Orateur
Description
Nicolay Aleksandrovitch Shanin (1919-2011) has been a prominent mathematician who is remembered nowadays mostly as one of the leaders of the so called “Russian school of constructive mathematics” founded by A.A. Markov.
The mathematical talent of N.A. Shanin manifested itself early: in 1939, he entered the doctoral school, with A.A. Markov as adviser.
The mathematical activity of N.A. Shanin is “divided clearly into two periods – topological and constructivist”, until the end of 1940es and later, respectively.
A.A. Markov turned to constructivism around 1946 and was joined by N.A. Shanin soon after. Before that N.A. Shanin worked on hard problems arising in general (set-theoretical) topology.
During the first, topological, period N.A. Shanin defended his Ph.D. (“candidate of sciences”) thesis (1942) and D.Sci. thesis (1945). Later he denied the significance of these works. However, N.A. Shanin’s works on general topology are still considered as important.
In this paper the letters from P.S. Alexandroff and A.A. Markov to N.A. Shanin (in topological period of his research) are considered. This correspondence helps to understand better the motives of N.A. Shanin "conversion" to constructivism.
