4 ms·

There is some quality in Russian math books that western authors seem to lack.

by SSLy 7y ago

m31415 7y ago
Yes, and quite a few Mir books are available freely [1] [1] https://mirtitles.org https://mirtitles.org
- sifar 7y ago
  Thank you for the link. A treasure trove. Their archive page [1]. [1] https://archive.org/details/%40mirtitles?&sort=-publicdate&page=1 https://archive.org/details/%40mirtitles?&sort=-publicdate&p...
rramadass 7y ago
Somebody from Russia/Former Soviet Countries from Eastern Europe ABSOLUTELY NEEDS to setup a publishing company (eg. Dover Publications) to bring all of their Science/Engineering books back into print. They will do very well in today's education market where the emphasis seems to have shifted to huge tomes/useless multiple editions/pretty colouring etc. rather than succinctly presenting the knowledge itself. The Mir (and other) publishers books were huge in many countries of the world and are remembered fondly to this day.
- weinzierl 7y ago
  I absolutely agree about the quality of Russian math books. "Bronshtein and Semendyayev" and "Abramowitz and Stegun" come to my mind. I doubt that a publishing company bringing back those titles into print would be very successful. One thing is that many of these titles are mostly of historical value. Who needs a book with mathematical tables nowadays? Many of the books are still available as used books too. The most compelling argument though is that they are easily available on libgen (like this very post proves). So in a sense the publisher you wish for already exists, just not in a the form you probably thought of. EDIT: Oops, I just learned that Milton Abramowitz and Irene Stegun are actually Americans.
  - rramadass 7y ago
    I disagree with you on the publishing front. Mathematics is fundamental and timeless (what do you mean "many of these titles are mostly of historical value"?) They may need some trivial editing (though i would much prefer that they be published as they were with a note explaining the historical aspects) but otherwise they were information dense and succinct with an eye to Applications. They were all excellent across the board. They were directly responsible for educating a lot of poor people in many countries due to their very low cost and affordability. I would say this was one of the biggest successes of the Soviet ideology i.e. the education of the masses in Science & Technology fields. Current day Russians/Eastern Europeans/Central Asians can justifiably be very proud of this part of their History. Much of "modern" textbooks are full of excessive verbiage obscuring the essentials, "pretty printing" disguised as "easy comprehension" and a racket for the publishers to make money. Why in the world do i need so many editions of books containing Mathematics which has not changed in centuries? Why do they cost an arm and a leg? Education is as fundamental as Health services and both should be affordable in service of the population. So again, somebody setup a publishing company (eg. Dover Publications) and bring ALL the forgotten books from the Soviet era back into print :-)
    - weinzierl 7y ago
      > Mathematics is fundamental and timeless Absolutely and you certainly have a point with what you wrote. May opinion is more along the lines of: "the content is still as valuable as it ever was but the presentation is not." Take one of the examples I mentioned. Abramowitz and Stegun is a collection of mathematical tables. If you needed to calculate the sine of a value, would you rip out your chuffed copy of Abramowitz and Stegun or would you use your calculator? Even for the more obscure tables there is probably nothing in the book that isn't in Mathematica. If I really needed to look into the book for some reason I would be too lazy find my copy, given that online versions[1] as well as extended and improved versions[2] are just a few mouse clicks away. Now, a book of mathematical tables is like an extreme example but I still feel the same sentiment for all my old math books. Why bother with a physical copy if I have a searchable online version right at my fingertips? When i comes to the books from the Soviet era I guess libgen has them all and I think most people would not buy a physical copy anyway. [1] http://people.math.sfu.ca/~cbm/aands/intro.htm http://people.math.sfu.ca/~cbm/aands/intro.htm [2] https://dlmf.nist.gov/ https://dlmf.nist.gov/
- mlazos 7y ago
  I remember when one of my professors told me how AVL trees were invented by mathematicians in the Soviet Union. It was in a paper titled “An algorithm for organizing information”. It was a side project for them, and it’s humbling to hear how simple the idea was to geniuses.
  - rramadass 7y ago
    Hey, that's a neat fact! I did know that AVL stood for "Adelson-Velskii and Landis" but not that they were Soviet-era Mathematicians.

There is some quality in Russian math books that western authors seem to lack.

by SSLy 7y ago

There is some quality in Russian math books that western authors seem to lack.

m31415 7y ago

Yes, and quite a few Mir books are available freely [1] [1] https://mirtitles.org https://mirtitles.org

sifar 7y ago
Thank you for the link. A treasure trove. Their archive page [1]. [1] https://archive.org/details/%40mirtitles?&sort=-publicdate&page=1 https://archive.org/details/%40mirtitles?&sort=-publicdate&p...

rramadass 7y ago

Somebody from Russia/Former Soviet Countries from Eastern Europe ABSOLUTELY NEEDS to setup a publishing company (eg. Dover Publications) to bring all of their Science/Engineering books back into print. They will do very well in today's education market where the emphasis seems to have shifted to huge tomes/useless multiple editions/pretty colouring etc. rather than succinctly presenting the knowledge itself. The Mir (and other) publishers books were huge in many countries of the world and are remembered fondly to this day.

weinzierl 7y ago
I absolutely agree about the quality of Russian math books. "Bronshtein and Semendyayev" and "Abramowitz and Stegun" come to my mind. I doubt that a publishing company bringing back those titles into print would be very successful. One thing is that many of these titles are mostly of historical value. Who needs a book with mathematical tables nowadays? Many of the books are still available as used books too. The most compelling argument though is that they are easily available on libgen (like this very post proves). So in a sense the publisher you wish for already exists, just not in a the form you probably thought of. EDIT: Oops, I just learned that Milton Abramowitz and Irene Stegun are actually Americans.
- rramadass 7y ago
  I disagree with you on the publishing front. Mathematics is fundamental and timeless (what do you mean "many of these titles are mostly of historical value"?) They may need some trivial editing (though i would much prefer that they be published as they were with a note explaining the historical aspects) but otherwise they were information dense and succinct with an eye to Applications. They were all excellent across the board. They were directly responsible for educating a lot of poor people in many countries due to their very low cost and affordability. I would say this was one of the biggest successes of the Soviet ideology i.e. the education of the masses in Science & Technology fields. Current day Russians/Eastern Europeans/Central Asians can justifiably be very proud of this part of their History. Much of "modern" textbooks are full of excessive verbiage obscuring the essentials, "pretty printing" disguised as "easy comprehension" and a racket for the publishers to make money. Why in the world do i need so many editions of books containing Mathematics which has not changed in centuries? Why do they cost an arm and a leg? Education is as fundamental as Health services and both should be affordable in service of the population. So again, somebody setup a publishing company (eg. Dover Publications) and bring ALL the forgotten books from the Soviet era back into print :-)
  - weinzierl 7y ago
    > Mathematics is fundamental and timeless Absolutely and you certainly have a point with what you wrote. May opinion is more along the lines of: "the content is still as valuable as it ever was but the presentation is not." Take one of the examples I mentioned. Abramowitz and Stegun is a collection of mathematical tables. If you needed to calculate the sine of a value, would you rip out your chuffed copy of Abramowitz and Stegun or would you use your calculator? Even for the more obscure tables there is probably nothing in the book that isn't in Mathematica. If I really needed to look into the book for some reason I would be too lazy find my copy, given that online versions[1] as well as extended and improved versions[2] are just a few mouse clicks away. Now, a book of mathematical tables is like an extreme example but I still feel the same sentiment for all my old math books. Why bother with a physical copy if I have a searchable online version right at my fingertips? When i comes to the books from the Soviet era I guess libgen has them all and I think most people would not buy a physical copy anyway. [1] http://people.math.sfu.ca/~cbm/aands/intro.htm http://people.math.sfu.ca/~cbm/aands/intro.htm [2] https://dlmf.nist.gov/ https://dlmf.nist.gov/
mlazos 7y ago
I remember when one of my professors told me how AVL trees were invented by mathematicians in the Soviet Union. It was in a paper titled “An algorithm for organizing information”. It was a side project for them, and it’s humbling to hear how simple the idea was to geniuses.
- rramadass 7y ago
  Hey, that's a neat fact! I did know that AVL stood for "Adelson-Velskii and Landis" but not that they were Soviet-era Mathematicians.