History

The journal "Theoretical and Experimental Psychology" is an academic periodical scientific publication. The journal's founder, the Federal Scientific Centre for Psychological and Multidisciplinary Research (hereinafter referred to as FSC PMR), is a major modern scientific centre for the study of fundamental and applied issues in psychology, with high potential for ensuring the country's intellectual sovereignty. The Centre is the legal successor to the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education (formerly the L.G. Shchukina Psychological Institute at the Imperial Moscow University). The journal was established by a resolution of the Academic Council of the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education in 2008.

History and Present

The L.G. Shchukina Psychological Institute at the Imperial Moscow University (now Lomonosov Moscow State University) is the oldest and first scientific institution in Russia specifically created for research in theoretical and experimental psychology. The intellectual efforts of several generations of the Institute's scientists laid a solid theoretical, methodological, scientific and organisational foundation for Russian achievements in the field of psychological knowledge.

The founding of the Psychological Institute is associated with the names of the outstanding scientist and educator, Professor Georgy Ivanovich Chelpanov (1862-1936), and the renowned Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (1854-1936).

In November 1911, the Psychological Institute building (designed by A.S. Grebenshchikov) was built on Mokhovaya Street in Moscow. It provided research space (59 classrooms), and when it was built, it was the largest scientific psychological institution in the world. To conduct scientific research, a complex of modern scientific and technical equipment (150 units) and a rich scientific library (over 4,000 major publications and 15 titles of European and Russian journals) were created within the institute.

Faculty and students of the Imperial Moscow University at the side entrance to the L. G. Shchukina Psychological Institute. 1912. I. Chelpanov is in the front row, fourth from the right in the picturer. K. N. Kornilov is to his left. In the second row, I. S. Shchukin is the sixth person from the right, A. F. Losev is the third person from the right.

Teaching classroom of the L.G. Shchukina Psychological Institute. 1914.

The Psychological Institute opened on September 1, 1912, under the direction of G.I. Chelpanov. He developed a three-year scientific course for training professional psychologists. Lectures, scientific and theoretical seminars, and practical classes in experimental psychology were offered to students and graduates of the Faculty of History and Philology who had chosen to specialise in advanced psychology. Many of them became the first employees of the Psychological Institute and formed a constellation of the first Russian professional psychologists. Within two years, the Institute had become a fully formed scientific psychological institution, and the official opening ceremony of the Psychological Institute took place on March 23, 1914. It became a "celebration of Russian science" and it was an important event in the life of the global psychological community. In 1944, the Institute was included in the newly formed Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR (since 1966 - APS USSR).  At this point, its activities were coordinated by the Russian Academy of Education, and its activities are now coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

The founders of Russian psychology who worked within the walls of the institute included the following notable psycholoists: G.I. Chelpanov, P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, S.V. Kravkov, K.N. Kornilov, S.L. Rubinstein, N.I. Zhinkin, N.A. Rybnikov, A.N. Leontyev, A.A. Smirnov, N.A. Bernstein, B.M. Teplov, V.D. Nebylitsyn, F.D. Gorbov, M.I. Lisina, L.I. Bozhovich, E.I. Boyko, N.A. Menchinskaya, P.A. Shevarev, P.M. Yakobson, A.V. Zaporozhets, D.A. Oshanin, D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, and many others.

Over the years, the Institute was headed by outstanding Russian scientists and organisers of psychological science, including G.I. Chelpanov, K.N. Kornilov, S.L. Rubinstein, A.A. Smirnov, and V.V. Davydov. The current Head is Yu.P. Zinchenko.

For the outstanding service to the country, the Psychological Institute was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, was repeatedly awarded Certificates of Honour from Federal and Moscow government agencies, and was awarded the Patriarchal Certificate of Merit from the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexei II. More than 70 Institute employees have received awards from the President and the Government of the Russian Federation in education over the years.

In 2022, the Psychological Institute celebrated its 110th anniversary. A special issue of our journal (No. 3, 2022) was published to commemorate this event. It included articles prepared by the heads of most of the Institute's scientific departments. The materials in this anniversary issue provided an opportunity to gain a more detailed insight into the Institute's history and its current research trends.