V. I.

Lenin

619

To:   G. Y. ZINOVIEV

Comrade Zinoviev, Chairman of the Petrograd Executive
Committee

The famous physiologist, Pavlov, asks to be allowed to go abroad in view of his straitened circumstances. To have
Pavlov leave the country is hardly advisable, since he has
previously made statements to the effect that, being a truthful man, he could not, in the event of the subject being
brought up in conversations, avoid expressing himself against Soviet power and communism in Russia.

On the other hand, this scientist is such a great cultural
asset that his forcible detention in Russia in conditions
of material insecurity is unthinkable.

In view of this it would be desirable, by way of exception, to allow him a special ration and in general to
ensure more or less comfortable circumstances for him exclusively.

I have heard that in the Petrograd rest homes life is very well ordered for those living there. Something of the
kind could be done for Professor Pavlov at his apartment.

Comrade Lunacharsky will make the appropriate proposal to Comrade Badayev. I ask you to support him in this
respect. [1]

Lenin

25/VI.

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Notes:
[1]
Lenin thought highly of the great Russian physiologist,
Academician I. P. Pavlov, the founder of the materialist theory of
higher nervous activity in animals and man. Lenin took a
solicitous interest in his well-being and gave him every possible
assistance and support.

In view of Pavlov’s outstanding scientific services, which
were of tremendous importance for the working people of the
world, the Soviet Government, on the initiative of Lenin, in the hard years of economic dislocation and the immense difficulties
resulting from the Civil War and foreign armed intervention,
passed a special decree creating facilities that would enable
Academician Pavlov and his assistants to effectively carry on their
scientific work (see present edition, Vol. 32, p. 69).

In his well-known letter to Soviet youth written shortly
before his death, Pavlov touched on the immense opportunities
which the Soviet socialist system offered for the development
of culture and science. “Our country,” he wrote, “is affording
great scope to scientists and—it must be owned—science in our
country is being fostered with a generous hand. A most lavish
hand!

“ What is there to say about the status of our young scientist?
Here surely everything is quite clear. Much is given to him, but
much is expected from him. For the youth, as for us, it is a point
of honour to justify the great trust that our country puts in
science.” = ( Pravda No. 58, February 28, 1936.)