Valery Viktorovich Petukhov (15/IX/1950 — 6/IX/2003) was born in Bolshevo, Moscow Region. In 1968, he entered the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, which became his second home for the rest of his life. He considered Elena Yurievna Artemyeva, Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev and Merab Konstantinovich Mamardashvili to be his main teachers. After graduating from graduate school in 1976 and successfully defending his thesis “Psychological description of visual methods for solving geometric problems”, Valery Viktorovich worked as a teacher at the Department of General Psychology (as an assistant, associate professor and professor). Since July 2003, he has assumed the duties of the head of the new department of psychology methodology. For many years, Valery Viktorovich was a member of the Academic Council of the faculty, deputy head, chairman of the educational and methodological commission and a member of the Council of the Department of General Psychology.
Valery Viktorovich is the author of about 60 scientific papers and textbooks. Among them, the most important are «The image (representation) of the world and the psychological study of thinking» (1984), «Psychology of thinking» (1987), «Nature and culture» (1996). His scientific interests are reflected in the doctoral dissertation prepared for defense «Cultural-historical psychology of creative imagination.» For many years, he supervised term papers and theses, Ph.D. dissertations on this topic, read the author’s special course.
Valery Viktorovich considered teaching psychology to be his leading activity. In 1991, he developed a unique program for a holistic course that combines all sections of general psychology, while at the same time preserving the best traditions of teaching general psychology at our faculty. Regularly reading this course at Moscow State University, Valery Viktorovich constantly improved and updated it and prepared it for publication. The course is provided by the publication “General Psychology. Texts: in 3 volumes, audio and video recordings. Valery Viktorovich gave his last lecture on the day of his untimely death.
He gave lectures on general psychology in many cities of Russia and everywhere met with an enthusiastic reception from the audience. Valery Viktorovich was awarded the highest award of Moscow State University — the Lomonosov Prize, later the honorary title «Honored Teacher of Moscow University». But the main thing for him was the recognition and gratitude of students. At the initiative of the Student Council of MSU, he was awarded the medal of honor «The Best Teacher of MSU». His lectures were artistic, inspiring and at the same time strictly academic in spirit and direction. Valery Viktorovich was a man with unusually broad artistic and humanitarian interests, which he generously shared with students. His definition of a person as a subject of independent and responsible solution of his own problems on the basis of universal cultural norms applies in full measure to himself.