Российская психология в пространстве мировой науки

Since 1917, culture and science in Soviet Russia had been developing under hard ideological control. Under the guidance of the Communist Party, the country was to accomplish a grand social experiment. It was bound to prove the ideas of Marxist philosophy: the unity of all aspects of social development, comprising economy and culture, and a definite direction, a line of advance for that development, which was aimed at Communism – a comprehensive whole of prosperous economy and social harmony.

Marxist philosophy was based on principles of materialism and dialectics. Culture and science as part of it in Soviet Russia had to be Marxist, and psychological theories were severely inspected to conform to that. Idealism and metaphysics were a deadly charge.

All open theoretical discussions were authorized and officially approved, and led to "organizing" (so it was called) consequences, infringing the very possibility of a professional career for the discussant who was supposed to have lost the debate. An open unauthorized polemics could well lead to the same "consequences" for both.

There was and is much rumor about the ruptures of Leontiev and Vygotsky, and of Leontiev and Rubinstein, but little was stated openly. That is why in order to learn about the difference of opinions of the founders of Soviet psychology today, explorers turn to analysis of archives and memoirs. As a result there are many controversies in the works of contemporary historians and huge impact of personal attitude, a good example being a brilliant biography of A. N. Leontiev written by his son A. A. Leontiev and grandson D. A. Leontiev (Leontiev et. al., 2005).

As for the discrepancy of views and the rupture between Vygotsky and Leontiev, there are some facts we can be sure of, and wide space for interpretations and hypotheses. The facts are that in 1924 Vygotsky came to Moscow invited by A. R. Luria (1902–1977), and began working at the Psychological Institute. Luria, though a very young man, was already a well-known scientist at that time, and Leontiev worked as his assistant. When Vygotsky appeared in the Institute he was immediately recognized as a creative leader for the trio. Leontiev later acknowledged that he had been "empty" and the ideas of Vygotsky "filled the vacuum", thus determining his professional life line (Leontiev et al, 2005). Their collaborative work was in good progress until the beginning of 1930s.

The 1920s in Russia were a time of a wonderful splash of creative activity in psychological science. Great expectations of the Soviet government were laid on psychological practice. Two great tasks were put forward, both concerning the ideology as well as the economic life of the country: to increase labor productivity[19] and to develop a new human type – that of "proletarian culture". As a result, psychotechnics and pedology were rapidly developing. At the beginning of 1920s, one by one, psychological departments and laboratories were being opened throughout the country. Applied psychology was also rapidly developing. It was the time when the world-renowned Vygotsky cultural-historical theory was born.

In the 1930s the situation in the country changed. Repressions and political persecutions of psychologists followed as a result of their failure to accomplish both unrealistic tasks set by the Soviet government. These repressions "interrupted" the development of applied and practical psychology in Soviet Russia for many decades. Vygotsky, who was closely connected with practical work, was blamed for ideological sabotage. Cultural-Historical theory was labeled "a pseudoscientific, reactionary, anti-marxist and hostile theory" (Leontiev et al, 2005; Luria, 1994). Henceforth, works by Vygotsky were not published in the USSR until 1956, when his "Intellectual processes and speech" was re-published. Moreover, books by Vygotsky were destroyed in the libraries in 1936. And only in 1982, the edition of six volumes of works by Vygotsky, mainly manuscripts from archives unpublished before, was started. His early death in 1934 from tuberculosis, which he refused to treat, is often interpreted as a sort of a suicide[20] (Leontiev et al., 2005).

At the beginning of the 1930s the normal pace of collaborative work of Vygotsky – Luria – Leontiev at the Psychological Institute in Moscow ceased. In 1931 the Psychological Institute and the department of Psychology in MGU were closed, and teaching of psychology was stopped. It turned out to be necessary to look for another place to work. A good chance was an invitation to Charkhov, a city in the Ukrainian republic of the USSR. The three scientists took the invitation but only Leontiev moved to Kharkhov totally, and it is there that "Leontiev's" school began (the period of the so called "Kharkov school"). Luria was continuously travelling between Moscow and Kharkhov Vygotsky's presence in Kharkov was rather scarce; he spent more time in Moscow.