A psychology for pedagogy: intelligence testing in USSR in the 1920s.

This article examines a case of intelligence testing conducted in the mid-1920s, while considering the broader political and scientific context of Soviet life. Guided by questions about the status and influence of mental measurement in Russian society, previously and after the revolution, as well as asking about the main actors in the fields linked to testing, such as psychology, pedagogy, and pedology, during this tumultuous period. To answer these questions, journals and difficult-to-access archival sources were used, which provided evidence regarding the enthusiasm psychological testing had on scholars in the 1920s and the institutional support they received for their surveys. The article offers some hints concerning why this was so and why this situation changed completely a decade later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).