Natalia Bekhtereva

Who was Natalia Bekhtereva?

Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva was a Russian neuroscientist and psychologist who developed neurophysiological approaches to psychology, such as measuring the impulse activity of human neurons. Member of a documentary film "The Call of the Abyss" and "Storm of consciousness", which aroused wide public resonance.

Vladimir Bekhterev's granddaughter, she was orphaned after her father's execution during the Great Purge of 1938. She survived the Siege of Leningrad and rose to become Director of the Soviet Institute for Experimental Medicine, which she administrated between 1970 and 1990. She was the founder of the Institute for Human Brain, operating under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, of which she was elected a member in 1981.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1984 and the USSR State Prize for 1985. In 1972 she was also awarded the Wiener Medal in Cybernetics by the American Society for Cybernetics.