Nikolay Luzin, His Students, Adversaries, and Defenders (Notes
Nikolay Luzin, his students, adversaries, and defenders (notes on the history of Moscow mathematics, 1914-1936) Yury Neretin This is historical-mathematical and historical notes on Moscow mathematics 1914-1936. Nikolay Luzin was a central figure of that time. Pavel Alexandroff, Nina Bari, Alexandr Khinchin, Andrey Kolmogorov, Mikhail Lavrentiev, Lazar Lyusternik, Dmitry Menshov, Petr Novikov, Lev Sсhnirelman, Mikhail Suslin, and Pavel Urysohn were his students. We discuss the time of the great intellectual influence of Luzin (1915-1924), the time of decay of his school (1922-1930), a moment of his administrative power (1934-1936), and his fall in July 1936. But the thing which served as a source of Luzin’s inner drama turned out to be a source of his subsequent fame... Lazar Lyusternik [351] Il est temps que je m’arr ete: voici que je dis, ce que j’ai d´eclar´e, et avec raison, ˆetre inutile `adire. Henri Lebesgue, Preface to Luzin’s book, Leˇcons sur les ensembles analytiques et leurs applications, [288] Прошло сто лет и что ж осталось От сильных, гордых сих мужей, Столь полных волею страстей? Их поколенье миновалось Alexandr Pushkin ’Poltava’ There is a common idea that a life of Nikolay Luzin can be a topic of a Shakespeare drama. I am agree with this sentence but I am extremely far from an intention to realize this idea. The present text is an impassive historical-mathematical and historical investigation of Moscow mathematics of that time. On the other hand, this is more a story of its initiation and turning moments than a history of achievements.
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