Dmitrii Egorov: Mathematics and Religion in Moscow (Q2641284)

The author describes some of the circumstances and attitudes of the new Soviet (Marxist) philosophy as well as politics around the beginning of this century towards mathematicians and scientists who did not adopt materialistic point of view, but rather alternative views, including that of practicing religion. One of the most prominent mathematicians and one of the founders of modern Russian mathematics, Dmitrii Egorov, suffered greatly because of his involvement with the Church and his opposition to Marxism. He lost his key positions in Moscow mathematics and was arrested and exiled to Kazan, where he died after a hunger strike. A number of other prominent Russian mathematicians had religious interactions: N. V. Bugayev (one of Egorov's teachers and philosophical idealists with religious perspective), P. A. Florensky (a mathematician, who was one of the greatest figures in the religious-philosophical revival at the turn of the 19th century and who became a theologian), N. N. Luzin (the first and most important of Egorov's students who enjoyed Florensky's religious work) and a number of others.