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7. Probability and Statistics Soviet Essays - Sheynin, Oscar

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In Kiev, in the 1930s, N.M. Krylov <strong>and</strong> N.N. Bogoliubov began their study of ergodictheorems for Markov chains. They issued from the theory of dynamic systems <strong>and</strong> thedirect cause of their research was the desire to justify the ergodic hypothesis formulatedalready by Boltzmann. Later, their problems widened <strong>and</strong> adjoined the work of theMoscow mathematicians.[4] After the Great Patriotic War {1941 – 1945} Linnik in Leningrad <strong>and</strong> his students inVilnius built up new powerful collectives working in various directions of the theory ofprobability <strong>and</strong> mathematical statistics. During the <strong>Soviet</strong> years a large number ofmonographs <strong>and</strong> textbooks in probability theory were published. Some of them woninternational recognition, have went <strong>and</strong> are going through many editions abroad 7 .Collected translations of papers of <strong>Soviet</strong> authors on probability theory <strong>and</strong> mathematicalstatistics regularly appear in the USA. The periodical % (Theory of <strong>Probability</strong> <strong>and</strong> Its Applications) is being translated <strong>and</strong> publishedthere in its entirety. In mathematical statistics, the books Smirnov & Dunin-Barkovsky(1955; 1959) 8 <strong>and</strong> Linnik (1966) should be mentioned. Bolshev & Smirnov (1968)compiled excellent tables, <strong>and</strong> a number of tables were due to Slutsky, Smirnov <strong>and</strong> others.The specialized periodical mentioned above was established owing to the considerableincrease in the amount of investigations in probability theory <strong>and</strong> mathematical statistics.In addition, writings on probability continue to appear in general mathematical <strong>and</strong> variousspecial editions. During the latest years, the number of articles devoted to the theory ofprobability <strong>and</strong> published in engineering journals greatly increased which undoubtedlytestifies that the dem<strong>and</strong>s of modern technology <strong>and</strong> theoretical studies accomplished bymathematicians are connected with each other <strong>and</strong> that the engineers’ level of stochasticeducation has risen.[5] The contribution of <strong>Soviet</strong> scientists to the development of the theory of probabilitydeserves highest appraisal. By creating an axiomatics of the theory on the basis of thetheories of measure <strong>and</strong> of functions of a real variable, they fundamentally transformed thescience <strong>and</strong> laid a robust foundation for the development of its new branches. The firstworks initiating the creation of the theory of stationary processes <strong>and</strong> r<strong>and</strong>om functions ledto the focus of scientific attention in probability theory shifting to this very field. Inaddition, owing to the development of general methods of the theory of r<strong>and</strong>om processes<strong>and</strong> fields, great possibilities for studying phenomena in nature <strong>and</strong> economics as well astechnological operations have opened up. Already the first steps in this direction yieldedappreciable results. The classical issue of summing independent r<strong>and</strong>om variables wasessentially promoted, <strong>and</strong>, in some aspects, settled. At the same time, new problemsimparted freshness <strong>and</strong> fascination to this venerable subject.The intensive progress in technology <strong>and</strong> physics advanced many unexpected problems<strong>and</strong> initiated absolutely new directions of research, in the first place information theory(that originated in the USA), the theory of stochastic automatic machines, theory ofoptimal control of stochastic processes, reliability theory. <strong>Soviet</strong> mathematicians haveseriously contributed to the development of these new domains as well.Notes1. {Only the Laplacean theory of errors.}2. {The method of moments is due to Bienaymé <strong>and</strong> Chebyshev, <strong>and</strong> Gnedenko himselfsaid so later (Gnedenko & <strong>Sheynin</strong> 1978, p. 262).}3. {I believe that the theory of errors is the statistical method as applied to the treatmentof observations, <strong>and</strong> (unlike Gnedenko) that it had been essentially completed by the end

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