The article makes the case for the long-term integrity of the St Petersburg school of psychology, established in the early 1900s by V. M. Bekhterev. In the large Psychoneurological Institute, he led a multidisciplinary group of scientists who pursued a comprehensive research program with human psychology at its center. After Bekhterev's death, and under difficult internal and external conditions during Soviet rule, B. G. Ananiev was able to lead the same integrated style of research, which he called anthropological psychology, at Leningrad State University, and this approach endured at least until the end of the USSR. The focus is thus on the research, theory, and scientific leadership of Ananiev, who guided Leningrad psychology through this critical phase during the middle of the twentieth century. After reviewing Ananiev's theory of anthropological psychology and some of his research, the article ends with the suggestion that the approach of the St Petersburg school could still guide fruitful research in psychology.