Famous Russian Mathematicians

Leonhard Euler was a Swiss physicist, mathematician, logician, geographer, astronomer, and engineer. He is credited with making influential and important mathematical discoveries, such as graph theory and infinitesimal calculus. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific mathematicians of all time, Leonhard Euler also made pioneering contributions to analytic number theory and topology.

Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov lost his mother at birth and was raised by his aunts. His talent in mathematics was discovered when he joined the Moscow State University to study history and math, while simultaneously studying metallurgy elsewhere. His greatest contribution to mathematics was in the field of probability theory.

Leonid Kantorovich was a Soviet economist and mathematician. Credited with founding linear programming, Kantorovich was honored with the prestigious Stalin Prize in 1949. In 1975, he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on the theory of optimum allocation of resources. He also made important contributions to functional analysis, operator theory, and approximation theory.

Though born to a ballet dancer father and a pianist mother, Alexander Friedmann grew up to be a talented mathematician and cosmologist. He had served as an aviator during World War I and later also taught. He died of typhoid at age 37 after eating a pear during his honeymoon.

Russian theologian Pavel Florensky is best remembered for his essay The Pillar and the Ground of Truth. During Stalin’s regime and amid a phase of national atheism, he was sent to jail and also banished to Siberia for his religious beliefs, which he refused to renounce.

Best known as the father of strategic management for devising the strategy model known as Ansoff’s matrix, Russian-American applied mathematician Igor Ansoff had also taught at the Carnegie Mellon University. He had also managed countless technology projects and consulted with companies such as IBM, Gulf, and General Electric.

Stanisław Leśniewski was a Polish mathematician, philosopher, and logician, who belonged to the first generation of the Lwów–Warsaw School of logic. His major contribution to mathematics was the construction of three nested formal systems: protothetic, ontology, and mereology. He was also a radical nominalist. He died shortly before the German invasion of Poland in 1939.