ABSTRACT
In 1932, Vygotsky delivered a series of lectures in Leningrad and in 1934 his classic monograph Thinking and Speech was first published in Russian. In addition to differences in subject matter and style, these two works are separated by an important conceptual shift in Vygotsky’s thinking which occurred in 1932 and 1933. Indeed, since several chapters of Thinking and Speech were written prior to 1933, the papers which constitute that volume also span this conceptual shift in the development of Vygotsky’s thought. As a consequence, if we are to understand these works, their relationship to one another, or their significance as part of the broader Vygotskian corpus, it is critical to consider the major changes that emerged in Vygotsky’s thinking as his perspectives developed between 1924 and 1934.1
Three major phases in the development of Vygotsky’s thought can be identified by focusing on the constructs that served as his analytic units and explanatory principles. The first two phases have been discussed by several Soviet scholars (Bozhovich 1977; Elkonin 1984; Leont’ev 1982a; Radzikhovskii 1979). The third phase has not, perhaps in part because many of the papers representing that period are being published for the first time as part of the collected works.
