The Communist Academy and the "revolution" in the Moscow Mathematical Society in 1930

The lecture presents the results of the studies at the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences that allowed to shed light on some of the dark moments in the history of the Moscow Mathematical Society, associated with its reorganization in 1930. Thus, the documents discovered at the Archive show that A. A. Maksimov, E. Ya. Kolman, V. I. Khotimskii, S. A. Yanovskaya and some other members of the Section of Natural and Exact Sciences of the Communist Academy of the USSR Central Executive Committee had the biggest role in this process. Maksimov, on whose initiative the Natural Science Division was established at the Institute of Red Professors, regarded the implementation of Marxist / Leninist dialectics in natural sciences as one of his main tasks and devoted much effort to this work at the Association of Scientific Research Institutes under the auspices of the 1st Moscow State University. It was Maksimov’s actions in the Fall of 1929 that led to D. F. Egorov’s dismissal from the position of Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics and his expulsion from full membership in this institute. The earlier unknown date of this event was established. We have also discovered among the archive materials a hand-written “Journal of the Mathematical Section’s activities” kept by Yanovskaya during the period of preparation of “revolution” at the Moscow Mathematical Society, as well as a draft of the notorious “Declaration of the Initiative Group for the Reorganization of the Mathematical Society” in her handwriting although the author(s) of the Declaration has not been conclusively identified yet. As the minutes from this period that had been stored at the Archive of the Moscow Mathematical Society were destroyed, the remaining documents at the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences are of considerable interest, particularly the shorthand records of the meetings of the Communist Academy members, during which the speakers recounted the events that took place.
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