From Imitation to Will (On One of the Early Works by L.I. Bozhovich and L.S. Slavina)

The paper gives an expanded commentary on the archival publication of the early work by L.I. Bozhovich and L.S. Slavina "Psychology of Children's Imitation (Experimental Psychological Research)" that was published in the issues 2-4, 2007, and 12, 2008, of the current journal. The paper focuses on the scientific and historical context in which the research was carried out and discusses the development of L.I. Bozhovich's scientific views on the problem of imitation and will. It also analyses the relation of this experiment to other empirical researches carried out within Vygotsky's school of thought and gives evidence of Vygotsky's using the data obtained by L.I. Bozhovich and L.I. Slavina in his works. The author deduces that this student work by L.I. Bozhovich and L.I. Slavina was further developed in their later research.