The First International Topological Conference was held 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 ...

, 4–10 September, 1935. With presentations by topologists from 10 different countries it constituted the first genuinely international meeting devoted to

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ho ...

in the world history of the mathematical community. Although a previous mathematical conference had been held in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Jacques Hadamard Jacques Salomon Hadamard (; 8 December 1865 – 17 October 1963) was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry and partial differential equations. Biography The son of a tea ...

, this turned out to be the only truly international conference organised under the Stalin regime.

Pavel Aleksandrov Pavel Sergeyevich Alexandrov (russian: Па́вел Серге́евич Алекса́ндров), sometimes romanized ''Paul Alexandroff'' (7 May 1896 – 16 November 1982), was a Soviet mathematician. He wrote about three hundred papers, ma ...

played a key role in organising the conference. The foreign delegates were accommodated in major hotels across Moscow, although according to

André Weil André Weil (; ; 6 May 1906 – 6 August 1998) was a French mathematician, known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry. He was a founding member and the ''de facto'' early leader of the mathematical Bourbaki group. ...

, the principal form of sustenance was Caviar Canapes served in the conference hall, as no food was available in the hotel restaurants.

Presentations

Documentation of the conference varies, but this summary was drawn from various sources.

Homology Theory

* Karol Borsuk: ‘‘On spheroidal spaces’’ * Eduard Čech: "Accessibility and Homology'" * Israel Isaakovich Gordon: ‘‘On the intersection invariants of a complex and its residual space.’ * Solomon Lefschetz: ‘‘On locally connected sets.’’

Attendees

The following topologists made presentations: Czechoslovakia: *

Eduard Čech Eduard Čech (; 29 June 1893 – 15 March 1960) was a Czech mathematician. His research interests included projective differential geometry and topology. He is especially known for the technique known as Stone–Čech compactification (in topolo ...

France: *

Netherlands *

Hans Freudenthal Hans Freudenthal (17 September 1905 – 13 October 1990) was a Jewish-German-born Dutch mathematician. He made substantial contributions to algebraic topology and also took an interest in literature, philosophy, history and mathematics edu ...

Egbert van Kampen Egbert Rudolf van Kampen (28 May 1908 – 11 February 1942) was a Dutch mathematician. He made important contributions to topology, especially to the study of fundamental groups. Life Van Kampen was born to Dutch parents in Belgium, wher ...

Poland: *

Karol Borsuk Karol Borsuk (May 8, 1905 – January 24, 1982) was a Polish mathematician. His main interest was topology, while he obtained significant results also in functional analysis. Borsuk introduced the theory of ''absolute retracts'' (ARs) and '' abs ...

Kazimierz Kuratowski Kazimierz Kuratowski (; 2 February 1896 – 18 June 1980) was a Polish mathematician and logician. He was one of the leading representatives of the Warsaw School of Mathematics. Biography and studies Kazimierz Kuratowski was born in Warsaw, ...

Juliusz Schauder Juliusz Paweł Schauder (; 21 September 1899, Lwów, Austria-Hungary – September 1943, Lwów, Occupied Poland) was a Polish mathematician of Jewish origin, known for his work in functional analysis, partial differential equations and m ...

Kazimierz Zarankiewicz Kazimierz Zarankiewicz (2 May 1902 – 5 September 1959) was a Polish mathematician and Professor at the Warsaw University of Technology who was interested primarily in topology and graph theory. Biography Zarankiewicz was born in Częstochowa. ...

USA: * James Waddell Alexander II *

Garrett Birkhoff Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory. The mathematician George Birkhoff (1884–1944) was his father. Life The son of the mathematician G ...

Solomon Lefschetz Solomon Lefschetz (russian: Соломо́н Ле́фшец; 3 September 1884 – 5 October 1972) was an American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ...

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; hu, Neumann János Lajos ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathemat ...

Albert W. Tucker Albert William Tucker (28 November 1905 – 25 January 1995) was a Canadian mathematician who made important contributions in topology, game theory, and non-linear programming. Biography Albert Tucker was born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and e ...

Hassler Whitney Hassler Whitney (March 23, 1907 – May 10, 1989) was an American mathematician. He was one of the founders of singularity theory, and did foundational work in manifolds, embeddings, immersions, characteristic classes, and geometric integrati ...

USSR: * Pavel Aleksandrov *

Felix Frankl Felix Issidorowitsch Frankl (12 March 1905, Vienna – 7 Aprile 1961, Nalchik russian: Феликс Исидорович Франкль) was an Austrian mathematician, who went to live in the Soviet Union where he had an academic career as a univer ...

Israel Isaakovich Gordon Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

* Maria A. Nikolaenko * Julia Rozanska *

Lev Pontryagin Lev Semenovich Pontryagin (russian: Лев Семёнович Понтрягин, also written Pontriagin or Pontrjagin) (3 September 1908 – 3 May 1988) was a Soviet mathematician. He was born in Moscow and lost his eyesight completely due ...

Vyacheslav Stepanov Vyacheslav Vassilievich Stepanov (Вячеслав Васильевич Степанов; 4 September 1889, Smolensk – 22 July 1950, Moscow) was a mathematician, specializing in analysis. He was from the Soviet Union. Stepanov was the son o ...

Lev Tumarkin Lev Abramovich Tumarkin (14 January 1904 – 1 August 1974) was a Russian mathematician. He was dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. He was a student of Pavel Aleksandrov. He attended the First Internat ...

References

{{reflist 1935 in the Soviet Union Topology