Lev Pontryagin - Controversy and Anti-semitism

Controversy and Anti-semitism

Pontryagin was accused of anti-Semitism on several occasions. For example he attacked Nathan Jacobson for being a "mediocre scientist" representing "Zionism movement", while both men were vice-presidents of the International Mathematical Union. He rejected charges in anti-Semitism in an article published in Science in 1979, claiming that he struggled with Zionism which he considered a form of racism. When a prominent Soviet Jewish mathematician, Grigory Margulis, was selected by the IMU to receive the Fields Medal at the upcoming 1978 ICM, Pontryagin, who was a member of the Executive Committee of the IMU at the time, vigorously objected. Although the IMU stood by its decision to award Margulis the Fields Medal, Margulis was denied a Soviet exit visa by the Soviet authorities and was unable to attend the 1978 ICM in person. Pontryagin also participated in a few notorious political campaigns in the Soviet Union, most notably, in the Luzin affair.