misha shifman

This groundbreaking work features two essays written by the renowned mathematician Ilan Vardi. The first essay presents a thorough analysis of contrived problems suggested to “undesirable” applicants to the Department of Mathematics of Moscow University. His second essay gives an in-depth discussion of solutions to the Year 2000 International Mathematical Olympiad, with emphasis on the comparison of the olympiad problems to those given at the Moscow University entrance examinations.

The second part of the book provides a historical background of a unique phenomenon in mathematics, which flourished in the 1970s–80s in the USSR. Specially designed math problems were used not to test students' ingenuity and creativity but, rather, as “killer problems,” to deny access to higher education to “undesirable” applicants. The focus of this part is the 1980 essay, “Intellectual Genocide”, written by B Kanevsky and V Senderov. It is being published for the first time. Also featured is a little-known page of the Soviet history, a rare example of the oppressed organizing to defend their dignity. This is the story of the so-called Jewish People's University, the inception of which is associated with Kanevsky, Senderov and Bella Subbotovskaya.

Contents:

• Mekh-Mat Entrance Examinations Problems (I Vardi)
• Solutions to the Year 2000 International Mathematical Olympiad (I Vardi)
• My Role as an Outsider, Ilan Vardi's Epilogue (I Vardi)
• Intellectual Genocide (B Kanevsky & V Senderov)
• Remarks (I Vardi)
• Science and Totalitarianism (A Vershik)
• Admission to the Mathematics Departments in Russia in the 1970's and 1980s (A Vershik)
• Entrance Examination to the Mekh-Mat (A Shen)
• Free Education at the Highest Price (K Tylevich)
• Jewish University (D Fuchs)
• Remembering Bella Abramovna (A Zelevinsky)
• Bella Abramovna Subbotovskaya (I Muchnik)

Readership: High school and college mathematics and physics teachers, readers interested in recreational mathematics, and sociologists.
Key Features:

• Contains captivating and challenging math problems created by Soviet mathematicians that can be solved using elementary mathematics (i.e. “mathematics before calculus”)
• Unravels a bizarre page in the history of the exact sciences, i.e., the use of mathematics as a weapon of ideological control of the educational process in the USSR
• Collects works by leading mathematicians including Ilan Vardi, B Kanevsky and V Senderov