N. A. Grigorian

Until the 1990s, little was known in the Soviet Union about I. P. Pavlov’s commentaries on political and social issues that contradicted the official ideology of the day. He bravely addressed such issues as freedom and discipline, the state and civil society, the public behavior, science and democracy, the psychological health of the nation, and the interactions between the Russian people and ethnic minorities. He saw the October Revolution as a «great social experiment» on the people, the results of which remained unpredictable, but his attitude towards the Soviet regime underwent a well-known evolution between 1917 and his death in 1936. Pavlov’s opinions on fundamental problems of Russian life, for example his idea about the need to develop a reflex of achievement through creative activity, retain their significance even now.