Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Выготский, [vɨˈɡotskʲɪj]; Belarusian: Леў Сямёнавіч Выгоцкі; November 17 [O.S.

November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory.

His major ideas include: Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky (his patronymic was later changed to Semyonovich and his surname to Vygotsky for unclear reasons)[2][3] was born on November 17, 1896,[4] in the town of Orsha in Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Belarus) into a non-religious middle-class family of Russian Jewish extraction.

[6][7] Vygotsky was raised in the city of Gomel,[8] where he was home-schooled until 1911 and then obtained a formal degree with distinction in a private Jewish gymnasium, which allowed him entrance to a university.

He had an interest in the humanities and social sciences, but at the insistence of his parents he applied to the medical school at Moscow University.

After the Congress, Vygotsky met with Alexander Luria and with his help received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow which was under the direction of Konstantin Kornilov.

The manuscript was published later with notable editorial interventions and distortions in 1982 and was presented by the editors as one of the most important of Vygotsky's works.

However, he also harshly criticized those of his colleagues who attempted to build a "Marxist Psychology" as an alternative to the naturalist and philosophical schools.

He argued that if one wanted to build a truly Marxist Psychology, there were no shortcuts to be found by merely looking for applicable quotes in the writings of Marx.

During this period he gathered a group of collaborators including Alexander Luria, Boris Varshava, Alexei Leontiev, Leonid Zankov, and several others.

One of Vygotsky's last private notebook entries was: 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.

[23]1922-24 - worked in the psychological laboratory which he organized in Gomel Pedagogical College; January 1924 - meeting Luria at the II Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd, moving from Gomel to Moscow, enrolling in graduate school and taking position at the State Institute of Experimental Psychology in Moscow; July 1924 - the beginning of work as the head of the sub-department of the education of physically and intellectually disabled children in the department of social and legal protection of minors (SPON); November 1924 - during II Congress of the Social and Legal Protection of Minors in Moscow, a turn of Soviet defectology to social education was officially announced and collection of articles and materials edited by Vygotsky "Issues of the upbringing of blind, deaf and mentally retarded children" was published; May 9, 1925 - the birth of the first child: the daughter Gita Summer of 1925 - the only trip abroad: went to London for a defectology conference; on the way passed through Germany, where he met with German psychologists November 5, 1925 - Vygotsky, in absence (due to illness), was awarded the title of senior researcher, equivalent to the modern degree of candidate of sciences for defense of the dissertation "Psychology of Art".

The contract for the publication of The Psychology of Art was signed on November 9, 1925, but the text was published only in 1965; November 21, 1925 to May 22, 1926 - hospitalization in the Zakharyino sanatorium-type hospital due to tuberculosis; upon discharge qualified as a disabled person until the end of the year; 1926 - Vygotsky's first book, Pedagogical Psychology, was published; writes notes and essays that would be published years later under the title "The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis"; 1927 - resumes work at the RANION Institute of Experimental Psychology and in a number of other institutions in Moscow and Leningrad; September 17, 1927 - approved as a professor by the scientific and pedagogical section of the State Academic Council (SUS); December 19, 1927 - appointed as the head of the Medical and Pedagogical Station of the Glavsotsvos of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, remained in this position until October 1928 (dismissed on his own will); December 28, 1927 to January 4, 1928 - First All-Russian Pedological Congress, Moscow: Vygotsky works as co-editor of the section on difficult childhood, and also presents two reports: "The development of a difficult child and its study" and "Instrumental method in pedology"; these two articles together with Zankov's report "Principles for the construction of complex programs of an auxiliary school from a pedological point of view" and Luria "On the methodology of instrumental-psychological research" become the first public presentation of "Instrumental Psychology" as a research method associated with the names of Vygotsky and Luria; 1928 - Vygotsky's second book "Pedology of School Age" was published, along with a number of articles establishing "Instrumental Psychology" approach in Russian and English language journals; December 1928 - after a conflict with the director of the Institute of Experimental Psychology (GIEP) K. N. Kornilov, the research activities of the Vygotsky-Luria group were curtailed in this organization, and experimental research was transferred to the Academy of Communications.

His philosophical framework includes interpretations of the cognitive role of mediation tools, as well as the re-interpretation of well-known concepts in psychology such as internalization of knowledge.

His most important and widely known contribution is his theory for the development of "higher psychological functions," which emerge through unification of interpersonal connections and actions taken within a given socio-cultural environment (i.e. language, culture, society, and tool-use).

[25] Piaget only read Vygotsky's work after his death and openly praised him for his discovery of the social origin of children's thoughts, reasoning, and moral judgements.

Formerly, it was assumed that the function exists in the individual in a ready, semi-ready, or rudimentary form and in the group it unfolds, becomes complex, advances, is enriched, or, conversely, is inhibited, suppressed, etc.

Specifically, formerly it was thought that every child was capable of reflection reaching conclusions, proving, finding bases for whatever position.

Between the stimulus and the reaction of a person (both behavioral and mental), an additional connection arises through a mediating link - a stimulus-means, or a sign.

A problematic situation of choosing between two equal possibilities, interested Vygotsky primarily from the point of view of solving it through a coin flip - redelegating decision to the outside object - an example of using cultural tools to govern one's own psychological function of volition.

While developing a method for studying higher psychological functions, Vygotsky was guided by the principle of ex ungue leonem and additionally analyzed phenomena such as using a knot in the handkerchief for remembering and finger counting.

[31] In the last years of his life, Vygotsky paid most of his attention to the study of the relationship between thought and word in the structure of consciousness.

[32] The book was a collection of essays and scholarly papers that Vygotsky wrote during different periods of his thought development.

[34] Andrey Puzyrey elaborated the ideas of Vygotsky in respect of psychotherapy and even in the broader context of deliberate psychological intervention (psychotechnique), in general.