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Here's a nice article about Grigori Perelman, Fields medal winner, solver of the Poincare conjecture, and mathematical genius/recluse. Perelman came up in the

by mturmon 15y ago

Here's a nice article about Grigori Perelman, Fields medal winner, solver of the Poincare conjecture, and mathematical genius/recluse. Perelman came up in the Soviet system in the 1980s, when the discriminatory practice you mention was in force: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/apr/29/he-conquered-the-conjecture/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/apr/29/he-conq... Relevant quote: "For a Jewish boy [sic] gifted in mathematics to be admitted to a university, there were three possibilities: hope you were one of the two Jews accepted at Leningrad University every year; go somewhere with less draconian admission policies; or make it onto the Soviet team for the International Mathematical Olympiad, which guaranteed admission to Leningrad University. Perelman decided to try out for the team."

toyg 15y ago
Moral questions aside, I wonder if forcing entire ethnic groups to "perform for the country" in order to earn social status is really that bad. A lot of countries have done it across the centuries (Rome, France, UK, Arabs... and more recently US and USSR); they were usually successful in "extracting value" from those groups in the short term, while in the long term fostering a sense of belonging to a non-discriminatory ideal of citizenship. Even in this case, the Soviets might have discriminated generations of Jews, but then they produced a Perelman.
- ceejayoz 15y ago
  > Even in this case, the Soviets might have discriminated generations of Jews, but then they produced a Perelman. It may well have been less "produced a Perelman" than "one Perelman out of hundreds snuck through".