Psychology in the Soviet Union

In April 1955, a small party of teachers and educationists visited the U.S.S.R. at the invitation of the Academy of Educational Sciences of the R.S.F.S.R. The chief purpose was to study the experimental schools, where new curricula and methods of teaching were being evolved for the development of polytechnical education, and in preparation for the raising of the school leaving age to 17. But it soon became apparent that such a study required knowledge of developments in psychology, and accordingly members of the delegation had a number of detailed discussions with Soviet psychologists, notably Professors Smirnov, Menchinskaya, Leontiev and Luria in Moscow, and Professor Ananiev in Leningrad. It was as an outcome of these that the idea of this book was born; that is, of a book that would familiarize English readers with the general direction of Soviet psychology, but designed to be of interest to teachers as well as psychologists