Rediscovering Vygotsky: from interpretation in the west to reinterpretation in Russia

The article is a preface to the publication of a translation of a fragment from the book «Understanding Vygotsky. In Search of Synthesis» by Jaan Valsiner and rene Van der Veer (Chapter 8 «Vygotsky and gestalt Psychology»). The chapter offered to russian readers reveals the complexity of the relationship between gestalt psychology and the activity approach. The authors describe not only the circumstances under which the ideas of Vygotsky spread all over the world, but also the polemical contexts in which his teaching developed.