Vygotsky's seminal text on play was originally given as a lecture at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad in 1933, and is consequently a relatively late work. It is thanks to a stenographic record of the lecture that this text, a key influence on psychological research on play, has survived. This was Vygotsky's major work on play and despite its brevity it has continued to resonate in all discussions of play ever since its publication. But in fact it was not published, or translated into English, until more than 30 years after it was originally delivered. The history of the publication of Vygotsky's lecture is presented in this article, along with a translated version of the lecture. [Translated in 2015 by Nikolai Veresov (Australia) and Myra Barrs (United Kingdom).]