The Moscow Pythagoreans: Mathematics, Mysticism, and Anti-Semitism in Russian Symbolism

197 Pages·2013·1.84 MB·English

by  Ilona Svetlikova

The Moscow Pythagoreans
doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
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doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
The Moscow
Pythagoreans:
Mathematics,
Mysticism, and Anti-
Semitism in Russian
Symbolism
Ilona Svetlikova
doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
the moscow pythagoreans
Copyright © Ilona Svetlikova, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–33829–7 EPUB
ISBN: 978–1–137–33828–0 PDF
ISBN: 978–1–137–33827–3 Hardback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from
the Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First edition: 2013
www.palgrave.com/pivot
DOI: 10.1057/9781137338280
What was Pythagoras? <…> the Hyperborean Apollo.
(Iam. VP 140)
… a race of mortals so singular in their shapes,
habits, and countenances.
J. Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction: Belyĭ’s Petersburg and Moscow
Mathematicians 1
1 Origins of the Moscow “School”: N.V. Bugaev 14
Bugaev’s library 15
Positivism 19
Psychology 21
Anti-Semitism 23
A cult of India 28
Foundations of the Evolutionary
Monadology (1893) 32
Symbolism (1910) 34
2 The Moscow “School”: P.A. Nekrasov 50
Introduction 51
Kantianism 53
Platonism 55
Arithmology 59
“The divine order” 63
Autocracy 66
T raditional conservative implications of
mathematics 69
Arithmology as a mathematical foundation of
autocratic rule and Leo Tolstoĭ’s philosophy of
history 70
vi doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
Contents vii
3 P.A. Nekrasov: Theory of Probability (1912) 90
Introduction 91
“Dead soul of the world” 94
1911 in the history of the extreme Right 96
Saint-Pierre 98
1911 in Petersburg 100
1911 in Theory of Probability 101
4 Some Other Members of the “School” 114
V. G. Alekseev 115
Baron M. F. Taube 119
P. A. Florenskiĭ 124
“Ableukhov” as a reflection of the Black Hundred
ideology of the Moscow philosophic-mathematical school 127
5 The Pythagoreanism of the Moscow “School” 134
Apollo 135
The secret radicalism of the “school” 138
The Ableukhov coat of arms 148
Conclusion 161
Appendix 1: Geometrical Meditations of the Senator 165
Appendix 2: Rhythm 167
Appendix 3: “The Sentiment of Nature” 172
Select Bibliography 175
Index 182
doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
List of Illustrations
1.1 A page of the catalog of N.V. Bugaev’s
library 16
1.2 The invitation for an evening party
given by the Grand Duke Sergeĭ Aleksandrovich 25
1.3 A letter of thanks from V.A. Gringmut 26
4.1 Th e title page of V.G. Alekseev’s Plody
vospitatel’nogo obucheniîa v dukhe
Komenskogo, Pestalotstsi i Gerbarta
(1906) presented to the Grand Duchess
Militsa Nikolaevna 118
4.2 A page of M.F. Taube’s Svod osnovnykh
zakonov myshleniîa (1909) 123
viii doi: 10.1057/9781137338280
Acknowledgments
It is with much gratitude that I acknowledge the assist-
ance of the Russian Institute of Art History (Zubovskiĭ)
throughout my research, and a grant from the FMSH
(Paris) which supported a part of this study.
My thanks to my friends and colleagues Arkadiĭ
Blîumbaum, Milad Doueihi, Nikita Eliseev, Sergeĭ ÎArov,
Irina Ivanova, Georgiĭ Levinton, Irina Lukka, Nataliîa
Mazur, Maurice Olender, Stas Savitskiĭ, Patrick Seriot, and
Sergeĭ Zenkin who helped me in countless ways.
The Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the
Scientific Library of the Moscow University kindly gave
permission to reproduce materials from its collection.
I am deeply grateful to Graham Stack for being such a
fine editor, and to Eugene Ostashevsky for his efforts on
behalf of this book.
If there is anything of value in my work, it is the result of
unfailing help and encouragement of Omry Ronen. This
book is dedicated to his radiant memory.
doi: 10.1057/9781137338280 ix