Abram Ilyich Fet
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Abram Ilyich Fet (Russian: Абрам Ильич Фет) (born December 5, 1924 in Odessa died July 30, 2007 in Novosibirsk) was a Russian mathematician. He is known for his work in topology, unitary symmetries of elementary particles and the theory of elementary particles. Fet proved now classical theorem in Riemannian geometry, which says that on every compact Riemannian manifold there exists at least one closed geodesic.
A. I. Fet was born in Odessa in 1924. At the beginning of the war his family was evacuated to Tomsk. Fet graduated from the mathematics department of Tomsk University and then continued his study in Moscow under the supervision of Lyusternik. He defended his PhD Thesis at Moscow University, and afterwards came back to Siberia. He worked at the Sobolev Institute of Mathematics in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok and taught at Tomsk and Novosibirsk Universities. In 1968 together with some other scientists he signed the so-called "letter of 46" which was a petition against the political trial of Yu. Galanskov, A. Ginzburg, A. Dobrovolsky and V. Lashkova. While the other supporters of the petition were urged by repressions to publicly withdraw their support, Fet did not do so. As a consequence he was fired from the institute and prohibited from any further teaching activities. During the following years Fet made his living by translations (he was fluent in six foreign languages and translated from twelve). This time he and his family often had not enough money for food, but only his closest friends knew about the situation. In 1972, mostly under the influence of his foreign colleagues, Fet was appointed to a research position at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry but he was never again admitted to teaching. Still Fet continued his educational activities by organizing free seminars at his apartment.
In the Soviet time of economic shortages when commodities were distributed among the elite, Fet refused to benefit from any privilege authorized by his title of professor.
In 1990s Fet actively participated in the conferences of the Helsinki Group and its proceedings.
For several years Fet collaborated with a physicist Yu. B. Rumer working on the theory of unitary symmetry of elementary particles. Fet translated to Russian a number of books on history, psychology, economics and sociology. In particular, under a pseudonym A. I . Fedorov, he translated the works of Konrad Lorenz. During the last years of his life Fet worked on a book "Instinct and social behavior” (Russian: Инстинкт и социальное поведение) which he considered as the main result of his study of history, ethics and human behavior. The book was published in 2005 by Sova Publishing House (Novosibirsk).
