RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?

[Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com>]

Thank you very much Haydi. I will see.
Best.
Achilles.

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:20:56 -0700
From: haydizulfei@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
To: achilles_delari@hotmail.com


Hi
 
We also say * The riddle when solved , everything gets so easy * . This time I typed * M A Levina collectionist of vygotsky * and the first one reaches you is what is being attached .
 
Best 
 
Haydi
 
--- On Mon, 7/13/09, Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Monday, July 13, 2009, 11:39 PM



Jaan Valsiner have some data about her work:

Levina, M.A. On the question of the meaning of the method of
psychological observations on children in the system of pedagogical
education. In Basov (1925a), pp 92-113.

Levina, M.A. & El'konin, D.B. (1931) For the struggle for Marxist-
Leninist paedology. Paedologia, No 5-6, 28-40.

Levina, M.A. & Gershenzon, E.A. (1928). Social expressions of the
peasant child. In Zeiliger (1928), pp. 102-18.

Zeiliger, E. O. & Levina, M.A. (1930) Structural analysis and
internal mechanisms of prescholers' play. In Basov (1930) pp. 38-72

Zeiliger, E. O. & Levina, M.A. (1924) The experience of the 
study of preschoolers free play with objective observational 
methods. In M. Ya. Basov (Ed), Experience of the objective study
of the child (pp. 21-53). Leningrad: Gosizdat.


VALSINER, J. (1988) Devolopmental psychology in the
 Soviet Union.
Sussex: The Harvester Press.

Achilles.





> From: achilles_delari@hotmail.com
> To: haydizulfei@yahoo.com; xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:11:15 +0000
> CC: 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you
> very much...
> 
> 
> 
> I try your sugestion about the letters, and I find 7 entries 
> 
> to Levina, all that to Roza Evgen'evna Levina... But only
>
 
> really wrote by Vygotsky himself (*):
> 
> 
> 
> 1 at the introduction
> 
> 1 at the letter to A.R. Luria June 01, 1931*
> 
> 1 at the letter to A.R. Luria June 12, 1931*
> 
> 1 at the title letter to R.E. Levina June 16, 1931*
> 
> 3 at the end notes...
> 
> 
> 
> Searching the net "M.A. Levina" + "psychology", in
> Cyrillic,
> 
> we can find some entries related to the work of Elkonin
> 
> "Psychology of play"... And there we found a single entry.
> 
> But useful because she (M.A. Levina) is associated with
> 
> knowed psychologist Mikhail Ya. Basov (1892-1931) and
> 
> Evgeniia O. (I.) Zeiliger **(1890-1969). This two persons
> 
> have their names in encyclopedic websites, but in their
> 
> biographies do not quote the college M.A. Levina... If we
>
 
> have a more extensive biography of both maybe could find
> 
> more about M.A. Levina. What is interesting too is that
> 
> is supposed that she had some influence to edit Vygotsky's
> 
> Lectures in 1935, one year before his prohibition in USSR,
> 
> maybe she was not only a inexpressive collaborator, but a
> 
> protagonist too... What Elkonin said about the work of
> 
> Evgeniia Zeiliger (Zeiliger-Rubinshtein) was that they
> 
> was "M. Ya. Basov collaborators, and did an structural
> 
> analysis of the playing activity of pre-scholar aged children.
> 
> This analysis showed that, along the preescholar period
> 
> of development, there are essential advances in the 
> 
> character of the stimulation of the playing process, and in
> 
> the organization or in the structural forms of them. The
>
 
> data are interesting... etc. etc." (sorry I quote from the
> 
> Spanish edition, and my English, you know...) But this
> 
> “interesting work” don't appear in bibliography too... Perhaps
> 
> a problem with pedologists persecution? What happens with
> 
> Basov’s
> people? I remember now that Jaan Valsiner wrote
> 
> a lot about
> Mikhail Basov, I will looking for there…
> 
>  
> 
> Whithout no
> name, sometimes whithout no gender. Thanks
> 
> to Russian
> demark the gender in the family name we can know
> 
> that was a “she”…
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you
> for your precious attention. 
> 
>  
> 
> Best wishes…
> 
> 
> Achilles. 
> from Brazil.
> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:07:12 -0700
> From: haydizulfei@yahoo.com
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
> To: achilles_delari@hotmail.com
> 
> Hi again
>  
> No , it didn't work , sorry . And something creeps into my mind as to wonder if it were  Sasha who was the man in charge of the publication of the letters in Russia about two years ago .
> 
> Haydi
> --- On Sun, 7/12/09, Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Date: Sunday, July 12, 2009, 12:58 PM
> 
> 
> 
> Greetings for all.
> 
> Van der Veer can not answer at this moment.
> I only know that this woman was one of the first persons 
> responsible to publish Vygotsky's ellaborations about
> "perezhivanie" as unity... and I don't know even her name, 
> or birth and death dates... It´s because this I had asking
> for. I find a little clues in Elkonin's "Psychology of Play", 
> there is only one entry to M.A.
 Levina, he said that she 
> collaborate with Evgueniia Zeiliger (1890-1969), both from 
> M. Ya. Basov's team... but no biographical entries... I supose 
> that sometimes some interesting minds can be forgoten by 
> history, maybe some interesting ideas too... I don´t know.
> 
> Thank you for attention. Excuse me for naive questions.
> Best wishes.
> 
> Achilles.
> 
> > From: achilles_delari@hotmail.com
> > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > Subject: RE: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
> > Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 13:40:09 +0000
> > 
> > 
> > Thank you, Mike. I will do
 it.
> > 
> > 
> > Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 05:59:45 -0700
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Please a little help - Something about M.A. Levina?
> > From: lchcmike@gmail.com
> > To: achilles_delari@hotmail.com
> > 
> > Hi Achillles
> > Why not ask van der veer? he is on email, has fine web
>  site.
> > mike
> > On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:47 AM, Achilles Delari Junior <achilles_delari@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Dear XMCA,
> >
 
> > 
> > 
> > Please, can you help with a little information?
> > 
> > Valsiner and van der Veer talked about a Vygotsky's
> > 
> > collaborator called M. A. Levina. She was not R.E.
> > 
> > (Roza Evgen'evna) Levina (1908-1989) - but only
> > 
> > with "M.A. Levina" I can't find data about her, even
> > 
> > in Russian. I don't know what to do in orther to find.
> > 
> > Can you help me, with this matter?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Thank you very much.
> > 
> > Best wishes.
> > 
> > Achilles.
> > 
> >
>  _________________________________________________________________
> > 
> > Conheça os novos produtos Windows Live! Clique aqui.
> > 
> > http://www.windowslive.com.br_______________________________________________
> > 
> > xmca mailing list
> > 
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > 
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Descubra todas as novidades do novo Internet Explorer 8
> > http://brasil.microsoft.com.br/IE8/mergulhe/?utm_source=MSN%3BHotmail&utm_medium=Tagline&utm_campaign=IE8_______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Novo Internet Explorer 8. Baixe agora, é grátis!
> http://brasil.microsoft.com.br/IE8/mergulhe/?utm_source=MSN%3BHotmail&utm_medium=Tagline&utm_campaign=IE8_______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Com o Windows Live, você pode organizar, editar e compartilhar suas fotos.
> http://www.microsoft.com/brasil/windows/windowslive/products/photo-gallery-edit.aspx_______________________________________________
> xmca mailing
 list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca

_________________________________________________________________
Conheça os novos produtos Windows Live! Clique aqui.
http://www.windowslive.com.br_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca



      

--Anexo de Mensagem Encaminhado--





Soviet Psychology Structuring of Conduct in Activity Settings The Forgotten Contributions of Mikhail Basov Parti




This 
is the html version of the file https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/1887/10538/1/7_703_016.pdf.
Google 
automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the 
web.





  
  
    Page 1
Soviet 
Psychology
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER/VOL.29, 
NO.5
Structuring of 
Conduct in Activity Settings
The Forgotten 
Contributions
of Mikhail 
Basov
Parti
Editor's 
Note
MICHAEL 
COLE
3
Introduction
JAAN VALSINER AND 
RENÉ VAN DERVEER
4
Mikhail Basov: 
An Intellectual Biography
JAAN VALSINER AND 
RENÉ VAN DERVEER
6
The 
Organization of Processes of Behavior
(A 
StructuralAnalysis)
M. IA. 
BASOV
14
1991 £M. 
E. SharpC Inc. Allrights reserved.80Business Park Drive. Armonk, 
NY10504




  
  
    Page 2
Soviet 
Psychology (ISSN 0038-5751) is published bimonthly by M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 
Business Park
Drive, Armonk, 
NY 10504. Subscription rates for U.S. institutions: one year, $330.00. For 
foreign
institutions: 
one year, $360.00. Back issues of this journal, to Volume I, No. 1, are 
available at the
subscription 
price effective on the date of the order.
Second class 
postage paidat Armonk, NY andat additional mailingoffices. Postmaster send 
address
changes to 
Soviet Psychology, c/o M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, 
Armonk, NY 10504




  
  
    Page 3
Editor's 
Note
As readers of 
Soviet Psychology are aware, it has been my policy over
the years to 
present historical materials that are pertinent to under-
standing 
contemporary Soviet and world psychology. By and large, I
have come upon 
such materials through discussions with Soviet schol-
ars or by 
following the lead in relevant articles. When I first read Jaan
Valsiner's lucid 
and informative book Developmental Psychology in
the Soviet 
Union, I was immediatelystruck by the gold mine of materi-
als to which 
Professor Valsiner had succeeded in gaining access. First
among these was 
the work of Mikhail Basov, to whom Valsiner de-
voted an 
especially illuminating chapter in his monograph.
In conversations 
with Professor Valsiner, we made plans for a num-
ber of articles 
and special issues of this journal making use of the
materials he has 
painstakinglygathered over the years.
My special 
thanks go to Professor Valsiner and Professor van der
Veer for their 
efforts in bringing the work of Mikhail Basov to our
attention. 
Readers interested in the classics of Soviet psychology
should be on the 
lookout for van der Veer and Valsiner's monograph
on the work of 
L.S. Vygotsky, to be 
published by Blackwell later this
year.
MICHAEL 
COLE




  
  
    Page 4
Introduction
In this and the 
next issue of Soviet Psychology, the international read-
ership will have 
an opportunity to gain access to the work of Russian
developmental 
psychologist Mikhail Basov, whose relevance for de-
velopmental 
psychology in Russia and, later, the Soviet Union has
been profound 
(see Valsiner, 1988, chap. 5). Basov's intellectual de-
velopment 
paralleled that of his contemporary Lev Vygotsky, whose
ideas are 
currently increasingly mentioned in the international dis-
course of 
psychologists and educators, and whose synthesis of ideas
from various 
sources in international social sciences continues to com-
mand respect 
(see Kozulin, 1990; van der Veer and Valsiner, 1991).
Basov's ideas in 
developmental psychology—or within the discipline
pedology, with 
which he identified himself (Russian:pedologia, better
known in English 
as the "child study" tradition)—had a significant
influence on Vygotsky.
Basov, however, 
entered developmental psychology from a totally
different 
background than that of Vygotsky: from formal 
education in
psychoneurological 
sciences within the progressive higher education
and research 
institutions set up by VladimirBekhterev (see below). As
a result, many 
of Basov's concerns with which readers will become
acquainted in 
the next two issues of Soviet Psychology (and in a third
one, to be 
published in 1992) are closer to the interests of present-day
psychologists 
(especially those interested in observational research on
children) than 
Vygotsky's high-flying discourse about the cultural-
historical and 
dialectical nature of development.
Publication here 
of a collection of papers by Basov and his col-
leagues 
constitutes an important step toward overcoming the uneven
representation 
of the work by different Russian psychologists of 
the
Jaan Valsiner is 
with the DevelopmentalPsychology Program, Universityof
North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill, Davie Hall, CB #3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-
3270. René van 
der Veer is with the Departmentof General Education, Univer-
sity of Leiden, 
Leiden,The Netherlands.




  
  
    Page 5
INTRODUCTION
5
past in 
publications accessible to contemporary scientists. Aside from
Basov's work, a 
number of other Russian psychologists' work is ex-
pected to be 
made available in the near future—the appearance of a
translation of 
Vladimir Bekhterev's Collective Reflexology (Strickland
and Lockwood, 
1992, in press) being the most noteworthy among them.
It seems very 
productive—at a time of high uncertainty of a social kind
(covered 
conveniently by catchwords such as perestroïka or
glasnost 
)—to turn back to the history of Russian psychology and make
it possible for 
our present endeavors to be informed by related efforts of
the past, which 
may help us surmount various impasses and find alter-
native ways of 
constructing theories and methodologies.
JAAN 
VALSINER
RENÉ VANDER 
VEER
References
Kozulin, A. 
(1990) Vygotsky's Psychology: A Biography of Ideas. 
Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University 
Press.
Strickland, L.H., 
and Lockwood, E. (cds.) (1992). V.M. Bekhterev's Collective
Reflexology. 
In press. [N.B. Related works, edited by Dr. Strickland, will
appear in future 
issues of Soviet Psychology.—M.C.]
Valsincr, J. 
(1988) Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union. 
Brighton:
Harvester Press 
(and Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press),
van der Veer, R., 
and Valsincr, J. (1991) Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest 
for
Synthesis. 
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.




  
  
    Page 6
JAAN VALSINER 
AND RENÉ VANDER VEER
Mikhail 
Basov:
An 
Intellectual Biography
Mikhail 
lakovlevich Basov was born on 3 November 1892 in a village
near Pskov. 
After receiving his secondary-school diploma, he moved,
in 1909, to St. 
Petersburg and entered Bekhterev's Psychoneurological
Institute in 
order to study natural sciences. The formative years of
Basov as a 
developmental psychologist were spent at that institute-
first, as a 
student, later, as a research associate. It was in the mid-1920s
that Basov moved 
to other institutions in the same city (by that time
renamed 
Leningrad). First—in 1924/25—he became one of the co-
founders of the 
State Institute of Scientific Pedagogics (or GINP—
Gosudarstvennyi 
Institut Nauchnoi Pedagogiki); subsequently (also in
1925), he became 
the Chair of Pedology at the Pedagogical Institute
(now called the 
A.I. Herzen State Pedagogical Institute—Gosudar-
stvennyi 
Pedagogicheskii Institut imeni A.I. Gertsena). He stayed at
the Pedagogical 
Institute until his sudden death, from blood poisoning
caused by an 
accident at work, on 6 October 1931.
Basov's 
developmentalcontext:
Bekhterev's 
Psychoneurological Institute
The intellectual 
climate of Bekhterev's Psychoneurological Institute
was highly 
relevant for Basov's development from 1909 on. That insti-
tute was 
undoubtedly the most progressive, internationally and liber-
ally minded 
institution of higher learning and research in pre-1917
Russia.
The institute 
grew out of the dissatisfaction of the progressive intel-
lectuals in 
Russia, at the turn of this century, with the organization of
higher education 
by the czarist government. Vladimir Bekhterev led




  
  
    Page 7
MIKHAIL 
BASOV: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
7
the efforts to 
establish the new institute. The idea for the organization
of such an 
institute for psychological and neurological investigations
had been in the 
minds of Bekhterev and some of his close associates
(e.g., A.P. 
Nechaev and A.F. Lazurskii, among others) since 1903. On
9 July 1907, the 
founding of the institute was approved by the Russian
Minister of 
Public Instruction, after which the faculty of the institute
became 
established. The lectures at the institute were planned to start
in Spring 1908 
(see Psikho-Nevrologicheskii Institut, 1908).
The 
Psycho-Neurological Institute immediately became a highly
progressive 
academic institutionin Russia, attracting many major sci-
entists in 
different disciplines to its faculty. For instance, the zoo-
psychologist 
Vladimir A. Vagner (or Wagner—as his name has usually
been 
transliterated in German publications) was listed as a faculty
member from 1 
November 1907; he later even served as its director.
Alexander F. 
Lazurskii, the personality psychologist whose method of
"naturalistic 
experiment" was one of the intellectual bases for Basov's
work from the 
moment of entering the institute, was among the core
organizers of the 
institute. The sociologist Evgenii V. DeRoberti was
listed as also 
joining the faculty of the institute on 1 November 1907
(see Gerver, 
1912). Another sociologist, Maksim M. Kovalevskii,
entered the 
faculty in 1910. The institute also drew to its faculty a
number of major 
Russian philosophers (e.g., Nikolai Losskii and
Semyon Frank—both 
as of October 1907), linguists (e.g., Lev
Schcherba and 
I.A. Boudoin-de-Courtency—both in 1910), and law-
yers (e.g., 
Mikhail Rcisner—later an important figure in the Socialist
Academy and 
Moscow Institute of Psychology [see van der Veer and
Valsiner, 
1991]).
The faculty of 
the Psycho-Neurological Institute was the foundation
for Bekhterev's 
ambitious goal of building an institution that would
succeed in 
interdisciplinary study of human beings. Basov already
joined in that 
effort duringhis study years. It was precisely during the
year of his 
entrance into the institutethat Lazurskii established therein
the Psychological 
Laboratory, which served as headquarters for an
active research 
group whose members were interested in the variability
of different 
people's psychological adaptation to their environments
(see Korot' and 
Rabinovich, 1913). This general question involved
both the 
differential-psychologicalaspect (the classification of person-
ality 
types—Lazurskii, 1906, 1908, 1915) and the general-psychologi-
cal focus on a 
person's development within structured environments




  
  
    Page 8
8
JEAN VALSINER 
AND RENÉ VAN DER VEER
(Lazurskii, 
1916). Methodologically, Lazurskii's research group tried
to combine 
laboratory-based and "real-world" settings in obtaining rel-
evant 
information about the ways in which active people (of differ-
ent types) 
relate to their environments. In this research, the
developmental 
orientation came clearly into focus, and the general
explanatory 
scheme for psychological activities was greatly influenced
by Bekhterev's 
general conception of the role of transformed energy in
causing 
psychological processes (see Bekhterev, 1904; Lazurskii,
1912). Together 
with the philosopher Semyon Frank, Lazurskii pro-
posed an 
extensive "program for the investigation of the relationship
between the 
personality and the environment" and advocated use of the
"naturalistic 
experiment" (Russian: estestvennyi eksperimeni) as the
principal means 
of collecting data on personalities-within-environments
(see Lazurskii, 
1912; Lazurskii and Filosofova, 1916). Discourse
centered on 
issues concerning the "naturalistic experiment" was very
active in Russia 
in the 1910 decade, and Lazurskii's research group
actively led the 
way in propagation of this extension of traditional
experimentation 
(e.g., see overviewsof the congresses on "experimen-
tal 
pedagogics"—Basov, 1914a; Markarianz, 1911, Shchelovanov,
1916).
Basov's early 
work was clearly within Lazurskii's general para-
digm. His first 
empirical publications (Basov, 1914b; Basov and
Nadol'skaia, 
1913) reflect both the ecological- and the differential-
psychological 
concerns that were characteristic of Lazurskii'sresearch
collective. 
Basov was also active in reviewing existing research activi-
ties and 
presentationsby others (Basov, 1913, 1914a). After the death
of his teacher 
Lazurskii, Basov participated in editing the publication
of the second 
edition of the latter's book [Theclassification of person-
alities] 
(Lazurskii, 1923).
In 1920 Basov 
began to work in another new institute, the Brain
Research 
Institute, created by Bekhterev, where, at the time, pioneer-
ing work by the 
investigators of early ontogeny (M. Denisova, N.
Figurin) was in 
progress. Basov continued to be interested in general
issues of 
volition and in observational research on preschool and
school-age 
children. The emphasis on observational research became
particularly 
strong when Basov started (in 1921) to work in another
institutional 
part of Bekhterev's empire—the Psychology Division of
the 
PsychoneurologicalAcademy (Basov, 1922b). This work resulted
in a carefully 
constructed manual for study of children's behavior 
in




  
  
    Page 9
MIKHAIL 
BASOV: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
9
everyday-life 
settings (Basov, 1923) that, in its careful examination of
methodological 
details, would be valuable even in our modern day of
videotapes and 
computer-based data-analysis programs. He continued
his research on 
the organization of volitional processes, which resulted
in a treatise on 
that topic (Basov, 1922a). In the early 1920s, particu-
larly in 
connection with his individuation from the Bekhterevian re-
search network 
(by way of moving his work to other institutions),
Basov created a 
small, but active, research group.
Basov's 
research group and itsactivities
Basov's empirical 
orientation toward observational and experimental
study of 
children's behavior in everyday-life settings led to the devel-
opment of a 
strongly focused research group within which different
members studied 
different aspects of development, still within the gen-
eral theoretical 
framework that Basov had been developing, which
emerged from the 
intellectual traditions of the Bekhterev-created re-
search 
institutions.For instance, the topics of research of Basov's col-
laborators 
included study of preschoolers' perceptual processes
(Filosofova, 
1924; Nekliudova, 1924), structural organization of the
process of free 
play at preschool age (Zeiliger and Levina, 1924, 
1930)
and in the 
context of a whole day in a child's life (Filosofova and
Gefter, 1930), 
and methodological issues of observational research in
kindergarten 
settings (Shapiro and Gerke, 1930; Nekliudova and
Vol'berg, 1930). 
Aside from behavioral-observational research, Basov
initiated a large 
research program for the study of children's concep-
tions of social 
issues (Basov, 1930a; Merlin and Khriakova, 1930); a
similarly basic 
empirical research program on children's activities in
work settings was 
created by Basov and his colleagues (sec results in
Basov and 
Kazanskii, 1931). Of course, questions of importance in
developmental 
research for educational practice constituted an impor-
tant area of 
publication by Basov's research group (Basov, 1924,1925,
1926; Levina, 1925; Zeiliger, 
1925).
Basov's main 
theoretical integration of ideas took place in the sec-
ond half of the 
1920s and resulted in two editions of Obshchie osnovy
pedologii 
[General foundations of pedology] (in 1928 and, especially
as Basov's work, 
in 1931a) and a number of shorter articles (Basov,
1928—for an 
English translation, see Basov, 1929a,b). The contribu-
tions presented 
here come from that fruitful period of Basov's life and
activities.




  
  
    Page 10
10
JEAN 
VALSINER AND RENÉ VAN DER VEER
The end: 
Basov under ideological
criticism, 
and beyond
Like all 
intellectuals in the Soviet Union at the turn of the decade
1929-30 (see van 
der Veer and Valsiner, 1991, chap. 16;also Valsiner,
1988), Basov's 
cosmopolitan stance came under heavy, ideologically
oriented 
criticism in the early 1930s. The major wave of criticism that
Basov had to 
face started in April 1931, and was initiated by a "bri-
gade of 
postdoctoral students" in his own department at the Leningrad
State 
Pedagogical Institute (see Levina & El'konin, 
1931). Basov was
publicly accused 
of "formalism" in his theory (Feofanov, 1931) and
chastized for 
not using Marxist slogans and not looking at child devel-
opment from a 
"class perspective." Hewas "invited" to respond to this
wave of 
"criticism" within the genre of "self-criticism." However, this
request for 
self-damning was not accepted by the well-integrated sci-
entist that 
Basov was: the supposed "self-criticism" article (written in
August 1931—two 
monthsbefore his sudden death) leaves little doubt
that Basov did 
not receive the ideological criticism in the way his
critics 
wanted(see Basov, 1931b).The editors of thejournal Pedologia
tried their best 
to present him (after his death) as a person who had
"seen the light" 
(shown to him by his critics), but this is highly doubt-
ful. It seems 
more likely that Basov viewed the avalanche of ideologi-
cal criticism 
with the same contemplative, observational attitude that
characterized 
his style of research.
Later events in 
Soviet psychology (see Valsiner, 1988) guaranteed
that Basov (like 
other pedologists, like Vygotsky) would become 
per-
sona non 
gratain Soviet psychology,though he was occasionally men-
tioned for his 
contributions to observational methodology. His theo-
retical 
contributions and all the wealth of the empirical analyses that he
and his group 
had obtained have been forgotten since the 1930s; and
the very limited 
examples of republishing of Basov's work in the
USSR in the 
1970s (see Basov, 1975) largely misrepresented his con-
tributions to 
developmentalpsychology. International readers were not
much more 
perceptive; although Basov's work was partially available
(Basov, 1929a) 
and reviewed (Luria, 1930) in English and in German
(Basov, 1928b), 
it gained very little attention. It is thereforenotewor-
thy that here, 
in an international context, readers will have an opportu-
nity to decide 
for themselves what aspects of Basov's ideas may be of
interest to 
them.




  
  
    Page 11
MIKHAIL 
BASOV: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
11
References
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1913) [Stanley Hall. Evolution and cultivation of feelings for nature 
in
children]. 
Vestnik psikhologii,kriminal'noi antropologii i pedologü, 10(5), 
105-
108.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1914a) [The Second All-Russian Congress on Experimental Pedagog-
ics]. 
Vestnik psikhologii,kriminal'noiantropologii ipedologü,11(1), 
77-113.
Basov.M.Ia. 
(1914b) [Onpsychological tempo]. Vestnik psikhologii, 
kriminal'noi
antropologii 
ipedologü, 11(2), 6-27.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1922a) [The will as an object of functional psychology]. 
Petrograd:
Nachatki 
znanii.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1922b) [New data for the substantiation of natural-experimental
study of the 
personality]. Voprosy izuchenia i vospitania lichnosti,No. 
4-5.
Basov, 
M.Ia.(1923) [Methods of psychological observations of children]. 
Lenin-
grad and 
Moscow: Gosizdat. (2nd. ed. in 1925; 3rd ed. in 1926).
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1924) [Themethod of objective observation in child psychology
and 
pedagogics.] In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.), [The experience of objective study 
of
childhood]. 
Leningrad: Gosizdat. Pp. 5-20.
Basov, 
M.Ia.(Ed.)(1925) [The pedagogue and research work with 
children].
Leningrad:Gosizdat.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1926) [Preschool types]. Voprosy Pedagogiki, No. 1.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1928a) [Structuralanalysisof the processes of behavior as the main
problem and 
tool of pedological psychology]. Pedologia, No. 1,pp. 40-48.
Bassov, M.J. 
(1928b) Typen vorschulpflichitiger Kinder. Zeitschrift für
pädagogische 
Psychologie, experimentelle Pädagogik und jugendkundliche
Forschung, 
29, 356-84.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1929a) Structural analysis in psychology from the standpoint of 
be-
havior. 
Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology, 
36,267-89.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1929b) [The next problems of psychology]. Estestvoznanie i
Marksizm, 
No. 3, pp. 54-82.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1930a) [The problem of world view in pedology]. In A.B. Zalkind
(Ed.), 
[Psycho-neurological sciences in the USSR]. Moscow and 
Leningrad:
Gosudarstvennoie 
Meditsinskoe Izdatel'stvo. Pp. 157-58.
Basov, 
M.Ia.(1931a) [Generalfoundations of pedology] (2nded.)Moscow 
and
Leningrad: 
Gosizdat.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(193Ib) [About some tasks for the forthcoming reorganization of
pedology]. 
Pedologia, No.5-6, pp. 3-28.
Basov, M.Ia. 
(1975) [Selected psychological investigations]. Moscow: 
"Peda-
gogika" 
Publishers.
Basov, M.Ia., 
& Nadol'skaia, M. (1913) [On the question of individual 
character-
istics of 
motor-volitional processes]. Vestnik psikhologii, kriminal'noi 
an-
tropologii 
ipedologü, 10 (4).
Basov, M.Ia., 
& Kazanskii, N.G. (Eds.) (1931) [Childrenat the workbench]. 
Mos-
cow and 
Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoie uchebno-pedagogicheskoe izdatel'stvo.
Bekhterev, V.M. 
(1904) [The psycheand life]. (2nd ed.). St. Petersburg: K.L. 
Rikker.
Feofanov, M.P. 
(1931) [The methodological foundations of the school of Basov].
Pedologia, 
No. 3,pp. 27-43.




  
  
    Page 12
JEAN 
VALSINER AND RENÉ VAN DER VEER
Filosofova, 
L.N. (1924) [Comparative-psychological observations on the prob-
lem of the 
sensory culture of the Montessori system]. In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.).
[The 
experience of objective study of childhood]. Leningrad: 
Gosizdat.
Pp. 
103-131.
Filosofova, 
L.N., & Gefter, L.G. (1930) [Structural analysis of preschool
children's 
behavior in the course of a whole day in a home environment]. In
A.B. Zalkind 
(Ed.), [Psycho-neurological sciences in the USSR]. Moscow 
and
Leningrad: 
GosudarstvennoieMeditsinskoe Izdatel'stvo. Pp. 158-60.
Gerver, A.V. 
(1912) [Reporton the activitiesof the Psycho-Neurological 
Institutein
1911]. 
Vestnikpsikhologii, kriminal'noi antropologii i pedologii, 9(4-5), 
120-68.
Korot', R., 
& Rabinovich,V. (1913) [Chronicleof the Psychological 
Laboratory
of the 
Psycho-Neurological Institute]. Vestnik psikhologii,kriminal'noi 
an-
tropologii 
ipedologii, 10(1), 107-112.
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1906) [A treatise on the science of character]. St.Petersburg: 
I.N.
Skorokhodov.
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1908) [Experience in classifying personalities]. Vestnik
psikhologii, 
kriminal'noi antropologii i gipnotizma, 5(5), 193-206.
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1912) [General and experimental psychology]. St. 
Petersburg:
M.K. 
Kostin.
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1915) [The classificationof personalities]. Zhurnal 
Ministerstva
Narodnogo 
Prosveshchenia. (A detailed overview in Vestnik 
psikhologii,
kriminal'noi 
antropologii ipedologii, 1916, 72(1),97-105.)
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1916) [Personality and education]. Veslnik psikhologii,
kriminal'noi 
antropologii ipedologii, 72(2-3), 4—13.
Lazurskii, A.F. 
(1923) [The classification of personalities] (2nd ed.) (M.Ia 
Basov
& 
V.N.Miasishchev, Eds.). Moscow andPetrograd: Gosizdat.
Levina, M.A. (1925) [On the question 
of the meaning of the psychological obser-
vations on 
children in the system of pedagogical education]. In M.Ia. Basov
(Ed.), [The 
pedagogue and research work with children]. Leningrad: Gosizdat.
Pp. 
92-113.
Levina, M.A., & El'konin, D.B. 
(1931) [For the struggle forMarxist-Leninist
pedology]. 
Pedologia,No.5-6,pp. 29-40.
Luria, A.R. 
(1930) Bassov, M., General principles of pedology. The 
Pedagogical
Seminary and 
Journal of Genetic Psychology, 37,176-78.
Markarianz, T. 
(1911) Der erste Kongress für experimentelle Pädagogik in Russ-
land. 
Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie und experimentelle
Pädagogik, 
72, 175-80.
Merlin, V., 
& Khriakova, M. (1930) [Questions of the development of a 
social
world view 
in children]. Moscow and Leningrad: Gosizdat.
Nekliudova, 
A.I. (1924) [On the problem of the development of perception in
preschoolers]. 
In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.), [The experience of objective study of
childhood]. 
Leningrad:Gosizdat. Pp. 54-102.
Nekliudova, 
A.I., & Vol'berg, V.I. (1930) [Forms of social relationships of 
pre-
school children 
and their development]. In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.), [Currentprob-
lems 
inpedology]. Moscow:Gosizdat. Pp. 112-52.
Psikho-Nevrologicheskii 
Institut. (1908) Vestnik psikhologii, kriminal'noi an-
tropologii 
igipnotizma, 5(4), 306-24 (in Russian).




  
  
    Page 13
MIKHAÏL 
BASOV: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
13
Shapiro, S.A., 
& Gerke, E.D.(1930) [The process of adaptation to environmental
conditions in 
the behavior of the child]. In M.Ia. Basov (Ed), 
[Currentprob-
lems 
inpedology]. Moscow: Gosizdat. Pp. 73-112.
Shchelovanov, N. 
(1916) [Overview of the activities of the Third All-Russian
Congress on 
Experimental Pedagogics]. Vestnik psikhologii, kriminal'noi 
an-
tropologü 
ipedologu, 72(2-3),93-100.
van der Veer, 
R., & Valsiner, J. (1991) Understanding Vygotsky: A quest 
for
synthesis. 
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Valsiner, J. 
(1988) Developmental psychology in the Soviet Union. 
Brighton:
Harvester 
Press.
Zeiliger, 
E.O.(1925) [Psychological investigation of the child in the process 
of
preschool 
pedagogical work]. In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.), [Thepedagogue and 
re-
search work 
with children]. Leningrad: Gosizdat. Pp. 38-91.
Zeiliger, 
E.O.,& Levina, M.A. (1924) [Experience in 
the study of preschoolers'
free play by 
objective observational methods]. In M.Ia.Basov (Ed.), [The
experience 
of objective study of childhood]. Leningrad: Gosizdat. Pp. 
21-53.
Zeiliger, 
E.O.,& Levina, M.A. (1930) [Structural 
analysis and internal mecha-
nisms of 
preschoolers' play]. In M.Ia. Basov (Ed.), [Current problems in 
pe-
dology]. 
Moscow: Gosizdat. Pp. 38-72.
_________________________________________________________________
Conheça os novos produtos Windows Live! Clique aqui.
http://www.windowslive.com.br_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca