Bolshevik mathematician who resurrected mathematical logic in the Soviet Union
When the Whites tried to execute her, the bullets struck only her tall hat because she was so small; she fell from the bridge into the river and hid among the reeds until nightfall.
A Bolshevik revolutionary turned Soviet mathematician and philosopher, she was the founder who revived and institutionalized mathematical logic as an autonomous discipline in the Soviet Union. She survived a White Army execution squad during the Civil War, and in 1933 she discovered and published Marx's 'Mathematical Manuscripts,' laying the foundation for Marxist mathematical research worldwide. Once an orthodox Marxist-Leninist who attacked 'idealist' mathematics in the 1930s, she later reversed course and resurrected mathematical logic at Moscow State University during the Stalin era when it was suppressed; she is also known for persuading Wittgenstein to abandon his plan to emigrate to the Soviet Union in 1935.
Career Timeline
- 1918–1919Bolshevik underground in Odessa, secretary of underground Red Cross
- 1919–1920Assistant editor and head of information, 'Red Army' newspaper, Political Directorate of 12th Army
- 1920–1923Party worker, Information Department, Odessa Gubernia Committee
- 1923–1929Student then instructor, Institute of Red Professors
- 1931–1941Professor, Moscow State University; Doctor of Physical-Mathematical Sciences 1935
- 1943–1966Organized and led mathematical logic seminar, Moscow State University
- 1944–1955Head, Department of History of Mathematical Sciences, Moscow State University
- 1959–1966Professor, Department of Mathematical Logic, Moscow State University