In the summer of 1936, a time of ongoing political purges in the USSR, Nikolai Nikolaevich Luzin was charged with plagiarism, academic dishonesty and other “anti-Soviet” activities in the pages of Pravda. Luzin, an eminent mathematician and leader of the Soviet school of mathematics, found himself at the center of two simultaneous conflicts—one, a generational rift between rising young mathematicians and the pre-revolutionary academic establishment, and the other, Stalin's ongoing campaign to “Sovietize” science in the USSR, placing it in the service of his regime and ending the practice of publication in Western journals.

Ultimately, for reasons that may not be fully understood even now, Luzin was not declared an “enemy of the people”, which would have led to his immediate arrest. After making a statement of public repentance, he escaped with a relatively mild reprimand, humiliated and frightened, but alive. Nevertheless, his case can be viewed as a precursor to those of other scholars, such as Kravchuck and Vavilov, who would later fall victim to Stalin's purges.

This is the first English translation of a Russian volume that appeared in 2001. It contains an introductory section, written by Sergei Demidov, the leading expert in the history of Soviet mathematics, which examines the Luzin case and describes the Soviet mathematical scene of the period. Also included are annotated transcripts of the five meetings of the Academy of Sciences commission charged with investigating the accusations against Luzin, and a selection of contemporary articles from the Soviet press. Together these documents form a fascinating picture of one of the darkest episodes in the history of Soviet mathematics.