Pavel Solomonovich Yushkevich (russian: Павел Соломонович Юшкевич; 29 June 1873, 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 ...

– December 6, 1945, 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 ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

philosopher. He was 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 eme ...

activist and participated as one of the Russian Machists in ''

Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism ''Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism'' (russian: Очерки по философии марксизма) was an account of a seminar held by Vladimir Bazarov, Alexander Bogdanov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Jakov Berman, Osip Gelfond, Pavel Yushkevic ...

'' in 1908. This publication prompted criticism in

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

's ''

Materialism and Empirio-criticism ''Materialism and Empirio-criticism'' (Russian: ''Материализм и эмпириокритицизм, Materializm i empiriokrititsizm'') is a philosophical work by Vladimir Lenin, published in 1909. It was an obligatory subject of study i ...

''. By the 1920s Yushkevich abandoned political activities and worked at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow from 1922.

Early years

He attended Odessa High School, where he became active in a Marxist

study circle A study circle is a small group of people who meet multiple times to discuss an issue. Study circles may be formed to discuss anything from politics to religion to hobbies. They are differentiated from clubs by their focus on exploring an issue or t ...

. He was arrested and jailed, however, before being sent to exile in Kishinev, where he showed particular interest in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. He went into exile in France and studied mathematics at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

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. S ...

. Upon graduation he returned to Odessa. Here he had to attend lectures to gain a qualification recognised in Russia. He later became a journalist.

Philosophical work

Yushkevich saw no need for Marxism to be fearful of "bourgeois theories", claiming that if Marxism was as powerful as it purported to be, it would simply assimilate other theories rather than be assimilated by them.

Family life

His son,

Adolph P. Yushkevich Adolph-Andrei Pavlovich Yushkevich (russian: Адо́льф-Андре́й Па́влович Юшке́вич; 15 July 1906 – 17 July 1993) was a Soviet historian of mathematics, leading expert in medieval mathematics of the East and the work ...

, was a

historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

Works

* 1907 ''Sovremennyi mir'' (The Modern World), 1907, April, St. Petersburg, * 1908 ''Sovremennaya energetika s tochki zreniya empiriosimvolizma'' (Modern Energy in Terms of Empiriosymbolism) in ''Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism'' V. Bezobrazov & Co.: St. Petersburg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yushkevich, Pavel 1873 births 1945 deaths Philosophers from the Russian Empire Mensheviks