Psychology in Russia: State of the Art

After a hiatus of several years, the Russian Psychological Society starting publishing their annual peer-reviewed academic journal, “Psychology in Russia: State of the Art” in 2008. Unlike the journals from earlier in this exhibit, this journal is highly scientific and empirical in its nature and largely focuses solely on furthering the field of psychological research in Russia as well as gaining credibility for Russian psychological research on the global stage. Thus, this publication rounds out the arc of the history of psychology in Russia – specifically, “Psychology in Russia: State of the Art” represents the current state of the development of the field of psychology not only in the way that the Russian Psychological Society wants to present it to fellow scholars, but to the rest of the world. Truly, this publication is one of the best examples of Russian psychology in modern, global as well as domestic perspective.

An excerpt from the 2011 publication’s introduction by Editors Yury Zinchenko and Viktor Petrenko perfectly encapsulates the importance of this publication as well as the current state of psychology in Russia today: “The year which passed since the last issue of this yearbook was published was marked by a considerable amount of activity by the professional community of Russian psychologists. This clearly reflects the growing role psychology as a discipline and a profession plays in the life of Russian society. Today, psychology has become very visible in Russia. It has made a miraculous transformation from a rather exotic – if not marginal – academic discipline to almost a mass occupation” (Zinchenko & Petrenko).