Российская психология в пространстве мировой науки

At the beginning of the 1940s, Rubinstein occupied all the key positions in Soviet psychology: he chaired the department of psychology of Moscow State University; he headed the Institute of psychology of MStU and the Department of psychology of the Institute of philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was also the deputy director of this institute, an academician of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR established in 1944, and a corresponding-member of the „big" Academy of Sciences of the USSR (the only one among psychologists at that time). His book «Basics of general psychology» was granted a Stalin Award in 1942.

It was Rubinstein who invited Leontiev to a professorial position at the Department of Psychology in MStU.

But soon Rubinstein and Leontiev disagreed on the nature of psychic phenomena and personality. Rubinstein used to say that personality structure can be understood as an explication of inner drives and needs: "The outer is the incarnation of the inner". Leontiev argued that personality structure should be considered as the internalization of outward activity: „The inner is the incarnation of the outer". According to Rubinstein, psychological research should be aimed inward, into the depths of the human psyche, seeking the roots and sources of outward activity. According to Leontiev, it should be focused on outward activity, which is the key to understanding psychic structure.

Rubinstein objected to considering outward activity as a factor initiating and determining psychic functions. He wrote that outward activity should be considered as an interaction, an interrelation, between the individual and the material world around him, so that it is impossible to declare that outward activity is the initiating factor for psychic development.

There were some serious theoretical discrepancies between the two scientists, but it was not until 1947 that these discrepancies were joined by personal enmity. As to the nature of this enmity, the opinion is repeatedly expressed in memoirs (Leontiev, et al, 2005) that the scientists were purposefully set against each other by ill-wishers so that this hostility could be used in the campaign against Rubinstein.

The late 1940s was the time of aggravation of the "cold war". In Soviet society a campaign of "struggle against cosmopolitism" was started. Rubinstein was doomed to become a victim as were many other outstanding scientists. As was usually done, a series of public "discussions" was organized, in which Communist party leaders of the faculty and students of the faculty participated. Leontiev and Rubinstein were the main opponents. As a result, in April 1950 Rubinstein was blamed a "cosmopolitan", anti-patriot, a follower of the "bourgeois" psychological theories. He was displaced from all his positions and the formal reason was the decision of the Academic Council.

The department of psychology was then headed by B. M. Teplov, and soon in 1951 Leontiev took this position and held it through his lifetime. In 1966, the Faculty of Psychology of MStU was opened on the basis of the department and was also headed by Leontiev, and this position was also held through his lifetime, until 1979.

S. L. Rubinstein had not been subjected to further repressions, and after a year he was authorized to return to work, but he never returned to Moscow State University.

Development of AT in Russia after World War II

In the 1950s after Stalin's death, new possibilities for the development of Psychology in Russia opened and for integration with international science. There were only three universities in Soviet Russia where psychological education was provided: Moscow, Leningrad and Yaroslavl, a smaller city not far from Moscow (eight Universities altogether in the USSR, among which were such prominent universities as Tartu, Tbilisi, etc.). The universities were the main foundations of psychological science because at that time there was hardly any practical psychology in Russia and very few centers where psychological research was carried out, mainly at psycho-neurological hospitals. The University faculties were more research centers than educational institutions; LStU recruited about 50 full-time students each year, YarStU was smaller, and MStU recruited over hundred students. All education was free, and entrance was on a competitive basis. There were fully equipped laboratories, where all the students obtained training in depth. These faculties were doing research for the government, which was very well financed. The faculties and the departments were headed by well-known researchers who maintained the investigations for which the faculties got their money from the state.