Editors’ Foreword

2024 is the year of the 100th anniversary of Cultural-Historical Psychology. One can argue about the specific choice of anniversary date. But 100 years ago, the founder of CHP Lev S. Vygotsky made 2 debut reports, in Petrograd (on January 6th at the 2nd Congress of Psychoneurology in Petrograd) and on November 26th at the 2nd All-Russian Congress of the Social and Legal Protection of Minors in Moscow), which became milestones not only in Vygotsky's scientific biography, but also in the history of science as a whole.

Of course, the future year of 1925 could "claim" the "status" of the year of the CHP centennial. In this year, on November 5th, Vygotsky successfully defended in absentia (due to illness) his dissertation on "The Psychology of Art", as a result of which he was awarded the title of senior researcher, which corresponds to the modern PhD. Vygotsky's research was appreciated at the moment of its presentation on November 9th, 1925, a contract was already signed for the publication of “The Psychology of Art” monograph, but the book did not see the light of day until 1965, and three years later, in 1968, it was reprinted.   

Decades later, Vygotsky's student Daniil B. Elkonin qualified this work as a programmatic text that outlined the beginnings of non-classical cultural-historical psychology. This year two anniversary dates "converged" - the centennial of CHP and the 130th anniversary of its promoter D.B. Elkonin, who was born on February 29th, 1904. The 1st issue of our journal for this year is dedicated to his anniversary.

The idea of the issue belongs to the son and successor of Daniil B. Elkonin, Boris D. Elkonin, editor-in-chief of the "Cultural-Historical Psychology" journal (2014 - 2023). He managed to collect the substantial "core" of the issue's materials, but this work was interrupted by his death on November 15th, 2023. This issue is both a dedication to Daniil Elkonin’s anniversary and a tribute to Boris D. Elkonin’s memory.

Both D.B. Elkonin and B.D. Elkonin thought of the subject of psychology exclusively in the categories of development. This was the idea of L.S. Vygotsky, who believed that general psychology was possible only as a genetic psychology. Consequently, "developmental psychology" is not only a section of psychology, but also its "supporting structure". It is possible to study the processes of development of certain mental functions, but this will not bring results unless development appears to the researcher as a special phenomenon - "as such". D.B. Elkonin highly appreciated P. Teilhard de Chardin's book "The Phenomenon of Man", who wrote in the introduction: "I study only a phenomenon, but the whole phenomenon".

Daniil Borisovich and Boris Daniilovich and collaborators studied development in this quality of phenomenon, and their followers continue to study it. 

This is what allows us to speak of the unified scientific school of D.B. Elkonin - B.D. Elkonin. We hope that the reader of this issue will appreciate it.

Editorial Board of the Cultural-Historical Psychology Journal