Psychology In The Soviet Union Papers

This monograph describes psychology in changing political environments in Tsarist Russia in the mid of 19th century, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation until the year 2000. Russia and the Soviet Union are of special interest, because of the multitude of political changes. There were not only the so-called October-Revolution in 1917, which initiated the Soviet rule, and the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1990. But there were also a multitude of changes in Soviet times. In the beginning of the Soviet rule there were many new developments in sciences, which also affected psychology. Since Stalin assumed power, there were many developments and ideological restrictions as well.

The study of psychology for the uses of the state, for industrial/labor purposes, for dealing with individual and ethnic tensions has a long history in Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian psychologists and scholars of the discipline from outside Russia have had the opportunity to reexamine the directions the discipline took as well as the directions likely to result from the new academic and political environments. This volume brings together many of the leading figures in contemporary Russian psychology, who show how the discipline got to where it is and examine what may result in the future. The volume begins with essays examining historical background; next the writers look at the period from 1985-1994 and its impact on research opportunities. This discussion is followed by a review of the major theoretical viewpoints and issues in contemporary Russian psychology. By bringing together many of the leading figures in Russian psychology, readers and researchers in psychology have a unique insight into the state of the discipline and its likely future directions.

First Published in 2017. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

This is a collection of papers created from a visit by teachers and educationalists to the U.S.S.R in April 1955 by invitation of Academy of Educational Sciences of the R.S.F.S.R. The aim of this volume is to familiarize English readers with the general direction of Soviet psychology, but designed to be of interest to teachers as well as psychologists.