Vygotsky, Lev

Lev Semënovič Vygotsky (1896–1934) was born in a small town in Belorussia (now Belarus), called Orša (near Minsk), on November 17, 1896. He [Page 1642]was raised by parents who were well educated. In the first year of his life, his family moved to the bigger and predominantly Jewish city of Gomel, where Vygotsky (sometimes spelled Vygotskij) got his primary education and attended a secondary school, graduating in 1913. The intellectual atmosphere in the family brought young Vygotsky into contact with diverse cultural manifestations (literature, poetry, and theatre). This milieu aroused a broad and strong cultural awareness and interest in him, which lasted during his whole life and which certainly must have influenced his academic career as well. He was well versed in the cultural, historical, ...