Sofya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya (also Janovskaja; russian: Софи́я Алекса́ндровна Яно́вская; 31 January 1896 – 24 October 1966) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

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 ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, specializing in the

history 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 ...

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

, and

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peop ...

. She is best known for her efforts in restoring the research of mathematical logic in the

Soviet Union 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, ...

and publishing and editing the mathematical works of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Biography

Yanovskaya was born in

Pruzhany Pruzhany ( be, Пружа́ны, ; russian: Пружаны, pl, Prużana, yi, פרוזשענע, Pruzhene) is a town in Brest Voblast, Belarus. Pruzhany is the center of the district in Brest Region, Belarus. Its population is about 18,500 people ...

, a town near

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...

, to a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish family of accountant ''Alexander Neimark''. From 1915 to 1918, she studied in a woman's college in Odessa, when she became a communist. She worked as a party official until 1924, when she started teaching at the Institute of Red Professoriate. With exception of the war years (1941–1945), she worked at

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 ...

until retirement. Engels had noted in his writings that Karl Marx had written some mathematics. Yanonskaya found Marx's ''Mathematical Manuscripts'' and she arranged for their first publication in 1933 in Russian. She received her doctoral degree in 1935. Her work on

's mathematical manuscripts began in 1930s and may have had some influence on the study of

non-standard analysis The history of calculus is fraught with philosophical debates about the meaning and logical validity of fluxions or infinitesimal numbers. The standard way to resolve these debates is to define the operations of calculus using epsilon–delta ...

in China. In the academia she is most remembered now for her work on history and philosophy of mathematics, as well as for her influence on young generation of researchers. She persuaded

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

when he was visiting

in 1935 to give up his idea to relocate to the

. In 1968 Yanovskaya arranged for a better publication of Marx's work. She died from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

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 millio ...

Awards and honours

For her work, Yanovskaya received the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

and other medals.

References

Sources

* Irving Anellis (1987) "The heritage of S.A. Janovskaja". ''History and Philosophy of Logic'' 8: 45-56. * B.A. Kushner (1996) "Sof'ja Aleksandrovna Janovskaja: a few reminiscences", ''Modern Logic'' 6: 67-72. * V.A. Bazhanov (2002) ''Essays on the Social History of Logic in Russia''. Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk. Chapter 5 (bibliography of S.A. Yanovskaya's works is presented here). (in Russian). * B.V. Biryukov and L.G. Biryukova (2004) "Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sof'ya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya. The 'Cambridge Genius' becomes acquainted with Soviet mathematicians in the 1930s" (in Russian). ''Logical Investigations''. No. 11 (Russian), 46-94, ''Nauka'', Moscow.

Biography

Awards and honours

References

Sources

Further reading