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Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists

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Tales of Physicists and Mathematicians is a translation of a book that was published in Russia in 2001 and is based on articles that appeared from 1960–1980. The first edition of the book, less than half the size of the current one, was published in the Soviet Union in 1981 and in English in 1988. Thus the book has its own history, and I would like to  share some of the circumstances under which it appeared to the westernreader.

This was a time not only of a surprising flourishing of mathematics in the Soviet Union but also of its surprisingly great prestige in society, perhaps not seen since the time of Plato’s Academy in Athens. Mathematics attracted talented youth not only as an area where they could stretch themselves intellectually but also as one that minimized the influence of the official Marxist ideology that deeply penetrated into the lives of the “Soviet people.” The profession of scientist, and in particular of mathematician, carried great authority. Here is an interesting observation in this regard. Children of the top Communist elite, including some “members of the Politburo,” sometimes chose mathematics or another science as their professions, just as future kings often studied with Plato. Mathematics was lucky: it was never a personal “concern” of Stalin, as were biology, linguistics, and economics, which inevitably led to annihilating, punitive operations against them. In a fantasy of Solzhenitsyn, Stalin looked through a high school mathematics text, choosing the next science to be the subject of his concern. It is hard to imagine what would happen next. The opinion “upstairs” that a high level in the exact sciences was important for the military industry no doubt helped. Gradually, it became the fashion to have mathematicians in any serious organization. Often they enjoyed some freedom, but this is reminiscent of the freedom of the court jester. The comparative idyll between mathematicians and those in power ended in the late 1960s when many mathematicians signed a letter to the government defending their colleague Alexander Esenin-Volpin, who had been sent to a mental hospital for political reasons.
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