A. N. Kolmogorov – 120th anniversary

Abstract

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903–1987) occupies a unique place in modern mathematics and in the scientific world. By the diversity and breadth of his scientific studies he recalls the classical natural scientists of past centuries. Topics in the theory of trigonometric series, theory of measure and sets, studies in the theory of integration, approximation theory, constructive logic, topology and geometry, functional analysis, theory of superposition of functions and Hilbert’s 13th problem, cohomology theory, topics in classical mechanics, ergodic theory, theory of turbulence, dynamic systems, diffusion equations, foundation of the probability theory and Hilbert’s 6th problem, theory of stochastic processes (Markov, stationary, branching, diffusion, . . . ), limit theorems, mathematical statistics, theory of algorithms, information theory, applications in non-linear quantum mechanics, physics, mathematical geology, biology, genetics, social sciences, articles on the theory of poetry and the statistics of text and literature, papers on the history and methodology of mathematics and the teaching of mathematics in schools. In all these branches of science Kolmogorov obtained fundamentally important results which determined the state of many fields of 20th century mathematics and possible directions of their development. Kolmogorov was really the last encyclopedist in the Mathematics. Kolmogorov created a number of scientific schools, many of them headed by his pupils.