":5;;;Tia-br-the materialistic teachings of I. Ye_Ballore
The resolution points out the necessity of carrying out work in all
Leningrad physiological) medical and biological institutions concerned
with exposing the antimPavlovian outlook of I. S. Beritashvili and
L. A. Orbeli.
012
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The participants in the meeting received the text of a
letter from the brilliant leader of science Comrade I, V. Stalin
with exaltation and rejoicing, Comrade Stalin promised to apply
all forces to achieve a final eradication of anti.Paviovian outlooks
and tendencies in Soviet physiological science, so that it may be
directed fully to the service of our great socialist Motherland,
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letter from the.brilliant leader of science Comrade I. V. Stalin
with exaltation and rejoicing, Comrade Stalin promised to apply
all forces to achieve a final eradication of anti.Pavlovian outlooks
and tendencies in Soviet physiological science, s,o that it may b
directed fully to the service of our great socialist Motherland,
B. Pavlov
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