December 17, 2016 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Story of Alfred Tarski
Under the guidance and mentor-ship of Steinhaus, Banach rose to
great heights ultimately going to head the second Chair of Mathematics at the
University of Lwów.
Banach never left his homeland in spite of twice being invaded by
the Russian Empire and having to suffer through two world wars.
The story and life of Alfred Tarski was in nearly every which way
opposite to that of Banach’s.
Alfred Tarski was born with the surname Teitelbaum to Jewish
parents in Warsaw of 1901 in what was then the Congress Poland.
His parents were well off and thus Alfred Teitelbaum had a warm,
tender and loving childhood.
The Poland that he was born into was named Congress Poland that had
been created in 1815 was actually a mere puppet state of the powerful Russian
Empire.
The University of Warsaw almost since its inception in 1816 by the
Russian Tsar Alexander I was under the control of the Russian Empire.
Yet, the Russians had given the university some autonomy especially
following the Crimean War that ended in 1856.
The University was even allowed to establish the Polish Medical
and Surgical Academy.
Yet, soon after the January Uprising of 1863-64 wherein the young
Poles protested against the conscription into the Russian Imperial Army, all
its autonomy was withdrawn.
The uprising was brutally crushed by 1864 and the University of
Warsaw was completely Russianized by doing away both with the Polish language
and the Polish professors.
The Russian masters thought this would be the perfect way to
Russify the Polish society and culture.
It was only after the end of the World War I in 1918 when Poland
regained its independence, did the influx of Polish professors into the
university took off.
Yet the Russians would not let them be.
Very soon after the end of the World War I, the Soviet Red Army
invaded Poland in 1920 under the leadership of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir
Lenin.
For Lenin, conquest of the Poland was a vital key for the spread
of communism to the Central and Western Europe.
It was both a decisive and a miraculous victory of the Polish army
over the Russian forces.
The Western historians consider this battle to be one of the most
significant battles of the twentieth century as it halted the early advance of
Communism over Europe.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night and my fellow cousin ape.
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, may I
suggest this large collection of Kids Songs:
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