A Revolutionary in Mathematics Education (On V.R. Mrochek)

This paper is devoted to Vatslav Mrochek, one of the most prominent figures in pre-revolutionary Russian mathematics education. A passionate supporter of the reform movement, Mrochek was the author of several publications that promoted the most radical methodological ideas. He was also one of the initiators and organizers of the Russian congresses of mathematics teachers. Mrochek’s post-revolutionary activities were far less notable—his radicalism and pretensions to leadership were not welcome. His life was cut short in 1937, when he was executed as part of the so-called Polish Operation carried out by the state security services. Mrochek’s tumultuous and changeful life makes it possible to form a clearer picture of the processes that unfolded in the mathematics education, and more broadly, in the life of the country in the first half of the twentieth century. His biography allows us to see various aspects of what occurred in their interaction and intersection with one another, as Gert SchubringSchubring, Gert argued we must. The paper relies on archival materials and publications from Mrochek’s time.