Luria in Kisegach. Part 1

Abstract

The present article is about A. R. Luria’s work and life in Kisegach. It is based on his autobiographical book (Luria A. R., 1982; Cole, Levitin, & Luria, 2006 [in Eng.]); on the memories of his daughter, Elena Luria, in her book about her father (Luria E. A., 1994); and on a unique document in the Luria family archive: “The Work Diary. Kisegach, 1942–1943”. The general notebook under this name served him for daily records about the examinations of patients and comments on them. This article publishes records entered in the Diary from 19th January until 13th March, 1942.In the introduction to the publication of “The Work Diary” short biographical material is presented. It gives a description of how A. R. Luria met the beginning of the war, what tasks to create a rehabilitation hospital were assigned to him, how they were carried out. The article presents the memoirs of Luria’s daughter Elena (Lena) about the life of their family in Kisegach. It includes the memoirs of B. V. Zeigarnik and S. Ya. Rubinstein on the organization by Luria of labor workshops for the rehabilitation of movements of hand and arms in wounded soldiers. The text is provided with numerous illustrations.The main part consists of Luria’s daily records of patient examinations. Usually he studied from one to four patients. They were patients with aphasia syndromes, with apraxia, agnosia or concussion symptoms. Sometimes Luria gave commentaries to the observed symptoms. He noted the characteristic details of the symptoms and hypothesized the mechanisms of their occurrence. In general, the Work Diary shows the intense practical and theoretical work of the scientist while working in Kisegach.