ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three main sources: personal observations; a combination of official documents outlining the Golden Key project and personal written communication from Kravtsova and Kravtsov; and conversations with them and Elena Lampert Schepel, a Russian Vygotskian scholar and educational practitioner now living in the United States. Elena Kravtsova and Gennady Kravtsov are among many educators, social scientists, and parents in Russia who began work to transform education and schooling even before the breakup of the Soviet Union. The transition to a pedagogy whose aim is the holistic development of the child is a task which requires the restructuring of the whole life of adults and children. It is important to remember that Vygotsky's work was not at all well known in his home country; consequently, the educational system in Russia and the other independent states of the former Soviet Union was virtually unaffected by his views of learning and instruction and development.
