Subject: Re: [HM] S. N. Bernstein
From: zeliger.g@juno.com
Date: Thu Jul 20 2000 - 16:36:02 EDT
On Thu, 20 Jul 2000 13:59:01 -0400, Alfred Barron writes:
> I first learned of Bernstein from footnotes in the probability
> books by Feller, Renyi, and Gnedenko; all classic texts, of course.
> However, most modern books have no reference to him.
I never read Renyi's book and don't know what he wrote there.
Gnedenko was our textbook when I was at the university; not that we or
our professor, Ibragimov, considered it as a great one -- in Russia
professors are not supposed to follow the chosen textbook, and
Ibragimov's lectures were quite different from the Gnedenko's test. What
I want to say is that we read Gnedenko only as little as was absolutely
necessary, so I don't remember well enough what the footnote said about
Bernstein. Given Gnedenko's connections to Kolmogorov and given that
Bernstein, even though being a Full Member of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, never experienced great fame (as a student of Math at Leningrad
University and one of those students who were not indifferent to
personalities I only dimly knew about his existence), I don't expect the
footnote to pay Bernstein the tribute he deserves.
Feller's book earned much higher respect among our students of the
Probability and Statistics Department (I was in Ordinary Diff. Equations),
at the time of my studentship its second Russian edition was just
published, it was sold out in no time and I didn't get a copy then.
I do have now, but it is not handy, and I don't remember what he wrote --
but I would not blame him for not writing much. It appears that we in
Russia (or, better to say, in the Soviet Union) knew about Western and
other foreign mathematicians much better than the West knew about Russian
mathematicians, statisticians, and scientists -- as I see now living in
Boston.
Feel free to direct to me Russia related questions in the future. I
cannot guarantee, of course, a 100% completeness and accuracy. However,
as a live witness of some events and a bearer of the culture I can be of
help sometimes.
Regards,
George Zeliger
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