Soviet Era Mathematics

[@alex_smallet]

The Mir publishing did not only translate Russian books to foreign languages, but they also published books, written in other languages to Russian, mostly from English. That’s how I learned microelectronics and programming in Soviet Union.

[@susilgunaratne4267]

Before 1967 it was 'Peace Publishers'.

[@ДаниилЧернышев-л5й]

@@susilgunaratne4267 Fun fact: 'Mir' has two meanings in russian: 'peace' and 'world', and there's a pun from russian general - "Нам нужен мир. Желательно весь." - we need peace(world?). Preferrably all of it (definitely world :D)

[@nikemaul]

​@@ДаниилЧернышев-л5й That's an interpretation without considering the huge soviet literature about peace, end of war, generational change, youth progress, workers progress, etc. Their foreign politics definitely points to "we need peace" not we need world. They also named the International Space Station MIR, clearly as a symbol of brotherhood.

[@igoranisimov6549]

@@nikemaul They also had toy stores "Detsky Mir" which is the most common use of the word "mir" meaning "the universe"... as for the other meaning "peace" it was widely used by Russia's diplomats even until today. The irony is that the classic Russian literature was always about some struggle or suffering.

[@ФеофанЭтополедолжнобытьзаполне]

Чего тебе в союзе родные авторы не написали такого, что ты смог узнать только благодаря переводам?

[@janezperme9770]

I can confirm that these books were like $3 in 80s. At least in Yugoslavia. Very cheap, yet of high quality in terms of contents.

[@heyhoe168]

Yep. Basically it was very expensive books, paid by state.

[@susilgunaratne4267]

In my country too, good quality printing & hard cover book at a fraction of a price of a western one. After 1990 no more.

[@lukagrujic2912]

my teacher told me that when they were sudying for balkan championship, they wloud buy shitton of soviet magazines and books to try and solve problems from there

[@真夜中の橋]

@@lukagrujic2912DAMN YOU GORBACHEV! IF IT WERENT FOR YOU USSR WOULDNT HAVE BEEN ILLEGALLY DISSOLVED.

[@真夜中の橋]

@@heyhoe168nah, capitalism made it more expensive than it actually is.

[@ivanraevsky]

I'm from Russia, all my math teachers from school or university were just sick in the head (in a good way). They all loved their subject very much and were real enthusiasts of their work. When you talk to them, you get the feeling that they don't really pay attention to you, but all the time they are thinking about math in their heads, dreaming in the clouds. Russian teachers in other subjects are primarily teachers, and math teachers are primarily mathematicians.

[@ivanraevsky]

Funny story, at my university I was a student at the faculty of state and municipal management. There was no math among the entrance exams, so all my classmates and I had completely forgotten all the math from school. And suddenly we introduced a course of higher mathematics. Without school knowledge, we had to learn everything from scratch, so all our humanitarians could not get above "satisfactory", and I was the only one who passed on "good" and got a scholarship. Math is evil for a humanitarian.

[@Dmitriy_Pivko]

И что у вас за универ?

[@ivanraevsky]

@@Dmitriy_Pivko РАНХиГС

[@UsuallyDestroyer]

​@ivanraevsky ранепа

[@zhenyaka13]

Great story, bro

[@umeng2002]

The importance of a good textbook cannot be overstated.

[@kaibroeking9968]

The Soviet era books on Maths and Physics subjects are well worth a read. In Germany, the gold standard in theoretical physics to this day are the ten Volumes of L.D. Landau and E.M.Livshitz "Theoretical Physics", referred to "Der Landau" or "Der Landau-Lifschitz". The way to go about using these is, the moment you think you have understood a subject, you turn to the Landau and you'll soon be made aware that you did not fully grasp the intricacies. Also, there is a didactically brilliant course on higher mathematics in five volumes by Smirnov: you open it on any topic and it just narrates, concisely, how you get to what you want to know.

[@AndRei-yc3ti]

I did Nazi that coming

[@SonOfIsrael-g4f]

I'm studying at MIPT, one of the creators of which is Lev Landau. We call it Landafshitz. We also have a very good workbook on math, the main author is Kudryavtsev. Well, I'm studying the biotechnologies, but I was obligated to pass higher school math exams too (ended by complex analysis), and this book helped me greatly.

[@jselukov]

@@SonOfIsrael-g4f привет, а Вы учитесь на направлении био- физики и информатики или на биотехнологии? Просто сам хочу поступить биофиз Физтеха, хотел бы узнать, что там и как...

[@SonOfIsrael-g4f]

@@jselukov биофиз и биоинф это уже магистерские программы, плюс биофиз есть в ЛФИ. Я биотехнолог, бакалавр. У нас очень классно, иногда хочется вскрыться, но в основном очень приятное обучение.

[@SergeTarasoff]

oh yeah... ландафшиц

[@classScribbler]

I remember growing up the Soviet textbooks were very popular amongst Indian students because of their difficulty. We used to have Mir publishing directly in India, although now the same titles are sold by the Indian publishers. One day, in my early 20s work life, I came across the wonderful and detailed anthology by Smirnov in 5 volumes. I think for some months, my goal of a decade was to finish those 5 volumes. I used to go in the library just to glare at the soviet books. They would be pretty untouched, not a lot of engineers needed theoretical maths at my place. Although that dream of mine is long lost, it left memories which I will always be fond of.

[@sergeytrunov7166]

Smirnov’s 5 volumes are simply wonderful books. Smirnov received the Stalin Prize for this work, and to receive the Stalin Prize means you have to do something outstanding.... Complex mathematical things are explained so well there that I have not seen anything better. I have all volume 5 and I just can’t be happier that I have them in paper form.

[@Anonymous-8080]

As a student preparing for JEE Advanced. General physics by IE Irodov and another physics book by SS Krotov is still very popular among us.

[@casusbelli9225]

Smirnov's is a wonderful anthology.

[@robertcarter8600]

@@sergeytrunov7166 Yes, Academic Trofim Lisenko thought the same, as well as Sergey Michalkov, for the start. And what about Academic Marr?..

[@oktogen1476]

Tike.

[@nTu4Ka]

During USSR era there was a strong culture of education. Education was free, strong, mandatory and respectful.

[@viktorD4]

Because was really huge problem with mass education in Russian Empire for USSR it was principal issue.

[@phiscz]

@@viktorD4 it's a very common historical trend for previously semi-feudal or otherwise colonized socialist countries to almost immediately implement very rigorous and very effective literacy programs. from '46-'54, 10 million vietnamese people were taught to read (with some students as old as 92 years old); in literally just 1961 alone the cuban literacy rate rose from 60-76% to nearly 100%

[@JZBaltazar]

@@viktorD4 You think mass education was not a problem in Germany, UK, France and the USA in the 1910s?

[@viktorD4]

@@JZBaltazar 20% population of Russian Empire could read and write, high education had 5%.

[@viktorD4]

@@JZBaltazar despite the fact that the USSR in the period from the 1920s to the early 1940s spent more on education than on everything else, it was still a problem and the war showed this. In other words, the Russians were relatively massively literate in the first generation, and the Germans were in the third generation, and the difference in quality was noticeable.

[@marlonbryanmunoznunez3179]

In Latin America books on Science and Mathematics by Mir are fairly well known and appreciated, I have some of the 'Física al alcance de todos' series on my bookshelf. The Soviet Union took popularizig knowledge really seriously and most titles were translated to many languages besides English. These books are legendary.

[@结实反流]

Yeah, por qué habrá sido??😂

[@UnderMiles]

yeah, here in Brazil the basic textbooks in the beginning of you major in Physics are something like Stewart's Calculus and Resnick on Physics etc., but the professors would always recommend the Russian Mir books for the students who really wanted to get good at the thing (Piskunov's Calculus, Demidovich's Analysis and so on) By the way, in my time the basic 'american' books would cost something like R$150 (+- U$40, at the time) and the 2nd hand Russian about R$20, so it was really worth it going full soviet

[@junal27]

@@UnderMiles En Salvador hay (o habia hace anhos) una libreria, creo que se llama libreria Sebo, en el centro no muy lejos de la ru Chile, que etsa repleta de libros usados y entre los que seguro se encuentran los MIR

[@sultim7570]

Haha, Demidovich! We had that book in a calculus course at a Saint Petersburg university

[@UnderMiles]

@@sultim7570 cool, these books are really nice, specially the exercises (they are way more demanding than the standard american ones). Here we have some great books that give you the same vibe, they're published by IMPA (Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics). @junal27 interesante. En Brasil "sebo" es literalmente el nombre que damos a librerias de libros usados. Quizas el (o la) dueño sea brasileño

[@DerekSpeareDSD]

the contribution to science made by the USSR cannot be overstated. "Mir" means world or peace in Russian.

[@arktseytlin]

In that context it meant "World", not peace.

[@sseriously3043]

both @@arktseytlin

[@sseriously3043]

"Mirniy Atom" - peaceful atom "Miru -Mir" - Peace to the World @@CannelRu

[@dznuts123]

What is the word for peace in English? Man, if only America knows.

[@Moy_Gospodin]

Also - society.

[@nikitadovidchenko6336]

The son of the first author (A. B. Budak) is a great mathematician as well - i believe his lectures on analysis are available online.

[@MuxaL]

True, he is my professor at 深北莫大学

[@reimannx33]

Who dat?

[@АлексейВысоцкий-ъ6п]

@@MuxaL Your professor is a grandson)

[@Sizeofbit]

Хех, он был одним из принимающих экзамен по линейной алгебре, когда я учился на пером курсе. К счастью я к нему не попал)))

[@ZIT116rus]

​@@Sizeofbitпочему к счастью? Мог бы лично послушать легендарные кулстори

[@vintovkasnipera]

with western textbooks, especially American, they have a very informal dialogue with the reader, but they also digress at the same time, as if the professor were doing it in real time. They are a real waster of time if you're trying to revise for finals but never highlighted the key points which are like finding a needle in a haystack. Russian textbooks are always very straight to the point, they are easier to read again and again. Isaac Maron's calculus books are quite good too

[@Stanislav_Shvets]

*Soviet. not russian.

[@razzmatazz1974]

thats when you go to the Schaum series for redemption, trying to cover everything in 3 days ;)

[@Cereb-info]

​@@Stanislav_Shvets Славный Советский союз, это вообще-то наднациональное явление. Заслуга всего социологического сообщества. Вклад русских, в социально-экономическу базу всего общества, фундаментален. Но это уже не так важно🫡

[@casusbelli9225]

@@Stanislav_Shvets Most of Russian books are following the steps set up by soviet school. At least when it comes to maths, physics and, allegedly, chemistry.

[@Stanislav_Shvets]

@@casusbelli9225 You sure? YEGE peredayot privet vsem etim uchebnikam. Plus the original talk was about old, not modern times.

[@riturajborah382]

In India, I. E. Irodov's physics book is very popular among the pre-university students who want to pursue science or engineering seriously. I can recollect, those physics problems were damn hard to crack.

[@antonglushchenko4263]

Yup. Problems in Irodov‘s book are really good in terms of prepairing before university, but also to solidify knowledge and general background. Many universities in Russia and countries of former Soviet Union use them or books that are heavily influenced by Irodov

[@challenger392]

Wow, that's explains, why solutions of the problems from Irodov on the Internet are in English.

[@landy3901]

The problems in Irodov's physics book are difficult to solve, yes. Ironically, in Russian his surname has the root “Herod”))) Иродов - Ирод Irodov - Irod(Herod in English)

[@Anonymous-8080]

Yes and SS Krotov too

[@EinstienJr]

Why is that ironic? Am I missing something?@@landy3901

[@douglasstrother6584]

Soviet-era Math & Physics books have a different "take" on subjects compared to the West. It's always interesting to do a comparative reading on the same topic.

[@honkhonk8009]

Can you elaborate on what their different "takes" entails? I might buy one of em off ebay or sumn. They sound interesting and shit lol

[@Rostam.]

could you give an example?

[@wan7ucxOqSUBryTgfpBr7777]

must be weapons related math !! interesting !!!

[@douglasstrother6584]

@@Rostam. "Mechanics" (Vol. 1) starts with the Principle of Least Action. "The Classical Theory of Fields" (Vol. 2) starts with Relativity. "Electrodynamics of Continuous Media" (Vol. 8) presents good physical discussions of electromagnetic fields in conductors, dielectrics, etc.

[@heitord5539]

​@@honkhonk8009They are way more concrete and focused in problem solving. There is lots of great, engaging, iluminating exemples. In the west the books use to be more abastract, following the steps of "Bourbaik" school of mathematics.

[@andreasignorini445]

One thing I noticed ( maybe it is obvious)is that each nationality has a certain flavour when it comes to mathematics books... For example french authors tend to go quite abstract, and they prefer a "from the top to the bottom" approach; English ones are more pragmatic, and use concrete examples; russian ones (maybe the ones that I prefer) use a lot of concrete - real world examples, using physics, biology or computer science as examples, and they tend to put a lot of importance in the computational side of the theory. Maybe this could be an idea worth exploring in one of your videos.

[@boptillyouflop]

That's quite interesting, I would have thought that French writing would have been closer to English writing.

[@imakro69]

Dunno, russian textbooks in compulsory education were a genuine piece of shit, very poorly written, noone learned anything in my class, and even if they did, everything was forgotten soon after. I remember stupid homework from 1-4th grade, when kids asked their matematicians dads to help, and it was still wrong, either because of a typo, or the task was so stupid, that noone understood what the actual fuck the task was

[@namesurname624]

​@@imakro69idk dude, I did my first 9 years of school in Russia and when I moved to Europe I was ahead of program so leaped a year forward and even then I excelled beyond my usual grades 5th year was my perfect math year, all top grades all year. No bribes ;) I do remember the 1-4 being tough because the approach is was very formulaic and as a kid I didn't like it.

[@imakro69]

@@namesurname624 but what part of this is your natural predisposition to being good at maths or receiving additional input by parent or tutors

[@pashaw8380]

@@imakro69 You are not really comparing the textbooks written in the current era and those of the Soviet era lol. There is a difference, and math and physics education existed in the Soviet era was more than just brilliant.

[@striker44]

Russian math and physics books are gems. Those book size, hard bound cover, the fonts, and style of books are soviet for sure, familiar to those in India, where Mir publisher was popular.

[@yuriy5376]

They are Soviet, not Russian. Modern Russian science is dead like the rest of Russian culture and industry

[@egoredmc]

Fomin actually belongs to Moscow mathematical school, which includes also scientists like Arnold, Kolmogorov and many others Fomin's books are still being used in russian universities (especially one about functional analysis) Other scientists, mentioned in the preface of the book shown in the video, are also from Moscow mathematical school and are one of the most well known people in russian math

[@matteod2567]

I have studied on these kinds of books for my bachelors in engineering. Old russian texts are THE BEST to learn fundamental physics mathematics, they dont mess around. They just give you so much deep knowledge.

[@armanella3612]

Yes!

[@rahulsinghmahar9480]

Can you please suggest me some books to get a good grip in physics mathematics.... Any old Russian books

[@1etcetera1]

В каждой библиотеке в универе был этот учебник. Кто в МИФИ или на Физтехе учился тот в курсе и в теме.

[@ЯКрутой-ц1и]

стоит к прочтению?

[@Crazmuss]

А он и есть, это английская версия редкая.

[@1etcetera1]

@@ЯКрутой-ц1и так если факультативно перед сном. Есть и повеселее методички.

[@ИбрагимДринкерманн]

В МИРЭА тоже был. И это не хардкор, а обычный учебник. Вроде у всех был, даже на факультетах «без математики». На кибернетике, особенно при специальностях АСОИУ или прикладной математике это было что-то вроде легкой прелюдии перед тем как тебя начинали сношать настоящей жестью. Правда когда МИРЭА стали укрупнять там математика просела до уровня ниже плинтуса, но в конце девяностых - начале нулевых там дрючили с математикой как надо. Кафедра высшей математики производила больше солдат, чем требовалось. 😂 А самое обидное, что к тому времени, как эта самая математика мне понадобилась в жизни я ее успел основательно подзабыть. Кто бы знал, что нейронки так стрельнут. У нас было полное ощущение, что это бред сумасшедших преподов, а они своими советскими головами дотумкали еще тогда, к чему все идет.

[@ЖизненноПознавательно]

Тихонов Самарский тоже был? У нас "Уравнения математической физики" курс их был

[@daniellindner826]

I love the books by MIR publishers !!! I have 3 of them by now!! Thank you for this video MS ❤

[@TheMathSorcerer]

Nice!!!!

[@aquss33]

they are quite possibly some of the nicest books I've read

[@sirajsid7760]

I remember I read couple of Soviet engineering (Mir) books 30 years ago when I was in India. What I discover that they are easily understandable than western books.

[@marbolitoabbolito]

Would you say that Mir's Soviet books are easily understandable cause less rigourous than western ones or cause more systematic and more rigourous and so more complete - so more "easy" cause they really made you understanding?

[@MichaelGottloib]

@@marbolitoabbolitofrom my experience (organic chemistry) they are a LOT more rigorous and comprehensive than the western equivalent. If you’re in uni and can get your hands on one, it’s an easy recomendation. Will save you a lot of headaches while studying.

[@casusbelli9225]

@@marbolitoabbolito More rigurous and more focused on the deep dive into theory.

[@RateOfChange]

Piskunov's Differential and Integral Calculus (Mir) is by far one of the best calculus books I've ever read. It is small compared to Spivak's, Thomas' or Apostol's books on the subject, but it's still a great book and was the one that really helped me grasp the concepts when I was a freshman and couldn't even understand what limits were haha I bought an original copy released in the 60's (its pages are yellowish!) 10 years ago when I was in the first semester of the physics course and I still have it. I'll keep that book forever.

[@sreenathbh2610]

Piskunov's two volume books are gems. Lots of Indian engineering students had them as reference books. MIR publishers used to sell these at very affordable prices.

[@ruslanagaev7265]

I graduated from BMSTU with a major in rocket and aero engine design(specialising in LRE) two years ago and I've got such a nostalgia wave hit. The illustrations of these book migrate from book to book and are still etched on the back of my brain because we used them to demonstrate our proofs during the exams. I didn't even notice that the book was in English because the style of the book(font, formulas, figures) is that familiar.

[@MuxaL]

Бомонка...

[@gnus3830]

Бомонка...

[@clashsmash9763]

Бомонка...

[@donchick]

Бомонка...

[@NionXenion-gh7rf]

Bomonka...

[@enhydramatic]

Some of my friends at Moscow State happened to be lectured by B. M. Budak’s son, and some were taught by his grandson. Both of them are presently affiliated to Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics department (the place where they do computer science at Moscow State).

[@pavelushakov5078]

A.B. Budak was my teacher on preparation courses in MSU 25 years ago. He explained school algebra on a totally different level.

[@kubetail12]

I took an undergraduate physics math methods class under a soviet trained astrophysicist. He knew his stuff. The course was a little basic just multivariate calculus, ODEs, linear algebra, some complex variables and their calculus, and some tensors crammed into one semester. I wished I had him for graduate physics math methods courses. The professor I took it with pretty much focused on PDEs and he never got Green Functions which is what I wanted to learn. That being said, the professor who taught my graduate math methods course was one of the best teachers I ever had for a physics course.

[@pinklady7184]

Aren't you so lucky? I envy you.

[@ernglez4390]

I studied Mathematics in Cuba and these were always my preferred books. Very hardcore and straight to the point. My first class at the University was Mathematical Analysis. Now living in the US, I’m shocked by the low level of Mathematics in general and how you can be a Math Major and do Calculus instead of Analysis in the first years. I used to like old American books, but the current enormous books that are being used here are such a waste of time and space. And the topics are very diluted.

[@Coalwarrior2012]

As a retired urban designer, economist and attorney, I find your videos fascinatingly informative. I'm enjoying a maths refresher from them.

[@TheMathSorcerer]

Awesome, thank you!

[@demetriobesidovskiy3491]

how did you manage to become an urban designer? That is my own goal, i am currently studying law

[@Coalwarrior2012]

@@demetriobesidovskiy3491 Short answer as follows: started college as a physics/math major at 17, dropped out of college due to Vietnam war draft, returned to university after several years to study economics and political science at Yale. After graduation worked for the then "cutting edge" urban planning department of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. In the 1970s the U.S. federal and state government had infrastructure development policies. The Reagan presidency killed those policies. Now all major and minor U.S. cities are crumbling. I do think that urban design and development will return, but only after significant regime change in America.

[@kevinmm20]

Reminds me of the Landau-Lifschitz physics series. Very insightful books that have helped me a lot in my physics studies.

[@peterhall6656]

I have many MIR books. I taught myself enough Russian to read original papers by the Russian probability Mafia - Kolmogorov, Markov, Lyapunov etc etc etc. If you think Fomin's book is hard core it is a walk in the park compared to the probability stuff ! Gelfand and Fomin are of course famous for their work on calculus of variations. My favourite Russian mathematician is V I Arnold who relentlessly took the piss out of French mathematicians influenced by the Bourbaki school of abstraction. If you study KAM theory the K is Kolmogorov, the A is Arnold and the M is Moser. Quite a few NASA, JPL people have been deeply trained in KAM theory.

[@capitalistche]

may I ask how did you teach yourself russian? was it assimil?

[@peterhall6656]

@@capitalistche Just got a basic textbook and learnt enough to get the gist of the mathematical arguments. I was able to work out what they were doing. No language labs. This was in 1970.

[@vnever9078]

I see you are a fellow man of culture

[@nolanalexander8696]

This is exactly what I listened in a podcast about immigrant computer scientists, one of the guest were an Egyptian-American electrical engineering professor. He grew up in Alexandria (Iskandariyya), Egypt. He told listener that when he was in student age (either college or high school) there were Russian and French cultural center at Alexandria, selling inexpensive science books and teaching science classes, where he learn math and physics that helped him to set his foot in American academic life. Based on what he said, the quality are top notch. This video just prove that.

[@reazapple4009]

Hi, what's the name of the podcast? Thanks.

[@nolanalexander8696]

@@reazapple4009 Immigrant Computer Scientist

[@СеменЛобов-ю7ф]

Considering exercises. Soviet system of teaching at college level on natural science consist of two parallel interweaved courses for any particular discipline. One is pure lectures (ended with exam) and other is seminars (also ended with exam). So each part has their own books on same topic. Lecture part is like "what is i.e. multiple integrals" and exam question would be like "explain what is triple integral" or "prove some theorem". And Seminar part is "how to use multiple integral" and that is where exercises are. Exam on seminar part would be "solve that". Sometimes seminar part exam is mandatory to give access to lecture part exam.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

Were I was taught, seminary part was 'pass/fail' and which you needed to pass to be admitted to final exam. And final contained both theoretical questions and a problem or two to solve

[@СеменЛобов-ю7ф]

So it seems this book related to theoretical part and have few exercises if any.

[@annasolovyeva1013]

​@@СеменЛобов-ю7ф yes, you need "zadachnik" book to give you tasks and practical examples of solving them

[@marcioamaral7511]

My country has an historical and moral debt to Russia (Angola ❤️) My father used to travel to Russia and bring tons of books from MIR I'm away from home and brought two books, principles of quantum mechanics by V.A. Fock and Problems in mathematical analysis by B.Demidovitch Hard cover,super old,so good ❤️

[@marcioamaral7511]

@@evgany-un3dc I wanna make a deep dive into soviet mathematics,such a fascinating approach to teach maths. Soviets are geniuses and great scientists ❤️

[@iliyaisd]

I studied in Kharkiv national university in Ukraine, on the department of computer science. The first years we had a lot of math. We did not use this book specifically, but you going through the contents makes me recall that a subset and sequentiality of topics pretty much correspond to what we've been learning throughout 2nd and 3rd semesters. Of course our course was quite brief as we were not mathematicians. Idk why you're saying it's hardcore. I think it's just a bit different school and math language than you're used to. When I'm trying to read some math info from Western sources I'm getting quite lost, while this looks habitual and understandable.

[@ВацлиПуцли]

Я выскажусь на сей счет - дело в том , что наука это социальный вид деятельности . Какое общество - социум , такая соответственно и наука . Если в обществе рыночная экономика , то мотивацией к деятельности является извлечение дохода . В советской системе речи о получении прибыли не стояло и тот кто создавал например учебник , был мотивирован престижем научной деятельности и стремился создать качественный научный труд . А если например математический учебник пишется автором ради заработка , то качество учебника не является единственной целью автора , а есть еще и другая - получение дохода . Когда Вы берете западные учебники для Вас может быть скрыта , непонятна вторая мотивация их создания , по этому в сравнении с советскими они производят иное впечатление . Объективно качество с точки зрения науки обычно хуже . Я покупал современные математические издания у нас в стране и в итоге понял , что зачастую это переписывание математических правил и упражнений ради денег . В отличии от советских изданий . Кстати нам Ютубе полно ученых болтунов пересказывающих одно и тоже ради заработка .

[@casusbelli9225]

>Idk why you're saying it's hardcore. I think it's just a bit different school and math language than you're used to The following will be said about Calculus and Linear algebra books mostly. Western books are like glorified exercise books: a little bit of surface level theory, with not much deep understanding and vigor, and 100+ exercises at the end of the chapter. Russian/Soviet books, usually, aren't having exercises, but they are rich on the vigor of the material, with all the theorems and lemmas, and "exercises" are usually presented in the form of "we gave you example and needed material, now you could prove this theorem by yourself, it's easy", with exercises being delegated to specific books. That being said, OLD western books are similar in depth and vigor. E.g. Insel, Spenser or Kunze's books about Linear Algebra, Spivak's Calculus and similar. This is what is meant by "being hardcore". You don't just larn how to do tasks, but are expected to learn the intristics behind the concepts learnt in the book.

[@nightyonetwothree]

@@casusbelli9225 in russian schools there are extra books used for exercises in addition to "theoretical" books. And for my higher education i dont remember if we used same extra materials for exercises or they were presented by teachers/lectors.

[@ilyakuzmin9165]

Well, you know, in Soviet Union there was even in school discipline called "engineering graphics" (I think they're trying to re-introduce it into schools in Russia now), and kids even without AutoCAD could draw easily all sort of blueprints by hand. The visualization and drawing graphs like was presented in the book was an easy exercise even for Soviet school students, and it really shouldn't cause any surprise that books like this could have multiple realistic visual representations, that appear quite descriptive, clean, neat and clear. If you look carefully at these graphs, you can see that even axis labels ("x", "y" and "z") are hand-drawn, not typed. Drawing clear captions (with characteristic semi-cursive, which is really recognizable) was part of the discipline.

[@DartXL]

Согласен, но ведь и на Западе компьютеры были не всегда. А теперь прикладные задачи математики приходится решать в MATLAB, а прочностные в PATRAN, рисовать в том же AutoCAD и нет ни одного базового языка программирования, на кириллице основанного.

[@Инженерголовногомозга]

​@@DartXLа нафига прогать на русском ?

[@DartXL]

@@Инженерголовногомозга уже конечно незачем. Но следствием стало, что программисты, выучившиеся у нас, торопились поработать на США и Европу, а не на страну где их учили, там же платили больше. Эдакая подготовка квалифицированных трудовых мигрантов... но за наш счет. Впрочем, США так собирали сливки со всего мира, продавая обратно готовый программный продукт.

[@Инженерголовногомозга]

@@DartXL я не об этом. Математика хороша тем, что условно нигериец и поймут друг друга без слов. С кодингом тоже самое

[@dmitryunique6876]

Черчения нету в школе уже?

[@lazyupload]

Being a long time graduate of Moscow engineering physics institute I'm very surprised so many students in different countries are familiar with the Russian maths&physics authors. If only I knew that so many people went through the same struggles I had I would've felt a bit better while studying those books through my sleepless nights before the exam

[@cuervoblanco71]

Mephi rules! 95 grad

[@ladoga1506]

@@cuervoblanco71 aye brother - 2009 grad. Still remember Корпус "И" that looked like Fallout game hideout at the outskirts of Mephi territory.

Math textbooks by Mir were highly appreciated when I started my studies at the Technical University of Madrid in the late 80s. As a funny note, I was lectured there by one of the most prolific translators of Mir books into Spanish, Carlos Vega, who had returned to Spain after Franco's death.

[@jimmycen7498]

I love that it spend chapters to talk about the application. My math classes in university always felt like I just study for the grade, rather than study for solving real engineering problems.

[@redoktopus3047]

something very commendable abuout Soviet academia is that almost every academic you'll meet will have, at some point, had a textbook published. that's at least been the case for me. something which is the rare privledge of the famous few in the west who can afford to either take the time away from paperwork or who can get ghost writers was much more common for them (anecdotal evidence). when i was in cuba, the host was an professional engineer but during his time in higher academia he also had a textbook published. my guess is that the book would be made for the course you were teaching so students had reference material for when they were not in class. a physical equivalent to the "i uploaded the slides to the coruse website" we have today.

[@annasolovyeva1013]

Often books are either based on lectures. Or used to supplement them and prepare for exams.

[@haggaisimon7748]

By the way, it's quite easy to translate a math book. When I was 18 and I didn't speak English, I translated the whole book of Nathan Jacobson, Theory and Representations of Jordan Algebras, from English to Russian. The vocabulary is quite limited for math books.

[@kirap7729]

Soviet science books were not only great in the field of mathematics. My mom studied biology in West Germany in the 80s and always tells me she used to drive over to the GDR to get soviet-origin bio and biochem textbooks because they were so much better than the west german ones

[@holdinmcgroin8639]

She'd just drive over there?

[@kirap7729]

@@holdinmcgroin8639 she had relatives over there so she would combine visits with buying books. Stuff like that was fairly easy as the GDR needed outside money too.

[@МаксимБушуев-ы2ь]

Recently graduated russian math bachelor here. I really like the tradition of hardcore but still great mathematics teaching. The book that helped me the most is Grigorii Fikhtengol'ts - The Fundamentals of Mathematical Analysis. Not even soviet but imperial stuff that was super fundamental and really helped me during the exams.

[@leonbuslay1140]

Greetings from the Faculty of Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University! Had to have my hands on this book during my freshman's year, up to modern days it still gets minor updates and is being reprinted. I am proud to study in the very same lecture halls (by this moment I'm in my senior year), where materials for this book have originated. P.S. Rest in Peace prof. Valentin Fyodorovich Butuzov (1939-2021) - Former head of Math. Department at the Faculty of Physics. He gave only a single lecture in person for my class during my first year right before Covid shutdown in 2020. Damn virus got him even despite all the shutdown measures. But on the bright side we have 4 his fully recorded lecture courses in free access with compiled written materials for them. It was a great sourse of knoledge for me and I hope will be for future generations of Physics students here in Moscow State University

[@drmiroslavyordanov7042]

The publishing house MIR (Peace) was one of the most reputable and prestigious in USSR. It was a common practice for them to engaged just the scientists as translators and editors. The scale and the number of books issued were astonished thanks to this that it was a government's property, so the financial and other material resources were unlimited.

[@rinrin4711]

Lol, Budak was the one to pick me at calculus exam this summer and he was so nice, he gave me an excellent mark! In Russia(MSU) most exams are in an "oral" form, you randomly pick a paper with two questions (1 theorem with proof + 1 definition or theorem without proof) and then you have up to an hour to write everything down before you get picked by random professor who asks you additional questions and with whom you discuss whatever you've written.

[@toraoeru8057]

Are you from cmc? It was his son or grandson

[@rinrin4711]

@@toraoeru8057, yeah it probably was!

[@Gustavovisk21]

I study civil engineering and one of the best books on structural analysis I've ever read is the one from Olga and Igor, both Russian authors. I don't know if it is from the soviet era, the book looks pretty modern, but Russian books on science and mathematics are incredible.

[@АзатШ-е5ъ]

When I was preparing for exams in Russian University I preffered Fikhtengol'ts books. I found his books more understandalble comparing to Ilyin, Poznyak. I'm very glad that soviet books were translated and shared accross the world.

[@cambolio2001]

N. Piskunov wrote the best Calculus book ever, "Differential and Integral Calculus", printed by Mir in Spanish. I own a copy and it is my most precious math book. You can easily find the pdf version if you look for it.

[@nazmul_khan_]

Gantmacher’s Matrices, Kolmogorov and Fomin’s book on Functional Analysis and Elsgolt’s Differential Equations books are my favorite introductory books ❤

[@emilywatt5126]

Это все было отлично 30 лет назад. Сейчас уже устарело во многом. Поэтому все ведущие университеты меняют основные курсы регулярно. Так же как меняли свои издания эти авторы, когда были живы, а потом их ученики, в основном до развала совка. После этого все, научные школы быстро кончились.

[@nazmul_khan_]

that's why I said introductory@@emilywatt5126

[@mevg6378]

Tbh, this is not a hardcore math. This is a part of a basic course for physicists we learnt in Moscow university physics faculty.

[@enhydramatic]

It’s incredible how you can immediately tell that this is a Soviet book, despite it being written in English. It’s the typeface and the drawings, which were indeed made by hand and then transferred to be printed. At least the font used for these drawings is strictly standardized (GOST 2.304), and probably the same is true for line widths and hatching, all of this giving these drawings this distinctive look. For cheaper and not-so-fundamental books, it was also common to see complex formulas - or even single letters - not typeset but hand-drawn and transferred in a similar fashion, or, in extreme cases, written in by hand into every copy.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

I did all that for my PhD (ну, для кандидатской) в 1990-м. Last year when computer printouts were still not acceptable for thesis submission. Had to be typed, figures draw, formulas written in by hand.

[@rnayabed]

Soviet books were very popular in India at a time, when Indian publishing was not very developed. I still have some old soviet engineering books that belonged to my father's uncle

[@NionXenion-gh7rf]

tike

[@ViewtifulSam]

This is a beautiful edition! And your copy is in great condition, too. What a treasure.

[@chamal75]

I have a few of these Soviet Era Physics books translated to English and Portuguese and they are my most treasured books. I love everything about them. The quality, the diagrams, fonts, looks and smell! Yes smell,😊!

[@siddhanthbhattacharyya4206]

I have a similar russian (soviet maybe?) book about problems in mathematics that i purchased as a high schooler back in india, when i took a look at some of the problems in it after the video, i felt kinda proud that i could solve them pretty well now that I'm an engineering undergrad, especially considering how that book gave me a hard time back then lol

[@hedgehog3180]

Being Danish I've definitely noticed that there is such a thing as dialect in science and math, the notation, preferred methods and what's considered important varies from country to country.

[@karinasulsul]

As a russian I would recommend P S Aleksandrov’s book for algebra and analytic geometry, but i think there is no translation into english. This book was written in the 20th century, my book at least was in 1968… maybe it has older versions too.

[@gamesandthoughts2388]

Nothing is better than Ilyin V.A, Poznyak E.G. for analytic geometry, maybe even calculus

[@kellychuba]

As a Russian your first words are 'Our educational system has collapsed and we study Stalin now'

[@V1er1f1ed]

You study math and not woke culture and I know the education system in CIS is better than the most countries.

[@utility00]

@@V1er1f1ed It surely is better than American, elite schools are merit based, and nobody is studying woke cr*p or obsessing over endless spectrum of genders or diversity. But lately they've started to teach other type of cr*ap about the "Great leader" and "Glorious Motherland", so it's getting worse there too.

[@thedude5830]

база епта

[@philippemts88]

I used some of Mir Publisher books for practicing for harder exams. Their problems are pretty hardcore if compared to standard textbooks.

[@joshuamendez425]

The prof who teaches system dynamics at my Uni is a Russian who grew up in the Soviet Union & he's soo good at math. I have to take vibrations with him next semester 😢

[@suglobovkirill]

The first author of this book, B. M. Budak, is the father of my linear algebra professor A. B. Budak at Lomonosov Moscow State University, in the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics. He taught me a course 4 years ago, but we still maintain a good relations. He is a kind and responsive person. Besides linear algebra, he teaches several mathematical courses. A. B. Budak spoke highly of his father, and now his son is carrying on his legacy. It's great to see that he continues to teach and inspire interest in mathematics like his father.

[@kerianhuertas1586]

When I was in second year of licence, I got my hands on the Marc Vygodsky's mathematical memory aid. Had to import it from a lost librairy in Italy, still wondering why it was there as it was written in french. Thank to this book I really felt I understood what I was doing, not just : learn formula, see exam, repeat formula, fail finals anyway

[@alexleibovici4834]

I have it too - "Aide-mémoire de mathématiques supérieurs". In Switzerland. I also had the Russian original.

[@ВацлиПуцли]

У меня есть справочник по * Элементарной математике * Выгодского 70 - х годов . Когда мне плохо , грустно или требуется душевное успокоение , я его читаю или вспоминаю то , что там написано .

[@MaximQuantum]

I've been struggling with staying motivated at college, but your videos give me (amongst many other things) inspiration to study with your enthusiasm towards math!

[@agarwalamit081]

I remember solving problems from a few Russian books on Mathematics and Physics by Mir Publishers and I must say that they contained some of the most challenging problems. Physics by Irodov is still, by far, the most popular book by Mir in India

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

The name signed 'Bhatia' on the book is an Indian name, and would be someone who studied in the USSR back then. Many students from India opted to go to the Soviet Union for degrees in science, even I was thinking of doing my mechanical engineering bechelors degree there.

[@sergeytrunov7166]

We actually have a lot of Indians studying at our universities - I see this every day. I have always wondered why studying in Russia is so popular?

[@misc2850]

Звучит как "Батя" - "отец"

[@andreas_schlegel]

Well, it's because russia has a high education standard in science, mathematics and engineering. In Germany we also use Soviet/ Russian books in our university education. When I studied electrical engineering/ IT in 2014, we had Bronstein/ Semendjajews handbook of mathematics. @@sergeytrunov7166

[@samurnin]

This book we used at my institute (we mostly named our universities as institutes those days) during my degree to became an engineer for the first courses on 1-2 year.

[@АлександрАлексеев-ю7ф]

I can recommend Vinberg's book on Algebra, Zorich's book on mathematical analysis. Excellent guides for starting to study higher mathematics.

[@daniillebedev4035]

For me, Zorich is hard, i learn mathematical analisys on Dmitriy Pismenniy. Study with Zorich's is my dream. Besides, i read a Tolstov "Курс Математического Анализа" (1957).

[@kevinreese5656]

In case anyone is interested, the abbreviation V/O on the back of the jacket stands for the the Soviet "External-trade Association"(Внешнеторговое объединение/ Vneshnetorgovoe ob"edinenie) whose name was "International Book" (Международная книга/ Mezhdunarodnaya kniga).

[@noizekiller]

And "mir" means "world".

[@alextalker5979]

@@noizekiller I'm gonna add that while the word мир(mir) can imply the world/universe/space/Earth depending on how broadly sentence author wants to use it for, it also homonymous with the idea of peace(i.e. война и мир = war and peace, by Tolstoy), which, taken that its a publishers name, one can't deny might be chosen intentionally =) Besides being simple to pronounce, of course.

[@naseernasrat1997]

I remember coming across a physics textbook that was published in the USSR. It may have been the same publisher. The book was in English. I found it in a library, but i can't remember which library. The first sentence blew me away. Russians and Easterners are big on definitions. Westerners are not. The definition of physics was written as, I'm not remembering it exactly; " Physics is a branch of the natural sciences that studies the fundamental constitution of the universe". Sounds pretty cool to a 15 year old. The explanations were very clear and easy to understand.

[@dux2372]

Russian Dmitry Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of chemical elements is the basis of the most fields of science: Modern chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, biology, chemical physics, astrobiology, physical chemistry, medicine, pharmaceutical, etc.

[@eplaymaker]

As a Moscow State University math grad and, simultaneously, a grad from UC Berkeley, I would say that Russian math education is much deeper and wider than the one in the US. The book that you are holding covers mandatory courses of 1-st and 2-nd year students in the Moscow State.

[@МаксВеличко-з1к]

I currently study in Moscow State University at department of geology, and our department shares the building with department of mechanics and mathematics, where the authors of this book worked. There's a joke that guys who study math there are a little quirky in their head, due to the amount of complicated stuff that they have to study. The department is really hard and sadly has much more cases of suicides due to people not being able to keep up, but it pops out qualified students. So happily or sadly, the way of teaching there doesn't really change - hard classes filtering out the strongest and most talented.

[@fixpontt]

i was a math student in Hungary and we also studied calculus from a soviet books i remember the "Bible" was Boris Pavlovich Demidovich: Problems in mathematical analysis, it is also an infinitely long book full of calculus problems, interestingly the math field called "calculus" in the west is called "analysis" here sometimes with adjectives, real, complex etc.

[@InssiAjaton]

Once upon a time, i.e in my college years, I liked to browse all kinds of books at book stores. I stumbled into one Russian text book about integrals. Two thirds seemed to be text, but the last 1/3 was a collection of solved integrals. I could not make heads or tails of the text portion, but I got excited about near 3000 solved integrals tabulated. I bought the book and still have it somewhere. I had learnt the Greek alphabets in high school physics. The Russian ones are a bit extended from the Greek ones, so I thought I should be able to work my way with a dictionary, which I also bought. Well, you would think so, but that is until you realize there is something called grammar. The one thing that I was lucky about my (failed) attempt to learn Russian was that I could read the Russian map and the street signs when I was once in Moscow. A friend of mine described his fate on a similar trip - he had got a city map with latin (western) texts, but it turned useless, as the street signs everywhere were just Cyrillic. But there is big leap from street signs to reading a math text book.

[@sdrc92126]

Gradshteyn and Ryzhik?

[@vaevictis2789]

Always was fascinated by how westerners are intimidated with cyrillic. Its an alphabet that shares like 50% of letters with latin and can be learned in a few hours. I was able to learne greek alphabet in about hour or two somehow, im absolutely sure learning russian one cant be much harder

[@sdrc92126]

@@vaevictis2789 I took Russian in college and forgot it all except for the alphabet. It's not intimidation, but absolute lack of need

[@InssiAjaton]

@@vaevictis2789 In my estimate, similarities are over 60%. However, a confusion also is evident for me. The “B” actually reads “v”. There are two separate “e”, one pronounced about “je” and the other ( “ e avarotnoje” ) more like the latin ”e”. Two versions of our “i” as well. And most problematic, the half a dozen different “s” characters. I can manage with a dictionary, but it is troubling slow.

[@santos-pereira]

Really enjoy MIR books. I learned calculus by myself (in high school) using Demidovich's book and Piskounov later. Then, I entered college and met Landau's elementary physics collection. My way of thinking as a physicist was heavily influenced by soviet scientists and mathematicians. By the way, I am from Brazil, and I came across those books at a flea market. I bought them in 2000 for about 50 cents of a dollar a piece. Have those books on my shelf to this day.

[@reganhoward7883]

The material on integrals in this book is covered (at least in the late ‘60s) by 2nd year undergraduate studies in the US. I saw all this as a physics major.

[@daniilivanov8460]

This course was adapted for Physics students who are interested in applications, but not in hardcore fundamentals. This is why the manifolds or Lebesgue integrals are barely introduced there, but a lot of time devoted to the double and triple integrals, tensors and "field theory". This is what was critically needed for theoretical and applied physics at that times

[@gnom584]

what do you think about Mathematical Analysis V.A. Zorich? This is our main textbook for the math. analysis course at the faculty of mathematics at Moscow state Uni.

[@karinasulsul]

зорич для меня тяжеловат оказался... тоже с мехмата

[@DmytroSydorenko-k2o]

@@karinasulsul 1 курс?

[@karinasulsul]

@@DmytroSydorenko-k2o да

[@axmy1776]

I love your content

[@korolev23]

I'm case you're interested, "Mezhdunarodnaya kinga" at 2:20 means "international book".

[@pinedelgado4743]

This particular book would make a great Dover reprint if it hasn't been done yet.

[@TheMathSorcerer]

Yes it would !!!

[@a.d.2766]

There is a legendary book of Scanavi, which is the collection of problems on pre-university math (algebra, fundamentals of calculus and geometry). If you manage to solve at least 50 percent of given problems, you can easily beat any math problem offered in entrance exams😂😂

[@bobkelly3162]

No wonder these guys were first into space. Hardcore!

[@machetas]

What a delicate way to avoid saying word "kniga".

[@alexandrsavochkin9442]

I used this book for studying in Russia in the late '90s to early '00s. We had two main books for the third semester of calculus (which I believe is called Calculus-III in the US and other countries): the Iliyin & Poszdnyak book and this one. From what I remember, Iliyin & Poszdnyak was even more hardcore, while this one aimed to provide a bit more "intuition" behind the concepts, not just rigorous derivation. I still recall a picture of a turbine "rotating" by a vector field in Budak & Fomin's book, explaining the rotor concept. It is still hardcore, though. Both books had very few or no exercises; there were other books for that.

[@GabrielsLogic]

Wow! Fascinating

[@alevyts3523]

In the Soviet Union, they used to make hardcore programs to weed out weak students. The education system was free, and they had to weed out the weak ones somehow. In the United States, everyone who has money is accepted. The only criterion is whether you have money or not. There was no such criterion in the Soviet Union. It needed powerful scientists and engineers to win the race with the United States. The United States simply buys strong scientists and engineers if they require them. The USSR did not have such an opportunity.

[@trofchik9488]

But then majority of students will end up hating the subject and leave or graduate university without any actual knowledge.

[@charlesspringer4709]

In the 1980's there was a book store in Palo Alto or Menlo Park with lots of these books in English. Some were for the final year of high school and are incredibly more difficult and sophisticated than in the US. I have a half a dozen, a few of which are just problem books of integrals and DEQ.

[@СергейБезин-к1х]

I also like some PROGRESS PUBLISHERS books (literature). Selected stories of Vladimir Korolenko (Moscow, 1978) is my favorite one. What combinations of English words! What colors! Real masterpiece..Could be compared with 'The old man and the sea', but different one. The reading is like listening to a beautiful melody.

[@mauz791]

The Soviets bag incredible STEM skills, especially chemistry. Dubna is a cool place 👍

[@ДанилАгафонов-щ5г]

Не знаю насчет именно этого, но у меня в программе был Фихтенгольц. Прямо смотрю видео и вижу знакомые вещи, аж слезы на глазах наворачиваются

[@BangkokZed]

Although I have a genuine appreciation for Soviet science, the textbooks in some cases were very hardcore. For instance, when I initially studied gyroscope theory in Russian, it began with deriving the gyroscope equations from Newton's laws of motion. I had difficulties in understanding the explanation and practical use of it, so I visited the library and borrowed a US textbook translated to Russian (I think it was a UC Berkeley book) to get better understanding of gyroscopes. To my surprise, the authors explained gyroscopes by illustrating the motion and forces acting on a rotating bicycle wheel. This explanation clicked for me, and I was impressed by its simplicity, not going through Newton and Euler.

[@cybernessful]

R.I.P. Soviet Science. :(

[@Lativik]

Why? His stil a live

[@cybernessful]

@@Lativik it's dead unfortunately, there are more churches than schools, theology became of the officially studied discipline on RAS (O_o), education budget declines every year. After collapse of USSR Yeltsin-Putin coup driven by oligarchs has destroyed all Soviet legacy. Too bad for all mankind.

[@pushista9322]

There are modern reprint editions of Stalin-era textbooks, including those for primary schools. They are very popular in online-shops and many parents rave about them.

[@opa_chirik]

​@@cybernessfulэто вам кто сказал? Зеленский?

[@Fredfreddyfred]

@@cybernessful You mean The Russian Empires legacy, Tsarist Russia was known for having some of the best universities in Europe, the soviets just built on top of what was already there.

[@tiberium87]

I appreciate you man. I appreciate what you do, and the things you care about.

[@PeterZaitcev]

A few notes on the terms used in this book those were not translated properly or not at all. * Mir ("Мир") is a Russian word for both world and peace. * Mezhdunarodnaya (ending may vary) is a Russian word for International (adj.) * Can.Sc. (math) and D.Sc. (math) are Soviet and Russian degrees in science, 3rd and 2nd from the highest. When you complete your University studying, you may be offered to continue your education & scientific researchers on the university basis, becoming so-called Aspirant. Those who successfully defend their Thesis become Candidates of Sciences (Candidate of Physics and Maths Sciences, Candidate of Tech Science, etc), which is an equivalent of PhD grade. Ones who are very successful may attempt to write their Doctor Thesis and then defend it, acquiring second but highest possible rank. Works same as for Candidates, but cooler. And, finally, scientific superstars are invited to the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Union (Russian Federation), gaining a lifetime grade of Academic. This is THE Soviet/Russian (inter)national academy, which is the highest institute in the scientific & educational system, having right & power to disobey the highest level directives (Academic Sakharov, author of the thermonuclear bomb, was publicly banned in late 80s, but his academic status was never retired) * The first page in Russian is actually an original title page, which is required by Russian standards (always have both original & localized title pages) P.S. BTW, this is a very simple book, most of the other Russian university books are WAY worse-written and harder to understand. P.P.S. Calculus is a mandatory discipline for any technical university education, including multidimensional integrals. Usually it's a Calculus 2 class (2nd semester of the 1st year)

[@johnflorio3576]

When I was a physics undergraduate we had to show proficiency in either German or Russian. I chose Russian and I’m glad I did.

[@stevenzheng5459]

I like how they call the Divergence theorem "Ostrogradsky's theorem" instead of "Gauss' theorem"!

[@dmitripogosian5084]

Actually, when I was taught back in USSR in the 80-s, I was taught it as "theorem of Gauss-Ostragradsky"

[@lowsistem]

MIR books are amazing. Not only in mathematics. I have one in spanish about metals and thermal treatments of these (not sure if I'm translating this term properly). For how small the book actually is, the fact it contained almost all the info I needed for a course in materials still baffles me. I thing I studied one authored by Piskunov, if I remember correctly, for calc II. I love the straightforwardness of the MIR books.

[@maoklina]

In 1980s I was an engineering student in Istanbul. MIR Publishers had a retail shop there and they were selling Russian math and physics excercise books. None of us knew Russian language, but that wasn't a problem because x is x, y is y, and that snake looking integral sign is written the same in all languages. Printing and paper quality of the books were the best of the best (mostly glossy paper), and prices were ridiculously dirt cheap. I bet, you couldn't buy the same amount of blank paper with those prices.

[@alexleibovici4834]

> Printing and paper quality of the books were the best of the best (mostly glossy paper), and prices were ridiculously dirt cheap. They were heavily subsidized. From what Soviet budget is anyone's guess. My guess is that they were subsidized from the (enormous) budget for foreign propaganda.

[@maoklina]

You're right. Otherwise, it is practically impossible to print such books in high quality and run a retail shop in the center of the city where everything is relatively expensive. My only complaint was the weight of the books. They were heavier than our books which were printed on cheap paper. :)

[@sebastiangorka200]

@@alexleibovici4834 its insane how deep in your brain the propaganda sits that you believe every pursuit to be sinister. the ussr simply considered science to be very important and a progressive force for humanity.

[@nikolaylincoln6339]

5:14 pay attention at the fact that we are talking about the physics department. Moscow University has a Math department, where mathematics is of a much higher level !

[@wolfhh4926]

I have fond memories of using Landau-Lifschitz volumes 5, 8, and 9 as a grad student (in the US in 2010s.) I bought the books from Nepal I believe. Paid around $15 plus $50 shipping, much cheaper than buying them locally. I had a friend who was assigned their volume 1 in her second year of undergrad physics...she dropped the class and the major.

[@k44galaxy]

Lots of books were published on math, physics, informatics. In 90s we read it at home and I also visited libraries in our town to find something new. Now my kids use Elementary math by Vygodsky published in USSR. I still keep several boxes of Soviet books. We also studied English, French, Latin from just books. I also had Japan and Chinese, but it was hard to learn without a teacher. Soviet books were made for every case. You literally could learn anything

[@sujoykumardas8035]

Russian physics books are really on another level In India the highest book for physics IIT JEE is I E irodov

[@DnoFM]

It is so weird to hear that people in India use the same book that we had in our University. Irodov is pretty good, as far as I remember (15 years later).

[@sujoykumardas8035]

@@DnoFM the only difference is it is used by our highschool students (°~°)

[@DnoFM]

@@sujoykumardas8035 His general books? Like mechanics? But je has other books as well. We used his books on quantum mechanics somewhere in third year of University. We don't have high school per se in Russia, but it would be extremely weird to use all of Irodov's book in school, right? Or I severely underestimate the general level of teaching in India.

[@sujoykumardas8035]

@@DnoFM only the mechanics magnetism electrostatics and geometrical optics

[@izoiva]

You're being asking about drawings, its definitely hand drawing. Soviet engineering and technical schools are really appreciated that. Even though this day students in technical universities receiving basic course on hand drawing.

[@collineverdi3017]

"definitely hand drawing" ... at least because in the 70's were wasn't much computer drawing! I was a PhD student (in Italy) , and I drew by hand the plots I published in my first papers.