A.N. Leontiev's scientific career is discussed in the retrospective of his relations with L.S. Vygotsky in the 1930s.The author analyzes differences in ideology and substance between the cultural historical theory and the theory of activity and their impact on Soviet and post-Soviet theoretical and practical psychology in Russia. The author believes that to overcome the schisis between psychological theory and practice, one must return to the tradition reflected in Vygotsky's later works and expressed above all in the idea of nominating experience.