In the world of famous mathematicians, as well as simply known to the general public, there are not many at all. Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky, having lived a long (108 years) and eventful life, left behind a significant mathematical legacy. Until recently, he retained an interest in life. The scientist quit smoking with great difficulty when he was already over 90 years old.
early years
Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky was born on April 7 (30), 1905 in a small village Talitsa of the Perm province (now a city in the Sverdlovsk region). Mikhail Dmitrievich Nikolsky (his father) graduated from the St. Petersburg Forest Institute, worked as a forester and in a forest school. Mom, Lyudmila Mikhailovna Fedorova, worked as a teacher in a rural school. Sergei was the fourth oldest child in the family; in total, the Nikolsky spouses had six children.
Childhood years passed in Poland, on the westernmost edge of the Russian Empire. He began to study at a school in the small Polish city of Suwalki. In 1914, he continued his studies at the gymnasium of the city of Chernigov, where the family moved after the outbreak of the First World War. In 1918, Mikhail Dmitrievich was appointed a forester in the Voronezh region, and the family moved again.
First acquaintance with mathematics
Already from the age of 14, Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky began to work - in forestry and at a weather station, then he helped the gardener in the nursery of the Livensky state farm. The boy received primary mathematical skills from his father, who knew higher mathematics and physics well. As he later recalled, the first book was the textbook Elements of Mathematical Analysis, in which everything was stated literally on the fingers, and it was possible to understand the content on an intuitive basis.
In 1921, Mikhail Dmitrievich dies at the hands of the "green" - a gang that settled in the Voronezh forests. Mother with children returns to Chernihiv, where Sergey gets a job in Gubpolitprosvet. There he externally passes exams at a technical school. After four years of work, he is sent to study at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University in Yekaterinoslav (now the Dnieper). In 1929, after graduating from the Ekaterinoslav Institute of Public Education, he remained there to work.
Continuing Mathematical Education
In the 30s, the famous Soviet mathematician A.N. Kolmogorov often came to Dnepropetrovsk to give lectures. Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky constantly attended these lectures. Kolmogorov, who was only two years older, took patronage over the talented mathematician. On his advice, he was soon sent to graduate school in Moscow at the Moscow State University, and a year and a half later, in 1935, he became a candidate of science. After that, in 1940 he joined the Mathematics Institute. V. A. Steklova at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In early 1941, he moved with his family to the Ukhtomskaya station in the suburbs. From the first days of World War II, Nikolsky was enlisted in the fire brigade, then sent to dig anti-tank ditches in the area of Maloyaroslavets. Subsequently, for this he was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow".
Together with a group of talented scientists, mathematician Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky was evacuated to Kazan. In 1942, in the capital of Tatarstan, a scientist defended his doctoral dissertation in mathematics: on the theory of approximation of functions by polynomials (polynomials). Since 1943, in addition to his main work, he headed the Department of Mathematics at MADI (Moscow Automobile and Road Institute).
Fifty years at the PhysTech
In 1947 he moved to the department of higher mathematics of the famous MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology). In the biography of Sergei Mikhailovich Nikolsky, this event was significant. He worked at MIPT for fifty years, having given the first lecture on mathematical analysis in 1947, and the last in 1997, when he was already 92 years old.
In 1954, Sergei Mikhailovich gave a review lecture on approximation theory in Amsterdam, at the invitation of the International Congress of Mathematicians. He was given the honor, which is awarded only to outstanding scientists who have made a special contribution to the development of a separate direction in mathematical science. Sergei Nikolsky two years earlier for the development of the theory of approximations was awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1955, the famous mathematician signed the “Letter of Three Hundred” criticizing defamation and the prosecution of genetics.
