On a par with the analysis of the Russian history of psychology development the paper characterizes academic research and teaching profession of one of the greatest contemporary historians of psychology Antonina Nikolaevna Zhdan, Distinguished Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education. The paper shows her contribution to the international and national history of psychology, historical and scientific research of the Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the history of psychology teaching at the Department of General Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University. We give an account of the origin of the historical and psychological research in the Russian empire and Soviet times: Psychological Institute (1914) of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (established in 1966). The role of A.N. Zhdan in finalizing the encyclopedias devoted to the 250th anniversary of Lomonosov Moscow State University is distinguished. We mention Antonina N. Zhdan’s teacher, Peter Ya. Galperin, who was the first to develop a training course on the history of psychology that serves as a basis for creating and then publishing a university course curriculum and a manual. The paper highlights the constructive role of academic research and teaching profession of A.N. Zhdan to develop the first Russian university fundamental textbook on the history of psychology which she positioned from the perspective of L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural historical psychology, A.N. Leontiev’s theory of activity and P. Ya. Galperin’s concept of orienting activity. 

We analyze the work of A.N. Zhdan on various aspects of the history of psychology and the establishing theoretical principles of its research and development. The significance of A.N. Zhdan’s works for developing methodology of psychology is emphasized. It is particularly stressed that this line of research characterizes the academic school of the history of international and Russian psychology with her active participation.

Interview with A.I.Podolsky (Professor of Psychology, Head of Developmental Psychology Department of Moscow State Lomonosov University), dedicated to the anniversary of P.Y.Galperin.

One of the chapters from the book “Way of thinking: the problem of the historical unity of scientific knowledge” by V.P. Zinchenko (edited by T.G. Shchedrina), published in 2011 is presented. V.P. Zinchenko describes his outstanding teachers, especially about P.Y. Galperin and his colleagues: A.R. Luria, A.N. Leontyev, P.I. Zinchenko and D.B. Elkonin, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.A. Smirnov. The contributions of these outstanding scientists in psychological science are shown on a par with biographical account and their personal traits.