I used to think that Soviet Union was worse in economy, but at least better at things like math. Then I read some books about math in Soviet Union and realized that pretty much all mathematical progress in Soviet Union came from people who were not supported by the regime, because the regime preferred to support the ones good at playing political games, even if they were otherwise completely incompetent. (Imagine equivalents of Lysenko; e.g. people arguing that schools shouldn’t teach vectors, because vectors are a “bourgeoise pseudoscience”. No, I am not making this one up.) There were many people who couldn’t get a job at academia and had to work in factories, who did a large part of the math research in their free time.
There were a few lucky exceptions, for example Kolmogorov once invented something that was useful for WW2 warfare, so in reward he became one of the few competent people in the Academy of Science. He quickly used his newly gained political powers to create a few awesome projects, such as the international mathematical olympiad, the mathematical jurnal Kvant, and high schools specializing at mathematics. After a few years he lost his influence again, because he wasn’t very good at playing political games, but his projects remained.
Seems like the lesson is that when insanity becomes the official ideology, it ruins everything, unless something like war provides a feedback from reality, and even then the islands of sanity are limited.
What were these books? I don’t speak Russian, so I’ll probably follow up with: who were a few important mathematicians who worked in factories?
I’ve heard a few stories of people being demoted from desk jobs to manual labor after applying for exit visas, but that’s not quite the same as never getting a desk job in the first place. I’ve heard a lot of stories of badly-connected pure mathematicians being sent to applied think tanks, but that’s pretty cushy and there wasn’t much obligation to do the nominal work, so they just kept doing pure math. I can’t remember them, but I think I’ve heard stories of mathematicians getting non-research desk jobs, but doing math at work.
Thanks! Since that’s in English, I will take at least a look at it.
Gessen does not strike me as a reliable source, so for now I am completely discounting everything you said about it, in favor of what I have heard directly from Russian mathematicians, which is a lot less extreme.
I used to think that Soviet Union was worse in economy, but at least better at things like math. Then I read some books about math in Soviet Union and realized that pretty much all mathematical progress in Soviet Union came from people who were not supported by the regime, because the regime preferred to support the ones good at playing political games, even if they were otherwise completely incompetent. (Imagine equivalents of Lysenko; e.g. people arguing that schools shouldn’t teach vectors, because vectors are a “bourgeoise pseudoscience”. No, I am not making this one up.) There were many people who couldn’t get a job at academia and had to work in factories, who did a large part of the math research in their free time.
There were a few lucky exceptions, for example Kolmogorov once invented something that was useful for WW2 warfare, so in reward he became one of the few competent people in the Academy of Science. He quickly used his newly gained political powers to create a few awesome projects, such as the international mathematical olympiad, the mathematical jurnal Kvant, and high schools specializing at mathematics. After a few years he lost his influence again, because he wasn’t very good at playing political games, but his projects remained.
Seems like the lesson is that when insanity becomes the official ideology, it ruins everything, unless something like war provides a feedback from reality, and even then the islands of sanity are limited.
What were these books? I don’t speak Russian, so I’ll probably follow up with: who were a few important mathematicians who worked in factories?
I’ve heard a few stories of people being demoted from desk jobs to manual labor after applying for exit visas, but that’s not quite the same as never getting a desk job in the first place. I’ve heard a lot of stories of badly-connected pure mathematicians being sent to applied think tanks, but that’s pretty cushy and there wasn’t much obligation to do the nominal work, so they just kept doing pure math. I can’t remember them, but I think I’ve heard stories of mathematicians getting non-research desk jobs, but doing math at work.
Masha Gessen: Perfect Rigour: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century
This is a story about one person, but there is a lot of background information on doing math in Soviet Union.
Thanks! Since that’s in English, I will take at least a look at it.
Gessen does not strike me as a reliable source, so for now I am completely discounting everything you said about it, in favor of what I have heard directly from Russian mathematicians, which is a lot less extreme.