The Fate of Russian Translations of Cantor
Galina Sinkevich (St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and, Civil Engineering, 4, Vtoraja Krasnoarmejskaja ul., St. Petersburg 190005,, Russia)
TL;DR
This paper traces the history and decline of Russian translations of Cantor's set theory works from 1892 to 1985, highlighting their initial enthusiasm and subsequent neglect in Soviet Russia.
Contribution
It provides a detailed historical account of the translation, dissemination, and eventual suppression of Cantor's set theory in Russia over nearly a century.
Findings
Initial enthusiasm among Russian mathematicians and philosophers.
The decline of translations after 1970 due to ideological shifts.
The tragic fate of Cantor's works in Soviet Russia.
Abstract
This is the history of translating Cantor's works into Russian from 1892 to 1985 in Odessa, Moscow, Tomsk, Kazan, S.-Petersburg, Leningrad. Mathematicians and philosophers in Russia took the ideas of the theory of sets enthusiastically. Such renowned scholars and scientists as Timchenko, Shatunovsky, Vasiliev, Florensky, Mlodzeevsky, Nekrasov, Zhegalkin, Yushkevich Sr., Fet, Yushkevich Jr., Kolmogorov, and Medvedev took part in their popularisation. In 1970 Academician Pontryagin rated the theory of sets as useless for young mathematicians, and the translated works of Cantor were not published. This article first describes the tragic fate of this translation.
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