Adolph-Andrei Pavlovich Yushkevich (russian: Адо́льф-Андре́й Па́влович Юшке́вич; 15 July 1906 – 17 July 1993) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

historian of mathematics, leading expert in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

mathematics of the East and the work of

Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries ...

. He is a winner of George Sarton Medal by the

History of Science Society The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton, David Eugene Smith, and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publi ...

for a lifetime of scholarly achievement.

Biography

Yushkevich was born in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

to a Jewish family. His father was Pavel Yushkevich a Sorbonne-educated

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, active in politics as a

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions em ...

who was in "ssylka" (

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

) in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

, and later in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. His uncle, Semen Solomonovich Yushkevich was a well-known Jewish writer. Yushkevich grew up in St. Petersburg and later in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

where he lived until

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

of 1917, when Yushkevich family returned to

. For a time,

Sofya Yanovskaya Sofya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya (also Janovskaja; russian: Софи́я Алекса́ндровна Яно́вская; 31 January 1896 – 24 October 1966) was a Soviet mathematician and historian, specializing in the history of mathematics, math ...

was one of Adolf's teachers in a gymnasium. In 1923, Yushkevich started his studies at the Department of Mathematics of

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. His doctoral advisor was Dmitri Egorov, but he was awarded a Ph.D. degree without a

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

. From 1930 to 1952 he worked at Bauman Technical University where he rose to professorship in 1940 and head of the department of mathematics in 1941. In the years 1941–1943 he was evacuated to

Izhevsk Izhevsk (russian: Иже́вск, p=ɪˈʐɛfsk; udm, Ижкар, ''Ižkar'', or , ''Iž'') is the capital city of Udmurtia, Russia. It is situated along the Izh River, west of the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. It is the 21st-largest city ...

, together with the whole Bauman Technical University. Starting 1952, he became a full-time researcher at Vavilov Institute of Natural History, where he worked until retirement. Yushkevich published over 300 works in history of mathematics. For his work, he received numerous honors, including George Sarton Medal (1978), Koyré Medal by the

International Academy of the History of Science The International Academy of the History of Science (french: Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences) is a membership organization for historians of science. The academy was founded on 17 August 1928 at the Congress of Historical Science b ...

(1971), May Prize (1989) by the

International Commission on the History of Mathematics The International Commission on the History of Mathematics was established in 1971 to promote the study of history of mathematics. Kenneth O. May provided its initial impetus. In 1974, its official journal Historia Mathematica began publishing. E ...

, Prize of the

German Academy of Sciences Berlin The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, german: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (DAW), in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent research institution ...

(twice, in 1978 and 1983), and Prize of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

(1982). He was a member of several foreign academies, including

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...

, and president of the International Academy of the History of Science (1965–1968). Yushkevich died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1993. He bequeathed his personal library to the Vavilov Institute.

References

* * I.G. Bashmakova, A.O. Gelfond, B.A. Rosenfeld, K.A. Rybnikov, S.A. Yanovskaya
Adolf Pavlovich Yushkevich is 60
(in Russian), ''Russian Mathematical Surveys'' 22 (1967), 187–194. * I.G. Bashmakova et al
Adolf-Andrei Pavlovich Yushkevich (in memoriam)
Russian Mathematical Surveys, 49:4 (1994), 75–77.
Adolf-Andrei Pavlovich Yushkevich
(in Russian). * Boris Rosenfeld
Memoirs
(in Russian). * K. Shelma, "An interview with Adolf-Andrei Pavlovich Iushkevich", in ''Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniya i Techniki'' (ed. by B.G. Yudin), Vol. 94, No. 1-2 (1994), 26–42. * S.S. Demidov, T.A. Tokareva
Adolf P. Yushkevich (1906–1993) and formation of the society of mathematical historians
(in Russian), in ''Proc. 6-th Tambov All-Russian Conference in History of Mathematics'', Pershin Publ., 2006, 9–28.

External links

* * * A.P. Yushkevich
The Lusin Affair

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yushkevich, Adolf 1906 births 1993 deaths Writers from Moscow Odesa Jews Scientists from Odesa Soviet historians Jewish scientists Soviet mathematicians Historians of mathematics Moscow State University alumni