Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov (Russian: Вячесла́в Все́володович Ива́нов [vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪtɕ ɪˈvanəf]; 21 August 1929 – 7 October 2017) was a prominent Soviet and Russian philologist, semiotician and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.

Ivanov was educated at Moscow University and worked there until 1958, when he was fired on account of his sympathy with Boris Pasternak and Roman Jakobson.

By that time, he had made some important contributions to Indo-European studies and became one of the leading authorities on the Hittite language.

The second, extended and corrected edition of the book came out in 1968 and included another Vygotsky's unpublished work, his treatise on Shakespeare's Hamlet (written in 1915-1916).

The first edition of the book was subsequently translated into English by Scripta Technica Inc. and released by MIT Press in 1971.