Early Developments of Nonlinear Science in Soviet Russia: The Andronov School at Gor'kiy

Abstract

Through a detailed study of the group surrounding Andronov and Grekhova, this article highlights how the configuration of the interaction between techno-science, the State, and production appears to be very specific to the Soviet Union, as compared to the United States or France. We are often used to thinking of the relationship between science and its (social and cultural) context by postulating that the core of scientific content is universal while context is variable. This study suggests rather the opposite. For indeed, the local and specific nature of the scientific culture and tradition of nonlinearity in Gor'kiy must be emphasized. It is the political context of World War II and of the Cold War that forced the unification with Western science, in that they set theoretical targets and technical objectives, and stimulated the manufacture of identical products, such as radar and nuclear devices, automated systems, etc. In short, in the relationship of politics and science that is examined here, it is the politics which created unity and universality.

The Epistemologies of Non-Forecasting Simulations, Part II: Climate, Chaos, Computing Style, and the Contextual Plasticity of Error

“…First, there is a notable distinctness in the behavior of the systems treated in our respective papers, a distinctness that brought with it crucial implications for how the models were built, used, and thus may be analyzed by the historian or philosopher of science. The switch from a view of error as that which is to be eliminated to that which should be retained and studied in its own right may be found both elsewhere and also earlier, for example with the Andronov School at Gor'kiy (see here Dahan Dalmedico and Gouzevitch 2004). Intermediate models had 56 On serendipity, see Roberts 1989, x;and Rheinberger 1997, 133-135 and 155.…”

“…In the summer of 1953, after a year of planning, Enrico Fermi, John Pasta, and Stanisław Ulam used the MANIAC computer at Los Alamos to investigate a one-dimensional system of 64 particles in which the connections between neighbor particles were nonlinear. Relevant literature for the interested reader includes Aubin and Dahan Dalmedico 2002, Barrow-Green 1997, Dahan Dalmedico and Gouzevitch 2004, and Gleick 1987 As an aside, the article of Dauxois 2008 has addressed the exclusion of Mary Tsingou from authorship in this experiment, despite her playing a vital role in programming the MANIAC. And at least in the beginning they got what they wantedthe initial simulations on MANIAC conformed very well to intuition.…”

“…Moreover, others have already provided excellent coverage. Relevant literature for the interested reader includes Aubin and Dahan Dalmedico 2002, Barrow-Green 1997, Dahan Dalmedico and Gouzevitch 2004, and Gleick 1987.…”

The Struggle against Idealism: Soviet Ideology and Mathematics

“…See also [10] for a guide to further sources on the development of mathematics in the USSR. For other ideological issues, see [13], [14], [15] on Soviet cybernetics; [36] on cosmology; [40] on probability; and [8], [23], [27] on physics. At the time of this writing, one of the most up-to-date sources on Soviet ideology of mathematics is [20], which tells the personal stories of D. F. Egorov, N. N. Luzin, and P. A. Florenskii.…”

Introduction

“…The impor tant difference, however, is that in the case of software, the "blackboard rule" applies to any country, not just the former USSR or modern Rus sia. For a contrasting account stressing the peculiar "Sovietness" of applied math, see Dalmedico 2004. 5.…”