Pavel Petrovich Blonsky was a Russian Soviet psychologist and philosopher who lived in the Ukraine until 1918. Blonsky was one of the main theorists of Soviet paedology and introduced the behaviorist approach in Russian psychology. After the publication of the anti-paedology decree "On Paedological Distortions in the System of People's Commissariat of Education" (1936) he was severely criticized for his adherence to psychological testing and studies of inborn capabilities.