100 лет со дня рождения

EDITORS’ FOREWORD
This book is dedicated to the 100
th
anniversary of the birth of Alexey 
Andreevich Lyapunov, a prominent mathematician and an outstanding 
representative of the Moscow Mathematical School associated with the 
name of N.N. Luzin.
Our previous book “Alexey Andreevich Lyapunov” (SO RAN Pub-
lishers, 2001, 524 pp.) was published as part of the series “Siberian Sci-
ence through its Personalities” on the occasion of the 90
th
anniversary of 
A.A. Lyapunov’s birth and addressed mostly the Novosibirsk period of 
Alexey Andreevich’s life and creative work (1962–1973) when his pri-
mary pursuits were focused on computer science, informatics, mathe-
matical biology, mathematical linguistics and the philosophical aspects 
of natural science. In the current publication, the editors’ goal was both 
to describe Alexey Andreevich as a mathematician and enlarge the 
reader’s appreciation of Lyapunov as a unique individual who combined 
broad scientific interests with a big heart.
A.A. Lyapunov began his work in the field of cybernetics in the 
early 1950s when the official Soviet press stigmatized it as a bourgeois 
“pseudo-science”. By that time Lyapunov was already an accomplished 
scientist whose primary achievements were in mathematics. He was 
among the first Soviet scientists to recognize the true potential of com-
puters and cybernetics. Lyapunov played a key role in the heroic struggle 
for recognition of computer science in our country and guided this new 
discipline from its first steps to the eventual flourishing. He has deserv-
edly been referred to as the “father of Soviet computer science”.
In the beginning of 1962, A.A. moved to Novosibirsk upon invita-
tion of the management of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy 
of Sciences. It was here, at the Akademgorodok scientific center, that he 
initiated research in theoretical and applied cybernetics, bringing to it 
his characteristic flair and energy. It can be said without exaggeration 
that along with Lyapunov, the hub of Soviet computer science shifted to 
Novosibirsk. 
The newspapers of the time quipped that “before, boys dreamed of 
running away to the Indians in America. Now, they run away to Lyapu-
nov in Akademgorodok.” There is a grain of truth in that joke as talented 

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10
Editors’ foreword
youth from the whole country would come to Novosibirsk in those years 
either to enter Novosibirsk State University (NSU) where A.A. taught or 
to take part in one of the physics and math Olympiads and enter the fa-
mous Physics and Math High School where Lyapunov also taught and 
which he helped found.
However, it was not just high school or college students who flocked 
to Lyapunov. He possessed a unique ability to attract people of all pro-
fessions due to his outgoing and warm personality, breadth of scientific 
interests and generous sharing of professional knowledge. During the 
1960s and early 1970s people working in the fields of science as diverse 
as mathematics, physics, biology and linguistics would come to visit him 
from Moscow and other cities of the Soviet Union. NSU included the 
flourishing departments of calculus and theoretical cybernetics that were 
founded by Lyapunov. Active research was conducted at the Institute of 
Mathematics’ department of computer science, also founded by A.A. In 
addition, national and international conferences on computer science 
and programming were regularly held in Akademgorodok. 
Not surprisingly, the study of the history of computer science and 
informatics overlaps to a great extent with the study of A.A. Lyapunov’s 
life and work. It is also no accident that particularly in Akademgorodok 
whose residents preserve the good memories of this outstanding scientist 
and person and where his pupils and fans still live and work, there devel-
oped considerable interest to the history of computer science and infor-
matics. 
It should be noted that already in the 1970s and 1980s there ap-
peared a number of important publications driven by the desire to grasp 
the scale of Lyapunov’s scientific and personal achievement. A special 
issue of the series “Problemy Kibernetiki” (Issue 32, 1977) published 
shortly after Lyapunov’s untimely death and dedicated to his memory 
included papers by the closest pupils of Alexey Andreevich such as 
S.V. Yablonsky, O.B. Lupanov, Yu.I. Zhuravlev, R.I. Podlovchenko, 
O.S. Kulagina and others.
In 1996, a Second Siberian Congress on Applied and Industrial 
Mathematics (INPRIM-96) took place in Akademgorodok. The con-
gress was dedicated to the memory of A.A. Lyapunov, A.P. Yershov 
and I.A. Poletaev. Many of Lyapunov’s pupils and followers from all 
around Russia and abroad attended the congress where they held nu-
merous formal and informal meetings and shared their memories. 
INPRIM-96 provided a wealth of information to our researchers inter-
ested in the history of computer science and Lyapunov’s role in its de-
velopment.

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11
Editors’ foreword
The year 1996 was marked by yet another unique international event 
when IEEE Computer Society, an authoritative international body in 
the area of computer science, awarded Lyapunov with a “Computer Pio-
neer” medal honoring him as a “Founder of the Soviet Cybernetics and 
Programming”. 
In the years that followed, Lyapunov’s works and various scientific, 
pedagogical and social activities remained the focus of mathematicians, 
programmers, biologists, educators and other researchers specializing in 
the fields of knowledge in which A.A. was involved. Naturally, A.A. Lya-
punov’s scientific heritage attracted attention of historians of science.
The first volume in our informal series “History of Computer Sci-
ence” was prepared and published in 1998. Its title was “Essays on the 
History of Computer Science in Russia”. The publication was dedicated 
to the 50
th
anniversary of the first edition of Norbert Wiener’s “Cyber-
netics”. The “Essays” included numerous documents from the period of 
development of computer science in the Soviet Union. Some of the 
documents included in the collection had appeared in previous publica-
tions but the majority were discovered in personal archives of the par-
ticipants of those events. Through the reminiscences of some of the 
book’s contributors, the “Essays” helped resurrect the atmosphere of 
that period. 
A considerable portion of the “Essays” was devoted to A.A. Lyapu-
nov. Thus, Part One of the collection (“Early History of Soviet Cyber-
netics”) included the first publication of a shorthand record of Lyapu-
nov’s paper “On the Use of Mathematical Machines in Solving Logical 
Problems” which he delivered at the Institute of Energy of the USSR 
Academy of Sciences on June 24, 1954. The paper was one of many that 
Lyapunov delivered in the early 1950s in an attempt to defend and reha-
bilitate cybernetics. Also included was a shorthand record of the discus-
sion that followed the presentation which makes clear that the audience 
members held conflicting positions regarding the paper’s subject. 
Earlier in this foreword, we mentioned the book that followed the 
“Essays” and was completely devoted to A.A. Lyapunov. That was the 
monograph “Alexey Andreevich Lyapunov” published in Novosibirsk in 
2001 and dedicated to the 90
th
anniversary of the scientist’s birth. The 
Akademgorodok community observed the anniversary with a formal and 
serious commemoration.
In October of 2001, on the occasion of the 90
th
anniversary of the 
A.A. Lyapunov’s birth, the Joined Institute of Informatics of the Siberian 
Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences along with other institutes of 
the Siberian Branch held a conference to commemorate the prominent 

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12
Editors’ foreword
Russian scientist. The conference attracted significant interest among the 
scientific community resulting in more than 170 papers being presented 
by Russian and foreign participants on subjects related to Lyapunov’s 
work. The presentations were divided among seven thematic sections: 
Memorial, Informational Biology, Mathematical Cybernetics, Program-
ming, Prospective Issues in Education, Mathematical Modeling in Biol-
ogy and Cybernetics in Physiology.
In 2003, the Moscow publishing house “Science” published “His-
tory of Computer Science in Russia: Scientists and Their Schools”. 
A special section of that book entitled “At the Origins of Computer Sci-
ence” was devoted to A.A. Lyapunov and his scientific schools. It should 
be noted that the rest of the publication deals with Lyapunov’s contem-
poraries and colleagues, i. e. the people who lived and worked in his 
sphere of influence.
Although the publications on the history of computer science that 
followed were devoted to various persons who played a role in the his-
tory of Russian cybernetics and informatics, in each of them A.A. Lya-
punov is either openly or implicitly present. It is impossible to discuss 
the history of Russian cybernetics and informatics without talking about 
Lyapunov.
With the support of the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Re-
search (RFFI), the virtual archive “History of Russian Cybernetics and 
Informatics” and the virtual museum “Heritage of Alexey Andreyevich 
Lyapunov, the Founder of Russian Cybernetics and Programming” were 
prepared and published online in 2002–2004 and 2008–2010, respec-
tively.
An illustrated biography of A.A. Lyapunov was published in the an-
niversary year 2011, under the title “