ABSTRACT
In this chapter we see Vygotsky in 1919 (i.e. two years after the Bolshevik Socialist Revolution in Russia and the year when the Bolsheviks overtook the town of Gomel during the Civil War). His prophetic stance is notably transformed: it is not limited to the fate of the nation and he is no longer critical of socialism. In 1919–1923 Vygodskii is a Bolshevik activist in Gomel and the official representative of the new power in town, employed by a number of provincial state organizations in the spheres of entertainment, library services and publishing, museum, and in educational establishments. During this period Vygodskii – not a party member, yet a Bolshevik sympathiser and activist – developed his second persona, that of “Bolshevik”, which he would keep until the last days of his life. The Jewish prophetism of his youth transforms into the Bolshevik belief in the new society of the Communist future. Also during this period, possibly as an act of self-creation as a “new man”, Lev Simkhovich Vygodskii changes his original name into Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, which would remain with him until his death, and even after that.
