Alexandr A. Chuprov: Life, Work, Correspondence (eBook)

Dr. Oscar Sheynin was born in Moscow in 1925. He has worked in Russia as an editor and lecturer in academic institutions.

Contents 5
1. Introduction 9
Abbreviations 12
2. A Brief Biography 25
2.1. Youth 25
2.2. Mature Years 26
2.3. Outline 27
3. Teaching 29
3.1. The Petersburg Polytechnic Institute 29
3.2. The Dissemination of Statistical Knowledge 31
3.3. School Curriculum 31
4. Social and Political Activities 33
5. The Last Years 37
5.1. A Trip Abroad. To Return Or Not? 37
5.2. Sweden and Germany 40
5.3. Searching for a Job. Prague 43
5.4. The End 44
6. Membership of Scientific Bodies 47
7. Chuprov and Other Scientists 49
7.1. Introduction 49
7.2. Knapp 51
7.3. Bortkiewicz 54
7.4. Slutsky 62
7.5. Romanovsky 70
7.6. Karl Pearson 75
7.7. Chetverikov 77
7.8. Anderson 80
7.9. Mordukh 82
7.10. Markov 83
8. Correspondence with Markov 85
8.1. An Unsigned Note 85
8.2. Additions to the Published Text (Ondar E1977/1981) 86
8.3. Corrections to That Text 102
9. The Candidate Composition [Dissertation] 109
9.1. A General Description 109
9.2. Philosophical Problems 110
9.3. The Theory of Probability 112
9.4. Statistics and the Statistical Method 117
10. Statistics 119
10.1. Statistics and the Theory of Probability 119
10.2. The Law of Large Numbers 120
10.3. The Strong Law of Large Numbers 122
10.4. Statistics and the Statistical Method 123
10.5. Statistics and Natural Sciences 124
10.6. A Particular Remark on Terminology 127
11. Demography 129
11.1. Censuses of Population 129
11.2. Other Areas 131
12. Actuarial Work 133
13. Sampling 135
14. Stability of Statistical series 137
14.1. Lexis 137
14.2. Bortkiewicz 138
14.3. The Coefficient Q (Markov) 139
14.4. The Coefficient Q (Chuprov) 140
14.5. The General Formula (Chuprov and Markov) 143
14.6. Exchangeability 145
14.7. The Normal Stability of Two Random Variables 146
15. The Method of Mathematical Expectations 147
15.1. Introduction 147
15.2. Chuprov 148
15.3. The English School 149
15.4. Random Variable 151
15.5. A Calculus of Mathematical Expectations 151
15.6. Appendix: Letters of Anderson and Pearson 152
16. Appreciation 155
16.1. The West 157
16.2. The Soviet Union 159
Notes 161
Bibliography 175
Sources for Photographs 199
Index of Names 201
Subject Index 205

4. Social and Political Activities (S. 33-34)

Den (E1928, p. 313) and Ioffe (E1928, p. 315) indicate that Chuprov longed to be able to give all his time to science. Indeed, while contrasting himself with his father, he (Chp ~ B 1.11.97) remarked that it was necessary to protect oneself against encroachments made by others and defend the time needed for one’s own work. Nevertheless, Chuprov was no armchair scientist. Apart from his attitude towards teaching (§ 3.1), which in itself refutes his own (earlier) statement just quoted, there are two other relevant circumstances: his participation in political life and the indissoluble connection of his work with social concerns.

Chuprov did to a certain degree take part in political affairs. In attempting to turn the attention of the intelligentsia to the Constitutional-Democratic (Cadet) party, he (letter to father 11.11.05, F2244, 2/245) published a booklet (1906a) explaining its aims and in 1906 –1907 he participated in the work of the Cadet’s agrarian committee (letters to father 9.11.06 and 7.2.07, Ibidem). He was one of those few, who […] essentially influenced the formulation of the ideology of that party (Kaminka E1926).

Maintaining (p. 3) that the Cadets have no clear boundaries between themselves and more radical left-wing parties, Chuprov (pp. 7 and 11) declared: For the advent of the final expropriation to take place it is necessary that capitalism develops wider than it had time to do even in the most advanced nations of the capitalist culture. At present, educated economists can no longer believe in the inevitable downfall of the capitalist system brought about by the general overproduction which threatens to become chronic.

Note also Chuprov’s post-war statement (1922d, p. 213): The intrinsic contradictions of capitalism are great and deep, but at present the ability to manage them is still greater. Chuprov was not a Marxist, a fact borne out by his correspondence with his father (1897 –1902, F2244). Indeed, he referred very critically to the first two volumes of Das Kapital. In the second volume he was especially dissatisfied with the arithmetical manner of exposition (13.11.01, 1/244).

Upon converting everything into algebraic form, it becomes much more durchsichtiger [transparent] 4.1. Concerning the first volume, Chuprov briefly formulated his disagreement with some of its sections (10.1.97 and 1.12.00, 1/244, and end of December 1902, 2/245). However, he also remarked that much Marxism was already in the air (13.11.01, 1/244). Finally, 18.3.02 (2/245) Chuprov, while informing his father about his talk with Struve 4.2, remarked.