Профессор математики Н.Н. Парфентьев: русский интеллигент на сломе эпох
Professor of Mathematics N.N. Parfentiev: A Member of Russia’s Intelligentsia during the Transformative Period between the Epochs

Summary/Abstract: Using a variety of archival materials and published sources, this article reconstructs the prerevolutionary stage in the biography of Nikolai Nikolaevich Parfentiev (1877–1943), a prominent professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics at Imperial Kazan University. Here, we also create his sociopsychological portrait through the retrospective analysis of his relationship with parents and family members. Particular attention is paid to his work as a researcher and lecturer at Kazan University and to his views on reforming school education, specifically to what concerns teaching mathematics. The forms of education favored by him are singed out. The results obtained show that N.N. Parfentiev was a great reformer: he introduced new teaching methods, organized the Physics and Mathematics Commission as part of the Pedagogical Society of Kazan University, and headed the Students’ Circle of Physics and Mathematics. To add some detail to the complex portrait of this scholar, we consider his participation in the public organizations for science and education, social and political ideas expressed by him. The archival sources shed light on his participation in the gathering of Kazan University students on January 23, 1905 and on the repressive measures that followed. Most Russian scholars were deeply shocked by the October Revolution of 1917 and faced the challenge of defining their social attitudes. N.N. Parfentiev had used to speak out in support of the anti-Bolshevik Corps of the Czechoslovak Legion, but then was among the first university professors who pursued active cooperation with the Soviet authorities. This played an important role in the subsequent development of research projects at Kazan University. The article publishes for the first time the photographs from the family archive of N.D. Parfentieva and the Museum of History of Kazan Federal University. Our study shows that understanding the background and motives of the choices made by public figures during major social upheavals in the state history is highly relevant and socially significant.

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