The Third Meeting on Psychology in 1955: Beginning of a New Stage

The authors draw the reader’s attention to an event that took place 70 years ago – the III All-Union Conference on Psychology, convened by the Presidium of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR. It was held in Moscow from July 1 to 6, 1955. Beginning in 1952, psychological conferences began to be held quite regularly (1952, 1953 and 1955). In contrast to the previous Conference of 1953 – the first “post-Stalin” one, where the reports were consisted of issues of physiological analysis of the psyche, condemnation of the uncritical use of old psychological methods, formal references to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov, the noticeable changes were observed at the Conference of 1955. More than 500 people were present, of which about 200 were psychology teachers, research psychologists from the periphery; the scientific composition of those present was diverse – psychologists, physiologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, teachers. A.A. Smirnov and S.L. Rubinstein gave plenary reports, and at the sectional sessions the reports were made on the psychology of personality and the psychology of education, on the problem of the development of cognitive processes in schoolchildren, on the mental development of preschool children, on the problem of thinking and speech, etc. A number of reports were devoted to physiological issues that are directly related to psychology, issues of labor psychology and industrial training, sports psychology, pathopsychology and defectology, the study of animal behavior. It was from this conference that a fundamentally new period in the development of psychology began – a kind of “thaw” with its scientific victories, intellectual freedom and the joy of creation.