Aleksei Ivanovich Markushevich (; ,

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

– 7 June 1979,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a Soviet mathematician, mathematical educator, and historian of mathematics. He is known for the Farrell–Markushevich theorem.

Biography

Markushevich's father worked as a junior architect for the Olonets provincial government. In 1916 the family moved to

Semipalatinsk Semey (; , formerly known as Semipalatinsk ( ) until 2007 and as Alash-Qala ( ) from 1917 to 1920, is a city in eastern Kazakhstan, in the Kazakh part of Siberia. When Abai Region was created in 2022, Semey became its administrative centre. I ...

, where he graduated from secondary school in 1924. In 1925 he matriculated at the First Central Asian State University (now the

National University of Uzbekistan National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz; ) is a public research university located in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. NUUz is the oldest and largest university in Uzbekistan. The National University of Uzbekistan is named after Mirzo Ulugbek. NUUz prof ...

). There in 1930 he graduated and was admitted to the correspondence course (education by mail) of the graduate school. In autumn 1931 he became a graduate student in the Research Institute of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State University. There he received in 1934 his Aspirantur (similar to a PhD) under the supervision of

Mikhail Lavrentyev Mikhail Alekseyevich Lavrentyev (or Lavrentiev, ; November 19, 1900 – October 15, 1980) was a Soviet mathematician and hydrodynamicist. Early years Lavrentyev was born in Kazan, where his father was an instructor at a college (he later became ...

, became at the beginning of 1935 a senior researcher, and became in 1938 an associate professor. At Moscow State University, Markushevich received in 1944 his Russian

Doctor of Sciences A Doctor of Sciences, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; ; ; ; is a higher doctoral degree in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and many Commonwealth of Independent States countries. One of the prerequisites of receiving a Doctor of Sciences ...

degree (habilitation) and in 1946 became a full professor, retaining that academic position until his death. Markushevich was elected in 1945 a corresponding member and in 1950 a full member of Академии педагогических наук РСФСР (Academy of Pedagogical Sciences,

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

). For that academy he served as vice-president from 1950 to 1958 and again from 1964 to 1967. From 1958 to 1964 he was the primary deputy minister of education of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In Академии педагогических наук СССР (Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR), he was elected a full member in 1967 and served as its vice-president from 1967 to 1975. In 1978 he was an Invited Speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

(ICM) in Helsinki. The last years of his life were overshadowed by a scandal related to the theft of medieval European manuscripts from Российский государственный архив древних актов, РГАДА / RGADA ( Russian State Archives of Ancient Documents; investigations revealed that the main buyer of the stolen documents was Markushevich. He was buried in Moscow at the

Kuntsevo Cemetery The Kuntsevo Cemetery () is a cemetery servicing Kuntsevo, Moscow. It is located on the bank of the Setun River, to the south of the Mozhaisk Highway (the continuation of the Kutuzovsky Prospekt). The local five-domed church was commissioned in 16 ...

(section 10).

Mathematical research

Markushevich's mathematical research deals mainly with

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...

conformal mapping In mathematics, a conformal map is a function that locally preserves angles, but not necessarily lengths. More formally, let U and V be open subsets of \mathbb^n. A function f:U\to V is called conformal (or angle-preserving) at a point u_0\i ...

, and

approximation theory In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how function (mathematics), functions can best be approximation, approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitative property, quantitatively characterization (mathematics), characteri ...

. He published a series of papers on approximation,

interpolation In the mathematics, mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one ...

, and completeness; the papers contributed to the pioneering methods of

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

, in particular the theory of linear spaces, which began to be widely used in the theory of analytic functions.

Book publishing activities

He was head of the editorial office of mathematics of the Soviet Издательство технико-теоретической литературы (Publishing House of Technical and Theoretical Literature) from 1934 to 1937 and again from 1943 to 1947. He initiated and participated in the publication of the series of books (Popular Lectures on Mathematics) published in 62 volumes from 1950 to 1992 and the series of books Библиотека учителя (Teacher's Library). From 1951 to 1952 and from 1963 to 1966, he was among the initiators and editors of Энциклопедия элементарной математики (Encyclopedia of Elementary Mathematics). Markushevich was keenly interested in the history of books. Beginning in the 1940s he collected old books of historical interest. In 1976, he donated his collection of

incunable An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentially arbitrary, but the ...

s to the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin.

Educational reform

During the 1960s and 1970s Markushevich was a leading supporter of reforming the teaching of mathematics in Soviet schools. In the 1960s, he took part in the creation of new school textbooks on mathematics, developed the pedagogical theory of school textbooks, and worked on improving the training of school mathematics teachers. He was the chair of the joint commission of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR, which determined the content of education in secondary schools.

Selected publications

Articles

* ''Die Arbeiten von C. F. Gauß über Funktionentheorie.'' (The works of C. F. Gauss on

) In: Hans Reichardt (ed.): ''C. F. Gauss. Gedenkband anlässlich des 100. Todestages am 23. Februar 1955.'' Teubner, Leipzig 1957, pp. 151–182. * A. N. Kolmogorov, A. P. Yushkevich (eds.), B. L. Laptev, B. A. Rosenfel'd, A. I. Markushevich: ''Mathematics of the 19th Century. Geometry, analytic function theory.'' Birkhäuser, Basel 1996. Markushevich contributed the section ''Analytic Function Theory''.

Books

* ''Theory of Analytic Functions.'' Hindustan Publishing Co., Delhi, 1963. (translation of 1961 Russian edition, revised from the 1944 Russian edition) * ''Skizzen zur Geschichte der analytischen Funktionen'' (Sketches on the history of analytic functions) (= ''Hochschulbücher für Mathematik.'' vol. 16). Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1955. * ''Theory of functions of a complex variable.'' 3 vols. Prentice-Hall, 1965–1967 ** (1 volume abridgment of the 3 volumes translated by Richard A. Silverman) * ''Entire Functions.'' American Elsevier, 1966, 105 pages (translated from the 1965 Russian edition); (ebook) * ''The Remarkable Sine Functions.'' American Elsevier, 1966 (translated from 1965 Russian edition); (ebook) * (ebook translated from the 1979 Russian edition by G. Bluher)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Markushevich, Aleksei Ivanovich 1908 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Russian mathematicians People from Petrozavodsk People from Petrozavodsky Uyezd Academic staff of Moscow State University Academicians of the RSFSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Academicians of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Moscow State University alumni National University of Uzbekistan alumni Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1959–1963 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1963–1967 Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Complex analysts Historians of mathematics Mathematical analysts Russian bibliophiles Russian book and manuscript collectors Soviet mathematicians Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery