Mathematics and politics in the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953 (Q696887)

This long and important article is based on very clear and distinct personal memories by the author, a noted Russian-born, now American mathematician. This is particularly true for the situation of mathematics in Leningrad of the 1930s. Basing his judgment also on recent Russian publications of hitherto unknown sources, Lorentz gives acute descriptions of the ideological intrusion of dogmatic Marxism upon Russian mathematics and mathematicians by people like E. Kolman and L. A. Leifert. The author reports on the sufferings and deaths of many scientists in concentration camps, including his own father. He explains the survival and preferential treatment of mathematics after the shock waves of the great ``turnabout'' and the trials of 1936/37 by its apolitical nature. Nevertheless he also shows the political actions and compromises by various leading Soviet mathematicians including A. N. Kolmogorov, P. S. Aleksandrov, A. D. Aleksandrov. Lorentz surmises possible blackmail against Kolmogorov that caused him to otherwise unexplainable actions such as his joint open letter with P. S. Aleksandrov against Solzhenitsyn on the pages of ``Pravda'' in 1974, reproduced p. 217. The author gives a detailed report on the ``case of the academician Lusin'', the teacher of both Kolmogorov and P. S. Aleksandrov, who had to stand a political trial in 1936 with several of his students turning against him, but defended by S. N. Bernstein and A. N. Krylov. Lorentz describes in detail the situation of ``Leningrad during the blockade'' (208 ff.) reporting on own conflicts with the secret police. The author does not discuss the circumstances of his defection to or capture by the Germans which would make for another fascinating story and historical study.