Vygotsky+L.S.

**Lev Semenovich Vygotsky** (1896-1934), the father of Russian psychology. Vygotsky was a genius and an extremely humble person at the same time. His ideas bring psychology, philosophy, and aesthetics into a new way to view the world. His focus is one of unity (not identity) and synthesis, without the common pitfalls of reductionism. It is interesting that in Russia, psychology is wholistic by nature, maintaining a dynamic approach to the whole personality of each individual. Vygotskian thought is understood as height psychology, sometimes being compared with Freudian depth psychology, which views most problems within the subconscious level. There are many different interpretations of Vygotsky within Russia, and many directions internationally, some of which have different names. Vygotsky's approach is known as cultural-historical theory. It is interesting that internationally, Vygotsky's ideas have been used in education, perhaps more than in traditional psychology. One of Vygotsky's closest and most faithful colleagues was A. R. Luria (1902-1977), a world-renowned neuropsychologist, who was also a physician. Luria continued to develop Vygotsky's theories of language, and he extended many other areas of thought. A. N. Leontiev (1903-1979) was another close collaborator with Vygotsky. Leontiev is famous for his approach to activity theory, and he was very influential in Russian psychology for over 50 years. There is controversy as to whether Leontiev broke off with Vygotsky's idea to establish his own direction. The famous letter that Leontiev wrote to Vygotsky on February 5, 1932 will be included in the texts you can read to form your own opinion. It should be remembered that Vygotsky's works were banned in Russia until 1956, and even then few books could be found to read. It was not until the early 1980s that the Collected Works of Vygotsky were actually published in Russian, and copies of these works were difficult to obtain. Clearly, the situation has changed, and Vygotsky is known all over the world today within various disciplines. His ideas were written well ahead of his time, and they are relevant to the problems and questions we are facing today.