The Moscow Mathematical Society and the development of mathematics in Russia (on the 150th anniversary of the Society’s creation)

Abstract

The Moscow Mathematical Society — the oldest mathematical society in Russia, and one of the oldest in the world — was established one hundred and fifty years ago, in the Autumn of 1864. Its foundation was one of the most significant events in the development of mathematics in Russia, testifying to the creation in the country of a mathematical community that needed special forms of organization for its activities. It should be noted that this was not the first attempt to organize a mathematical society in Moscow: already in 1810, a group of teachers and students at Moscow State University had tried to establish a similar society; see [1, p. 316] and [2]. However, it existed only very briefly: a sufficiently large community of active professional mathematicians had not yet formed in the ancient capital to maintain its regular activities. Until the mid-1830s, Moscow was, in relation to mathematics, profoundly provincial, significantly inferior to St. Petersburg, in which the Imperial Academy of Sciences was located, and Kazan’, workplace of N. I. Lobachevskĭı (see [1]. But by as early as the middle of the nineteenth century, the works of N. D. Brashman and N. E. Zernova of Moscow had become notable points on the mathematical map of Europe.