Dedicated to the memory of the staff of the Pavlov Biostation in Koltushi

Abstract

The article presents the events associated with the opening of the Scientific and Experimental Biological Station in Koltushi. The events of one of Pavlov’s informal visits to the Biostation on September 26, 1929, to celebrate his 80th anniversary, are reconstructed from discovered archival photographs. The stories of Pavlov’s closest collaborators are told – a participant in the event described, physiologist Stanislav N. Vyrzhikovsky (1892–1937), the first head of the Pavlov Biostation and Pyotr M. Elagin (1879–1937), head of the dog kennel at the Biostation. After the murder of S.M. Kirov (December 1, 1934), the “Kirov Stream” descended on Leningrad in March 1935, sending out “superfluous people” called by the new government – church ministers, former tsarist officers, representatives of the nobility and merchant class. The former captain of the tsarist army, nobleman P.M. Elagin, was exiled from Leningrad with his family. Pavlov, who held Elagin in high esteem, achieved his return from exile. “As long as Pavlov is alive, they will not touch me,” the head of the Biological Station, former lieutenant of the tsarist army, nobleman S.N. Vyrzhikovsky, reassured his wife. On February 27, 1936, Ivan Petrovich died... In her memoirs, M.K. Petrova wrote, without naming names, about about two “suspicious employees” of the Biostation, expelled after Pavlov’s death. Today, few people know that these memoirs were about Elagin and Vyrzhikovsky, who died during the political repressions of 1937, whose names are good to remember in Pavlov’s anniversary year (1849–2024).

Keywords

Ivan P. Pavlov / physiological school of I.P. Pavlov / S.N. Vyrzhikovsky / P.M. Elagin / L.A. Orbeli / Institute of Experimental Medicine / Biostation in Koltushi / Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences / photo archive of the Memorial Museum-Apartment of Acad. I.P. Pavlov / history of science

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