Zagorsk Experiment and the Fate of the Scientist. In Memory of A.V. Suvorov (1953—2024)

Abstract

The article, based on a study of scientific materials, examines the activities of Alexander V. Suvorov (1953–2024), a Doctor of Psychology, Professor, and the world’s only deafblind psychologist, researcher, teacher, philosopher, and poet. His biography is inextricably linked to the study of deafblind individuals in our country, particularly through an experiment involving the training of four pupils from the Zagorsk boarding school at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University from 1972 to 1977. Educating deafblind individuals in the USSR required long-term efforts from defectologists, teachers, and psychologists. The establishment of a boarding school for deafblind children in Zagorsk in 1963 significantly improved the circumstances for this group of individuals, providing them with pathways to full development, social and professional adaptation, and creative self-expression. Four graduates of the Zagorsk boarding school practically validated the scientific theories of Vygotsky, Sokolyansky, Meshcheryakov, and Ilyenkov. The biography of A.V. Suvorov, who made a unique contribution to the development of typhlosurdopsychology as a branch of special psychology, is particularly noteworthy. The scientist was especially interested in the social environment of deafblind individuals, the nature of self-realization, and the sometimes complex relationships they developed with sighted and hearing individuals.