Physiological Society

(full name, I. P. Pavlov All-Union Physiological Society), a scientific society uniting Soviet specialists in human and animal physiology.

The Physiological Society grew out of the I. M. Sechenov Society of Russian Physiologists, which was founded in April 1917 at the First Congress of Physiologists on the initiative of such scientists as I. P. Pavlov and N. E. Vvedenskii. In 1930 the society was renamed the All-Union Society of Physiologists, Biochemists, and Pharmacologists, and since 1960, after independent societies of biochemists and pharmacologists were organized, it has been called the Physiological Society. The chairmen of its administrative board have been I. P. Pavlov (1917–36), L. A. Orbeli (1937–50, 1956–58), I. P. Razenkov (1934–37, 1950–54), A. V. Palladin (1955–56), and P. S. Kupalov (1959–64). In 1964, L. G. Voronin became chairman of the administrative board (president).

In 1976 the Physiological Society had 99 divisions: 14 republic divisions and 85 city divisions, including those in Moscow and Leningrad. The main functions of the society are to maintain contact with medical, pedagogical, zootechnical, and other institutions, to provide assistance with methods of teaching physiology in higher educational institutions, and to publicize advances in physiology. Twelve congresses of the society have been held, the latest in 1975 in Tbilisi.