Action Comrade Pavlov

We imagine Pavlov as a Soviet era action figure, a reflection of how he has lived on in the cultural memory of Russia, but also globally as a key figure in Psychology. 
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Pavlov’s status

We created Action Comrade Pavlov to reflect Pavlov’s enduring legacy and popular appeal since his death – in Soviet culture especially, but also in the history of Psychology in the West. 

Vladimir Lenin reading Pravda, 1918. Source: Photos.com /​Thinkstock

Despite some initial hostility, Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union, lavishly supported Pavlov from the 1920s onwards, championing him as one of the figureheads of a Soviet commitment to scientific progress that could compete with the West.

Includes all you need to create Pavlov’s experiments. Photo: Mark Hawdon. Pavlov outfit created by Lisa Alldred. 

By the time Pavlov died in 1936, he was a national hero. Newsreel from the time shows a grand and sombre funeral procession through the centre of Leningrad (the new name adopted for St Petersburg after Lenin’s death), complete with streets draped in black, thousands of onlookers, a military gun salute, and Pavlov’s body on public display in an open casket. 

British Medical Journal obituary of Pavlov, 1936 

Pavlov’s global reputation was assured, with all major national newspapers and medical journals in the West publishing celebratory obituaries. This one is from the British Medical Journal.

Electroshock edition

Action Comrade Pavlov figure — with accessories! Photo: Mark Hawdon 

Behind the bright packaging of Action Comrade Pavlov, something more sinister lurks. The electroshock edition’ includes various experimenter accessories, including a machine that administers shocks. 

Such machines really were key pieces of experimental kit, capable of delivering severe shocks. They were regularly deployed in The Towers of Silence to electrocute dogs as part of an experiment. You can spot versions of the machine throughout the exhibition and discover more about how and why they were used.

Pavlov’s legacy

Josef Stalin became leader of the Soviet Union in 1924, until his death in 1953. After Pavlov’s death, Stalin advanced a version of Pavlovianism’ as the only acceptable psychological and scientific doctrine. Few dared to question Stalin, so his support helped firmly cement Pavlov’s reputation, at least in public.

For the most part, Pavlov’s legacy has remained intact, his accomplishments heralded in Psychology as a major contribution to the establishment of the discipline as a science. Even today, however, we rarely stop to look at the detail, including the role of the thousands of dogs involved. In that sense, the simplified figure of an unblemished, intrepid great man of science’ has been frozen in time, like a slightly absurd action hero from an earlier era. 

Hear more about Stalin and the Pavlov Sessions 

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