Historiography of the post-Soviet period of Russian psychology: on the problem statement

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-1-51-64

Historiography of the post-Soviet period of Russian psychology: on the problem statement

Mariia A. Shchukina
Doctor of Psychology,
Professor of the Department of General and Counseling Psychology

Saint Petersburg State Institute of Psychology and Social Work,
13А, 12th Line, Vasilievsky Island, Saint Petersburg, 199178, Russia;
e-mail: corr5@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0834-3548
ResearcherID: AAG-8987-2019

The article draws attention to the problem of scarcity of historical and psychological research on the post-Soviet period of Russian psychology. Based on the analysis of the content of textbooks, dissertation research, and scientific publications, a conclusion is made about the insufficient coverage of facts, personalities, events, and factors of the formation of psychological science, practice, and education in the specified period. The paper notes the fragmented nature of the available data in publications devoted to individual personalities or subject areas and identifies the publications that can be regarded as laying groundwork for the development of the historiography of the period. It is shown that in recent decades the historiography of Russian psychology has mainly focused on the tasks of rediscovering and rethinking the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. Assumptions are made about the determinants of the historiographical gap of the period under consideration, including the following: the illusion of modernity in the last three decades; the historical and political incompleteness of the period; methodological and axiological unpreparedness of the psychological community for a holistic, open-minded, and multivariate discussion of the period. The objectives of the holistic panoramic historiography of the post-Soviet period are as follows: the identification of the main features of the context, factors of influence, events, microperiods, and leading personalities of the period; the identification of the main institutional changes in the organization of science, psychological education, and practice; systematization of the main advances and losses, innovations and contradictions. To solve the tasks set, in addition to traditional methods of documentary analysis being employed, it is proposed to actively use the methods of autobiography and interviewing living witnesses of the post-Soviet period. The difficulties of the historiography of the period include: the uncertainty of the temporal depth of the «beginning of history»; the need to substantiate the status of the event behind selected historical moments; the importance of choosing the proper historical, axiological, and methodological approaches to analysis and generalization; the recognition of the possibility of alternative versions of history in multiple interpretations of facts and personal assessments of contemporaries.

Keywords: historiography, history of psychology, post-Soviet psychology, the future of psychology.

References

Asmolov, A.G. (1999). [XXI century: psychology in the age of psychology]. Voprosy Psychologii. No. 1, pp. 3–12. 

Asmolov, A.G. (2000). [Psychology of the XXI century: prophecies and forecasts (materials of the «round table»)]. Voprosy Psychologii. No. 1, pp. 21–36.

Batyrshina, A.R. (2016). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: Flinta Publ., 224 p.

Brushlinskiy, A.V. (ed.) (1997). Psikhologicheskaya nauka v Rossii XX stoletiya: problemy teorii i istorii [Psychological science in Russia of the XX century: problems of theory and history]. Moscow: IP RAS Publ., 576 p.

Chiker, V.A. (2021). [Socio-psychological training: 40 years of the development of M. Forverg’s concept in Russia]. Sotsial’naya psikhologiya i obschestvo [Social Psychology and Society]. Vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 219–227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2021120314

Dafermos, M. (2014) Soviet psychology. T. Teo (ed.) Encyclopedia of critical psychology. New York: Springer Publ., pp. 1828–1835. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_297

Girenok, F.I. (2014). Metafizika pata (kosnoyazychie ustalogo cheloveka) [Metaphysics of pat (tongue-tied tired person)]. Moscow: Akademicheskiy Proekt Publ., 240 p.

Golovey, L.A. and Grischenko, P.A. (2021). [From the history of the psychological school of Leningrad/St. Petersburg University: Nina Albertovna Grishchenko]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Psikhologiya [Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology]. Vol. 11, iss. 3, pp. 284–293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu16.2021.306

González Rey, F.L. (2014). Advancing further the history of Soviet psychology: moving forward from dominant representations in Western and Soviet psychology. History of Psychology. Vol. 17(1), pp. 60–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035565

Il’in, G.L. (2022). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: Urait Publ., 389 p. 

Interv’yu o buduschem psikhologii [Interview about the future of psychology]. IP RAS. Available at: http://www.ipras.ru/cntnt/rus/media/on-layn-bibliote/intervu-o-budush.html (accessed 13.02.2020).

Jeshmaridian, S. (2012). Post-Soviet psychology. R.W. Rieber (ed.) Encyclopedia of the history of psychological theories. New York: Springer Publ., .pp. 802–809. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_300

Kandybovich, S.L., Lysakov, N.D. and Lysakova, E.N. (2021). [Space psychology in Russia: history of formation and development features]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 97–106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920015231-0

Klempe, S.H. and Smith, R. (eds.) (2016). Centrality of history for theory construction in psychology. Cham, CH: Springer Publ. 266 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42760-7

Klotter, C. (2021). [History of Psychology — History of psychology?]. Die Psychologie als Verteidigerin der Moderne [Psychology as a defender of modernity]. Wiesbaden, DE: Springer Publ., pp. 39–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33365-2_7

Koltsova, V.А., Oleinik, Yu.N., Gilgen, A.R., and Gilgen, C.К. (eds.) (1996). Post-soviet perspectives on Russian psychology. Westport, CT, London, UK: Greenwood Press, 334 p. 

Konstantinov, V.V. (2019). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. St. Petersburg: Piter Publ., 432 p.

Kovaleva, Yu.V. (2021). [History of developing the concept of «large social groups». Part 3. The begginings of modern stage in the development of social psychology (the 1990s – 2000s of XX century]. Institut psikhologii Rossiyskoy akademii nauk. Sotsial’naya i ekonomicheskaya psikhologiya [Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Sciences Social and Economic Psychology]. Vol. 6, no. 1(21), pp. 93–126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.38098/ipran.sep.2021.21.1.004

Kovaleva, Yu.V. (2021). [History of formation of the concept of «large social groups». Part 4. Modern stage of social psychology development (2000-present)]. Institut psikhologii Rossiyskoy akademii nauk. Sotsial’naya i ekonomicheskaya psikhologiya [Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Sciences Social and Economic Psychology]. Vol. 6, no. 3(23), pp. 6–48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.38098/ipran.sep_2021_23_3_01

Kudryavtsev, V.T. (2021). [F.T. Mikhailov: appeal as a cultural and psychological phenomenon]. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya [Cultural-Historical Psychology]. Vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 5–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170102

Levchenko, E.V. (2020). [On the problem of objectivity of modern historical and psychological research]. Anan’evskie chteniya – 2020. Psikhologiya sluzhebnoy deyatel’nosti: dostizheniya i perspektivy razvitiya (v chest’ 75-letiya Pobedy v Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyne 1941–1945 gg.) [Ananyev Readings – 2020. Psychology of Service Activity: Achievements and Prospects of Development (in honor of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945)]. St. Petersburg: Skifiya-Print Publ., pp. 155–156.

Martsinkovskaya, T.D. and Yurevich, A.V. (2011). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: Akademicheskiy Proekt Publ., Triksta Publ., 528 p.

Mazilov, V.A. (2017). [Psychology: a look into the future]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 97–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7868/s0205959217050087

Mescheryakov, B.G. (2021). [V.P. Zinchenko through the lens of his relations (based on V.P. Zinochenko’s autobiographical materials)]. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya [Cultural-Historical Psychology]. Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 162–169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170321

Mironenko, I.A. (2017). [From forecast to foresight of the future of Russian psychology]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal[Psychological Journal]. Vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 119–123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7868/s0205959217030102

Mos, L.P. (ed.) (2009). History of psychology in autobiography. New York: Springer Publ., 256 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-88499-8

Mülberger, A. (2016). Commentary 1: Functions and trends in the history of psychology. S.H. Klempe, R. Smith (eds.) Centrality of history for theory construction in Psychology. Cham, CH: Springer Publ., pp. 229–233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42760-7_12

Nalchajian, A., Jeshmaridian, S.S. and Takooshian, H. (1997). Post-Soviet psychology: What is ahead? Eye on Psi Chi. Vol. 1, iss. 3, pp. 22–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24839/0033-2569.eye1.3.22

Nemirovskaya, N.G. (2017). Rekonstruktsiya zhiznennogo puti i tvorcheskoy deyatel’nosti V.N. Druzhinina: avtoref. dis. … kand. psikhol. nauk [Reconstruction of the life path and creative activity of V.N. Druzhinin: Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation]. Moscow, 26 p.

Noskova, O.G. (2018). [The future of psychological science and practice from the perspective of the history of psychology and the study of science]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 122–125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920000077-0

Pavlov, A.V. (2011). [History as a splash. To the article of V.N. Sagatovsky]. Sotsium i vlast’ [Society and Power]. No. 2(30), pp. 108–114.

Pavlov, A.V. (2017). Filosofiya sovremennosti i mezhvremen’ya [Philosophy of modernity and inter-time]. Tyumen: Titul Publ., 280 p.

Rafikova, V.A. and Mironenko, I.A. (2021). [Actual tendencies of the methodology of the history of psychology in light of the philosophic and methodological problems of historiography]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Psikhologiya [Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology]. Vol. 11, iss. 4, pp. 312–325. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu16.2021.402

Ryzhov, B.N. (2004). Istoriya psikhologicheskoy mysli. Puti i zakonomernosti [The history of psychological thought. Ways and patterns]. Moscow: Voenizdat Publ., 240 p.

Safonov, A.A. and Safonova, M.A. (2022). Sovremennaya istoriya [Modern history]. Moscow: Urait Publ., 245 p. 

Salvatore, S. (2016). Commentary 2: The past and the history of psychology. S.H. Klempe, R. Smith (eds.) Centrality of history for theory construction in Psychology. Cham, CH: Springer Publ., pp. 235–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42760-7_13

Sarychev, S.V. and Logvinov, I.N. (2022). Istoriya psikhologii: v 2 ch. Chast’ 2 [The history of psychology: in 2 parts]. Moscow: Urait Publ., pt. 2, 211 p. 

Scalambrino, F. (2018). Conclusion: post-modern turning away from method. Philosophical principles of the history and systems of psychology. Cham, CH: Palgrave Macmillan Publ., pp. 195–213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74733-0_6

Schukina, M.A. (2018). [B.G. Ananyev’s forecasts and modern psychology trends]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Psikhologiya i pedagogika [Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology and Education]. Vol. 8, iss. 3, pp. 258–270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu16.2018.304

Semenov, I.N. (2018). [Russian psychology hundred-year development, sociocultural reflection: to the centenary of soviet psychology (1918–2018)]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 14: Psikhologiya [Moscow University Psychology Bulletin]. No. 4, pp. 4–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11621/vsp.2018.04.04

Semenov, I.N. (2018). [Scientific reflection on the age-of development of Russian psychological science (to the 100th anniversary of Soviet psychology)]. Mir psikhologii [The World of Psychology]. No. 4(96), pp. 279–300.

Semenov, I.N. (2019). [The pioneering role of E.A. Budilova in the implementation of S.L. Rubinstein’s research programs and methodological problems of periodization of Russian (pre-revolutionary/Soviet/post-Soviet) psychology]. Istoricheskaya preemstvennost’ v otechestvennoy psikhologii, pod red. A.L. Zhuravleva, E.V. Kharitonova, E.N. Kholondovich [A.L. Zhuravlev, E.V. Kharitonov, E.N. Kholondovich (eds.) Historical continuity in Russian psychology]. Moscow: IP RAS Publ., pp. 47–67. 

Shmelev, A.G. (2015). [25 years of laboratory «humanitarian technologies» (chronological memories)]. PEM: Psychology. Educology. Medicine. No. 3–4, pp. 219–239. 

Shvatskiy, A.Yu. (2019). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: Flinta Publ., 322 p.

Sokolov, A.B. (2022). Istoriya istoricheskoy nauki. Istoriografiya Novoy i Noveyshey istorii [History of historical science. Historiography of Modern and Contemporary History]. Moscow: Urait Publ., 309 p. 

Stepin, V.S., Gorokhov, V.G. and Rozov, M.A. (1996). Filosofiya nauki i tekhniki [Philosophy of science and technology]. Moscow: Gardariki Publ., 400 p.

Sternberg, R.J. and Grigorenko, E.L. (1999). Psst: There’s more to Soviet and post-Soviet psychology than Pavlov and Vygotsky. The American Journal of Psychology. Vol. 112, no. 1, pp. 147–153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1423628

Vassilieva, J. (2010). Russian psychology at the turn of the 21st century and post-Soviet reforms in the humanities disciplines. History of Psychology. Vol. 13(2), pp. 138–159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019270

Vekilova, S.A. and Bezgodova, S.A. (2022). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: Urait Publ., 324 p. 

Velichkovskiy, B.M. and Solov’ev, V.D. (2021). [Evolution in the status of cognitive research over 40 years: from the initial ban to new nomenclatury of sciences]. Voprosy Psychologii. No. 4, pp. 50–54. 

Volovikova, M.I. (2021). [Laboratory of personality psychology IP RAS in the 1990s and the fate of academic science]. Institut psikhologii Rossiyskoy akademii nauk. Sotsial’naya i ekonomicheskaya psikhologiya [Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Sciences. Social and Economic Psychology]. Vol. 6, no. 2(22), pp. 227–243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.38098/ipran.sep_2021_22_2_09

Yakunin, V.A. (2001). Istoriya psikhologii [History of psychology]. Moscow: V.A. Mikhailov Publ., 378 p.

Zhdan, A.N. (2007). Istoriya psikhologii: Ot Antichnosti do nashikh dney [History of psychology: From Antiquity to the present day]. Moscow: Akademicheskiy Proekt Publ., 576 p.

Zhdan, A.N. (2012). [On the results of the development of Russian psychology in the XX century]. Razvitie psikhologii v sisteme kompleksnogo chelovekoznaniya. Ch. 1, pod red. A.L. Zhuravleva, V.A. Kol’tsovoy [A.L. Zhuravlev, V.A. Koltsova (eds.) The development of psychology in the system of complex human knowledge. Pt. 1]. Moscow: IP RAS Publ., pp. 175–185. 

Zhuravlev, A.L. and Belopol’skiy, V.I. (eds.) (2014). Vydayuschiesya uchenye Instituta psikhologii RAN: Biograficheskie ocherki [Outstanding scientists of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Biographical essays]. Moscow: IP RAS Publ., 419 p.

Zhuravlev, A.L. and Mironenko, I.A. (2020). [Post-soviet period in scientific creativity of B.D. Parygin (the 90th anniversary)]. Institut psikhologii Rossiyskoy akademii nauk. Sotsial’naya i ekonomicheskaya psikhologiya [Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Sciences Social and Economic Psychology]. Vol. 5, no. 2(18), pp. 443–460. DOI: https://doi.org/10.38098/ipran.sep.2020.18.2.016

Zhuravlev, A.L., Nestik, T.A. and Yurevich, A.V. (2016). [Forecast of psychological science and practice development by 2030]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 45–64.

 

Received: 01.02.2022. Accepted: 15.02.2022

 

For citation:

Shchukina M.A. [Historiography of the post-Soviet period of Russian psychology: on the problem statement]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology], 2022, issue 1, pp. 51–64 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-1-51-64