The Problem of Activity in Soviet Psychology

For more than thirty years, from the early thirties to the mid-sixties, the problem of activity has pervaded Soviet psychology. Its origins go back to the twenties, when Soviet psychologists witnessed with their own eyes the primordial freshness of the revolutionary uprising of the popular masses and the tremendous force of class consciousness that enabled them, under the leadership of the Party of the Bolsheviks, to overcome difficulties that seemed insuperable to outside observers and to accomplish deeds considered impossible. Consciousness proved to be a great force; and at that time, in the twenties, the problem of consciousness predominated in Soviet psychology.