2025/07/07 by Nelin, Ievgen
#Freudianism #Soviet period #USSR #education #ideological control #psychoanalysis #psychoanalytic pedagogy
paper · doi:10.82130/hs2025-01-009
This article examines the evolution of psychoanalytic pedagogical ideas in the Soviet Union during the first half of the 20th century, focusing on periods of support and repression related to psychoanalytic approaches in education. The paper highlights the phases during which Sigmund Freud’s ideas initially gained the support of the Bolsheviks but were later subjected to severe criticism and rejection. It explores experiments in psychoanalytic education conducted at the “International Solidarity” orphanage and their subsequent prohibition due to political shifts. Particular attention is given to Joseph Stalin’s influence and the closure of psychoanalytic institutions in the 1930s, which led to the marginalization of pedagogy as a field. The article emphasizes the processes of ideological control and the replacement of psychoanalytic theories with Marxist models of education, as well as the role of underground psychoanalytic practices in a context of prohibition.