Vygotsky Circle during the Decade of 1931-1941: Toward an Integrative Science of Mind, Brain, and Education

Abstract

This dissertation presents a study of the scientific practices of the circle of Vygotsky’s closest collaborators and students during the decade of the 1930s-and including the early 1940s (until Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941). The notion of Vygotsky Circle is introduced in this work and is explicitly distinguished from a traditional—yet frequently criticised—notion of “the school of Vygotsky-Leontiev-Luria”. The scientific practices of the Vygotsky Circle are discussed here as the unity of a) social and interpersonal relations, b) the practices of empirical scientific research, and c) discursive practices of the Soviet science—more specifically, the “Stalinist Science” of the 1930s. Thus, this study analyzes the social and interpersonal relations between the members of the Vygotsky Circle and the evolution of this circle in the social context of Soviet science during the decade of 1930s; various practices of empirical scientific research conducted by the members of the Vygotsky Circle were also overviewed. Finally, discursive practices of the Soviet scientific “doublespeak” were discussed and illustrated with several examples borrowed from publications of the time.