The Moscow Pythagoreans: Mathematics, Mysticism, and Anti-Semitism in Russian Symbolism

In the nineteenth century the traditional Christian hostility to the Jews evolved into an often arcane system of scientific and historical theories that served as intellectual cover for darker ideological sentiments. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Russia was the scene for one of the more peculiar instances of this phenomenon, whereby politics, mysticism, anti-Semitism, and mathematical theory fused into a distinctive intellectual movement. Through analyses of such seemingly disparate subjects as the philosophy of August Comte, Moscow mathematical circles, and Andrei Belyi's classic 1913 novel Petersburg, this remarkable interdisciplinary study illuminates a forgotten aspect of Russian cultural and intellectual history.