Platon 1

Vladimir Putin

Hector Platon

June 28, 2010

Developmental Psychology

Dr. Doyle

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ; born 7 October 1952 was the second President and is the
current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and  Council of
Chairman of The Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting
President on 31 December 1999, when President Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move,
and then Putin won the 2000 presidential election. In 2004 he was re-elected for a second term
lasting until 7 May 2008.
 Platon 2

Trust vs. Mistrust

(0-18 Months)

Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russian

Federation), to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna
Shelomova (1911–1998). His mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in
the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s, subsequently serving
with the NKVD in a sabotage group during World War II .Two elder brothers were born in the
mid–1930s; one died within a few months of birth, while the second succumbed
to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad. His paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin
(1879–1965), was employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a cook, and after Lenin's
death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He would later cook
for Joseph Stalin when the Soviet leader visited one of his dachas in the Moscow region.
Spiridon later was employed at a dacha belonging to the Moscow City Committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, at which the young Putin would visit him.

Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

(18 months-3 years)

In the early 1950s, Putin and his parents lived in one room of a three-room communal apartment
in what was then Leningrad. They shared a common kitchen and bathroom with their neighbors.

"They say Putin had a very hospitable mother and that his friends could freely come to their
home, where she would feed them," Kirill said.

Initiative vs. Guilt

(3-6 years)

Putin was raised in communal housing as an only child after his two brothers died in childhood,
one at birth and one during the 900-day Nazi siege. Though religion was not permitted, his
mother Maria secretly had him baptised as an Orthodox Christian he's now a practicing member
of the church. 
 Platon 3

Industry vs. Inferiority

(6-12 years)

At School No. 193, Putin completed grades one through eight. The students know Putin studied
there, and they are proud of it.
When he was an 11-year-old boy, he was far from any sort of greatness at the time.
One instructor's comment said, "before class [Putin] threw chalkboard erasers at the children."
Others read: "Didn't do his math homework." "Behaved badly during singing class." "Talks in
class."

Identity vs. Role Confusion

(12-18 years)

Putin's grades didn't reveal anything exceptional, either. On the Soviet five-point scale, he scored
threes in arithmetic and natural science, and a two in drawing.
The only subject in which he scored a five was history. He also got a five for behavior, despite
his altercations in gym class.  The young Putin experienced a poverty-stricken childhood
tempered by a good education. He developed lifelong passions for judo and spy novels, and first
applied to the KGB at the age of 17.

Intimacy vs. Isolation

(Young adulthood)

Putin's involvement in sports, which continues to this day, started at 21 Ulitsa Dekabristov in
1967. He joined a children's sports society called Trud, or Labor, and learned self-defense and
later judo. Before being a judo champion, Putin fought repeatedly with his gym teacher during
the 1963-64 school years. Young Putin was sent out of class and punished for forgetting his
uniform, according to the paper.
At Leningrad State University, Putin graduated from the law department in 1975 but instead of
entering the law field right out of school, Putin landed a job with the KGB, the only one in his
 Platon 4

class of one hundred to be chosen. The branch he was assigned to was responsible for recruiting
foreigners who would work to gather information for KGB intelligence.
In the early 1980s Putin met and married his wife, Lyudmila, a former teacher of French and
English. In 1985 the KGB sent him to Dresden, East Germany, where he lived undercover as Mr.
Adamov, the director of the Soviet-German House of Friendship, a social and cultural club. Putin
appeared to genuinely enjoy spending time with Germans, unlike many other KGB agents, and
respected the German culture.

Generativity vs. Apathy

(34-56 years)

Putin known as a former Soviet intelligence agent entered politics in the early 1990s and rose
rapidly. In 1996, Putin was offered a job with the victor, but declined out of loyalty. The next
year, he was asked to join President Boris Yeltin's "inner circle" as deputy chief administrator of
the Kremlin, the building that houses the Russian government. In March of 1999, he was named
secretary of the Security Council, a body that advises the president on matters of foreign policy,
national security, and military and law enforcement.
By August of 1999, ailing President Boris Yeltsin (1931–) appointed him prime minister. When
Yeltsin stepped down in December of 1999, Putin became the acting president of Russia, and he
was elected president to serve a full term on March 26, 2000.

Integrity vs. Despair

(56+ years)

His presidency lasted for two terms - the maximum length of time allowed under Russian law -
until May 7, 2008. He remains in a prominent political role within Russia though - as he was
sworn in as Prime Minister the day after his presidency ended