Children’s Play in Cultural-Historical Psychology: Substitution, Loss and Recreation of the Ideal Form of Activity in the Educational Space

The article deals with the problem of children’s play from the standpoint of the Cultural-Historical Psychology. The fact that developed forms of play are rather rare in the life of contemporary children is considered from the position of the absence in their life of the ideal form of the play, which inevitably leads to the impossibility of appropriating the corresponding activity. The distortion and loss of the ideal form of play has a long history and did not occur immediately. Based on the analysis of documentary sources (methodical letters, periodicals, scientific literature, etc.), it is shown how teachers’ ideas about children’s play changed, what forms of play were broadcast to children in educational organizations and what other channels of assigning play experience were at the disposal of children in different historical periods. The article describes the developed forms of play and indicates what conditions are necessary for their emergence.