Lev Vygotsky

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Lore & Background

Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky (his patronymic was later changed to Semyonovich and his surname to Vygotsky for unclear reasons) was born on November 17, 1896, in Orsha, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus), into a non-religious middle-class Jewish family. He was raised in Gomel, home-schooled until 1911, then obtained a formal degree with distinction in a private Jewish gymnasium. In 1913, Vygotsky was admitted to Moscow University by ballot through a 'Jewish Lottery' due to a three percent Jewish student quota. At his parents' insistence, he applied to medical school but transferred to law school during the first semester, while also attending lectures at Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University. In January 1924, Vygotsky took part in the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd, where he met Alexander Luria. With Luria's help, he received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow under Konstantin Kornilov. He moved to Moscow with his new wife, Roza Smekhova, and began work as a 'staff scientist, second class' and as a secondary school teacher. By the end of 1925, he completed his dissertation 'The Psychology of Art' (not published until the 1960s) and the book 'Pedagogical Psychology.' In summer 1925, he made his only trip abroad to a London congress on the education of the deaf. Upon returning, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis and remained an invalid and out of work until the end of 1926. From 1926 to 1930, Vygotsky worked on a research program investigating the development of higher psychological functions, gathering collaborators including Alexander Luria, Boris Varshava, Alexei Leontiev, and Leonid Zankov. He guided research from instrumental, developmental, and culture-historical perspectives. He died of a relapse of tuberculosis on June 11, 1934, at age 37, in Moscow. One of his last notebook entries read: 'This is the final thing I have done in psychology – and I will like Moses, die at the summit, having glimpsed the promised land but without setting foot on it. Farewell, dear creations. The rest is silence.' His ashes were buried in section 3 of Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

Reader's Guide

Vygotsky's work was banned in the Soviet Union after his early death until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, with a first collection of major texts published in 1956. A 2002 survey ranked him as the 83rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. His major ideas include the social origin of mind, which holds that mental abilities are shaped by language and tools through social interaction; mediation as the key to development, leading to the use of cultural tools and interiorization; the zone of proximal development, referring to the gap between a child's current level and what they can achieve with tools from others; and the significance of play as a crucial aspect of development, the best sandbox for building mediation. After his release from the hospital, Vygotsky worked on a manuscript about the crisis in psychology, never finished, and published in 1982 with editorial interventions. In it, he argued for a general psychology uniting naturalist and Marxist approaches, while harshly criticizing colleagues who sought shortcuts by quoting Marx rather than finding a methodology in accordance with the Marxian spirit. His legacy endures in educational theory, developmental psychology, and cultural-historical activity theory.

Did You Know?

• Vygotsky's patronymic was originally Simkhovich, later changed to Semyonovich, and his surname from Vygodsky to Vygotsky for unclear reasons.
• He was admitted to Moscow University through a 'Jewish Lottery' due to a three percent Jewish student quota.
• His only trip abroad was to a London congress on the education of the deaf in summer 1925.
• He died of a relapse of tuberculosis on June 11, 1934, at age 37, and his ashes are buried in section 3 of Novodevichy Cemetery.
• His dissertation 'The Psychology of Art' was completed in 1925 but not published until the 1960s.