Vera Fedorovna Schmidt (27 July 1889 in
Starokostiantyniv
Starokostiantyniv ( uk, Старокостянтинів; pl, Starokonstantynów, or ''Konstantynów''; yi, אלט-קאָנסטאַנטין ''Alt Konstantin'') is a city in Khmelnytskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. I ...
,
Volhynian Governorate
Volhynian Governorate or Volyn Governorate (russian: Волы́нская губе́рния, translit=Volynskaja gubernija, uk, Волинська губернія, translit=Volynska huberniia) was an administrative-territorial unit initially ...
– 17 July 1937 in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
) was a Russian Empire and laterSoviet educationist and one of the leading figures in the psychoanalytic movement during the "Silver Age". After the
Russian Revolution (1917)
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
she directed a highly innovative nursery school run on psychoanalytic principles.
Early life
She attended the Kiev Women's Educational Institute for three years from 1913 to 1916 where she received training in the methods of
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel Friedrich may refer to:
Names
*Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich''
*Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich''
Other
*Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
. In 1913 she met and married
Otto Schmidt
Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesm ...
who was to become a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer.
By the outbreak of the revolution, they had both developed an interest in
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
and Vera, who spoke German, had read
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
in the original. A supporter of the revolution, Otto Schmidt rose to positions of power and influence in the new Soviet regime becoming a member of a number of People's Commissariats including
Narkompros The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charge ...
(Narodnyi Komissariat Prosvescheniya, or the
People's Commissariat A People's Commissariat (russian: народный комиссариат; Narkomat) was a structure in the Soviet state (in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in other union and autonomous republics, in the Soviet Union) from 1917– ...
for Education) and he was also employed as the director of the State Publishing House (
Gosizdat
State Publishing House of the RSFSR (Russian: Госуда́рственное изда́тельство РСФСР), also known as Gosizdat (Госиздат), was the State Publishing House founded in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Repu ...
) from 1921-1924. In this capacity, he was engaged in the publication of works by Freud and his daughter,
Anna Freud
Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contribu ...
.
Psychoanalysis in Soviet Russia
In 1921 the Narkompros established the
Russian Psychoanalytical Society in Moscow, a body that later came to contain, among others, figures like
Alexander Luria
Alexander Romanovich Luria (russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия, p=ˈlurʲɪjə; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He develope ...
, who, after the revolution, at only nineteen, was a leader of the Kazan Psychoanalytical Circle, and Mosche Wulff (Moshe Woolf) (1878-1971) who had promoted psychoanalysis during the pre-revolutionary "Silver Age". The President of the Society was
Ivan Ermakov who edited a nine-volume series of Freud's work in Russian. He later became known for his Freudian literary criticism of
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
. Otto Schmidt, in the meantime, became vice-president of the coordinating committee of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society and the state-backed, Psychoanalytic Institute which was headed by Ermakov.
The Detski Dom Laboratory
He was also officially responsible for the Detski Dom ("Children's Home", a Russian term for
orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
) which opened in May 1921 in the center of Moscow and shared with the Psychoanalytic Institute the magnificent Art Nouveau building in Malaya Nikitskaya Street designed by
Fyodor Schechtel
Fyodor Osipovich Schechtel (russian: Фёдор О́сипович Ше́хтель; August 7, 1859 – July 7, 1926) was a Russian architect, graphic artist and stage designer, the most influential and prolific master of Russian Art Nouveau and ...
(August 7, 1859 - July 7, 1926). This was the former home of Stepan Ryabushinsky a rich merchant and chair of the stock exchange who left Russia after the revolution. Although Ivan Ermakov, president of the Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, was nominally in charge of the home, it was run by Vera Schmidt assisted initially by fifty-one staff members, among whom was Mosche Wulff and the prominent psychoanalyst,
Sabina Spielrein
Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first fema ...
.
She, along with Luria, joined the Russian Psychoanalytical Society in 1923 having formerly been a member of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society and was one of only a few trained psychoanalysts in Soviet Russia.
A historian of the psychoanalytical movement in the early years of the Soviet Union described how the home was funded. He also indicated the elite familial background of the children who attended it. Later, that Party elite came to be known as the
nomenklatura
The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...
.
"The Detski Dom was funded partly by the State partly by the share in profits from Freud's publications in Russian, partly by international support from a German Trade Union. In 1923, 18 educators were busy with 12 children from 2 to 4 years old. According to the unpublished Charter of the Kindergarten written by Ermakov, "the major part of the children are children of the Party executives who give all their time to their work and are not able to rear their children (Ermakov Archive). In fact, it was an elite institution supported by the officials to keep their children in hard times. Luria recalled orally that among these children was the son of Stalin (Vasilii, born in 1921)."
Vera Schmidt's own son, Vladimir, whose nickname was Wolik, also attended the Detski Dom and she recorded his, as well as the other children's activities, in journal. These were used as data regarding children's development by other Soviet psychologists such as Luria.
[Luriia, A. R. and L. S. Vygotsky (1992). "Ape, primitive man, and child: essays in the history of behavior". New York, Harvester Wheatsheaf.] The Detski Dom was virtually unique in its principles and practices and above all in its psychoanalytic approach. It was visited by several western Marxist psychoanalysts like Anna Mänchen-Helfen (1902-1991) and Annie Reich (1902-1971) together with her husband,
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
.
Due to the German Trade union's financial support, the home also became known as the Solidarity International Laboratory Home. When that support ended, financial problems, together with internal dissension weakened the organisation of the Detski Dom which also came under external pressure as the psychoanalytic approach came under attack from supporters of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
due to its association with his rival for power,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
. Associated with the rise of Stalin and the Communist Party's turn away from psychoanalysis was the new science of childhood named
pedology
Pedology (from Greek: πέδον, ''pedon'', "soil"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a discipline within soil science which focuses on understanding and characterizing soil formation, evolution, and the theoretical frameworks for modeling ...
which was promoted by Aron Zalkind (1888–1936) a former adherent of psychoanalysis but now its leading critic.
In early 1923 the Schmidts went to Vienna, where they met Freud. They discussed with him the children's Home and the activities of the psychoanalytic movement in Russia. They also met other analysts, such as
Otto Rank
Otto Rank (; ; né Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, ...
and
Karl Abraham
Karl Abraham (; 3 May 1877 – 25 December 1925) was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'.
Life
Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Nathan Abraham, a Jewish ...
. Discussions focused mainly on psychoanalysis and the organization of the collective educational system. Following their visit, the Russian Psychoanalytic Association, became an associate member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) in 1924 and later in 1927, Vera Schmidt became its secretary. In this year also, her book Psychoanalytical Education in Soviet Russia was published in Germany at Leipzig by the International Psychoanalytical Publishing House. This book was based on her experiences and observations in the Detski Dom and it was cited extensively by Wilhelm Reich.
On August 14, 1925, the Narkompros (Ministry of Public Education) closed the home and the building was later to become Gorky's home and later, the Gorky Museum. In an ironic turn of events, Stalin's son, Vasilii,
Vasily Dzhugashvili
Vasily Iosifovich Stalin ( ka, ვასილი იოსების სტალინი, russian: Василий Иосифович Сталин; surname since 9 January 1962 Dzhugashvili, , ; 24 March 1921 – 19 March 1962) was the son ...
occupied the site of his former nursery after Gorky's death.
Last years
In 1930, after the Russian Psychoanalytical Society was dissolved she worked at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Experimental Institute of Defectology. The research carried out there was under the direction of
Lev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (russian: Лев Семёнович Выго́тский, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; be, Леў Сямёнавіч Выго́цкі, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on ps ...
since its foundation in 1929. Vera Schmidt died at the age of 48 years while being
operated on for a
thyroid tumor
Thyroid neoplasm is a neoplasm or tumor of the thyroid. It can be a benign tumor such as thyroid adenoma,Chapter 20 in: 8th edition. or it can be a malignant neoplasm (thyroid cancer), such as papillary thyroid cancer, papillary, follicular thyro ...
to treat
Graves' disease
Graves' disease (german: Morbus Basedow), also known as toxic diffuse goiter, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. It frequently results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. It also often results in an enlarged thyr ...
.
Works
* Dnevnik materi: pervij god jizni (Diary of a mother: the first year of life) (2009).
* Vera Schmidt ''SCRITTI SU PSICOANALISI INFANTILE ED EDUCAZIONE'' Edited by: Giuseppe Leo Prefaced by Alberto Angelini, Rita Corsa, Vlasta Polojaz Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero 248 pages, Year 2014,
References
*Brehony, K. J. (2006) Representations of Socialist educational experiments in the 1920s and 1930s: The place of the Sciences of Education. Passion, fusion, tension. ''New Education and Educational sciences - Education nouvelle et Sciences de l'éducation (end 19th-middle 20th century - fin 19e-milieu 20e siècle''. R. Hofstetter and B. Schneuwly. Bern, Peter Lang. 271-304.
*Miller, M. A. (1998) ''Freud and the Bolsheviks: psychoanalysis in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union''. New Haven, Yale University Press.
*Reich, W. (1972) ''The sexual revolution: towards a self-governing character structure''. London, Vision.
*Valkanova, Y. and K. J. Brehony (2006). "The 'Gifts' and 'Contributions'. Friedrich Froebel and Russian education from 1850 to 1920." History of Education 35(2): 189-207.
External links
Schmidt, Vera Federovna (1889-1937): International Dictionary of Psychoanalysisat soc.enotes.com
Vera Federovna Schmidt: Information and Much More from Answers.comat www.answers.com
at psychoanalyse.narod.ru
at www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Vera
1889 births
1937 deaths
People from Starokostiantyniv
People from Volhynian Governorate
Soviet psychologists
Child psychologists
Deaths from thyroid cancer