Pavlovian session

The Pavlovian session (Russian: Павловская сессия) was the joint session of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences held on June 28 to July 4, 1950. The session was organized by the Soviet Government headed by Joseph Stalin in order to fight Western influences in Russian physiological sciences. During the session, a number of Ivan Pavlov's former students attacked another group of his students (Leon Orbeli, Pyotr Anokhin, Aleksey Speransky, Ivan Beritashvili) whom they accused of deviating from Pavlov's teaching. As the result of this session, Soviet physiology self-excluded itself from the international scientific community for many years.

The Pavlovian session followed a sequence of Stalin's interferences in academic affairs during the post-war time:

The interference in physiology, psychology and psychiatry was initiated in the summer of 1949 when Stalin instructed the Minister of Health Yefim Smirnov to hold a session on Pavlov's teachings. On 28 September 1949, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Pavlov's birth, Yuri Zhdanov reported to Stalin about the “serious trouble” with the development of Pavlov’s teaching and put the blame on Orbeli, Beritashvili, and arrested Stern. In replying to this report, Stalin wrote: “In my opinion, the greatest harm to Academician Pavlov’s teaching was done by Academician Orbeli... The sooner Orbeli will be exposed and the more thoroughly his monopoly will be eliminated, the better. Beritov and Stern are not so dangerous because they oppose to Pavlov openly and thus facilitate the reprisal of science against these amateurs of science... Now something about the tactics of the struggle against the opponents of Academician Pavlov’s theory. At first, it is necessary to stealthily collect Academician Pavlov’s supporters, organize them, assign roles, and only after this to gather the session of physiologists... where it will be necessary to give decisive battle to the opponents. Without this, it can fail. Remember: the enemy should be firmly beaten, with reliance on complete success.”Georgy Malenkov supervised the organization of the meeting.

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