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PAVLOV, Ivan Petrovich (1849–1936). Three Snapshot Photographs of Ivan P. Pavlov and His Experiments with Dogs. Circa 1921/23. Original black and white photographs (largest 4 ½ x 6 ¼”) depicting Pavlov later in life (presumably in his early seventies) conducting several experiments such as a manometer reading outside of door to dog room, a view of the laboratory as the famous Pavlovian (or classical) conditioning experiment is being conducted with a dog subject in full harness awaiting his meal as his saliva is collected, and a smaller snapshot view (4 ½ x 3 ½”) of Pavlov speaking with unidentified colleagues. Fine examples of photographs VERY VERY rarely seen on the market.

The man who made ‘Pavlov’s dogs’ famous the world over won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1904. In his laboratory experiments with dogs he discovered what is generally called the conditioned reflex (or conditional reflex). He found that if a bell is invariably sounded before a dog is brought its food, the dog will quickly start to associate the sound of the bell with the food and will salivate when it hears the bell, before the food arrives and before it can see it or smell it. This sounds obvious now, but when Pavlov discovered it, it was revolutionary.

Born the eldest son of a priest in 1849 in the town of Ryazan, south-east of Moscow, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov demonstrated from boyhood a combination of intellectual brilliance, superhuman energy and what he called ‘the instinct for research’. In 1870 he went to study at St Petersburg, first at the university and then at the Military Medical Academy. In 1891 he was made director of the new Institute of Experimental Medicine and held the post until his death.

It was there in the 1900s that Pavlov conducted the experiments in which he tried not only the sound of a bell, but whistles, tuning forks, metronomes and electric shocks to teach his dogs to anticipate the arrival of their food. His results began reaching the West, especially through the writings of John B. Watson (1878-1958), the American psychologist who paved the way for modern behaviourism. Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley, among others, were fascinated by Pavlov’s ideas.

The notion that animals, including human beings, can be taught to react to selected stimuli in a desired way – by ‘brainwashing’ them – is one that naturally appeals to tyrants and perhaps it was this, along with the favourable light his success was casting on Soviet Russia among western intellectuals, which accounted for the astonishing tolerance with which Pavlov was treated by the Soviet regime. Money was poured out to support his laboratory and he was loaded with honours although he made no attempt to conceal the disapproval and contempt in which he held Soviet Communism. In 1923, for example, he said publicly that he would not sacrifice the hind leg of a frog to the type of social experiment that the regime was conducting in Russia. In 1927 he wrote to Stalin protesting at what was being done to Russian intellectuals and saying he was ashamed to be a Russian. In 1934 he wrote letters to Molotov on the same lines.

Near the end of his life Pavlov relented a little and, when he died of double pneumonia at the age of 86 in what was by then Leningrad, the regime ordered a monument to him to be erected there. He was given a grandiose funeral and his laboratory and study were preserved as a museum in hishonour. His passion for research had lasted to the end and when he knew he was dying he got one of his students to sit by his bed and record every detail.

Like many great scientific advances, Pavlovian conditioning (aka classical conditioning) was discovered accidentally.

During the 1890s, Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov was researching salivation in dogs in response to being fed. He inserted a small test tube into the cheek of each dog to measure saliva when the dogs were fed (with a powder made from meat).

Pavlov predicted the dogs would salivate in response to the food placed in front of them, but he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever they heard the footsteps of his assistant who was bringing them the food.

Pavlov classical conditioning

When Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the dogs learned to associate with food (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery. Accordingly, he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning.

Pavlovian Conditioning

Pavlov (1902) started from the idea that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. For example, dogs don’t learn to salivate whenever they see food. This reflex is ‘hard-wired’ into the dog.

In behaviorist terms, food is an unconditioned stimulus and salivation is an unconditioned response. (i.e., a stimulus-response connection that required no learning).

Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) > Unconditioned Response (Salivate)

In his experiment, Pavlov used a metronome as his neutral stimulus. By itself the metronome did not elecit a response from the dogs.

Neutral Stimulus (Metronome) > No Conditioned Response

Next, Pavlov began the conditioning procedure, whereby the clicking metronome was introduced just before he gave food to his dogs. After a number of repeats (trials) of this procedure he presented the metronome on its own.

As you might expect, the sound of the clicking metronome on its own now caused an increase in salivation.

Conditioned Stimulus (Metronome) > Conditioned Response (Salivate)

So the dog had learned an association between the metronome and the food and a new behavior had been learned. Because this response was learned (or conditioned), it is called a conditioned response (and also known as a Pavlovian response). The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov found that for associations to be made, the two stimuli had to be presented close together in time (such as a bell). He called this the law of temporal contiguity. If the time between the conditioned stimulus (bell) and unconditioned stimulus (food) is too great, then learning will not occur.

Pavlov and his studies of classical conditioning have become famous since his early work between 1890-1930. Classical conditioning is "classical" in that it is the first systematic study of basic laws of learning / conditioning.

Summary

To summarize, classical conditioning (later developed by Watson, 1913) involves learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus that already brings about a particular response (i.e., a reflex) with a new (conditioned) stimulus, so that the new stimulus brings about the same response.

Pavlov classical conditioning diagram

Pavlov developed some rather unfriendly technical terms to describe this process. The unconditioned stimulus (or UCS) is the object or event that originally produces the reflexive / natural response.

The response to this is called the unconditioned response (or UCR). The neutral stimulus (NS) is a new stimulus that does not produce a response.

Once the neutral stimulus has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). The conditioned response (CR) is the response to the conditioned stimulus.

avlov is famous for demonstrating that

once conditioned, a dog’s digestive system

can respond to the simple ringing of a bell

without the actual introduction of food. The

phenomenon was termed conditioned reflex, and it won

for this Russian physiologist the Nobel Prize in 1904.

Secrecy and poor communication led to his premature

obituary in the Western media in 1916. Pavlov, in fact,

worked on for an additional twenty years as one of the

Soviet Union’s leading scientists.

EARLY INFLUENCES Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was

born in Ryazan, Russia, on September 14, 1849. He

was the eldest of eleven children, six of whom died in

childhood of infectious diseases. At the age of nine,

Pavlov fell from the top of a fence

onto a brick pavement, striking

his head and causing him to miss a

year of school. This did not deter

the young man from pursuing an

illustrious career in science. He

initially entered the seminary, but

after reading British scientist, George

Henry Lewes’s book, Physiology

of Everyday Life, he enrolled in the

University of St. Petersburg to pursue

courses in chemistry and physiology. He then studied

medicine at the Imperial Medical Academy, and trained in

research in Germany under Carl Ludwig, a cardiovascular

physiologist and Rudolf Heidenhain, a gastrointestinal

physiologist. Pavlov was most influenced by Ivan

Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, whose book,

Reflexes of the Brain, theorised that reflexes were a result

of the environment, which ultimately controlled both

conscious and unconscious actions. This led Pavlov to

his landmark studies and subsequent elucidation of the

conditioned reflex.

NOBEL WORK Pavlov is best known for his dog

experiments. To determine whether physiological

functions, such as the secretion of digestive juices, could

be “learned,” he created an animal model by surgically

severing the esophagus and exteriorising both ends, in

effect creating two fistulas. In this manner, the secretions

of the stomach could be collected and measured without

oral contamination. In this model, Pavlov found that the

stomach began secreting gastric juice with placement of

food in the dog’s mouth. More importantly, Pavlov noted

that gastric secretion was activated when the animal was

conditioned by certain stimuli, such as the smell of food.

In his most famous experiment, he rang a bell whenever

a dog was given food. After being trained in this manner

(conditioned), the animal was found to secrete digestive

juices simply upon hearing the bell, even though it was

given no food. Thus, he was able to distinguish two types

of reflexes – inborn and learned

reflexes. Inborn reflexes were

controlled in the spinal cord and

brainstem, whereas learned reflexes

were controlled in the cerebral

cortex. Pavlov demonstrated that

learned reflexes could be abolished

if the stimulus was inconsistent or

not reinforced. For this novel work

on the physiology of digestion, he

was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in

Physiology/Medicine.

Pavlov had many admirers, perhaps none greater than

the famed American behavioral psychologist, B F Skinner,

who first met Pavlov at Harvard during the International

Congress of Physiology in 1929. Skinner adored the man

for his emphasis on careful experimental conditions and

his meticulous gathering of data (to wit: “On December

15, 1911, at exactly 1.55 in the afternoon, a dog secreted

nine drops of saliva”). Another admirer was English

science-fiction author, H G Wells, who stated that he

would unhesitatingly choose to throw a life preserver to a

drowning Pavlov over playwright George Bernard Shaw,

as Pavlov “is a star which lights the world, shining above

a vista hitherto unexplored.”

Medicine in Stamps

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936):

conditioned reflexes

Tan S Y, MD, JD and Graham C, MD*

Professor of Medicine, John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii

*Research carried out during medical residency elective, John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii

Singapore Med J 2010; 51(1) : 2

PERSONAL AND FAMILY LIFE In 1881, at age

32, Pavlov married a teacher, Seraphima Karchevskaya,

who was the daughter of a doctor. They had five children;

four sons (one of whom died) and a daughter. Money

problems plagued Pavlov and his family. Early in his

marriage, he and his wife lived in an empty room in his

younger brother’s house. At one point, he had to leave

his family to live with a friend, Dr. Simanovski. Because

Pavlov cared little for material things, he was able to

weather his financial plight. One of his pupils recalled:

“We, Pavlov’s pupils, knowing of his financial straits,

thought of a way to help him. We invited him to deliver to

us a course of lectures on the innervation of the heart, and

clubbing together to raise some money, we handed it over

to him, pretending that this was to defray the expenses

of the course. But we did not gain our end. He used the

entire sum to buy animals for these lectures and nothing

was left for himself.”

Leading a regimented life, Pavlov was punctual to a

fault. He was said to arise at 6 am each morning, walked

the three miles to his laboratory, had dinner at 6 pm, tea at

9.30 pm, and then worked until bedtime at 1 am. He was

also an impatient man. For example, he considered three

minutes in a barber’s chair a waste of time (which may

explain the luxurious beard he wore). And his scientific

creativity contrasted with his everyday helplessness.

His doting wife thought, for example, that he was quite

incapable of purchasing a suit or a railroad ticket by

himself.

POLITICS The political environment in Russia changed

dramatically with the Revolution in 1919, and Pavlov

often spoke out against the new communist government.

In 1922, he unsuccessful requested permission to move

his laboratory overseas. Lenin felt the Soviet Union

had a need for scientists, and believed that Pavlov’s

research efforts were important and meaningful to

the proletariat. The following year, Pavlov made a

trip to the United States. Upon his return, he publicly

denounced communism saying, “For the kind of social

experiment that you are making, I would not sacrifice

a frog’s hind legs.” Later, however, his views toward

communism softened as he continued to receive research

funding from the Communist Party. This support for

Pavlov and other scientists allowed the Soviet Union

to achieve world prominence in the area of physiology

and behavioural research. In 1935, for example, the

prestigious International Physiological Congress was held

in Leningrad.

HEALTH Pavlov suffered from gallstones. His wife

wrote of “severe chills . . . usually after dinner, and were

accompanied by pains in the stomach; we relieved him

with a hot-water bottle but the chills continued for an hour

or an hour and a half.” She suggested the problem was

his liver, but Pavlov and others thought it was malaria.

The correct diagnosis finally surfaced at a surgical

convention in Leningrad, when a panel of scientists

reviewed his symptoms. Pavlov consented to surgery

(he chose a Russian surgeon over the recommended

German specialist), and his postoperative course was

complicated by pneumonia, from which he recovered.

However, a decade later, he would again be stricken by

pneumonia, this time succumbing to the infection. He

died on February 27, 1936, with colleagues and the Soviet

government heaping praise for his scientific contributions.

In addition to multiple original articles, Pavlov’s work

is memorialised in his seminal book, “Conditioned

Reflexes.” American colleagues founded the Pavlovian

Society of North America in his honour, and in 1999, an

entire issue of the Russian Journal of Physiology was

dedicated to this great scientist on the occasion of the

150th anniversary of his birth

Ivan Pavlov was born in Riazan (1849), a city today called Pavlov in his honor, to a family of

Russian Orthodox priests, a profession passed down from fathers-in-law to sons-in-law. He

belonged to a large family, being the eldest of eleven brothers five of whom survived since they

were able to avoid the infectious diseases typical of that time.

He started school at the age of 11 delayed because he had suffered a head trauma due to a fall.

Four years before he started school, his father gave him classes in horticulture and garden work

at the family farm. From these times he remembered the pleasure that this sort of activities gave

to him; he described this as “muscular joy”, because of the mixture of mental and physical work.

He was always thankful to his parents because they taught him to follow a humble life and made

it possible for him to study medicine.

In 1870, he started at the University of Saint Petersburg in Natural Science, studying physiology

with professor Cyon with whom he performed his first physiological research. Later, when this

professor was expelled for political reasons, Pavlov also left his place in the University.

He did his doctoral thesis that was based on the nerves of the heart in Russia. After that he

worked for some time working in Germany, and when he came back to Russia he worked as

director of physiology in Professor Botkin ´s Clinic in Saint Petersburg (1886). Then, he became

the professor responsible of pharmacology in the Military Academy of Medicine in Saint

Petersburg (1890). Later on, he became interested in the physiology of the digestive system - a

research field in which he earned the Nobel prize in Medicine in 1904.

He led an austere life of work and sacrifice, sometimes leaving aside his material concerns to

dedicate time to his passion, investigation.

Usually economical, he supported his research activities himself. Public generosity and scientific

societies helped him financially to begin the construction of the famous “tower of silence” (it

was later finished by government’s support). The laboratory that was destined to study the

conditioning of dogs was so called the laboratories were sound and vision proof. His economic

difficulties began to disappear when he became professor of the Military Academy of Medicine

and disappeared completely when he was chosen member of the Academy of Sciences.

He died at 86 years of age in Saint Petersburg after an intense scientific life which he continued

practically until his death.

His work

As was mentioned earlier, Pavlov was obsessed with his methods. Due to this obsession with

clarity, his experiments were easy to understand.

At a time when there were few medical devices or little scientific technology, which is so

important for modern biological science, Pavlov turned his fierce observation and remarkable

surgical skills to this activity, developing original experimental animal models.

In “vivisection” the experimental method used in those times, the research worker destroyed the

animal in order to isolate the organ in which he was interested in, thus losing any perception of

the functions as a whole body. Even though, Pavlov acknowledged that this experimental method

had brought much important information, he noted that it had made impossible this acquisition

other significant data, especially that related to system integration.

Physiology of the digestive glands

Based on his extensive laboratory experience, he created a surgical technique for developing a

“small stomach” that consisted of a part of the stomach separated from the rest of the organ by a

muscular wall. Thus, although neither fluid nor food from the stomach could reach this small

chamber, it had the same neurological stimulus and secreting response as the actual organ. This

experimental model allowed him to study all the reflexes involved in the gastric phase of the

digestive process. Moreover, this model enabled him to study the biochemical characteristic and

behaviour of gastric juice in different situations. When, he made the same sort of fistulas farther

along the intestine, he was able to describe for the first time composition and behaviour of the

other digestive juices (duodenal, jejunal ones, etc) during different situations: fast, fatty food,

carbohydrated food, etc.

The studies were remarkable that his merits as a great physiologist were soon recognized even in

the closed Russian academic environment and, in 1901, he was appointed corresponding

academic member of the Academy of Sciences. However, he had to wait until 1907 before he

became an effective member even though he had won the Nobel prize three years before.

Important studies of nervous activity

To study the physiology of the digestive fluids, Pavlov created a model by which to examine

salivary secretions. He created a fistula into the parotid gland, and demonstrated that the

experimental dog secreted saliva (the gland was connected to the exterior by a fistula) when it

saw the person who used to feed it, even though the dog had not yet tasted the food. Conversely,

when the same animal saw another person, there was no salivary secretion. His observation of

his phenomenon led Pavlov to the concept of the “conditioned reflex”.

From his experiences on feeding experimental dogs, he proposed a relationship between the

digestive process and the nervous system: every time he presented a piece of bread to a dog, it

started secreting saliva. He named this phenomenon: arc reflex, where the act of presenting the

food was called stimulus, and the act of secreting saliva was called the response.

A by product of these finding was the method of conditioned reflexes for training animals to

perform various tasks, such as in the aerospace research.

Pavlov’s personality:

-Loyalty: At the beginning of his career he worked with Professor Cyon, who was in charge of

the Physiology Department. When this Professor was fired from the University for political

reasons, Pavlov resigned from his position at the University as a token of his solidarity with him.

Humility: Even though his original work on the physiological reflexes was his own ideal that he

developed while working with Professor Sechenov, he always attributed the whole work to the

professor.

- Joy working with his hands: he was very skilful with his hands, a characteristic that helped

him a lot making his physiological research models. Moreover, he usually worked in his own

garden, an activity that he learned in his childhood. He used to say that this sort of work gave

him “muscular joy”.

-Openmindedness: In his early professional career, when he worked under the supervision of

Professor Botkin, he got involved in many research project, just as a learning experiences.

-Tenacity and modesty: He wrote the following beautiful letter as a guide to new researchers,

and it summarizes many of his personal characteristics:

“ ... First, study the ABC of sciences before trying to reach the summit. Never start a new

chapter if you do not know the previous one perfectly well. Do not ever try to compensate your

ignorance with suppositions or hypothesis, not even the boldest ones. Learn to be observer, and

patient. Get used to perform the ordinary scientific works. Study, compare, compile facts,

without which you will never be able to reach the summit, since without them your hypothesis

will turn into vain efforts. But, even studying, experimenting, observing, try hardly not to remain

in the surface of the facts. Do not be a facts collector, conversely try to discover their origins.

Persevere in looking for their ruling laws. Second, be modest. Never think that you know it all.

Do not let pride get to you. It will make you obstinate when you should give in, since it will make

you reject a good advise and friendly help, and it will make you lose objectivity. Third, be

passionate. Remember that science needs a man’s whole life; and even if you had two lives, they

would not be enough. It is great passion and strong effort that science demands to men ... “

Conclusion:

Ivan Pavlov was a model of scientist. Not only do we owe him the knowledge of the digestive

physiology, for which he was awarded the Novel prize, but also many facts about the central

nervous system gained during his study of the conditioned reflexes.

He led an austere life of work and sacrifice dedicated to his great passion: investigation.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was an eminent Russian physiologist and psychologist who devised the concept of the conditioned reflex. He conducted a legendary experiment in which he trained a hungry dog to drool at the sound of a bell, which had previously been related to the presentation of food to the animal.

Pavlov formulated a conceptual theory, highlighting the significance of conditioning and associating human behavior with the nervous system. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking research on digestive secretions.

Early Life and Education:

Ivan Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia on the 26 September 1849, the eldest of eleven children. His father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, was a Russian orthodox priest and his mother was Varvara Ivanovna Uspenskaya. As a young child, he suffered a serious injury from a fall, due to which Pavlov spent much of his early childhood with his parents in the family home and garden. There he acquired various practical skills and a deep interest in natural history.

Enrolling at a church school aged eleven; Pavlov continued his education at the university of St. Petersburg where he studied physics, mathematics and natural sciences.

Pavlov developed a strong interest in science and considered the possibility of using science to ameliorate and modify society.

Career Path:

After graduating from St. Petersburg in 1875, he studied medicine at the Imperial Academy of Medical Surgery under the famed physiologist of the time, Sergey Petrovich Botkin, who taught him a great deal about the nervous system. Pavlov received his medical degree in 1879, earning a gold medal award for his research work.

Pavlov remained in St. Petersburg, conducting postgraduate research and he obtained the position of director of the Physiological Laboratory at Botkin’s clinic.

He married Seraphima Vasilievna Karchevskaya, a teacher, in 1881 and they had five children.

In 1883, he earned his doctorate with his thesis, “The centrifugal nerves of the heart”.

After completing his doctorate, Pavlov spent two years in Germany studying digestion in dogs.

In 1886 he returned to Russia but could not find a position until 1890 when he was appointed to the role of professor of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy. In 1895 he was appointed to the chair of physiology and remained at the Academy until he resigned in 1924.

Pavlov also organized carried out research at the newly founded Institute of Experimental Medicine, which under his direction spanning over four decades, became one of the most important world centers of physiological research.

Contributions and Achievements:

Ivan Pavlov conducted neurophysiological experiments with animals for years after receiving his doctorate at the Academy of Medical Surgery. He became fully convinced that human behavior could be understood and explained best in physiological terms rather than in mentalist terms. The legendary experiment for which Pavlov is remembered was when he used the feeding of dogs to establish a number of his key ideas.

Moments before feeding, a bell was rung to measure the dogs’ saliva production when they heard the bell. Pavlov discovered that once the dogs had been trained to associate the sound of the bell with food, they would produce saliva, whether or not food followed. The experiment proved that the dogs’ physical response, salivation, was directly related to the stimulus of the bell, hence the saliva production was a stimulus response. The continued increased salivation, even when the dogs had experienced hearing the bell without being later fed, was a conditioned reflex.

The entire process is a prime example of classical conditioning, and it is primarily related to a physical and spontaneous response to some particular conditions that the organism has acquired through association. Behaviorist theory has applied these landmark ideas for the explanation of human behavior.

In 1904 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for “in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged.”

He was elected Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1907 and in 1915 he received the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Ivan Pavlov, in full Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, (born September 14 [September 26, New Style], 1849, Ryazan, Russia—died February 27, 1936, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg]), Russian physiologist known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex. In a now-classic experiment, he trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a metronome or buzzer, which was previously associated with the sight of food. He developed a similar conceptual approach, emphasizing the importance of conditioning, in his pioneering studies relating human behaviour to the nervous system. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for his work on digestive secretions.

See also

Biography portal

Psychology portal

Behavior modification

Classical conditioning

Orienting response

Ryazan

Rostov State Medical University

The Nobel Prize (/ˈnoʊbɛl/, NOH-bel; Swedish: Nobelpriset [nʊˈbɛ̂lːˌpriːsɛt]; Norwegian: Nobelprisen) is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, are awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”. Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace (Nobel called this prize "fellowship among nations").[1] Nobel prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in their respective fields.[2][3]

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist most famously known for the invention of dynamite. He died in 1896. In his will, he bequeathed all of his "remaining realisable assets" to be used to establish five prizes which became known as "Nobel Prizes". Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901.[1] In 1968, a sixth prize was established in the field of Economic Sciences; however, it is not considered a "Nobel Prize" but a "Nobel Memorial Prize".[1]

The prize ceremonies take place annually. Each recipient (known as a "laureate") receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a monetary award. In 2020, the Nobel Prize monetary award is 9,000,000 SEK, or US$935,366, or €848,678, or £716,224.[4] A prize may not be shared among more than three individuals, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organizations of more than three people.[5] Although Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it the prize is presented.[6]

The Nobel Prizes, beginning in 1901 and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, beginning in 1969, have been awarded 597 times to 950 people and 27 organizations.[1] Forty-two laureates have received more than one Nobel Prize.[1][7]

Contents

1 History

1.1 Nobel Foundation

1.1.1 Formation of Foundation

1.1.2 Foundation capital and cost

1.2 First prizes

1.3 Second World War

1.4 Prize in Economic Sciences

2 Award process

2.1 Nominations

2.2 Selection

2.3 Posthumous nominations

2.4 Recognition time lag

3 Award ceremonies

3.1 Nobel Banquet

3.2 Nobel lecture

4 Prizes

4.1 Medals

4.2 Diplomas

4.3 Award money

5 Controversies and criticisms

5.1 Controversial recipients

5.2 Overlooked achievements

5.3 Emphasis on discoveries over inventions

5.4 Gender disparity

6 Facts

7 Specially distinguished laureates

7.1 Multiple laureates

7.2 Family laureates

8 Refusals and constraints

9 Cultural impact

10 See also

11 References

11.1 Citations

11.2 Sources

11.2.1 Books

12 Further reading

13 External links

History

A black and white photo of a bearded man in his fifties sitting in a chair.

Alfred Nobel had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, which was titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper.

Alfred Nobel (About this soundlisten (help·info)) was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers.[8] He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894, Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a major armaments manufacturer. Nobel also invented ballistite. This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth coming from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous.[9]

In 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper. It was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died; the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will.[10] On 10 December 1896, Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy, from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 63 years old.[11]

Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.[12][13] To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.[14] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.[15][16] Owing to skepticism surrounding the will, it was not approved by the Storting in Norway until 26 April 1897.[17] The executors of the will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of the fortune and to organise the awarding of prizes.[18]

Nobel's instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize, the members of whom were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organizations were designated. These were Karolinska Institute on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June.[19] The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded; and, in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II.[14] In 1905, the personal union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved.

Nobel Foundation

Formation of Foundation

Main article: Nobel Foundation

A paper with stylish handwriting on it with the title "Testament"

Alfred Nobel's will stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes.

According to his will and testament read in Stockholm on 30 December 1896, a foundation established by Alfred Nobel would reward those who serve humanity. The Nobel Prize was funded by Alfred Nobel's personal fortune. According to the official sources, Alfred Nobel bequeathed from the shares 94% of his fortune to the Nobel Foundation that now forms the economic base of the Nobel Prize.[citation needed]

The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organization on 29 June 1900. Its function is to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.[20] In accordance with Nobel's will, the primary task of the Foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Robert and Ludvig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan, and according to Swedish historian E. Bargengren, who accessed the Nobel family archive, it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established".[21] Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The Foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates.[22][23] In many ways, the Nobel Foundation is similar to an investment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).[24] Since the 1980s, the Foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor (c. US$560 million).[25]

According to the statutes, the Foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The Chairman of the Board is appointed by the Swedish King in Council, with the other four members appointed by the trustees of the prize-awarding institutions. An Executive Director is chosen from among the board members, a Deputy Director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the trustees. However, since 1995, all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the Executive Director and the Deputy Director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, and auditors.[25]

Foundation capital and cost

The capital of the Nobel Foundation today is invested 50% in shares, 20% bonds and 30% other investments (e.g. hedge funds or real estate). The distribution can vary by 10 percent.[26] At the beginning of 2008, 64% of the funds were invested mainly in American and European stocks, 20% in bonds, plus 12% in real estate and hedge funds.[27]

In 2011, the total annual cost was approximately 120 million krona, with 50 million krona as the prize money. Further costs to pay institutions and persons engaged in giving the prizes were 27.4 million krona. The events during the Nobel week in Stockholm and Oslo cost 20.2 million krona. The administration, Nobel symposium, and similar items had costs of 22.4 million krona. The cost of the Economic Sciences prize of 16.5 Million krona is paid by the Sveriges Riksbank.[26]

First prizes

A black and white photo of a bearded man in his fifties sitting in a chair.

Wilhelm Röntgen received the first Physics Prize for his discovery of X-rays.

Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently, they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions.

The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.[28][29] In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize".[30] The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van 't Hoff.[31] Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics.[32][33]

The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists, and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo Tolstoy to be awarded.[34] Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred Victorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet.[35] The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year.[36][37]

The first Nobel Peace Prize went to the Swiss Jean Henri Dunant for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifist Frédéric Passy, founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization.

Second World War

In 1938 and 1939, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (Richard Kuhn, Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes.[38] Each man was later able to receive the diploma and medal.[39] Even though Sweden was officially neutral during the Second World War, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940 to 1942, due to the occupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.[40]

During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Germans when the Nobel Foundation stated that the Committee building in Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.[41] These members kept the work of the Committee going, but did not award any prizes. In 1944, the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.[38]

Prize in Economic Sciences

Main article: Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Map of Nobel laureates by country

In 1968, Sweden's central bank Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation to be used to set up a prize in honour of Alfred Nobel. The following year, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes".[42][43] The Board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.[44]

Award process

The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes, the main difference being who can make nominations for each of them.[45]

File:Announcement Nobelprize Chemistry 2009-3.ogv

The announcement of the laureates in Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 by Gunnar Öquist, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

File:Announcement Nobelprize Literature 2009-1.ogv

2009 Nobel Prize in Literature announcement by Peter Englund in Swedish, English, and German

Nominations

Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are generally prominent academics working in a relevant area. Regarding the Peace Prize, inquiries are also sent to governments, former Peace Prize laureates, and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.[45][46] The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.[47] The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.[48][49]

Selection

The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.[50] The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.[51] A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.[52]

Posthumous nominations

Although posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, William Vickrey, who in 1996 died after the prize (in Economics) was announced but before it could be presented.[53] On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier. The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously.[6] The committee later decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith", it would remain unchanged.[54]

Recognition time lag

Nobel's will provided for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.[55] However, some of those early discoveries were later discredited. For example, Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer.[56] To avoid repeating this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.[57][58][59] According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion 'the previous year' is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."[58]

A room with pictures on the walls. In the middle of the room there is a wooden table with chairs around it.

The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.[60][61] The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example, 2008 laureate Martti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.[62][63] However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.[64] For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.[65] Similarly Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the Oslo Accords.[66]

Awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.[67][68] Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.[69][70][71]

Award ceremonies

Two men standing on a stage. The man to the left is clapping his hands and looking towards the other man. The second man is smiling and showing two items to an audience not seen on the image. The items are a diploma which includes a painting and a box containing a gold medal. Behind them is a blue pillar clad in flowers.

A man in his fifties standing behind a desk with computers on it. On the desk is a sign reading "Kungl. Vetensk. Akad. Sigil".

Left: Barack Obama after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall from the hands of Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland in 2009; Right: Giovanni Jona-Lasinio presenting Yoichiro Nambu's Nobel Lecture at Aula Magna, Stockholm in 2008

Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.[72][73] The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies' are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately at Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at the auditorium of the University of Oslo (1947–1989), and at Oslo City Hall (1990–present).[74]

The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway.[73][75] At first, King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners. It is said[by whom?] that he changed his mind once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.[76]

Nobel Banquet

Main article: Nobel Banquet

A set table with a white table cloth. There are many plates and glasses plus a menu visible on the table.

Table at the 2005 Nobel Banquet in Stockholm

After the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held in the Blue Hall at the Stockholm City Hall, which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Norway at the Oslo Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the President of the Storting, on occasion the Swedish prime minister, and, since 2006, the King and Queen of Norway. In total, about 250 guests attend.

Nobel lecture

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.[77] The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format.[78] These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize, but some have happened even later. For example, US President Theodore Roosevelt received the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.[79] The lectures are organized by the same association which selected the laureates.[80]

Prizes

Medals

The Nobel Foundation announced on 30 May 2012 that it had awarded the contract for the production of the five (Swedish) Nobel Prize medals to Svenska Medalj AB. Between 1902 and 2010, the Nobel Prize medals were minted by Myntverket (the Swedish Mint), Sweden's oldest company, which ceased operations in 2011 after 107 years. In 2011, the Mint of Norway, located in Kongsberg, made the medals. The Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.[81]

Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.[82] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.[83]

A heavily decorated paper with the name "Fritz Haber" on it.

Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and the prize money. Here Fritz Haber's diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesise ammonia.

All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Since then, they have been struck in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.386 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in).[84] Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.[85][86][87] During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, Hungarian chemist (and Nobel laureate himself) George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), to prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.[88]

Diplomas

Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden, or in the case of the peace prize, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them.[82] The diploma contains a picture and text in Swedish which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.[89][90]

Award money

The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.[82] The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880,000 SEK per prize (c. 2.6 million SEK altogether, US$350,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million).[91][92] In June 2012, it was lowered to 8 million SEK.[93] If two laureates share the prize in a category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.[94][95][96] It is common for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.[97][98]

Controversies and criticisms

Main article: Nobel Prize controversies

Controversial recipients

When it was announced that Henry Kissinger was to be awarded the Peace Prize, two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.

Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of Eurocentrism, especially for the Literature Prize.[99][100][101]

Peace Prize

Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members.[102] Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.[103] Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award.[48][104] The satirist and musician Tom Lehrer has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."[105]

Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.[48][106] Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.[107] Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.[108]

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009.[109] Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President of the United States, but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.[110] Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him.[111][112] Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, also prompted accusations of a left-wing bias.[113]

Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure".[114][115] The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to The Washington Post, many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work.[116] This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric.[117]

Science prizes

In 1949, the neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy. The previous year, Dr. Walter Freeman had developed a version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern medical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications as The New England Journal of Medicine, leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.[118][119]

Overlooked achievements

The Norwegian Nobel Committee declined to award a prize in 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937–1939, 1947 and, a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948.[120] Later, members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed regret that he was not given the prize.[121] Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006, said, "The greatest omission in our 106 year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize. Whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".[122] In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year.[121][123] Later, when the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".[124] Other high-profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been missed out. Foreign Policy lists Eleanor Roosevelt, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sari Nusseibeh, and Corazon Aquino as people who "never won the prize, but should have".[125]

In 1965, UN Secretary General U Thant was informed by the Norwegian Permanent Representative to the UN that he would be awarded that year's prize and asked whether or not he would accept. He consulted staff and later replied that he would. At the same time, Chairman Gunnar Jahn of the Nobel Peace prize committee, lobbied heavily against giving U Thant the prize and the prize was at the last minute awarded to UNICEF. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to U Thant, for his work in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis, ending the war in the Congo, and his ongoing work to mediate an end to the Vietnam War. The disagreement lasted three years and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to U Thant.[126][127]

James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of the Literature Prize

The Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. Adam Kirsch has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.[128][129] The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by Peter Englund, the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.[130] This tendency towards European authors still leaves some European writers on a list of notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize, including Europe's Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, J. R. R. Tolkien, Émile Zola, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, Karel Čapek, the New World's Jorge Luis Borges, Ezra Pound, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain, and Africa's Chinua Achebe.[131]

Candidates can receive multiple nominations the same year. Gaston Ramon received a total of 155[132] nominations in physiology or medicine from 1930 to 1953, the last year with public nomination data for that award as of 2016. He died in 1963 without being awarded. Pierre Paul Émile Roux received 115[133] nominations in physiology or medicine, and Arnold Sommerfeld received 84[134] in physics. These are the three most nominated scientists without awards in the data published as of 2016.[135] Otto Stern received 79[136] nominations in physics 1925–1943 before being awarded in 1943.[137]

The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.[138] When a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an award that did not recognise the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.[139][140] According to one of the nominees for the prize in physics, the three person limit deprived him and two other members of his team of the honor in 2013: the team of Carl Hagen, Gerald Guralnik, and Tom Kibble published a paper in 1964 that gave answers to how the cosmos began, but did not share the 2013 Physics Prize awarded to Peter Higgs and François Englert, who had also published papers in 1964 concerning the subject. All five physicists arrived at the same conclusion, albeit from different angles. Hagen contends that an equitable solution is to either abandon the three limit restriction, or expand the time period of recognition for a given achievement to two years.[141]

Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. The Economics Prize was not awarded to Fischer Black, who died in 1995, when his co-author Myron Scholes received the honor in 1997 for their landmark work on option pricing along with Robert C. Merton, another pioneer in the development of valuation of stock options. In the announcement of the award that year, the Nobel committee prominently mentioned Black's key role.

Political subterfuge may also deny proper recognition. Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann, who co-discovered nuclear fission along with Otto Hahn, may have been denied a share of Hahn's 1944 Nobel Chemistry Award due to having fled Germany when the Nazis came to power.[142] The Meitner and Strassmann roles in the research was not fully recognised until years later, when they joined Hahn in receiving the 1966 Enrico Fermi Award.

Emphasis on discoveries over inventions

Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".[143] He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics". Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in Nature and Technoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.[144][145]

Gender disparity

See also: List of female Nobel laureates

In terms of the most prestigious awards in STEM fields, only a small proportion have been awarded to women. Out of 210 laureates in Physics, 181 in Chemistry and 216 in Medicine between 1901 and 2018, there were only three female laureates in physics, five in chemistry and 12 in medicine.[146][147][148][149] Factors proposed to contribute to the discrepancy between this and the roughly equal human sex ratio include biased nominations, fewer women than men being active in the relevant fields, Nobel Prizes typically being awarded decades after the research was done (reflecting a time when gender bias in the relevant fields was greater), a greater delay in awarding Nobel Prizes for women's achievements making longevity a more important factor for women (one cannot be nominated to the Nobel Prize posthumously), and a tendency to omit women from jointly awarded Nobel Prizes.[150][151][152][153][154][155] Despite these factors, Marie Curie is to date the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911); she is one of only three people who have received two Nobel Prizes in sciences (see Multiple laureates below).

Facts

Youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize:

Malala Yousafzai; at the age of 17, received Nobel Peace Prize (2014).

Oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize:

John B. Goodenough; at the age of 97, received Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019).

Only person to win more than one unshared Nobel Prizes:

Linus Pauling; received the prize twice. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) and Nobel Peace Prize (1962)

Multiple Nobel Prize winners:

Marie Curie; received the prize twice. Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) and Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911).

Linus Pauling; received the prize twice. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) and Nobel Peace Prize (1962).

John Bardeen; received the prize twice. Nobel Prize in Physics (1956, 1972).

Frederick Sanger; received the prize twice. Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1958, 1980).

International Committee of the Red Cross; received the prize three times. Nobel Peace Prize (1917, 1944, 1963).

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; received the prize twice. Nobel Peace Prize (1954, 1981).

Posthumous Nobel Prizes winners:

Erik Axel Karlfeldt; received Nobel Prize in Literature (1931).

Dag Hammarskjöld; received Nobel Peace Prize (1961).

Ralph M. Steinman; received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2011).

Married couples to receive Nobel Prizes:[156]

Marie Curie, Pierre Curie (along with Henri Becquerel). Received Nobel Prize in Physics (1903).

Irène Joliot-Curie, Frédéric Joliot. Received Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1935).

Gerty Cori, Carl Cori. Received Nobel Prize in Medicine (1947).

May-Britt Moser, Edvard I. Moser. Received Nobel Prize in Medicine (2014)

Alva Myrdal; received Nobel Peace Prize (1982), Gunnar Myrdal; received Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences (1974).

Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee (along with Michael Kremer). Received Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences (2019).[157]

Specially distinguished laureates

Multiple laureates

A black and white portrait of a woman in profile.

Marie Curie, one of four people who have received the Nobel Prize twice (Physics and Chemistry)

Four people have received two Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for her work on radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure radium,[158] making her the only person to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Linus Pauling was awarded the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the chemical bond and its application to the structure of complex substances. Pauling was also awarded the Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear weapons, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the transistor and in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity.[159] Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA.[160][161]

Two organizations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The International Committee of the Red Cross received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars; and in 1963 during the year of its centenary.[162][163][164] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981.[165]

Family laureates

The Curie family has received the most prizes, with four prizes awarded to five individual laureates. Marie Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her.[166] Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie. In addition, the husband of Marie Curie's second daughter, Henry Labouisse, was the director of UNICEF when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on that organisation's behalf.[167]

Although no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been several with two laureates. The husband-and-wife team of Gerty Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori shared the 1947 Prize in Physiology or Medicine[168] as did the husband-and-wife team of May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser in 2014 (along with John O'Keefe).[169] J. J. Thomson was awarded the Physics Prize in 1906 for showing that electrons are particles. His son, George Paget Thomson, received the same prize in 1937 for showing that they also have the properties of waves.[170] William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence Bragg, shared the Physics Prize in 1915 for inventing the X-ray crystallography.[171] Niels Bohr was awarded the Physics prize in 1922, as was his son, Aage Bohr, in 1975.[167][172] Manne Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1924, was the father of Kai Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1981.[167][173] Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of Ulf von Euler, who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970.[167] C. V. Raman was awarded the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was awarded the same prize in 1983.[174][175] Arthur Kornberg received the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959; Kornberg's son, Roger later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006.[176] Jan Tinbergen, who was awarded the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen, who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize.[167] Alva Myrdal, Peace Prize laureate in 1982, was the wife of Gunnar Myrdal who was awarded the Economics Prize in 1974.[167] Economics laureates Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow were brothers-in-law. Frits Zernike, who was awarded the 1953 Physics Prize, is the great-uncle of 1999 Physics laureate Gerard 't Hooft.[177] In 2019, married couple Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo were awarded the Economics Prize.[178]

Refusals and constraints

A black and white portrait of a man in a suit and tie. Half of his face is in a shadow.

Richard Kuhn, who was forced to decline his Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Two laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize. In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Literature Prize but refused, stating, "A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."[179] Lê Đức Thọ, chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in the Paris Peace Accords, declined, stating that there was no actual peace in Vietnam.[180] George Bernard Shaw attempted to decline the prize money while accepting the 1925 Literature Prize; eventually it was agreed to use it to found the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation.[181]

During the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler hindered Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk from accepting their prizes. All of them were awarded their diplomas and gold medals after World War II. In 1958, Boris Pasternak declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the Soviet Union government might do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying "this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award."[180] The Academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it back until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.[182][183]

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but her children accepted the prize because she had been placed under house arrest in Burma; Suu Kyi delivered her speech two decades later, in 2012.[184] Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while he and his wife were under house arrest in China as political prisoners, and he was unable to accept the prize in his lifetime.

Cultural impact

The International Nobel Economic Congress 2008, at the Alfred Nobel University in Dnipro, Ukraine

Being a symbol of scientific or literary achievement that is recognisable worldwide, the Nobel Prize is often depicted in fiction. This includes films like The Prize (1963) and Nobel Son (2007) about fictional Nobel laureates as well as fictionalised accounts of stories surrounding real prizes such as Nobel Chor, a 2012 film based on the theft of Rabindranath Tagore's prize.[185][186]

The memorial symbol "Planet of Alfred Nobel" was opened in Alfred Nobel University of Economics and Law in Dnipro, Ukraine in 2008. On the globe, there are 802 Nobel laureates' reliefs made of a composite alloy obtained when disposing of military strategic missiles.[187]

Russia (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation (RF),[c] is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world by area, covering over 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670 sq mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and borders sixteen sovereign nations, more than any other country in the world.[d] It is the ninth-most populous country in the world and the most populous country in Europe, with a population of 146 million. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow, the largest city entirely within Europe. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.

The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The medieval state of Kievan Rus' arose in the 9th century, and in 988 adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, the third-largest empire in history. The monarchy was abolished following the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the Russian SFSR became the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following a civil war, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other republics, as its largest and the principal constituent. The country underwent a period of rapid industrialisation at the expense of millions of lives. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and was a superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first human into space.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent Russian SFSR renamed itself the Russian Federation. In the aftermath of the constitutional crisis of 1993, a new constitution was adopted, and Russia has since been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Since his election in 2000, Vladimir Putin has dominated Russia's political system and Russia has experienced democratic backsliding, becoming an authoritarian state or dictatorship. It ranks low in international measurements of freedom of the press and civil liberties and has high levels of perceived corruption.

The Russian economy is the world's eleventh-largest by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest by PPP. It has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, with the fourth-highest military expenditure. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the world's largest, and it is among the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, the SCO, BRICS, the APEC, the OSCE and the WTO, as well as the leading member of the CIS, the CSTO, and the EAEU, Russia is also home of 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Contents

1 Etymology

2 History

2.1 Early history

2.2 Kievan Rus'

2.3 Grand Duchy of Moscow

2.4 Tsardom of Russia

2.5 Imperial Russia

2.6 Revolution and civil war

2.7 Soviet Union

2.7.1 World War II

2.7.2 Cold War

2.8 Post-Soviet Russia (1991–present)

3 Geography

3.1 Climate

3.2 Biodiversity

4 Government and politics

4.1 Political divisions

4.2 Foreign relations

4.3 Military

4.4 Human rights and corruption

5 Economy

5.1 Transport and energy

5.2 Agriculture and fishery

5.3 Science and technology

5.3.1 Space exploration

5.4 Tourism

6 Demographics

6.1 Language

6.2 Religion

6.3 Education

6.4 Health

7 Culture

7.1 Holidays

7.2 Art and architecture

7.3 Music

7.4 Literature and philosophy

7.5 Cuisine

7.6 Mass media and cinema

7.7 Sports

8 See also

9 Notes

10 Sources

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

Etymology

Main article: Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia

The name Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated primarily by the East Slavs.[17] However, the proper name[which?] became more prominent in later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Rus land".[18] This state is denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city by modern historiography. The name Rus' itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, a group of Norse merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and founded a state centred on Novgorod that later became Kievan Rus'.[19]

A Medieval Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, which was used as one of several designations for East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions, and commonly as a designation for the lands of Rus'.[20] The current name of the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Ρωσσία Rossía – spelled Ρωσία (Rosía pronounced [roˈsia]) in Modern Greek.[21] The standard way to refer to the citizens of Russia is "Russians" in English.[22] There are two words in Russian which are commonly translated into English as "Russians" – one is "русские" (russkiye), which most often refers to ethnic Russians – and the other is "россияне" (rossiyane), which refers to citizens of Russia, regardless of ethnicity.[23]

History

Main article: History of Russia

Early history

Further information: Ancient Greek colonies, Early Slavs, Huns, Turkic expansion, and Prehistory of Siberia

See also: Proto-Indo-Europeans and Proto-Uralic homeland

The first human settlement on Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia.[24] Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus.[25] Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago.[26] Fossils of "Denny", an archaic human hybrid that was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave.[27] Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.[28]

The first trace of a early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in western Siberia.[29] The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000 years ago, was found at Kostyonki and Borshchyovo,[30] and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years ago—both, respectively in western Russia.[31] Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya.[32]

The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[33]

Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.[34] Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo,[34] Sintashta,[35] Arkaim,[36] and Pazyryk,[37] which bear the earliest known traces of horses in warfare.[35] In classical antiquity, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe was known as Scythia.[38] In late 8th century BCE, Ancient Greek traders brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria.[39]

In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns.[40] Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies,[41] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.[42] The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin, ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.[43]

The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe ca. 1500 years ago.[44] The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in western Russia,[45] and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finnic peoples.[40]

Kievan Rus'

Main articles: Rus' Khaganate; Kievan Rus'; and List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[46] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from the Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev, which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars.[40] Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate,[47] and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.[48][49]

In the 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.[40] The age of feudalism and decentralization had come, marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north, and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.[40] By the 12th century, Kiev lost its pre-eminence and Kievan Rus' had fragmented into different principalities.[50] Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev in 1169 and made Vladimir his base,[50] leading to political power being shifted to the north-east.[40]

Kievan Rus' finally fell to the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240, which resulted in the sacking of Kiev and other cities, as well as the death of a major part of the population.[40] The invaders, later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities and ruled the southern and central expanses of Russia for over two centuries.[51] Only the Novgorod Republic escaped Mongol occupation after it agreed to pay tribute.[40]

Galicia-Volhynia was eventually absorbed by Lithuania and Poland,[40] while the Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[40] Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240,[52] as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242.[53]

Grand Duchy of Moscow

Main article: Grand Duchy of Moscow

Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

The destruction of Kievan Rus' saw the eventual rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal.[54]: 11–20 While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century,[55] gradually becoming the leading force in the "gathering of the Russian lands".[56] When the seat of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved to Moscow in 1325, its influence increased.[57] Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.[58]

Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.[40] Moscow gradually absorbed its parent duchy and surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.[56]

Ivan III ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title "Grand Duke of all Rus'". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms.[56]

Tsardom of Russia

Main article: Tsardom of Russia