On September 26, a postage stamp dedicated to the 175th Birth Anniversary of Ivan Pavlov, a scientist and a physiologist, was put into postal circulation in the Nobel Prize Winners series

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a scientist, a physiologist, the founder of the science of higher nervous activity and of a physiological school; he was the Nobel Prize winner (1904) ‘for his work on the physiology of digestion’, an Academician of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1907) and a full State Counsellor, the Chairman of the Society of Russian Physicians in Memory of S.P. Botkin (1906-1913).

He laid the foundation for the reflexive nature of psychophysiological processes. He divided the totality of physiological reflexes into conditioned and unconditioned ones, and besides, he investigated the psychophysiology of temperament types and properties of nervous systems underlying behavioural individual differences.

Pavlov was born on September 14 (26) of 1849 in Ryazan. He entered the Natural Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the St. Petersburg University. In 1876-1878, he worked at the Department of Physiology of the Veterinary Department of the Medical and Surgical Academy, where he performed a number of works on the blood circulation physiology. In 1878, in the clinic of Sergei Botkin, he started research on the physiology of digestion, which lasted more than 20 years. By 1890, the I. Pavlov’s works were recognized by scientists all over the world. During this period, he achieved outstanding results in the study of the physiology of blood circulation and digestion, as well as in the development of some topical issues of pharmacology.

In 1890, I. Pavlov was elected professor and the Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy. From 1891, he was in charge of the Physiological Department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine; and from 1895 to 1925, he simultaneously headed the physiological research at the Academy. At the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Pavlov carried out his classic works on the physiology of the main digestive glands, as well as a substantial part of his work on conditioned reflexes.

Ivan Pavlov was a Corresponding Member (1901), a Full Member of the Academy of Sciences (1907). In addition, I. Pavlov was elected a member of the academies of a number of countries and an honorary doctor of many universities.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of Ivan Pavlov and illustrations of his experiments on the physiology of digestion.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ryazan.


Design Artist: M. Podobed.
Face value: 50 rubles.
Stamp size: 32.5×32.5 mm, sheet size: 119.5×123.5 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 9 (3×3) stamps.
Quantity: 72 thousand stamps (8 thousand sheets).

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