Pyotr Lesgaft

LESGAFT, Petr Frantsevich (1837–1909), a well-known anatomist and public figure. Born in St. Petersburg in a bourgeois Jewish family. He graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy in 1861; in the same year, he wrote his doctoral dissertation, «On the Termination of the Longitudinal Muscle Fibers of the Rectum» (St. Petersburg, 1865). In 1868, he was elected professor of physical anatomy at Kazan University, from where he was soon dismissed following conflicts with the administration, with a ban on teaching activities. Later, Lesgaft organized the first courses in physical education in St. Petersburg (1875), the so-called «Lesgaft Courses,» which were transformed in 1905 into the Higher Free School with a department for mass lectures at factories. Throughout this period, Lesgaft had conflicts with the authorities, as a result of which Lesgaft was exiled from St. Petersburg in 1901, and in 1907 the free school was closed, although it continued to exist illegally. In 1893, Lesgaft founded the Biological Laboratory in St. Petersburg, which was transformed in 1918 into the State Lesgaft Scientific Institute, currently consisting of physical, physiological, anatomical, zoological, microbiological, experimental-pathological, and other departments. Lesgaft was a striking personality and had a great influence on the youth of his time and their ideology. Like other representatives of the radical bourgeoisie, Lesgaft was an implacable enemy of the Tsarist autocracy, but at the same time did not understand the historical significance of the working movement. Lesgaft's positive ideas abound with the typical philistine-petty-bourgeois ideal of the «ideally normal personality,» which finds within itself all the «norms» for its physical, mental, and ethical development. The cult of a self-suffering and self-perfecting personality based on continuous activity and goal-directedness toward abstract truth—such is the essence of the «positive» program of Lesgaft's worldview. Therefore, Lesgaft viewed with such disgust Metchnikoff's theory of phagocytosis, Darwinism, the enthusiasm for vaccinations, and all theories that allowed for the development, progress, and victory of the organism without the active and conscious participation of the organism itself in these processes. For the same reason, Lesgaft based his scientific theories on the principle of Lamarckism, as well as the latter's interpretation of the problem of form and function. The metaphysical teleology of Lamarck, his reliance on the immanently inherent needs of organisms, which from themselves and through themselves under the influence of an external stimulus (external condition) alter the forms of the organism in a definite, predetermined direction, find a warm response in Lesgaft, who placed these principles at the basis of his theory of mental and physical education. Lesgaft wrote about 70 works on the anatomical structure of the human body, about 30 works on pedagogy and physical education, and a number of articles on heredity, idealism in medicine, totaling over 130 works. The principal works of Lesgaft published as separate editions: «Short Course in General Human Anatomy» (St. Petersburg, 1886); «The Relationship of Anatomy to Physical Education» (Moscow, 1888); «Manual of Physical Education for School-Age Children» (St. Petersburg, 1888); «School Types» (St. Petersburg, 1890); «Basic Manifestations of the Child» (St. Petersburg, 1890); «Fundamentals of Theoretical Anatomy» (Parts 1–2, St. Petersburg, 1892; Part 2, reprinted—Petrograd, 1922); «Human Anatomy» (St. Petersburg, 1895; latest edition—Moscow, 1927). Most of Lesgaft's works were repeatedly republished and translated into German and French.