On May 9, 2025, during the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, it will be a one hundred years since the birth of Gita Lvovna Vygodskaya (1925–2010), daughter of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Without Gita Lvovna’s dedicated preservation, we might not have known the legacy of Vygotsky. For twenty years, his works were banned; his books were burned, as depicted in the well-known novel by Ray Bradbury. However, "manuscripts do not burn," because feelings, thoughts, and actions are indestructible. Gita Vygodskaya, a student of the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University’s Faculty of Philosophy, clandestinely shared his writings with her classmates.
The preserved and safeguarded legacy of Vygotsky represents a significant contribution from Gita Lvovna to the entire international scientific and educational community—both to the field of science and its practical applications—without any exaggeration! While many distinguished students and eminent scholars of Vygotsky’s school have made substantial contributions, their achievements would have been inconceivable without this inheritance, of which Gita Lvovna remained the dedicated guardian until the end of her life. Without her, and consequently without Vygotsky himself, the development of psychology would have taken a different course. The entire subsequent history of Vygotsky’s life—a history that continues to flourish worldwide—would have been impossible without this invaluable legacy.
We present to our readers the text of the speech delivered at the IY International Readings in Memory of L.S. Vygotsky (Moscow, L.S. Vygotsky Institute of Psychology, RSUH, November 2003), which was previously published in the journal "Vestnik RSUH. Series 'Psychology'" (2007, No. 1). V.T.
V. T. Kudryavtsev,
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Cultural-Historical Psychology”