ABSTRACT
Soviet psychology should be read and understood in the light of the political and intellectual life of its time. Its development may be conveniently considered in three periods: 1917 to 1936; 1936 to 1955; and 1955 to date. Vygotskii had set himself the awesome task of writing a Kapital of individual human development. He died without having achieved this, but his 'socio-historical theory' (sometimes called the 'cultural-historical' or 'instrumental-historical' theory) has proved the foundation of present-day Soviet developmental psychology: materialist, dialectical and consistent with Marx's socio-historical principle that human mental characteristics have been formed in the process of historical and social development. It is materialist in that it founds mental processes firmly in the activity of the brain, rejecting the dualistic separation of psychological from physiological processes. Soviet psychological theory provides a powerful model for arguing the social construction of male-female personality and intellectual differences, while Soviet educational practice runs on an implicit theory of their innate determination.
