The Vygotsky Circle (also known as Vygotsky–Luria CircleYasnitsky, A. & van der Veer, R. (Eds.) (2015)
Revisionist Revolution in Vygotsky Studies
London and New York: RoutledgeYasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., Aguilar, E. & García, L.N. (Eds.) (2016)

Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila Editores) was an influential informal network of psychologists, educationalists, medical specialists, physiologists, and neuroscientists, associated with Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) and

Alexander Luria Alexander Romanovich Luria (; , ; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychology, neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological ...

(1902–1977), active in 1920–1940s in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

). The work of the Circle contributed to the foundation of the integrative science of mind, brain, and behavior in their cultural and bio-social development also known under somewhat vague and imprecise name of

cultural-historical psychology Cultural-historical psychology is a branch of psychological theory and practice associated with Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria and their Circle, who initiated it in the mid-1920s–1930s.Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.) (20 ...

. The Vygotsky Circle, also referred to as "Vygotsky boom" incorporated the ideas of social and interpersonal relations, the practices of empirical scientific research, and "Stalinist science" based on the discursive practices of the Soviet science in the 1930s.Yasnitsky, A. (2009). Vygotsky Circle during the Decade of 1931-1941: Toward an Integrative Science of Mind, Brain, and Education. University of Toronto, 1-147. Retrieved from: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/19140/1/Yasnitsky_Anton_200911_PhD_thesis.pdf The group dispersed after the German invasion of the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, but the influence of its former members was quite notable in Soviet science of the postwar period, especially after Soviet psychology finally came to power in early 1960s. A problem with the theories of the Vygotsky Circle and connecting it to the present generation is the biases and misconceptions with the history of Soviet Psychology. The Circle included altogether around three dozen individuals at different periods, including Leonid Sakharov, Boris Varshava,

Nikolai Bernstein Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein (; 5 November 1896 – 16 January 1966) was a USSR, Soviet neurophysiology, neurophysiologist who has pioneered motion-tracking devices and formal processing of information obtained from the use of these devices. ...

, Solomon Gellerstein, Mark Lebedinsky, Leonid Zankov, Aleksei N. Leontiev, Alexander Zaporozhets, Daniil Elkonin, Lydia Bozhovich, Bluma Zeigarnik, Filipp Bassin, and many others. German-American psychologist

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin ( ; ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social psychology, social, industrial and organizational psychology, organizational, and applied psychology in the ...

and Russian film director and art theorist

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

are also mentioned as the "peripheral members" of the Circle.

History

The Vygotsky Circle was formed around 1924 in Moscow after Vygotsky moved there from the provincial town of Gomel in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. There, at the Institute of Psychology, he met graduate students Zankov, Solov'ev, Sakharov, and Varshava, as well as future collaborator Aleksander Luria. The group grew incrementally and operated in Moscow, Kharkiv, and Leningrad, all in the Soviet Union. From the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

on 1 Sept 1939 to the start of the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

on 22 June 1941, several centers of post-Vygotskian research were formed by Luria, Leontiev, Zankov, and Elkonin. The Circle ended, however, when the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany to start the Great Patriotic War. However, by the end of 1930s a new center was formed around 1939 under the leadership of Luria and Leontiev. In the post-war period this developed into the so-called "School of Vygotsky-Leontiev-Luria". Recent studies show that this "school" never existed as such. There are two problems that are related to the Vygotsky circle. First was the historical recording of the Soviet psychology with innumerable gaps in time and prejudice. Second was the almost exclusive focus on the person, Lev Vygotsky, himself to the extent that the scientific contributions of other notable characters have been considerably downplayed or forgotten.

Collaborators

The following is a list of people associated with the Vygotsky Circle: (Note that the list does not include some of Luria’s collaborators of 1920–1930s and those members of the Kharkov group of researchers who did not work directly with Vygotsky.)

References

Sources

Primary * Yasnitsky, A. (Ed.) (2019)
Questioning Vygotsky’s Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult
London and New York: Routledge
''book preview''
] * Yasnitsky, A. (2018)
Vygotsky: An Intellectual Biography
London, Routledge.
''book preview''
] * Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., Aguilar, E. & García, L.N. (Eds.) (2016)
Vygotski revisitado: una historia crítica de su contexto y legado
Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila Editores * Yasnitsky, A. & van der Veer, R. (Eds.) (2016)
Revisionist Revolution in Vygotsky Studies
Routledge, * Yasnitsky, A. (2011)
Vygotsky Circle as a Personal Network of Scholars: Restoring Connections Between People and Ideas
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, . * Yasnitsky, A. (2009)
Vygotsky Circle during the Decade of 1931-1941: Toward an Integrative Science of Mind, Brain, and Education''pdf''
(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto) * {{cite journal , last1 = Stetsenko , first1 = A. , authorlink = Anna Stetsenko , last2 = Arievitch , first2 = I. , year = 2004 , title = Vygotskian collaborative project of social transformation: History, politics, and practice in knowledge construction , url = http://twww.iscar.org/section/chacdoc/Stetsenko_Arievitch_Vygotsky_collaboration.pdf , journal = International Journal of Critical Psychology , volume = 12 , issue = 4, pages = 58–80 Secondary * Valsiner, J. (1988). Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union. Brighton: Harvester Press. * Blanck, G. (1990)
Vygotsky: The man and his cause
In Moll, L. (Ed.) Vygotsky and Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1991)
Understanding Vygotsky. A quest for synthesis
Oxford: Basil Blackwell. * Van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (Eds.) (1994)
The Vygotsky Reader
Oxford: Blackwell. * van der Veer, R. & Yasnitsky, A. (2011)
Vygotsky in English: What Still Needs to Be Done
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Scienc
html''pdf''
Neuropsychologists Literacy and society theorists Developmental psychology Educational psychology organizations Psychological schools History of psychology Medical and health organizations based in the Soviet Union Scientific organizations based in the Soviet Union

History

Collaborators

See also

References

Sources