Vygotsky Circle

The Vygotsky Circle was an influential informal network of psychologists, educationalists, medical specialists, physiologists, and neuroscientists, associated with Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) and Alexander Luria (1902–1977), active in 1920-early 1940s in the Soviet Union (Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov). 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.

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. 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, 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 and Russian film director and art theorist Sergei Eisenstein are also mentioned as the "peripheral members" of the Circle.

History of the Circle

The Vygotsky Circle was formed around 1924 in Moscow after Vygotsky moved there from the provincial town of Gomel in Belarus. 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, Kharkov, and Leningrad (all in the Soviet Union). The circle ended, however, in the early 1940s when the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany during the Great Patriotic War in 1941. Since then and until the beginning of World War II several centers of post-Vygotskian research were formed by Luria, Leontiev, Zankov, and Elkonin. However, as a result of growing control over science and following a period of political persecutions of Stalin's Great Terror a new center was formed around 1939 under the leadership of Luria and Leontiev. In the after-war period this developed into the so-called the "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 forgotten.

Vygotsky Circle collaborators

Note: This list does not include some of Luria’s collaborators of 1920-30s and those members of the Kharkov group of researchers who did not work directly with Vygotsky;

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Similar academic unions

• Prague Linguistic Circle
• Moscow Linguistic Circle
• Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen
• Linguistic Circle of New York
• Bakhtin Circle
• Jean Piaget Circle
• Kurt Lewin

See also

• Kharkov School of Psychology
• Group dynamics
• Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology
• Thesis circle

Sources

Primary

• Stetsenko, A. & Arievitch, I. (2004). Vygotskian collaborative project of social transformation: History, politics, and practice in knowledge construction. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 12(4), 58–80
• 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)
• Yasnitsky, A. (2011). Vygotsky Circle as a Personal Network of Scholars: Restoring Connections Between People and Ideas (idem). Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, doi:10.1007/s12124-011-9168-5 pdf

Secondary

• Anton Yasnitsky (2011) Vygotsky Circle as a Personal Network of Scholars: Restoring Connections Between People and Ideas [1]
• 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 Science html, pdf