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The work of the Russian psychologist Arthur Vladimirovich Petrovsky (1924-2006) is little known in contemporary Social Psychology, especially his studies on the collective and the personality. Petrovsky proposes the collective as a group at a higher level of development, demanding a specific approach, given the impropriety of using the results of research with artificial small groups to approach collectives. The author proposes the theory of the mediation of interpersonal relationships through socially significant joint activity, which structures the stratometric conception of group activity. The essay provides a brief history of the origin of studies on groups and collectives in Soviet social psychology, the moments in which the stratometric conception was developed, and the structure of this conception. To this end, a theoretical-conceptual study was developed that closely analyzed selected parts of the work ‘Teoria Psicologica del Colectivo’, by A. V. Petrovski. Relevant methodological rigor, epistemological coherence and theoretical consistency were observed in the development of the stratometric conception of group activity. Strong critics is made of studies on small groups in traditional social psychology, especially methodological. The contribution that stands out, however, is the elaboration of a psychological theory of the collective, which is the basis for the stratometric conception, whose conceptual structure is based on the results of formative experiments. The theory proposed by Petrovsky makes it possible to approach the groups based upon activity theory, considering the necessary differentiation between groups and collectives, and encouraging debate about the place of collectives in society.