Soviet mathematics and dialectics in the post-Stalin era: New horizons

The post-Stalin period in Soviet history (1953-1991) was a time of weakening of official ideological interference with the professional activity of the Soviet scientific community. Many branches of mathematics-particularly cybernetics, mathematical logic, and the foundations of mathematics-played an important role in the struggle against Stalinist ideological and philosophical dogmatism. The Soviet "constructivist" orientation in the foundations of mathematics expressed a conciliatory attitude toward intuitionism, logicism, and formalism, the main currents in western. mathematics. Dialectical materialism became more flexible, but it continued to be the only officially recognized philosophy in the Soviet Union. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).