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by mikorym 2394 days ago
I am not an expert on the topic, but I believe that in the former Soviet Union it was common between mathematicians to pass around preprints (a la arXiv). These then perculated through to the West. I think it had to do with the USSR and their restrictive (if we are being euphemistic) policies towards academics.
1 comments
gdy 2394 days ago
"the USSR and their restrictive (if we are being euphemistic) policies towards academics."

What do you mean?

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alteria 2394 days ago
Their policies were for more than "restrictive" is how I'm reading it

See [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressed_research_in_the_Sov...

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mikorym 2394 days ago
Yes. I'm saying restrictive to describe the effect on academic papers. The effect on (oppression of) the academics themselves was much worse.
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gdy 2394 days ago
No, that's BS.

There are well known cases of genetics and cybernetics being banned for ideological reasons during Stalin's time. Scientific books and articles of convicted 'enemies of the state' were dangerous to possess in that time too. Some scientists used ideological 'arguments' in scientific debates which were dangerous to argue against.

But all that, AFAIK, ended after Stalin's death in 1953.

Moreover, I've never heard anything about mathematics in this regard.

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mikorym 2394 days ago
Not sure what you are saying. Mathematicians were not even allowed to travel abroad [1] and any "concessions" were essentially as it pleased the USSR state. Only from 1990 was movement free in the true sense of the word.

[1] An example was when Margulis won the Fields medal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Margulis. There are many other examples too.

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gdy 2393 days ago
What does that have to do with sharing knowledge in the USSR and the countries in the Soviet block?

It was never in Soviet ideology to hide knowledge behind paywalls. See, for example, this [0] post about Mir publishing house and warm comments of Indians who grew up with their books. Sci-hub's ideology is just continuation of this approach.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352277

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mikorym 2393 days ago
[2] Also the 1970 Fields medal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Novikov_(mathematician)
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