Table Of ContentREVISIONIST REVOLUTION IN
VYGOTSKY STUDIES
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REVISIONIST
REVOLUTION IN
VYGOTSKY STUDIES
Edited by Anton Yasnitsky and
Ren é van der Veer
First published 2016
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Anton Yasnitsky and Ren é van der Veer
The right of Anton Yasnitsky and Ren é van der Veer to be identifi ed as the author
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Yasnitsky, Anton, 1972–
Revisionist revolution in Vygotsky studies / Anton Yasnitsky and René van der Veer.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Vygotskii, L. S. (Lev Semenovich), 1896–1934. 2. Psychologists–Soviet Union.
I. Veer, Ren? van der, 1952– II. Title.
BF109.V95Y37 2015
150.92–dc23 2015003746
ISBN: 978-1-138-88730-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-92969-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71424-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
Gott ist tot.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them …
Exodus 20:4–5
Science is rooted in the will to truth. With the will to truth it stands or falls.
Lower the standard even slightly and science becomes diseased at the core.
Not only science, but man. The will to truth, pure and unadulterated, is among
the essential conditions of his existence; if the standard is compromised he eas-
ily becomes a kind of tragic caricature of himself.
Max Wertheimer
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CONTENTS
Foreword: how to reconstruct deconstructions xii
Acknowledgements x vii
PART I
Contexts and people 1
1 The archetype of Soviet psychology: from the Stalinism of
the 1930s to the “Stalinist science” of our time 3
Anton Yasnitsky
Psychoneurological disciplines in the Soviet Union in the 1920s 4
Soviet psychology as a “Stalinist science” from the 1930s to our time 7
Archetype of contemporary Russian psychology (1990s–2010s):
a sketch for a portrait 1 5
(1) Centralization and control 1 6
(2) Cliquism and patronage 1 8
(3) Ritualism 1 9
(4) Gap between theory and practice 2 1
(5) Intellectual and linguistic isolationism 2 2
(6) Cultism and hagiographies 2 3
Revisionist Vygotskian narrative rewritten against the background of
the history of “Stalinist science” 25
viii Contents
2 Unity in diversity: the Vygotsky–Luria circle as an informal
personal network of scholars 2 7
Anton Yasnitsky
The “school of V ygotsky–Leontiev–Luria” narrative 2 7
The Vygotsky–Luria circle as informal personal network 2 9
Phase one (1924–1927): prehistory of the Vygotsky–Luria circle 3 2
Phase two (1927–1931): Vygotsky–Luria circle formation 3 5
Phase three (1931–1934): Vygotsky–Luria circle and the beginning
of specialization and separation (Moscow–Kharkov–Leningrad) 3 9
Phase four (1934–1936): the circles of V ygotskians and
disintegration of the original research program 4 1
Phase fi ve (1936–1941): the beginning of the
“Vygotsky–Leontiev–Luria school” 4 4
3 Deconstructing Vygotsky’s victimization narrative:
a re-examination of the “Stalinist suppression” of
Vygotskian theory 5 0
Jennifer Fraser and Anton Yasnitsky
Deconstructing the narrative of the “Vygotsky ban” 5 1
Why the narrative of the “Vygotsky ban” is problematic 5 6
Operationalizing “offi cial” bans: the mechanics of Soviet censorship 5 8
Vygotsky’s declining publication rate: multiple meanings? 6 0
Pedology as a possible culprit: the 1936 decree 6 3
Vygotsky’s posthumous legacy and the many meanings of the ban 6 5
PART II
Texts and legacy 7 1
4 Vygotsky the published: who wrote Vygotsky and what
Vygotsky actually wrote 7 3
Ren é van der Veer and Anton Yasnitsky
English-language publication record 7 5
Vygotsky’s published psychological works of 1924–1936: general
overview 7 6
The case of Thinking and speech (1934) 7 9
Vygotsky’s self-assessment 8 0
Vygotsky’s autobiographic offi cial documents and publications 8 2
Vygotsky’s private documents and correspondence 8 3
“The lost works” 8 9
Conclusion: Vygotsky’s foundational works 9 1
Contents ix
5 Vygotsky the unpublished: an overview of the personal
archive (1912–1934) 9 4
Ekaterina Zavershneva
The main reasons to study Vygotsky’s personal archive 9 4
General characteristics of the personal notes 9 6
Outside appearance and degree of preservation 9 6
Special characteristics of the work with Vygotsky’s notes 9 6
The most important archival documents: series of notes, exercise
books and notebooks, separate notes, letters 9 7
Notes from the years 1912–1930 9 8
Exercise books and notebooks 9 8
Various notes 1 04
Letters 1 06
Notes from 1930 to 1934 1 07
Series of documents 1 09
The notebooks 1 18
Scattered notes 1 21
Letters 1 25
Vygotsky’s last note 1 25
6 “The way to freedom”: Vygotsky in 1932 1 27
Ekaterina Zavershneva
The plan for the unwritten book On the question of the study
of consciousness 1 28
Remarks about the psychophysical problem 1 35
Propositions for the talks by Vygotsky’s collaborators 1 37
PART III
Holism and transnationalism 1 41
7 Translating Vygotsky: some problems of transnational
Vygotskian science 1 43
Ren é van der Veer and Anton Yasnitsky
A transnational history of Vygotsky in context 1 44
The French connection 1 46
Anglo-Saxon ties: a Cold War story 1 48
The transnational Vygotskian network in action 1 51
Typology of V ygotsky’s texts and sources of error 160
Types of error 1 61
Inaccuracies 1 62
