Kovalevsky, Pavel Ivanovich. P. I. Kovalevsky about Russian national education Pavel Kovalevsky

Petryuk P.T., Petryuk A.P., Ivanichuk O.P. (Kharkov, Ukraine)

	Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, psychiatrist, researcher of the history of psychiatry; Kharkov City Charitable Foundation for Psychosocial Rehabilitation of Persons with Mental Problems, st. Academician Pavlova, 46, Kharkov, 61068, Ukraine. Tel.: +380 57 396 0458. Email: [email protected]
	Psychiatrist, freelance researcher, researcher of the history of psychiatry; Kharkov Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 (Saburova Dacha), Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Narcology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, st. Academician Pavlova, 46, Kharkov, 61068, Ukraine. Tel.: +380 57 738 3387. Email: [email protected]
	Neurologist, clinical resident of the Department of Neuropathology and Neurosurgery, researcher of the history of neurology and psychiatry; Kharkov Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, st. Korchagintsev, 58, Kharkov, 61176, Ukraine. Tel.: +380 57 711 8025. Email: [email protected]

Fate rarely interferes with the wise.
Epicurus

Professor P.I. Kovalevsky

Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky (1849-1931) - a famous Russian scientist, psychiatrist, psychologist, publicist, ideologist of Russian nationalism, public figure, editor and publisher of medical periodicals, translator of the works of famous foreign psychiatrists, who at one time worked at Saburova's dacha - a former Saburyan, belonged to the galaxy of intellectual doctors that formed in the last third of the 19th century and did a lot for the development of domestic psychiatry, including the Kharkov psychiatric school.

P.I. Kovalevsky - Doctor of Medicine, Professor, founder of the first psychiatric journal in Russian “Archive of Psychiatry, Neurology and Forensic Psychopathology”, editor of the “Russian Medical Bulletin”, “Bulletin of Idiocy and Epilepsy”, “Bulletin of Mental Illnesses”, co-editor of the Strasbourg journal “Archiv für” Psychiatrie und Nervenheilkunde", author of an original concept on the role of blood circulation and metabolism in the central nervous system (CNS), the first domestic manual on psychiatry, organizer of the first independent department of psychiatry in Ukraine and one of the first experimental psychological laboratories at the University of Kiev, rector of the University of Warsaw , member of the Russian Assembly (RS), the All-Russian National Club (VNK) and the All-Russian National Union (VNS). Delegate to the Russian Foreign Congress, held in Paris in 1926, from the Russian emigration in Belgium.

Among the many merits of Pavel Ivanovich is the creation in 1882 of a separate classification of mental illnesses based on metabolic disorders in the brain and central nervous system, as well as the convening of the First Congress of Russian Psychiatrists in 1887, which was the final stage in the formation of domestic psychiatric science. It should also be emphasized that the authors of the famous work “History of Psychoanalysis in Ukraine” (1996) rightly call the name of the psychiatrist P.I. Kovalevsky is third after the names of the outstanding Ukrainian educator-humanist, philosopher, poet and teacher G.S. Skovoroda and the German philosopher, the first professor of philosophy at Kharkov University I.B. Shad, noting that it is from them that the traditions of psychoanalysis originate in the east of Ukraine - in the city of Kharkov.

It is interesting to note that in 1951 a detailed genealogy of the Kovalevskys, covering three centuries, was published in Paris. Although the brochure was published without a signature, it was written in the preface that its author was “a prominent figure in the Russian emigration in Paris, P.E. Kovalevsky is a historian, bibliographer, and organizer of church life. In the family tree, the author includes Osip Mikhailovich Kovalevsky, a professor of the Mongolian language, rector of Kazan University (seventh generation), and Nikolai Osipovich Kovalevsky, dean of the medical faculty and rector of Kazan University (ninth generation), to the Kazan branch. Among the representatives of the Kharkov line was Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky, professor of psychiatry, rector of the University of Warsaw.

Regarding the origin of P.I. Kovalevsky, the authors of the textbook “History of World and Ukrainian Culture” (2000) note that “the Kovalevsky family, descendants of the Sloboda-Ukrainian foreman of the Kharkov regiment, generally turned out to be rich in scientists.” According to their testimonies, the Minister of Education Evgraf Kovalevsky (1790-1867) came from this family; geologist Igor Kovalevsky (1811-1868); one of the founders of evolutionary embryology and physiology, professor at several European universities, Alexander Kovalevsky (1840-1901); an outstanding paleontologist with a worldwide reputation, the husband of Sofia Kovalevskaya - Vladimir Kovalevsky (1843-1883), one of the first sociologists, author of works on jurisprudence and the history of the political system Maxim Kovalevsky (1851-1916), professor of psychiatry Pavel Kovalevsky (1849-1931).

Pavel Ivanovich was one of the leading Russian psychiatrists of the early twentieth century, his was rightly called the best psychiatrist in the capital and even “the father of Russian psychiatry.” He was one of the first who began to compile psychological portraits of great personalities: the Prophet Muhammad, Joan of Arc, Ivan the Terrible, A.V. Suvorov and many others.

The result of large-scale scientific and practical activities carried out by P.I. Kovalevsky, was his development of the most important scientific theories, such as the materialistic idea of ​​the essence of mental phenomena in normal and pathological conditions, the theory of psychosis, the position on the role of blood circulation in the central nervous system and others. For his services in the development of medical science P.I. At the end of the 19th century, Kovalevsky received a number of government awards, including the Order of St. Vladimir, a golden snuffbox named after Emperor Alexander III, as well as the rank of full state councilor.

The name of Pavel Ivanovich is still relatively little known today. As a rule, only historians of medicine know about it, because P.I. Kovalevsky was, as we have already noted, one of the leading Russian psychiatrists of the early twentieth century, and there were few experts on the ideology of Russian nationalism, since P.I. Kovalevsky was rightfully considered the ideologist of this direction of Russian thought, who actively took part in the activities of such organizations as the VNK and the VNS . Before the revolution, in right-wing circles his name was no less famous than the recently returned name of the major nationalist publicist M.O. Menshikov.

However, in the subsequent seventy years of Soviet power, these names were deliberately consigned to oblivion. Little by little, the works of patriotic thinkers are beginning to be republished, and special studies are being devoted to their authors. But unlike M.O. Menshikov, about whom an entire monograph has already been written, Pavel Ivanovich was less fortunate: the political biography of this prominent ideologist of Russian national thought, superficially reflected in several small articles dedicated to him, essentially remains unknown.

P.I. Kovalevsky was born in 1849 (according to other sources - in 1850) in the town of Petropavlovka, Pavlograd district, Ekaterinoslav province (now an urban village in the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine) in the family of a priest. In the sixth week of his life, Pavel lost his father and grew up with his brother, two sisters and widowed mother in extremely cramped material conditions: the main source of existence for the Kovalevsky family was a ten-ruble annual pension. At the age of nine, following family tradition, the boy was sent as a half-boarder to a theological school, in the senior classes of which, through tutoring, “he not only earned money for himself, but also spent something from it for household use.”

Having successfully completed his studies at the school, P.I. Kovalevsky entered the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary, from which he graduated as the first student in 1869. However, being passionate about natural science, the young man did not follow the spiritual path, but decided to continue his education at the Faculty of Medicine of Kharkov University.

In 1869 P.I. Kovalevsky enters the medical faculty of Kharkov University. Since his second year, he has been engaged in scientific research in the laboratory of the Department of General Pathology, headed by I.N. Obolensky. The future doctor pays the greatest attention to nervous and mental diseases. Having graduated with honors from the university in 1874 and received a degree in medicine and the title of district doctor, Pavel Ivanovich, due to his demonstrated abilities, was left at the faculty to prepare his doctoral dissertation in psychiatry on the topic “On changes in the sensitivity of the skin in melancholic people,” which was soon completed, in 1877 , successfully defended.

Title pages of a number of works by Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky

At the same time, the theoretical work of P.I. Kovalevsky was closely intertwined with the practical. The young scientist combined his scientific research with the work of a supernumerary resident in the department of the mentally ill at the Kharkov provincial zemstvo hospital (Saburova Dacha). It is appropriate to note here that before the intervention of Pavel Ivanovich, who was shocked to the core by what he saw in the insane asylum, the situation of the mentally ill was very difficult. This is how a contemporary describes him: “A warden armed with a whip was placed over the unfortunate people. In case of any disobedience, the deserving one received a reminder of maintaining decency with a full blow of the whip. If the whip did not have the desired effect, the madman was chained, and if this did not appease the brawler, he was simply shackled!” .

P.I. Kovalevsky boldly spoke out in defense of the mentally ill, proposing a number of measures to reorganize the institution, incl. The innovative idea he soon embodied was the creation of workshops for the mentally ill and their involvement in physical labor. Thanks to his works and the works of his students, the painful situation of the patients of the institution came to an end - the chains and shackles disappeared, and the insane received the right to be considered sick. After defending his doctoral dissertation, Pavel Ivanovich successively served as a private assistant professor (1877), associate professor (1878), extraordinary (1884) and ordinary (1888) professor of the Department of Psychiatry at Kharkov University, and was, as noted above, the initiator of the First Congress of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists of Russia (1887).

In 1877, the first independent department of psychiatry and neurology in Ukraine was organized at Kharkov University, headed by private associate professor P.I. Kovalevsky, student of A.U. Frese, who began his scientific career at Saburova's dacha. Clinical demonstrations were carried out first in the Kharkov provincial zemstvo hospital (Saburova Dacha), and subsequently in the private hospital of I.Ya. Platonov, where a laboratory was organized and, to the extent possible, everything necessary for the most successful teaching was created due to the fact that Saburova’s dacha was located outside the city of Kharkov and there was no paved road there.

In 1889, Pavel Ivanovich was appointed dean of the medical faculty of Kharkov University, and then rector of the University of Warsaw (1892-1897). Unfortunately, a serious illness suffered in the summer of 1896 forced him to leave the university. From 1903 to 1906, Kovalevsky was the head of the department of psychiatry at Kazan University, after which he taught a course in forensic psychopathology at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University and worked as a senior physician in the psychiatric department of the Nikolaev Military Hospital in St. Petersburg, the leading medical institution of that time. At this time, Pavel Ivanovich continued to publish magazines, was engaged in translations of the works of foreign psychiatrists F. Pinel, T. Meinert, K. Wernicke and many others, taking an active part in the work of a number of public organizations: he collaborated with the Red Cross Institute of Charity, was a member of the board of its St. Petersburg committee, was a member of a parent circle and a charity society for cripples and idiots. In addition, since the beginning of the 20th century P.I. Kovalevsky was a consultant at Holy Trinity Hospital and practiced medicine.

The implementation of mature innovations in psychiatry and the attraction of wide public attention to them gave rise to the need to create a special printed organ in Russia. In 1893 P.I. Kovalevsky became the founder and editor of the first psychiatric journal in Russian, called “Archive of Psychiatry, Neurology and Forensic Psychopathology” (the journal ceased to exist in 1896). The editor promptly announced that the journal “will pursue the study of abnormalities in human nervous life, diseases, crimes, the conditions for their development and means for their eradication.” He published a number of foreign monographs and manuals on the most important issues of psychoneurology. Domestic psychiatrists owe him the acquaintance with the clinical lectures of T. Meinert, whose ideas were especially close to P.I. Kovalevsky; Lectures by J.M. were published. Charcot, books by W.R. Gowers, O.L. Bienswanger, Ch. Richet and others. In addition, he published the “Journal of Medicine and Hygiene”, “Russian Medical Bulletin”, “Bulletin of Idiocy and Epilepsy”, “Bulletin of Mental Illnesses”, and for 15 years he was co-editor of the European Psychiatric Journal published in Strasbourg (Germany). Pavel Ivanovich was rightfully called the best psychiatrist in the capital and even “the father of Russian psychiatry”- he is the author of a large number of scientific works on various issues of psychiatry, including forensic psychiatry, psychology, neurology and a large number of translations of the works of foreign psychiatrists.

In his scientific research P.I. Kovalevsky, relying on the anatomical and physiological knowledge of that time, in particular on the reflex theory of I.M. Sechenov, developed materialistic ideas about the essence of mental phenomena in normal and pathological conditions. He created an original concept about the role of blood circulation and metabolism in the central nervous system, believing that the basis of any mental illness is a malnutrition of the nervous elements and that the degree of their anatomical destruction depends on the duration of this disorder. In the etiology of psychoses, Pavel Ivanovich attached great importance to the combination of hereditary factors with external agents of both somatogenic and psychogenic nature causing the disease. A number of his works are devoted to the study of syphilitic lesions of the nervous system, issues of forensic psychiatry, childhood neuropathology and other issues. P.I. Kovalevsky created a classification of mental illnesses, where he took as the basis for the division the predominance of disorders in one or another area of ​​mental activity.

It should be emphasized that the founder of the Kharkov school of psychiatrists, the founder of one of the first journals in Russian devoted to the problems of psychiatry - “Archive of Psychiatry, Neurology and Forensic Psychopathology” - P.I. Kovalevsky, despite the conservatism of his political convictions, was an outstanding psychiatrist of his time, a spontaneous materialist who took a consistently physiological position. “The central nervous system,” wrote Pavel Ivanovich, “is an organ of mental activity... The center of conscious mental life is the cerebral cortex. All information about the outside world is brought here, and from here all information about the relationship of our body to the outside world is carried. Consequently, this is the center of interaction between the external world towards us and ours towards the world.”

The continuity of his understanding of the psyche as the interaction of a person with the world and the teachings of A.U. Frese is undeniable. The activity of nerve cells - the physiological processes occurring in them - is, according to P.I. Kovalevsky, the material basis of the psyche. Referring to such physiologists as V.Ya. Danilevsky, N.Z. Umikov, O. Langendorff, he notes the role of alkaline reactions in brain function, the dependence of excitability and mental activity on phosphorus-containing neuroglobulin and neurostromin in the gray medulla and on the quantitative ratio of these proteins. The active state of nerve cells is always associated either with the formation of a new one or with the reproduction of an already existing sensation according to previous traces. Pavel Ivanovich notes that irritation that does not turn into sensation leaves cells in an inert state, and the molecular and chemical changes that make up the mechanism of sensation are associated with the expansion of the walls of cellular vessels and, accordingly, with the influx of nutrient material. He believes that the following conditions are necessary for the formation of impressions: 1) the impact of the stimulus must be within a certain physiological tension; 2) the perceiving organ must be ready for perception; 3) at least a minimum time of exposure to the stimulus is required. The primary “unit of mental activity” of P.I. Kovalevsky calls representation as the final act of reflex, which does not end with movement. The organs of sensation, according to Pavel Ivanovich, are primarily subcortical centers, and the clarity of sensations is greater the more often they are repeated, the less abstraction there is in the perception of a given sense organ (vision, hearing, etc.), the more this sensation is coupled with the sensations of other organs feelings about the same subject. “The whole essence of mental life,” he writes, “will lie in the cerebral hemispheres; here is the center of ideas, here is the source of mental activity.” He joins the opinion of T. Ribot, who proposed to distinguish between static memory, inherent in each nervous element, and dynamic memory, characteristic of entire “groupings of nervous elements” and serving as “memory of concepts.”

Following V.M. Sechenov and T.G. Meynert P.I. Kovalevsky considers reflexes to be the basis of all mental acts, noting the uniqueness of psychophysical reflexes, the need for thinking to “delay” purely motor reactions, the complex combination of activity of cortical and subcortical centers, etc. He views mental processes as an interaction (often acutely conflicting) of the mind and emotions associated with will, without which these processes cannot be completed. “Will is not an independent ability, but one that completely follows from the above-mentioned struggle between thinking and well-being. Will is the diagonal between these two mental forces: thinking and feeling or passion... in some cases it approaches towards one, in others towards the other, depending on the intensity of one or the other figure,” states P.I. in this regard. Kovalevsky [Ibid]. He defines mental illness as disorders of thinking and well-being, diseases of the central nervous system, primarily the forebrain, which in one way or another affect the entire psyche of the patient.

From the “quantitative” sensitivity disorders P.I. Kovalevsky dwells on anesthesia and hyperesthesia, noting the typicality of the former for passive melancholics, the latter for active melancholics and maniacs. “Qualitative” sensitivity disorders include illusions and hallucinations. “Every illusion,” writes Pavel Ivanovich, “is a perversion of actually existing irritations of the external world, and in this sense it can be understood as a qualitative change in nervous excitability, since this time it brings to our consciousness information about the qualities of an object in a modified form.” [Ibid]. Paying attention to the presence of certain deviations of “sensitivity” in some healthy people, P.I. Kovalevsky sees the difference between them and the mentally ill in that the latter’s controlling thought centers are affected and their attitude towards the world is pathologically changed.

Referring to the research of V.F. Chizh and others, Pavel Ivanovich associates quantitative disorders of ideas with a weakening of the activity of active apperception, and (with the exception of the initial stage of progressive paralysis) in all mentally ill patients, psychophysical reactions, as a rule, slow down. He associates qualitative disorders in the field of ideas primarily with memory pathology. He notes that with amnesia, it is not so much memorization that is disrupted as reproduction, and that the “old heritage” of memory is the most stable. “With a gradually increasing decline in memory,” states P.I. Kovalevsky, - first the memory of the recent is impaired, then the ability to localize in time is lost, then the memory of feelings, which can be very stable; finally, memory of habits; when this kind of memory ceases, then it is no longer possible to distinguish any signs of personality” [Ibid.]. Admitting the presence of violent ideas in some otherwise healthy people, Pavel Ivanovich expresses the opinion that these ideas develop or can develop into illness and, therefore, are, if not diagnostic, then, in any case, an alarming sign. Such ideas differ from delusional ideas in that, despite the inability to get rid of them, a person still retains a critical attitude towards them, whereas there is no criticism in relation to delusional ideas.

The pathologizing role of violent ideas that activates the “trigger mechanism” of psychosis lies, according to P.I. Kovalevsky, primarily in their ability to become the “central core” of delirium. He wrote the following about the mechanisms of delusional formation: “Ridiculous ideas can manifest themselves in different ways: they can appear completely alone, they can form a known delusional core without affecting the rest of the mental life, as, for example, with partial primary insanity, they can, forming a known core, lead combined with other ideas and influencing them, as in melancholy, these absurd ideas can finally fill a person’s entire life, producing complete confusion in his mental activity.<…>This or that absurd and meaningless idea appears in the consciousness of one or another person and holds firmly in him. This will be the main core, this will be the main fixed point. But the difference in this case from a violent idea is that patients recognize the crazy idea as completely reasonable and natural. Moreover, they are not burdened by her presence. They combine the rest of their thoughts with her. It will be the center from which painful radii extend to all other ideas, unite them and form something whole, consistent. A distinctive feature of a fixed thought is that, once it appears, it remains motionless, expressed very sharply and for the most part serves as a focus for all other delirium. Very often these fixed ideas are supported by hallucinations of the senses, especially auditory hallucinations” [Ibid].

Along with violent ideas, the sources of delusions, according to Pavel Ivanovich, are illusions, hallucinations, pseudohallucinations, and he associates the occurrence of delusions with changes in the functioning of the cerebral cortex. The loss of criticality in relation to delusional ideas is most characteristic of the latter, as well as the fixation of the “central core” of delusion, its relative stability and constancy. P.I. Kovalevsky especially emphasizes the centripetal nature of this “core”, the activity of the dominant delusional idea, which comes into connection with other ideas and gives all of them, the entire thinking and attitude of the patient a pathological character. “Crazy ideas, as painful phenomena, as the core of brain changes, are of primary importance in the mental life of the patient. This is the essence and salt of his thinking. All other ideas are subordinate to them and serve as a kind of aid. The patient lives by them. The patient lives for them."

Pavel Ivanovich attaches great importance to disorientation in time and place, closely linking it with memory disorders. By the influence of the latter, he also explains disorders of personal self-awareness, when different actions are attributed to two different, simultaneously coexisting “I”s, or when self-alienation from one’s own personality finally occurs. The most profound disorders are caused, according to P.I. Kovalevsky, fundamental changes in the functioning of the brain are expressed in a sharp decrease in the number of ideas and in violations of the formal-logical apparatus of thinking.

P.I. Kovalevsky was in the first rank of domestic psychiatrists who began to study the relationship between the conscious and unconscious in both normal and pathological conditions. He wrote: “...the coloring of a personality, its peculiarity, individuality largely depends on the area and manifestation of our unconscious activity. In pathological cases, disturbances may occur in both the area of ​​conscious and unconscious activity.” Pavel Ivanovich insisted on the hypothesis of the active participation of the entire sphere of the unconscious in the formation of human individuality, its psychological originality. Following D.H. Jackson and others, he suggests that the liberation of the unconscious from the control of consciousness constitutes the deep soil of mental pathology and that this process leads to further pathologization of the unconscious realm. He identifies as the mildest “quantitative” form of disorder of consciousness a special type of dizziness, which is characterized by confusion of consciousness from slight to short-term, but complete, often with the presence of hallucinations. Such “dizziness,” according to his observations, occurs with mania, progressive paralysis, alcoholism, epilepsy, and senile dementia. Then, in terms of severity, follow twilight states, when the ideas of the spatio-temporal order and consciousness of one’s own personality are unclear. Consciousness darkens even more deeply in Mori-like states, when confusion of ideas is combined with manic excitement, and often with loss of memory of what happened. “Confusion” is a special (“as if sleepy”) state, characterized by a mixture of present and past circumstances, various places and events, one’s own personality with strangers [Ibid.].

The most severe “quantitative” disorders of consciousness P.I. Kovalevsky considers pathological deep “hibernation” - stupor and coma, in which it is not possible to provoke a reaction even with strong irritation. Supporting the idea of ​​D.H. Jackson and G. Mercier that coma is acute dementia, and dementia is chronic coma, he conjectures that many mental illnesses and pathological conditions are related to “mild” coma and precomatose states.

Highly appreciating the role of well-being in mental life, especially in volitional actions, P.I. Kovalevsky writes: “Our actions and relationships are often based on this phenomenon of well-being reaction. It is one of the most important factors in our spiritual life and serves as a determinant in the manifestation of volitional actions, and therefore constitutes one of the elements of will” [Ibid].

He pays great attention to affects, which he views as “a deviation in mental activity, characterized by an instant loss of consciousness and the destruction of free will, with subsequent exhaustion and short-term clouding of the mind, while simultaneously maintaining the often most complex activity of the motor system” [Ibid]. Thenic affects are accompanied by excitation of mental and especially muscular activity, while asthenic ones are accompanied by a sharp suppression of the latter, up to complete numbness. P.I. Kovalevsky points to a number of conditions that contribute to the emergence of affect: 1) hereditary irritability and excitability; 2) difficult living conditions and circumstances that systematically undermine mental balance; 3) organic suffering (heart defects, menstruation disorders, etc.); 4) various nervous and mental diseases (especially hysteria, epilepsy, melancholy and progressive paralysis).

P.I. Kovalevsky distinguishes three stages in the development of affect. The preparatory period is characterized by excessive mental stress, which accumulates and grows for a long time or short-term (but intensely), providing ready soil for the “final irritation” that directly causes affect. The second period - the actual affect, or “insanity” - is determined by the degree of surprise and (or) the strength of the shock that affected the already prepared soil. Typical for him is a momentary stop or sharp inhibition of the course of ideas, of which only those associated with the dominant passion are preserved; turning off “criticism” and logical assessment in general; lack of freedom of choice, when every action is a “direct affect of feeling,” i.e. “is a simple reflex, is a machine-like, fatal image” [Ibid.]. In this case, activity in the field of ideas stops, the process of thinking stops, actions are performed reflexively, free will is completely absent. In the third, post-affective period, exhaustion and relaxation of the nervous system occurs, a decline in sensory perception, emotional indifference, fragmentation and incoherence of ideas, both momentary and about events in a state of passion, are observed. The work of consciousness at this stage is characterized by a clear lack of personal attitude and evaluation. Pavel Ivanovich explains all this as a consequence of deep general fatigue.

Of the “qualitative” disorders of well-being and emotions, the most interesting are the observations of P.I. Kovalevsky over pathological melancholy with an active form of melancholia and over such a specific variety as “precordial melancholy”. He explains these phenomena by an insufficient flow of oxygen to the brain with the simultaneous “speed and intensity of excitations and associative play occurring in the cerebral cortex.” Precardiac melancholy is accompanied by vasomotor spasm and subsequent respiratory distress. If melancholy in the mentally healthy is caused by a real “external” cause, and the strength and severity of the affect is directly proportional to the vital significance of this cause, then in the mentally ill this melancholy has a vital character in terms of tension and severity, is relatively independent of “external” causes and is not in direct correspondence with the actual vital significance for a given patient of those “facts” (and in fact, reasons) to which he refers.

P.I. Kovalevsky puts forward a hypothesis according to which agoraphobia, claustrophobia, mysophobia and other phobias are manifestations of one general condition - pathological fear (“pathophobia”). They are caused by similar changes in brain chemistry and function. He places violent drives in close connection with violent ideas and obsessions, although he refrains from recognizing the direct genetic dependence of drives on ideational phenomena.

Pavel Ivanovich divides movement disorders of the mental order into hyperkinesis - increased movement against the norm (various types of convulsions) and akinesis - pathological weakening of movement (various types, forms and degrees of paralytic disorders). The special diagnostic value of P.I. Kovalevsky attributes speech and writing disorders [Ibid.]. He notes dysfrasia, dysphasia and anarthritic disorders (“jumping” speech, vagueness, indistinct articulation) as typical pathological signs. Among dysphrasias, he draws attention to the pathological acceleration and deceleration of the rate of speech, up to fragmentation and incoherence; specific forms of “childish” speech in adults, pathetic-declamatory, mannered, etc.; annoying repetitions of words - verbigeration; “conventional” and made-up words (pathological neologisms), and sometimes “new” language. The signs he gives of a writing disorder associated with mental illness and relating to the choice of paper, the direction of lines, the hardness and softness of handwriting, the shape of letters, combining them into words, the correct placement of letters, omissions, errors and rearrangements of letters in words and syllables are varied and interesting.

Disorders of facial expressions and body position in melancholia and related conditions manifest themselves, according to P.I. Kovalevsky, in depression and muscle relaxation: the head is lowered, the body is tilted forward, the limbs hang passively, the face is stiff, the movements are sluggish, the body position is almost unchanged. Tension, energy, and convulsions are typical for manic states: the body is always in motion, the head is raised high, facial expressions are emphatically expressive, the voice is excessively loud. P.I. Kovalevsky notes the stereotyping of motor skills in catatonia and “secondary” psychoses, its “mechanical” nature, as well as the diagnostic role of violent, impulsive, automatic movements, pointing out that they all only look like voluntary, expedient ones, but are actually performed against the will or unconsciously, automatically. Automatisms, according to Pavel Ivanovich’s observations, are most characteristic of epilepsy, hysteria, severe forms of alcoholism, many traumatic psychoses, etc. He especially dwells on various forms of mental paralysis caused precisely by mental disorders. He points out, in particular, that with hysteria, violent ideas and delusions, disorders such as astasia and abasia are not uncommon (the inability to stand upright and a violation of the correct gait while maintaining sensitivity, muscle strength and coordination of all other movements of the lower extremities); actual mental paralysis, when the patient seems to have paralyzed legs; functional paralysis due to nervous fatigue. “The distinctive feature of this functional paralysis,” states P.I. Kovalevsky, “it is that the muscle strength of the healthy side during paralysis is stronger than after recovery from it” [Ibid.].

P.I.’s observations have not lost a certain interest either. Kovalevsky on disorders of “secretory” (vegetative) functions in mental illnesses, if only because these disorders are insignificant, weakly expressed and usually escape the doctor’s attention. This is increased sweating during delirium tremens and often during “primary insanity”; its weakening in a number of cases of hysteria and melancholy; a pungent, unpleasant smell of sweat in many hysterical, melancholic, and epileptic people. He notes a decrease in urination in hysteria and melancholia, an increase in progressive paralysis; an increase in the specific gravity of urine in maniacs, a fall in melancholics; very light color of urine in melancholic patients and in hysteria. As a rule, with melancholia, sugar appears in the urine, and with epilepsy, progressive paralysis, delirium tremens, and circular psychoses, albuminuria periodically occurs. Excessive salivation is observed in manic patients, with hebephrenia and in the “primarily insane”; in many mental illnesses it is insufficient and causes dry mouth. In melancholic, paranoid people, and especially in hysteria, appetite often decreases to the point of complete refusal to eat, while at the same time appetite increases pathologically, often in the weak-minded, with epilepsy, and progressive paralysis. P.I. Kovalevsky writes: “Mental illnesses, as a pathological manifestation of physiological extremes, cannot but respond to the body’s nutrition, as well as its weight” [Ibid]. With melancholia and mania, according to his observations, the weight of patients falls as the disease intensifies, but is restored as they recover and, as a rule, rises above normal. Often body weight drops sharply with epilepsy in anticipation of attacks, etc.

Views of P.I. Kovalevsky on the causes of mental illness are mostly outdated and represent a combination of subtle observations, interesting analysis and often erroneous, approximate, and sometimes downright reactionary Lombrosian conclusions. The central place in his etiological views is occupied by the problem of heredity. He attaches great importance to heredity, especially hereditary predisposition, as an etiological factor in mental illness. However, at the same time, he goes to the extreme, asserting that “almost all cases of various varieties of insanity will be of hereditary origin” and that everyone born is supposedly fatally predetermined to mental health or illness by the very mental organization of his parents or more distant ancestors. He is a follower of the erroneous teachings of French and Italian psychiatrists about the inevitable increase in the incidence and severity of the diseases themselves, the degeneration of the descendants of the mentally ill with each new generation. True, he admits that in a number of cases, a hereditary predisposition may not develop into a disease without additional harmful external influences, but he declares that it is mental disorders that are independent of any external factors that are typical. He considers predisposition to mental illness to be a more frequent and important type of heredity than directly inherited psychoses. He sees this “readiness” of the psyche for illness not just in its weakening, but also in its “active” susceptibility to mental trauma and other external harms so high that “the slightest bad influence... causes a painful manifestation in the form of mental suffering, psychosis, or form of nervous suffering, neurosis."

Despite the fallacy of his general theoretical views on heredity, Pavel Ivanovich does not deny the influence of upbringing and environment on the emergence and manifestation of psychoses. He, “correcting” himself, says that even a bad hereditary predisposition can be neutralized by the healing psychological influence of upbringing and the environment, i.e. in fact, it puts this latter on a par with heredity. He explains heredity and its occurrence not only by biological, but also by socio-psychological “moments”, interaction with the psychophysiological natural organization of a person, often highlighting social factors.

Like most domestic psychiatrists, P.I. Kovalevsky strongly opposes the opinion, held even by such prominent scientists as W. Griesinger, G. Maudsley, R. Krafft-Ebing, that civilization and its development in themselves lead to an increase in the number of mental illnesses. Recognizing that, in general, the progress of civilization leads rather to greater mental health of society, P.I. Kovalevsky shows a certain flexibility and even dialecticism and puts forward the thesis according to which the state of mind and lifestyle in the so-called “transitional” eras can contribute to mental illness. This idea, which deserves careful scientific testing, is unfortunately associated with his militant defense of religion and attacks against revolutionaries and “liberalism” in the name of “restraint.”

In the classification of mental illnesses P.I. Kovalevsky proceeded from metabolic disorders in the brain and central nervous system. “With this classification,” he wrote (1885), “an attempt can be made to introduce a pathoanatomical and physiological division of forms. The basis for the proper functioning of each organ and body is nutrition. The greater the exchange of nutrients, the more energetic the dispatch of the nerve element. The basis of any mental illness is, in essence, a malnutrition of the nervous elements, and their anatomical destruction depends on the duration of the malnutrition.” Pavel Ivanovich was a supporter of recognizing the independence of various diseases, but in practice remained, in general, within the framework of the syndromic approach. Perhaps the most interesting thing in his classification is the identification of periodic psychoses into a special group as qualitatively different, in his opinion, from non-periodic ones.

In the diagnosis of diseases P.I. Kovalevsky considered it obligatory to proceed both from a careful collection of anamnesis and from a detailed individualized study of the present condition. “There is no part of the body,” he wrote about the role of a comprehensive study of status praesens, “to which nerves do not relate, and the totality of the entire nervous organization is entirely part of mental activity. Therefore, when studying a mentally ill person, the most careful study of all parts of his body is required. The study of a mentally ill person represents the most accurate and detailed study of the body, plus a study of mental activity” [Ibid.].

P.I. Kovalevsky was one of the largest forensic experts. His “Forensic Psychiatry” (1902) and especially “Forensic Psychiatric Analyzes” (1880-1881) testify to extraordinary erudition; they still surprise with the subtlety of specific observations, the accuracy of psychological characteristics, attention to the dynamics of mental processes, and the study of pathological disorders in close connection with preserved personality traits, the desire to differentially assess the mental state of the examinee both at the time of the offense and during the examination. However, as noted above, the general sense of his views on the entire range of these issues was reactionary due to his Lombrosian positions. He argued (1880) that the hereditary, especially psychopaths, are potential criminals and, conversely, that “the traits of moral insanity and the born criminal are the same.” Proclaiming the incorrigibility of “degenerate” criminals and those suffering from “moral insanity,” Pavel Ivanovich regarded their behavior as deeply pathological and recommended their long-term, sometimes lifelong, isolation in clinics. True, in contrast to the anthropological school of consistent Lombrosians, who believed that actual sanity lies in the very physical nature of criminal acts, he defended the principle of insanity of “innate” criminals. He also recognized a certain role of negative social and everyday factors in the genesis of mental illness and dangerous actions of mentally ill people, arguing that “physical deprivation and moral bullying also had their share of participation in maintaining stupidity.” P.I. Kovalevsky considered clinical research insufficient for “moral insanity” and declared, almost literally according to C. Lombroso, that “in none of the types of insanity would comparative psychological and anthropological data serve to clarify the matter as much as in moral insanity.”

Errors of a general theoretical nature, however, came into conflict with the observation and conscientiousness of the scientist, and when it came to facts, the clinician mostly won. So, P.I. Kovalevsky following I.M. Balinsky pointed out the possibility of dangerous actions of mentally ill people not only in connection with productive symptoms, but also under the influence of real external traumatic influences. He, long before V.P. Serbsky, drew attention to the dissimulation (even in acute pathological conditions) of their painful experiences characteristic of patients with “primary insanity,” which makes them potentially even more dangerous. Also of interest are his proposals, which are close to the ideas of A.U. Frese, the basic principles of diagnosing malingering, which consists in the discrepancy between the behavior of malingerers and the “patterns of the course of the disease.” Pavel Ivanovich initiated the study of specific forensic psychiatric aspects of the behavior of patients with epilepsy, alcoholism and senile dementia. With all the wealth of factual material, all the subtlety and skill of P.I.’s examinations. Kovalevsky’s forensic psychiatric works provide another sad evidence of the harm that fundamentally erroneous worldviews and methodological errors can bring even to a major scientist.

In private psychiatry, the most significant works are P.I. Kovalevsky on issues of epilepsy and “primary insanity,” to which he attributed the predominantly paranoid form of schizophrenia. The primary lesion of mental activity, which, according to P.I. Kovalevsky, he sees the essence of the disease in the formation of a “nuclear” delusional idea, around which a world of delusional ideas is formed, pathologizing all thinking. In his opinion (controversial due to its opposition to the views of V.Kh. Kandinsky), illusions, hallucinations and other deceptions of the senses only in rare cases precede the emergence of the “core” of delirium, and appear, as a rule, simultaneously with the formation of the latter or later. Primary insanity, according to Pavel Ivanovich, never develops from a gloomy or cheerful mood: “primary insanity never serves as the initial state and final act of melancholic or manic insanity. It is an independent form of the disease, appears original and primary and consists of damage to the mental area.” From an anatomical and physiological point of view, P.I. Kovalevsky considers primary insanity to be a lesion of the cortex of the anterior lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. He does not deny painful manifestations of well-being (sadness, melancholy, irritability, anger, violence) with this disease, but classifies them as accompanying and optional. It attaches great diagnostic importance to absent-mindedness and poor attention. He calls the main signs of the disease the loss of the critical ability of judgment, the symbolization of impressions from the outside world, the acceptance of a “fantasized” picture of the world as real, while maintaining the formal apparatus of logical thinking. He draws attention to a family hereditary predisposition to primary insanity and points out as characteristic psychological signs that these are for the most part “nervous, irritable, capricious children... loving solitude, daydreaming and fantasy,” extremely receptive, sensitive.

P.I. Kovalevsky puts forward a hypothesis about the fundamental relationship between acute and chronic primary insanity. In his opinion, hallucinosis constitutes in both cases the “core” of the disease. The development of the disease is characterized by unsystematic, fragmentary delirium, disturbance of well-being, the emergence and further increase of hallucinations, aimlessness and illogicality of actions, remissions after attacks and repetition of the latter. As the disease progresses, according to Pavel Ivanovich, a change and degeneration of the brain centers occurs, and after this, delirium increasingly loses its consistency and “logicality.” “Weakening of mental activity,” writes P.I. Kovalevsky, - limited only to the area of ​​delusional ideas, - in other respects, their mental activity is completely correct. In this case, there is literally limited partial dementia. In this way, the disease can continue until the end of life, and it does not develop into other forms of insanity, and especially almost never into general dementia” [Ibid.]. The main cause of primary insanity P.I. Kovalevsky considers a hereditary predisposition (alcoholism and other parental vices, nervous irritable weakness, etc.). He attributes primary insanity to hereditary “degenerative” psychoses, arguing: “Heredity is a disease throughout a person’s life, with the difference that in one period it is expressed more, in another less” [Ibid].

As the theorist-psychologist P.I. Kovalevsky is significantly inferior not only to S.S. Korsakov, but also other prominent psychiatrists of the period under review. He did not leave a holistic teaching; his views were largely eclectic and outdated. His “physiological” materialism was mechanistic in its foundations. And yet P.I. Kovalevsky the clinician rightfully belongs to the classics of Russian psychiatry. His specific phenomenological observations, especially the most subtle and richly nuanced definitions of “external” (facial, kinesthetic, speech, secretory) manifestations of various psychoses, the relationship between “quantitative” and “qualitative” disorders in the dynamics of mental and emotional processes, represent a veritable treasury for the patient and thoughtful doctor. If Pavel Ivanovich’s views on the “macroproblems” of psychiatry are not of keen interest today, then in the “microproblems” - in everyday clinical and expert practice - his legacy still remains a useful “reference book” for clinicians.

In addition to the fact that P.I. Kovalevsky, as already emphasized above, was engaged in scientific and teaching activities, he was an active participant in the national-monarchical movement. For some time he was a member of the oldest St. Petersburg elite monarchist organization of the RS, participated in the activities of the Russian marginal society that arose on the basis of the Assembly, which set as its goal the study of the national borderlands of the Russian Empire and the fight against peripheral separatism. After the formation of the VNS in 1908, Pavel Ivanovich became one of its leading ideologists. He also took an active part in the activities of the VNK, a cultural, educational and political organization created to promote the ideas of Russian nationalism. Within the framework of the VNK P.I. Kovalevsky repeatedly gave presentations, was a member of the editorial board of the Izvestia of the All-Russian National Club, and for some time served as chairman of the publishing commission of the All-Russian People's Congress.

Psychiatric sketches from history.
In 2 volumes (reprint 1995)

It should be noted that in wide circles of the Russian intelligentsia The authority of Kovalevsky the historian was quite high. His historical and journalistic works such as “Peoples of the Caucasus”, “Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia. Historical essays”, “History of Little Russia”, “History of Russia from a national point of view”, “Russian nationalism and national education in Russia”, “Fundamentals of Russian nationalism”, “Jesus the Galilean”, “Science, Christ and his teaching”, “John The Terrible and his state of mind”, “Peter the Great and his genius”, “Napoleon I and his genius”, “Poor in spirit”, “Psychiatric sketches from history (in 2 volumes)”, “Psychology of the Russian nation. Education of youth. Alexander III is a nationalist tsar”, “Tasks of Russian nationalism”, “The significance of nationalism in the modern movement of the Balkan Slavs”, “The Universe. Natural History Essay” enjoyed great reader interest and went through more than one publication in pre-revolutionary Russia. At the same time, Pavel Ivanovich was one of the first to use historical analysis for the development of practical psychiatry. His famous “Psychiatric Sketches from History,” which combined rigor and reliability of analysis, ease of style, originality and imagery of presentation, using specific examples from the lives of Ivan the Terrible, Peter III, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, Paul I, Napoleon, Cambyses, Ludwig II Bavarian, Emanuel Swedenborg and others reveal the dynamics of various mental states, show the role of environment and heredity in the genesis and clinical course of diseases. It should be emphasized that the essays written by P.I. Kovalevsky at the beginning of the 20th century, are still relevant today. Very often, the fate of a people or state depends on the will and character of the leader of a given people or state.

Students of P.I. Kovalevsky were E.I. Andruzsky, Z.V. Gutnikov, M.N. Popov (professor in Tomsk), N.I. Mukhin (professor in Warsaw, Kharkov), D.B. Frank (professor in Dnepropetrovsk), I.Ya. Platonov, Ya.Ya. Trutovsky, N.V. Krainsky (professor in Warsaw, Belgrade, Kharkov), A.I. Yushchenko (professor in Warsaw, Vinnitsa, St. Petersburg, Yuryev, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Kharkov, later academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR), A.A. Govseev and many others.

Pupil of Pavel Ivanovich Professor N.V. Krainsky rightly writes in the introduction to his work “Damage, cliques and the possessed” warm words addressed to Pavel Ivanovich: “I dedicate this clinical essay to my dear and highly respected teacher, Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky, on the day of the 25th anniversary of his scientific and practical activity. At the same time, I consider it my duty to state that I, like most of Pavel Ivanovich’s numerous students scattered throughout Russia and serving Russian psychiatry in university departments, in government and zemstvo hospitals, am deeply confident that in everything that I will be able to do at for the benefit of science and for the benefit of the numerous mentally ill people who pass through my hands, I am entirely indebted to those strictly scientific and humane principles that we have always heard from our teacher. With deep respect and gratitude, I remember the strict scientific discipline that has always been a distinctive feature of Pavel Ivanovich’s school, and the unconditional, devoid of any condescension, demand from his students to fulfill their duty, while not allowing any compromises with their convictions and conscience, is not a little makes it easier for his students to struggle in the practical activities and life of Russian psychiatrists.

As a student of Pavel Ivanovich, ten years after he left that position, where the best years of his activity passed, where Pavel Ivanovich’s personality developed and was formed as an activist and scientist, I had the honor of entering this psychiatric institution as a doctor, and later holding the position my teacher. Here I could see how colossally fruitful was the work and energy that Pavel Ivanovich put into the business. Despite all sorts of distortions to which everything done by Pavel Ivanovich was subjected, despite the most unsightly distortions of his activities by some individuals, his ideas and principles were not smoothed over even by the ten-year anarchy of Saburova's dacha (italics by P.P., A.P., O .AND.). The same Saburova dacha convinced me that a true assessment of his activities will not keep him waiting sooner or later, and I publicly affirm that, 12 years after Pavel Ivanovich left the Saburova dacha, I heard words of justice and honor addressed to his activities from his personal enemies and enemies, and the highest praise is difficult to achieve. I do not mourn the fact that Russian life, society - everything except the impartial field of science - lost Pavel Ivanovich too early as an energetic figure in the struggle of life. This is the common lot of major figures in public life. Pure science and practical psychiatry in the person of Pavel Ivanovich’s numerous students will show Russian society that its principles and teachings will not be drowned out by the thorns with which Russian, especially zemstvo, psychiatric activity is so full. I think that if you weigh the successes that Russian psychiatry is obliged to P.I. Kovalevsky, who was one of the first to remove the chains of insane people in Russia, - from the impossible clinical Saburova dacha he set up, albeit temporarily, an exemplary institution, founded the first Russian psychiatric journal, created in a short time a numerous school of students, and with his brilliant lectures until recently attracted all the recruits to the ranks of Russian psychiatrists - moreover, he accomplished all this completely alone , without help, rather with interference from many, you will have to admit the situation “that there is only one warrior in the field.”

I am glad that at present Pavel Ivanovich, far from the struggle of life, will lead Russian psychiatry for a long time, devoting all his time to pure science and, as an ideal clinician, will supplement us with his brilliant writings with what his students previously heard through the medium of the living words in the clinic. If the official Fatherland does not always appreciate its leaders, then one only needs to remember whether there can be the highest reward for a scientist and clinician when he is no longer in the former toga of a rector and state dignitary, but in the form of a modest private person - seen weekly at his lectures in the ceremonial hall of the university - a large crowd of honest, alien to extraneous considerations and, nevertheless, the most strict judges. In this, and not in the toga of a state dignitary, I imagine the highest award and crown with which the anniversary of the 25-year scientific activity of my dear teacher is crowned.”

For his more than half a century of medical activity, P.I. Kovalevsky wrote over 300 books, brochures, and journal articles on various issues of psychiatry, neurology, psychology, historical analysis and the national question. His numerous works cover all areas of nervous and mental illness - from psychology to anatomical studies and psychographies of famous people. Among them are the most professional and famous books and scientific works: “On changes in skin sensitivity in melancholic people” (1877), “Primary insanity: Comp. for doctors and lawyers" (1880), "Guide to the proper care of the mentally ill: Compiled for relatives and others" (1880), "Forensic psychiatric analyses: Compiled for doctors and lawyers" (1880), "Course of private psychiatry, read in 1881 at Kharkov University" (1881), "Fundamentals of the mechanism of mental activity" (1885), "Psychiatry: A course given in 1885 at Kharkov University" (1885), "Folie du doute" (1886), "General psychopathology "(1886), "The situation of the mentally ill in the Russian Empire: A speech delivered in Moscow at the opening of the 2nd Congress of the Society of Russian Doctors" (1887), "Paramyoclonus multiplex" (1887), "Drunkenness, its causes and treatment" (1888) , “On the doctrine of alcoholism” (1888), “Trochea and choreic madness” (1889), “Treatment of mental and nervous diseases” (1889), “Forensic psychiatric essays” (1889), “Psychiatry. In 2 volumes. T. 1: General psychopathology (1892); T. 2: Special psychiatry: Course given in 1890 at Kharkov University (1890), “Compendium on nervous and mental illnesses” (1891), “Cerebral syphilis and its treatment” (1891), “Epilepsy, its treatment and forensic psychiatric significance" (1892), "Psychiatric sketches from history. In 2 issues. — Vol. 1: Ludwig II, King of Bavaria; Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; Saul, king of Israel; Cambyses, King of Persia (1892); Vol. 2: Ivan the Terrible and his state of mind (1893)", "General progressive paralysis of the insane" (1893), "Puerperal psychoses" (1894), "Nervous diseases of our society" (1894), "Psychology of sex" (1895), " Forensic psychiatry" (1896), "Forensic general psychopathology" (1896), "Migraine and its treatment" (1898), "Psychology of a criminal according to Russian literature about hard labor" (1900), "Degeneration and revival. The criminal and the fight against crime (Social and psychological sketches)" (1903), "Mental illnesses. Psychiatry course for doctors and lawyers. In 2 volumes" (1905), "Retarded children (idiots, retarded and criminal children), their treatment and education" (1906), "The fight against crime through education" (1908), "Mental illnesses of our society" (1911), “Guide to caring for the mentally ill for nurses and paramedics” (1915), “Psychology of gender. Sexual impotence and other sexual perversions and their treatment" (1916), "Fundamentals of human psychology (with drawings)" (1917).

In 1880, Pavel Ivanovich published the first Russian textbook on psychiatry, which went through four editions, “Textbook of Psychiatry for Students” (1885, 1886, 1892).

No less famous are the historical works of P.I. Kovalevsky: “Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia. Historical essays" (1911), "History of Russia from a national point of view" (1912), "The significance of nationalism in the modern movement of the Balkan Slavs" (1912), "Fundamentals of Russian nationalism" (1912), "History of Little Russia" (1914), " Caucasus. Peoples of the Caucasus" (1914), "Psychology of the Russian Nation" (1915), "Nationalism and National Education in Russia" (1922) and others, which were of great interest, went through several publications in pre-revolutionary Russia (in Soviet times they were recognized as reactionary and were not published). Pavel Ivanovich was one of the first to use historical analysis to compile a psychological portrait of outstanding personalities. “Psychiatric Sketches from History” brought him great fame (sometimes this book is published under the title “Psychiatric Sketches from History”). For a long time during the Soviet era, this book was not published, since it contradicted the Marxist position on the role of the individual in history and the concept of socio-economic determinism. This book, combining scientific and popular style, using specific examples from the lives of famous historical figures, reveals the dynamics of various mental phenomena, shows the role of environment and heredity in the formation of personality.

It must be emphasized that zemstvo medicine played a significant role in the development of medical deontology in our country. From the very beginning of its development, zemstvo psychiatry had a clinical basis and a social orientation. This focus allows us to say that the emergence of social psychiatry and rehabilitation of the mentally ill began in our country at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, attention is drawn to the combination of a truly humane attitude towards the fate of the patient, constant respect for the dignity of his personality and the desire to use the remaining mental abilities for the highest possible social readaptation. An example is the statements of P.I. Kovalevsky, who is rightfully considered an outstanding humanist doctor. In the repeatedly reprinted “Guide to the Proper Care of the Mentally Ill,” he wrote: “The treatment of patients in a hospital should always be humane, gentle, meek and patient. First of all, you need to gain the trust of your patients; and they acquire it only through warm sympathy, patience, affectionate treatment, fulfillment of reasonable desires, readiness to show kindness and strict justice towards all patients. Lies, deceit and cunning have no place in dealing with these patients. They are too sensitive even to artificiality and really dislike a person who only pretends to be kind.”.

The instructions of Pavel Ivanovich, made by him long before the very concept of “medical deontology” appeared, can serve as excellent illustrations of the proper medical attitude towards patients in psychiatry. In the same “Manual” he wrote: “Just as a good surgeon probes a wound only as a last resort, so a good psychiatrist should touch a patient’s mental wound only for the purpose of research.”. P.I. Kovalevsky emphasized that “the main task in this case is to give this person the means for further existence, restore his independence, and instill in him the trust of the society of which he becomes a member.” The cited “Manual” provides for almost everything that doctors need to do to ensure that the patient returns more easily and fully to life outside the hospital: from how to feed and clothe him, to how to simplify the resolution of administrative and legal issues problems arising after discharge from the hospital, and provide the necessary social and medical care to the patient.

It is noteworthy that the organizing committee for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Kharkov City Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 15 (Saburova Dacha, now the Kharkov Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 3), with the full approval of the scientific and practical psychiatric community of the region, decided to make a bas-relief depicting a portrait of Professor P .AND. Kovalevsky on one of the sides of the commemorative anniversary medal dedicated to the mentioned significant event in the history of Ukrainian medicine, which was done.

Commemorative anniversary medal dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Kharkov City Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 15 (Saburova Dacha)

On the eve of the revolution P.I. Kovalevsky taught a course in forensic psychology at the Faculty of Law of Petrograd University. We do not know how the ideologist of Russian nationalism perceived the February and then the October Revolution. It is only known that after the revolution, the elderly professor P.I. Kovalevsky, as a highly qualified physician, was mobilized into the Red Army as the chief physician of a military detachment (already in exile, in a private letter to a former fellow party member, Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky), P.I. Kovalevsky wrote that the Reds forced him to this cooperation). After the end of the Civil War until 1924, the scientist worked, as noted above, as a senior doctor in the psychiatric and nervous department of the Nikolaev Hospital in Petrograd and even advised the seriously ill V.I. Lenin, the first to identify his progressive paralysis.

This moment became a turning point in his fate. In 1924, Pavel Ivanovich almost died as a result of persecution by the Soviet authorities, but in December 1924, having somehow received permission to travel abroad, P.I. Kovalevsky left the USSR. He lived the rest of his life in the Belgian resort town of Spa, continuing to engage in scientific and journalistic activities. In 1925, the professor wrote to Metropolitan Evlogy with a proposal to teach a psychology course at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, but Pavel Ivanovich, apparently, never had to return to teaching. The emigrant period of P.I.’s life Kovalevsky is very little known, and this letter allows us to expand the knowledge of researchers about the author’s stay in Belgium. This outstanding scientist, outstanding psychiatrist, publicist, public figure, convinced Russian nationalist and, without any doubt, a patriot who wished only the best for his fatherland and people, died on October 17, 1931 in Liege (Belgium).

Thus, P.I. Kovalevsky made a significant contribution to the development of domestic scientific and practical psychiatry, incl. and Kharkov psychiatric school, and other disciplines. Undoubtedly, the biography and scientific heritage of Pavel Ivanovich need further careful research, especially the Ukrainian and foreign periods of his life and scientific work.

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20. Petryuk P.T. Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky - an outstanding domestic scientist, psychiatrist, psychologist, publicist and former Saburyan (on the 160th anniversary of his birth) // Mental health. - 2009. - No. 3(24). - pp. 77-87.

21. Petryuk P.T., Petryuk A.P. Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky: touches to the portrait and scientific activity of an outstanding domestic scientist, psychiatrist, psychologist and publicist (on the 165th anniversary of his birth) // Mental health. - 2014. - No. 4(45). - pp. 78-89.

22. Petryuk P.T., Petryuk A.P., Ivanichuk O.P. Professor P. I. Kovalevsky: his “spontaneous” materialism and understanding of mental processes // News of Ukrainian psychiatry. - Kyiv-Kharkov, 2015 [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://www.psychiatry.ua/articles/paper444.htm (access date: 06.24.2016).

23. Letter to P.I. Kovalevsky to Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) dated April 5/19, 1925 - GARF. F. R-5919. Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) Fund. Op. 1. D. 66.

24. Platonov K.K. My meetings on the great road of life (Memoirs of an old psychologist) / ed. HELL. Glotochkina, A.L. Zhuravleva, V.A. Ring [and others]. - M.: Publishing house "Institute of Psychology RAS", 2005. - 312 p. (Outstanding scientists of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

25. Sadivnichy V. Pavlo Kovalevsky - editor of the first-ever medical periodical // Journalism. - 2012. - VIP. 11(36). - pp. 114-123.

26. Sozinov A.S., Mendelevich D.M. Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky: To the 110th anniversary of teaching at Kazan University // Neurological Bulletin - 2013. - T. XLV, Issue. 2. - pp. 85-92.

27. Stukalov P.B. Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky and Mikhail Osipovich Menshikov as ideologists of the All-Russian National Union: abstract. dis. ...cand. ist. Sci. - Tamb. state University named after G.R. Derzhavina. - Tambov, 2009. - 23 p.

28. Stukalov P.B. Political and legal doctrines in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries: the All-Russian National Union and its ideologists. - Voronezh: FKOU VPO Voronezh Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, 2011. - 175 p.

29. Chronology of Saburova Dacha’s leadership in domestic psychiatry / P.T. Petryuk, I.K. Sosin, I.I. Kutko [and others] // News of Ukrainian psychiatry. - Kyiv-Kharkov, 2011 [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://www.psychiatry.ua/articles/
paper367.htm (access date: 02/25/2016).

UDC 159.9(092)

Petryuk P.T., Petryuk A.P., Ivanichuk O.P. The creative path and scientific heritage of Professor P.I. Kovalevsky: a short essay // Medical psychology in Russia: electron. scientific magazine - 2016. - N 2(37) [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://mprj.ru (access date: hh.mm.yyyy).

All elements of the description are necessary and comply with GOST R 7.0.5-2008 “Bibliographic reference” (entered into force on 01/01/2009). Date of access [in the format day-month-year = hh.mm.yyyy] - the date when you accessed the document and it was available.

In recent decades, Russian education has been building a system of spiritual and moral education aimed at the spiritual improvement of society, strengthening the morality of the generation of young people entering life, and the formation of the most important moral categories rooted in domestic traditions; introducing students to the spiritual origins of their traditional culture.

As you know, issues of spiritual and moral education have attracted the attention of scientists of different specialties and directions and in different years of Russia, therefore we consider it important to turn to the works of Russian scientists who either directly dealt with issues of pedagogy or came to issues of education through life’s quests. From this point of view, the example of Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky (1849-1923), a psychiatrist, publicist, and ideologist of Russian nationalism, seems interesting and illustrative.

Kovalevsky P.I. - founder of the first Russian psychiatric journal, professor, member of the Russian Assembly, member of the All-Russian National Union. In the fate of Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky, science, social activities and political journalism are closely intertwined. Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky was born in 1849 in the city of Petropavlovsk, Pavlograd district, Yekaterinoslav province, into the family of a priest. He graduated from theological school and then from the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary. His passion for the natural sciences prompted him to choose a different path. In 1874 he graduated from the medical faculty of Kharkov University. In 1877, after defending his dissertation, he became an associate professor, and in 1884, a professor in the department of psychiatry at this university. In 1889, Kovalevsky became dean of the medical faculty. In 1882 he was appointed to the position of rector of the University of Warsaw. After a serious illness in 1897, Kovalevsky was forced to leave this post. Subsequently, Professor P.I. Kovalevsky was engaged in publishing and scientific activities, and also participated in the work of a number of public organizations.

Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky

In wide circles of the Russian intelligentsia, the authority of P.I. Kovalevsky as a historian was quite high. His works such as “Peoples of the Caucasus”, “Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia”, “History of Little Russia”, “History of Russia from a National Point of View” were of great interest and went through several editions in pre-revolutionary Russia (in Soviet times they were considered reactionary and were not published ). Despite the fact that P.I. Kovalevsky devoted his entire life to the problems of psychiatry, he paid serious attention to issues of education, and not just problems of education, but problems of Russian national education.

Let us turn to the analysis of some methodological aspects of his position. The book by P. I. Kovalevsky “Nationalism and National Education in Russia” belongs to the category of those that have not lost their relevance for many decades. Just as we are discovering today the philosophical works of other Russian thinkers of the beginning and first half of the twentieth century - those who founded the Russian tradition of social philosophy and kept it from oblivion. Until now, citizenship and nationality operate separately. Moreover, citizenship becomes more nationalless with increasing levels of education. Education, as it has existed for the last half century in Russia, creates more reasons for a citizen to slander Russia than to be proud of it. Professor Kovalevsky saw similar phenomena at the beginning of the twentieth century, who pointed out that “the school killed God, killed nationality, killed statehood, killed society, killed the family, killed the person.”

As in our time, liberal education created cosmopolitans out of children, just as in our time, the role of teachers, who had decayed professionally and morally while still on the student bench, is extremely great in the destruction of the nation and the state. For Professor Kovalevsky there was no other formula for the Russian idea other than Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. Taking a lesson of intellectual honesty and scientific depth from an outstanding thinker and the greatest Russian scientist, we must internalize this formula and be imbued with it to the very depths of our souls. To save Russia from oblivion, which has come so close that the imminent death of the Fatherland and the dissolution of the Russian people in waves of migration no longer surprises or frightens many. We should be afraid exclusively of this - the death of our Motherland, the extinction of the Russian family.

In the Russian Idea of ​​Russian thinkers of the early twentieth century, we have a detailed ideological doctrine. Professor P.I. Kovalevsky gave one of the most comprehensive formulations of nationalism: “In a broad sense, nationalism is a spiritual trend, a current directed in a given people, with the goal and objective of raising and improving the welfare of a given nation. This will be mass, party nationalism... But there is also personal, individual nationalism, inherent in the nature of every person. Personal individual nationalism is a manifestation of respect, love and devotion to the point of self-sacrifice in the present, reverence and admiration for the past and the desire for prosperity, glory and success in the future of the nation, the people to which a given person belongs... Nationalism can manifest itself in two ways: in the form of national feeling and in the form of national consciousness. National feeling is an innate property of the human spirit, inherent in every person from birth and consisting of an instinctive, inexplicable animal love for a given people, for a given area... National consciousness is the expression of a definitely expressed view of love for the homeland, its glory, its honor, greatness and strength.” .

Exploring the national psychology of the Russian people, Professor P. I. Kovalevsky very precisely defined the nation, nationalism, national feeling and national self-awareness - concepts so essential for the general worldview. “A nation is a large group of people united by unity of origin, - unity of historical destinies and struggle for existence, - unity of physical and mental qualities, - unity of culture, - unity of faith, - unity of language and territory... Nationalism is a manifestation of respect, love and devotion, to the point of self-sacrifice, in the present - respect and admiration for the past and the desire for prosperity, glory, power and success in the future - of the nation, the people to which a given person belongs... National feeling is an innate affiliation of the physical and mental organization. It's instinctive. It's mandatory. National feeling is innate to us just like all other feelings: love for parents, love for children, hunger, thirst, etc... National self-awareness is an act of thinking, by virtue of which a given person recognizes himself as a part of the whole, comes under protection and carries yourself to defend your native whole, your nation.”

Professor P.I. Kovalevsky derived the dominance of the Russian nation in the Russian Empire from the right of sacrifices made, the right of shed blood for the Fatherland. “Our rights to own this state,” wrote P.I. Kovalevsky, “are rights of blood, arising from the blood shed by our ancestors, - property rights, arising from the expenses of our ancestors, interest on which we have to pay to this day - rights historical destinies of our homeland, obliging us to preserve unharmed what our ancestors conquered.”

At the same time, he also authored a unique work “Pedagogical Reflections. National education”, where the author’s system of Russian national education is built. The author understands national education as a combination of several characteristics. First, real education, giving children “an accurate and serious knowledge of the nature that is around us and under our feet.” This is necessary so that “we can use and use all the nature around us for our needs.” Because of this, “our children need to be given both the knowledge of how to use it and shown in practice these very methods of use.” Secondly, the strictest management of “the characteristics and basic qualities of our nation”: “to encourage what we find in it valuable and worthy of further cultivation” and “to destroy what is in the nation ... useless and harmful.” Thirdly, the introduction into a person of such mental, spiritual and physical qualities that are “inherent and characteristic of a particular nationality.” Note: one or another nationality. P.I. Kovalevsky, like other Russian thinkers, approached the issues of national education broadly, without limiting it to the framework of Russian pedagogical culture.

In the system of national education of P.I. Kovalevsky, a special place is given to the Orthodox religion, which is the beginning that unites Russians into one indivisible whole. The role of the teacher is great in patriotic education. Commenting on the well-known statement that a German teacher defeated a French teacher, P. I. Kovalevsky writes that the German teacher defeated France not because of his education, but because all German teachers “were national and patriotic.” A Russian teacher should also be national and patriotic.

P.I. Kovalevsky places patriotism above education: ignorance warmed by love for the Motherland is better than education associated with contempt and disrespect for the nation. Moreover, knowledge can always be replenished, but love, devotion and self-sacrifice to the Motherland are not replenished subsequently. P. I. Kovalevsky’s reasoning about the study of history, which he declares to be one of the important school disciplines, is extremely instructive. The story should be known to all students. However, not the history of facts, but the history of the spirit of the Russian nation, the course of its development, growth and improvement. To do this, it is necessary to fulfill “two duties.” First, to imbue your entire Russian heart and the depths of your soul with your country. Secondly, to appreciate the glory and exploits of our ancestors and worthily perpetuate them in word and deed.

P. I. Kovalevsky writes with bitterness about Russians’ insufficient knowledge of their history, their culture, art, etc. What gives him particular pain is the fact that Russian children are brought up “with the heroic deeds of the Greeks and Romans, as if we do not have our own heroes , not only no less than foreign heroes, but on the contrary, much more prominent and more worthy of our veneration...” What can I say? In our time of virtual heroes like James Bond, even Greco-Roman heroes will seem like their own.

P.I. Kovalevsky emphasizes public national education in the structure of national education. It “must consist in implementing in all places of the state and in all layers of society the spirit of love, devotion and good of the Russian nationality and fatherland. The entire state administration, all state and public institutions, the press, literature and all civil aspects of life must serve this.”

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that the above words sound extremely modern and relevant in the conditions of today’s realities of our lives, where everything is the other way around: instead of implementing the “spirit of love, devotion and good of the Russian nationality and fatherland,” the spiritual emasculation of our people is being carried out and our society. Outwardly, at the level of high politics, a positive line seems to be visible. But so far it seems that it serves as a kind of fig leaf, covering up the processes of internal decomposition and disintegration of the Russian (Russian) mentality in an undeclared information-artifact war without front and rear, permeating all pores of our national life. P. I. Kovalevsky’s thoughts about the need for us “to have civil national courage, to openly defend our national dignity against arrogant and open attacks, insults and humiliations ...” have not lost their relevance. For (he recalls the words of N.M. Karamzin), whoever does not respect himself will, without a doubt, be respected by others.

P.I. Kovalevsky was well aware that Russian national education could in no way negatively affect the relationships of Russian people with people representing other nationalities of Russia. In modern language, P.I. Kovalevsky was a supporter of ethnic tolerance in relations between children of different nationalities. At the same time, he does not hide the special cementing role of the Russian people in Russia. In a certain sense, we can talk about the presence in the views of P. I. Kovalevsky of elements of the “big brother” concept. But this is by no means a doctrine of the emphasized superiority of the “white” man over the “native” population, presented, for example, in R. Kipling’s book “The White Man’s Burden.” No, this is the idea of ​​a single family of peoples of an immense empire, where, as in any family, there are elders and younger ones, where the elders must take care of the younger ones, protect them, where relationships must be built on the basis of mutual respect and mutual assistance.

No matter how we retell P.I. Kovalevsky, it will still be better if we give the floor to him himself: “While preaching, however, people's love and devotion to Russian children, one should never insult the children of other nations that are part of our Motherland. We need to treat them friendly and lovingly, like brothers, and not let our dominance of the winner be noticed. They know this well without us. But, knowing this, they should see from our side the kind of relationship that exists between brothers of the same family. The future itself must establish a relationship of respect for the stronger and protector, not a feeling of malice and hatred of the conquered and trampled upon.”

Kovalevsky Pavel Ivanovich (1850-1930), psychologist, religious figure, emigrant. Born in 1850 in Kharkov into the family of a priest. He graduated from the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary and the Faculty of Medicine of Kharkov University. Professor of Psychiatry (1879-1894). Rector of the University of Warsaw (1894). Emeritus Professor. He was a foreman of the Russian National Club and a member of the council of the Russian National Union. On the eve of the revolution, for 2 years he taught a course in forensic psychology at the Faculty of Law of Petrograd University. After the revolution, he was mobilized into the Red Army as the chief physician of a military detachment, then until 1924 he worked as the chief physician of the psychiatric and nervous department of the Nikolaev Hospital in Petrograd. In December 1924 he received permission to travel abroad. In exile in Belgium (c. 1925). Lived in Spa (Belgium). In 1925 he addressed the Metropolitan Eulogia (Georgievsky) with a proposal to teach a course in psychology at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, but P. I. Kovalevsky, apparently, did not have to teach at the St. Sergius Institute. Died in 1930 in Belgium.

This biographical information is compiled from sources:

Russian writers of emigration: Biographical information and bibliography of their books on theology, religious philosophy, church history and Orthodox culture: 1921-1972 / Compiled by N. M. Zernov. - Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1973.
Letter from P.I. Kovalevsky to Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) dated April 5/19, 1925 - GARF. F. R-5919. Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) Fund. Op. 1. D. 66.

Reprinted from the site: http://zarubezhje.narod.ru/kl/k_014.htm

Kovalevsky Pavel Ivanovich (1849-1923), psychiatrist, publicist, ideologist of Russian nationalism. Founder of the first Russian psychiatric journal. Professor. Member of the Russian Assembly. Member of the All-Russian National Union.

Prof. Kovalevsky gave one of the most comprehensive formulations of nationalism: “In a broad sense, nationalism,” he wrote, “is a spiritual trend, a current directed in a given people, with the goal and objective of raising and improving the welfare of a given nation. This will be mass, party nationalism... But there is also personal, individual nationalism, inherent in the nature of every person. Personal individual nationalism is a manifestation of respect, love and devotion to the point of self-sacrifice in the present, reverence and admiration for the past and the desire for prosperity, glory and success in the future of the nation, the people to which a given person belongs... Nationalism can manifest itself in two ways: in the form of national feeling and in the form of national consciousness. National feeling is an innate property of the human spirit, inherent in every person from birth and consisting of an instinctive, inexplicable animal love for a given people, for a given area... National consciousness is the expression of a definitely expressed view of love for the homeland, its glory, its honor, greatness and strength.” .

Exploring the national psychology of the Russian people, Kovalevsky very precisely defined the nation, nationalism, national feeling and national self-awareness - concepts so essential for the general worldview.

“A nation is a large group of people united by unity of origin, - unity of historical destinies and struggle for existence, - unity of physical and mental qualities, - unity of culture, - unity of faith, - unity of language and territory...

Nationalism is a manifestation of respect, love and devotion, to the point of self-sacrifice, in the present, reverence and admiration for the past and the desire for prosperity, glory, power and success in the future - of the nation, the people to which a given person belongs...

National feeling is an innate affiliation of the physical and mental organization. It's instinctive. It's mandatory. National feeling is innate to us, just like all other feelings: love for parents, love for children, hunger, thirst, etc...

National self-awareness is an act of thinking by virtue of which a given person recognizes himself as part of the whole, comes under protection and carries himself to the defense of his native whole, his nation.”

Kovalevsky derived the dominance of the Russian nation in the Russian Empire from the right of sacrifices made, the right of shed blood for the fatherland. “Our rights to own this state,” wrote Kovalevsky, “are the rights of blood, arising from the blood shed by our ancestors, - property rights, arising from the expenses of our ancestors, the interest on which we have to pay to this day, - the rights of the historical destinies of our homeland, obliging us to preserve unharmed what our ancestors conquered.”

Regarding pan-Slavic ideas, widespread and discussed in Russian society in the 1910s, Kovalevsky wrote the following: “The Union of the Slavs is conceivable if Russia becomes its head, - if the Russian language becomes a common Slavic language, - if the Russian cause becomes a common Slavic cause, - if not only Russia will be for the Slavs, but also the Slavs for Russia.”

Smolin M.

Materials used from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian People - http://www.rusinst.ru

In the fate of Professor Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky, science, social activities and political journalism are closely intertwined.

Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky was born in 1849 (according to other sources - in 1850) in the city of Petropavlovsk, Pavlograd district, Ekaterinoslav province, into the family of a priest. He graduated from theological school and then from the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary. His passion for the natural sciences prompted him to choose a different path. In 1874 he graduated from the medical faculty of Kharkov University. In 1877, after defending his dissertation, he became an associate professor, and in 1884, a professor in the department of psychiatry at this university. In 1889 Kovalevsky became dean of the medical faculty. In 1982 he was appointed rector of the University of Warsaw. After a serious illness in 1897, Kovalevsky was forced to leave this post.

Subsequently, Professor Kovalevsky was engaged in publishing and scientific activities, and also participated in the work of a number of public organizations. He published scientific journals and translated the works of foreign psychiatrists. Through the efforts of Kovalevsky, the first Russian congress of psychiatrists and neuropathologists took place. He participates in the work of the Brothers of Charity Institute, the Red Cross Committee, and also becomes a foreman of the Russian National Club and a member of the council of the Russian National Union. In addition, Kovalevsky’s dacha property near Novorossiysk became known as an exemplary winemaking estate.

Among Kovalevsky’s books, his professional works are known: “Guide to the proper care of the mentally ill,” “Forensic psychiatry,” “Forensic psychiatric analyses,” “Mental illnesses for doctors and lawyers,” “Psychology of sex,” “Hygiene and treatment of mental and nervous diseases”, “Fundamentals of the mechanism of mental activity”, “Textbook of psychiatry for students”, “Syphilis of the brain and its treatment”, “Puerperal psychoses”, “Migraine and its treatment”. No less famous are Kovalevsky’s historical works: “Peoples of the Caucasus”, “Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia”, “History of Little Russia”, “History of Russia from a national point of view”, “Psychiatric sketches from history”. The role of Kovalevsky as an ideologist of Russian nationalism is only today becoming known in the Russian social movement. This is facilitated by the publication of his works “Fundamentals of Russian Nationalism”, “Psychology of the Russian Nation”, “Nationalism and National Education in Russia”, which remained in oblivion for almost a century.

After the revolution, the elderly professor was mobilized into the Red Army as the chief physician of a military detachment. Then, until 1924 (according to other sources - until 1923) he worked as a doctor in the psychiatric and nervous department of the Nikolaev Hospital in Petrograd. Kovalevsky was the first to identify progressive paralysis in Lenin. This moment became a turning point in his fate. It is still unclear whether Kovalevsky became a victim made by the Bolsheviks to hide the diagnosis, or was still able to travel abroad in 1925 and ended his years in Belgium in 1930.

P.I. Kovalevsky’s book “Nationalism and National Education in Russia” belongs to the category of those that have not lost their relevance for many decades. Just as we are discovering today the philosophical works of other Russian thinkers of the beginning and first half of the twentieth century - those who founded the Russian tradition of social philosophy and kept it from oblivion.

Professor Kovalevsky compiled a work on the nation in 1912, which is not only in the context of the most pressing modern problems, but is also a “classic”, exemplary for modern political science, which is just approaching the concept of “nation” and timidly applies it to Russia. The authorities, represented by their top officials, have already learned to pronounce the word “nation”, but are still in the dark about what this word means. Court political science proves that there is no nation, that it is simply a different sound for the word “state.” She appeals to the authorities: “Forget the nation!” But Russian political science has already mastered the legacy of its predecessors, among whom P.I. Kovalevsky occupies one of the most worthy places.

It cannot be said that in P.I. Kovalevsky the concept of “nation” acquires its completeness and clarity in the form in which it is necessary today. But he does the main thing: he speaks about the nation not as a late historical phenomenon, but as a primordial phenomenon. This interpretation is deeply different from the liberal one, which considers a social phenomenon to exist only when it is named. No, the nation in Russian history existed from the moment of birth. The only question is how the early form differs from the mature one.

Kovalevsky considers a nation as a phenomenon of a common language, faith and destiny. And such a community developed among Russians by the end of the 9th century. And even though the yoke called into question the sovereignty of the Russian nation, and the Time of Troubles threatened the complete elimination of the Russian state from history, the Russian nation was revived at the beginning of the 17th century and took a leading position among the most prominent nations of the world.

It is necessary to distinguish, writes Kovalevsky, the existence of a nation and its formation. One should also see the historical conditionality of the features of a nation. The problem of the Russian nation at the beginning of the twentieth century, which the thinker vividly describes, was such a reorganization of life that required the personal dignity of the citizen and the penetration of patriotism into all pores of society, not only during the years of invasions, but also in everyday life.

Russians, following the family forms of solidarity and love for truth instilled in them by Orthodoxy, had to reach statewide, national solidarity and social truth - to an understanding of the life of society in its modern forms. This meant deepening the concept of nation and understanding of national belonging - going beyond the boundaries of the rural and parish community and establishing supra-class solidarity in city life, in universities, in the press, in the mass national army.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russians had to master the space of spiritual struggle. Professor Kovalevsky and other Russian nationalist thinkers clearly understood this. Alas, historical circumstances and the machinations of the enemies of the Russian people did not give the Russian nation a chance to enter into mature forms and threw it along the wrong path of communist construction. In a difficult struggle against Marxist cosmopolitanism, the Russians were able to gather into a nation on the eve of the Great Patriotic War and win it. But the undermined forces were faced with new manipulation. The Russians were not allowed to be reborn as a nation, and until our time, nation-building occurs in spite of the government, which remains purely anti-national.

Until now, citizenship and nationality operate separately. Moreover, citizenship becomes more nationalless with increasing levels of education. Education, as it has existed for the last half century in Russia, creates more reasons for a citizen to slander Russia than to be proud of it. Professor Kovalevsky saw similar phenomena at the beginning of the twentieth century, who pointed out that “the school killed God, killed nationality, killed statehood, killed society, killed the family, killed the person.” As in our time, liberal education created cosmopolitans out of children, just as in our time, the role of teachers, who had decayed professionally and morally while still on the student bench, is extremely great in the destruction of the nation and the state.

Russian nationalism is a saving means of reunifying nationality and citizenship, a means of establishing a modern political nation, in which patriotism must give way to Russian nationalism, and the parochial “nationalism” of the non-Russian indigenous peoples of Russia must develop into Russian patriotism. For the existence of Russia, it is important to have a general civil understanding that Russia was created by Russian people, and Russian nationalism is the nationalism of a great nation, which, of course, must be nurtured and ascend to higher forms, eliminating the dark element of the people. Other nationalisms in Russia may be worthy of respect if combined with loyalty and allegiance to the Russian state. From here arises the formula and hierarchy of the empire, which is a union of friendly nationalisms with primacy, leadership and patronage from Russian nationalists. Not only the Russian, but also the Slavic community can exist only under Russian leadership. For for the world and world history, the Slavs are perceived only through Russians and Russian history.

Liberal racism demands to break this Russian unity, seeking to degrade the clear Russian worldview and reduce it to wild phobias. Russian nationalism contrasts the vile undertakings of liberals with Russian solidarity, which draws into its orbit all patriots of Russia - even if they are non-Russian by blood.

"Russia for Russians" - this formula Alexandra III in the works of Professor Kovalevsky it is revealed and justified. To the chagrin of slanderers who are looking for a reason to accuse the Russian national movement of all sins, “Russia for Russians” acts as the most promising formula of statehood not only for Russians themselves (we share P.I. Kovalevsky’s confidence that Russians are a trinity of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians ), but also for the non-Russian peoples of Russia, connected with the Russians by a common destiny. Kovalevsky perfectly saw the diversity of “Russianness,” which today we sometimes stop noticing, reducing Russian exclusively to generic characteristics. In “Russianness” there is unity in the Orthodox faith, there is unity in the memory of the greatness of Russia, there is unity in the Russian language and Russian culture, in love for the Fatherland, there is a connection between Russians in the space of the Russian world - not only holders of citizenship of the Russian Federation, but also compatriots .

For Professor Kovalevsky there was no other formula for the Russian idea other than Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. Taking a lesson of intellectual honesty and scientific depth from an outstanding thinker and the greatest Russian scientist, we must internalize this formula and be imbued with it to the very depths of our souls. To save Russia from oblivion, which has come so close that the imminent death of the Fatherland and the dissolution of the Russian people in waves of migration no longer surprises or frightens many. We should be afraid exclusively of this - the death of our Motherland, the extinction of the Russian family. In the Russian Idea of ​​Russian thinkers of the early twentieth century, we have a detailed ideological doctrine with which we will save Russia and continue our race until the end of time.

Preface to the reissue of the book by P.I. Kovalevsky

Reprinted from the site: http://www.savelev.ru

Cover of the book by P.I. Kovalevsky.

Essays:

P.I. Kovalevsky. Syphilis of the brain. 1890.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Migraine. 1893.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Forensic psychiatry. 1896.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Nationalism and national education in Russia: In 2 parts. - St. Petersburg, 1912. 394 p. (The book went through several editions, including New York, 1922).

P.I. Kovalevsky. Fundamentals of the mechanism of mental activity.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Fundamentals of human psychology.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Psychology of women.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Psychology of the Criminal (Also available in French edition).

P.I. Kovalevsky. Science, Christ and His teaching. - Brussels, 1928. 146 p.

P.I. Kovalevsky. Ivan the Terrible. //SPb.: printing house M.I. Akinfieva, 1901.

P.I. Kovalevsky. “Fundamentals of Russian nationalism”;

P.I. Kovalevsky. "Psychology of the Russian nation."

Literature:

Spektorsky E., Davac V. Materials for the bibliography of Russian scientific works abroad. - Belgrade: T. I. 1931 (2nd edition - 1972).

Read here:

Jewish pogroms, whose organization is attributed to the Black Hundreds.

Abbreviations(including a brief explanation of abbreviations).

Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky (1850-1931) - famous psychiatrist, publicist and public figure. Rector of the University of Warsaw (1894-1897). He graduated from theological school, and then from the Ekaterinoslav Seminary. Nevertheless, his professional choice was made in favor of natural science. In 1869, P.I. Kovalevsky entered the medical faculty of Kharkov University. Already there he chose the problem of mental illness as a specialization. After graduating from the university in 1874, he was left at the faculty to prepare his doctoral dissertation in psychiatry, which he defended in 1877 on the topic: “On changes in skin sensitivity in melancholic people.” The scientist combined scientific research with practical work as a supernumerary resident in the department of the mentally ill at the Kharkov Zemstvo Hospital (the so-called “Saburova Dacha”). After defending his doctoral dissertation, Pavel Ivanovich was appointed associate professor, and then, in 1884, professor of the department of psychiatry at Kharkov University.

In 1889, P.I. Kovalevsky became dean of the medical faculty of Kharkov University, and then rector of the University of Warsaw (1895-1897). Subsequently, from 1903 to 1906, he headed the department of psychiatry at Kazan University, then taught a course in forensic psychopathology at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University and worked as a senior physician in the psychiatric department of the Nikolaev Military Hospital in St. Petersburg - the most advanced medical institution of that time. At the same time, Pavel Ivanovich was engaged in translations of works by foreign psychiatrists: Philip Pinel, Theodor Meinert, Karl Wernicke and others.
P.I. Kovalevsky wrote over 300 books, brochures, and journal articles on various issues of psychiatry and neuropathology. Among them are the books “Guide to the proper care of the mentally ill,” “Forensic psychiatry,” “Forensic psychiatric analyzes” (3 editions), “Mental illnesses for doctors and lawyers,” “Psychology of sex,” “Hygiene and treatment of mental and nervous diseases”, “Fundamentals of the mechanism of mental activity”, “Textbook of psychiatry for students” (4 editions), “Cerebral syphilis and its treatment”, “Puerperal psychoses”, “Migraine and its treatment”. P.I. Kovalevsky published the first Russian manual on psychiatry that he wrote.

In wide circles of the Russian intelligentsia, the authority of P.I. Kovalevsky as a historian was quite high. His works such as “Peoples of the Caucasus”, “Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia”, “History of Little Russia”, “History of Russia from a National Point of View” were of great interest and went through several editions in pre-revolutionary Russia (in Soviet times they were considered reactionary and were not published ).

P. I. Kovalevsky was one of the first to use historical analysis to compile a psychological portrait of outstanding personalities. “Psychiatric Sketches from History” brought him well-deserved fame (sometimes this book is published under the title “Psychiatric Sketches from History”). In Soviet times, this book was also not published, since it contradicted the Marxist position on the role of the individual in history and the concept of socio-economic determinism.

P.I. Kovalevsky was a foreman of the Russian National Club, a member of the Council of the All-Russian National Union and a member of the Russian Assembly.

Pavel Ivanovich Kovalevsky(- October 17, Liege) - famous psychiatrist, publicist and public figure. Rector of the University of Warsaw (1894-1897).

Biography

This book, which combined scientific and popular style, using specific examples from the lives of Ivan the Terrible, Peter III, the Prophet Muhammad, Joan of Arc, Paul I, the Persian king Cambyses, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Emanuel Swedenborg and others, reveals the dynamics of various mental phenomena, shows the role of environment and heredity in the formation of personality.

P.I. Kovalevsky was a foreman of the Russian National Club, a member of the Council of the All-Russian National Union and a member of the Russian Assembly.

Essays

• Kovalevsky P.I. Peter the Great and his genius. - St. Petersburg. , publication of the "Russian Medical Bulletin": printing house of M. Akinfiev and I. Leontiev, 1900.
• Kovalevsky P.I. Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia. Historical essays. - St. Petersburg. , 1911.
• Kovalevsky P.I. History of Russia from a national point of view. - St. Petersburg. , 1912.
• Kovalevsky P.I. Fundamentals of Russian nationalism. - St. Petersburg. , 1912.
• Kovalevsky P.I.. - St. Petersburg. , 1912.
• Kovalevsky P.I. History of Little Russia. - St. Petersburg. , 1914.
• Kovalevsky P.I. Psychology of the Russian nation. - St. Petersburg. , 1915.
• Kovalevsky P.I. Psychiatric sketches from history. In two volumes. - M.: Terra, 1995. - ISBN 5-300-00095-7, 5-300-00094-9.
• Kovalevsky P.I. Ivan the Terrible and his state of mind. Psychiatric sketches from history. - M.: Librocom, 2012.
• Kovalevsky P.I.. Forensic psychiatry. St. Petersburg, 1902

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Notes

Literature

• Petryuk P. T. // Mental health. - 2009. - No. 3. - P. 77-87.
• Ivanov A.
• Afanasyev N. I. Contemporaries. Album of biographies. - St. Petersburg, 1909. - T. 1.- P. 133.
• Kotsyubinsky D. A. Russian nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth and death of the ideology of the All-Russian National Union. - M., 2001.
• Sadivnichy V. Pavlo Kovalevsky - editor and veteran of medical periodicals / Volodymyr Sadivnichy // Journalism. - VIP. 11 (36). - 2012. - P. 114-123.
• Savelyev A. N. // Golden Lion. - 2005. - No. 69-70.

Links

• Sidorchuk I.V., Rostovtsev E.A.

Excerpt characterizing Kovalevsky, Pavel Ivanovich

Mavra Kuzminishna offered to carry the wounded man into the house.
“The gentlemen won’t say anything...” she said. But it was necessary to avoid climbing the stairs, and therefore the wounded man was carried into the outbuilding and laid in the former room of m me Schoss. The wounded man was Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

The last day of Moscow has arrived. It was clear, cheerful autumn weather. It was Sunday. As on ordinary Sundays, mass was announced in all churches. No one, it seemed, could yet understand what awaited Moscow.
Only two indicators of the state of society expressed the situation in which Moscow was: the mob, that is, the class of poor people, and the prices of objects. Factory workers, courtyard workers and peasants in a huge crowd, which included officials, seminarians, and nobles, went out to the Three Mountains early in the morning. Having stood there and not waiting for Rostopchin and making sure that Moscow would be surrendered, this crowd scattered throughout Moscow, into drinking houses and taverns. Prices that day also indicated the state of affairs. The prices for weapons, for gold, for carts and horses kept rising, and the prices for pieces of paper and for city things kept going down, so that in the middle of the day there were cases when the cabbies took out expensive goods, like cloth, for nothing, and for a peasant's horse paid five hundred rubles; furniture, mirrors, bronzes were given away for free.
In the sedate and old Rostov house, the disintegration of previous living conditions was expressed very weakly. The only thing about people was that three people from a huge courtyard disappeared that night; but nothing was stolen; and in relation to the prices of things, it turned out that the thirty carts that came from the villages were enormous wealth, which many envied and for which the Rostovs were offered huge amounts of money. Not only were they offering huge sums of money for these carts, but from the evening and early morning of September 1st, orderlies and servants sent from the wounded officers came to the Rostovs’ yard, and the wounded themselves, who were placed with the Rostovs and in neighboring houses, were dragged along, and begged the Rostovs’ people to take care of that they be given carts to leave Moscow. The butler, to whom such requests were addressed, although he felt sorry for the wounded, resolutely refused, saying that he would not even dare to report this to the count. No matter how pitiful the remaining wounded were, it was obvious that if they gave up one cart, there was no reason not to give up the other, and give up everything and their crews. Thirty carts could not save all the wounded, and in the general disaster it was impossible not to think about yourself and your family. This is what the butler thought for his master.
Waking up on the morning of the 1st, Count Ilya Andreich quietly left the bedroom so as not to wake up the countess who had just fallen asleep in the morning, and in his purple silk robe he went out onto the porch. The carts, tied up, stood in the yard. Carriages stood at the porch. The butler stood at the entrance, talking with the old orderly and the young, pale officer with his arm tied. The butler, seeing the count, made a significant and stern sign to the officer and orderly to leave.
- Well, is everything ready, Vasilich? - said the count, rubbing his bald head and looking good-naturedly at the officer and orderly and nodding his head to them. (The Count loved new faces.)
- At least harness it now, your Excellency.
- Well, that’s great, the countess will wake up, and God bless you! What are you doing, gentlemen? – he turned to the officer. - In my house? – The officer moved closer. His pale face suddenly flushed with bright color.
- Count, do me a favor, let me... for God's sake... take refuge somewhere on your carts. Here I have nothing with me... I’m in the cart... it doesn’t matter... - Before the officer had time to finish, the orderly turned to the count with the same request for his master.
- A! “Yes, yes, yes,” the count spoke hastily. - I'm very, very happy. Vasilich, you give orders, well, to clear one or two carts, well... well... what is needed... - the count said in some vague expressions, ordering something. But at the same moment, the officer’s ardent expression of gratitude already cemented what he had ordered. The count looked around him: in the courtyard, at the gate, in the window of the outbuilding, the wounded and orderlies could be seen. They all looked at the count and moved towards the porch.
- Please, your Excellency, to the gallery: what do you order about the paintings? - said the butler. And the count entered the house with him, repeating his order not to refuse the wounded who asked to go.
“Well, well, we can put something together,” he added in a quiet, mysterious voice, as if afraid that someone would hear him.
At nine o'clock the countess woke up, and Matryona Timofeevna, her former maid, who served as chief of gendarmes in relation to the countess, came to report to her former young lady that Marya Karlovna was very offended and that the young ladies' summer dresses could not stay here. When the countess questioned why m me Schoss was offended, it was revealed that her chest had been removed from the cart and all the carts were being untied - they were removing the goods and taking with them the wounded, whom the count, in his simplicity, ordered to be taken with him. The Countess ordered to ask for her husband.
– What is it, my friend, I hear things are being removed again?
- You know, ma chere, I wanted to tell you this... ma chere countess... an officer came to me, asking me to give several carts for the wounded. After all, this is all a gainful business; But think about what it’s like for them to stay!.. Really, in our yard, we invited them ourselves, there are officers here. You know, I think, right, ma chere, here, ma chere... let them take them... what's the rush?.. - The Count timidly said this, as he always said when it came to money. The Countess was already accustomed to this tone, which always preceded a task that ruined the children, like some kind of construction of a gallery, a greenhouse, arranging a home theater or music, and she was used to it and considered it her duty to always resist what was expressed in this timid tone.
She assumed her meekly deplorable appearance and said to her husband:
“Listen, Count, you’ve brought it to the point that they won’t give anything for the house, and now you want to destroy all of our children’s wealth.” After all, you yourself say that there is a hundred thousand worth of goods in the house. I, my friend, neither agree nor agree. Your will! The government is there for the wounded. They know. Look: across the street, at the Lopukhins’, they took everything away just three days ago. That's how people do it. We are the only fools. At least have pity on me, but on the children.
The Count waved his hands and, without saying anything, left the room.
- Dad! what are you talking about? - Natasha told him, following him into her mother’s room.
- Nothing! What do you care? – the count said angrily.
“No, I heard,” said Natasha. - Why doesn’t mummy want to?
- What do you care? - the count shouted. Natasha went to the window and thought.
“Daddy, Berg has come to see us,” she said, looking out the window.

Berg, the Rostovs' son-in-law, was already a colonel with Vladimir and Anna around his neck and occupied the same calm and pleasant place as assistant chief of staff, assistant to the first department of the chief of staff of the second corps.
On September 1, he returned from the army to Moscow.
He had nothing to do in Moscow; but he noticed that everyone from the army asked to go to Moscow and did something there. He also considered it necessary to take time off for household and family matters.