Kravchuk Mikhail Pilipovich (1892-1942)
M. P. Kravchuk is an outstanding Ukrainian mathematician from the first half of the 20th century, a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, one of the founders of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, who made a fundamental contribution to various branches of mathematics, namely: algebra, number theory, theory of functions, differential theory and integral equations, probability theory, mathematical statistics. All his multifaceted, creative social life was closely connected with scientific institutions, higher educational institutions, schools of Ukraine. No event in the creation of mathematical science in Ukraine occurred without his involvement in it. The first Ukrainian schools in cities and villages, the first courses, the first Ukrainian universities (national and state - both in Kiev), Ukrainian mathematical terminology and scientific language - we can not imagine anything without the most active participation of M. P. Kravchuk in it’s founding and further development.
Mikhail Pylypovych was born on September 27, 1892 in Volyn, in the village of Chovnitsy (now Kivertsi district), in the family of a surveyor. In 1901, with his parents moved to Lutsk, where in 1910 he graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal. In the same year he entered the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in the University of Kyiv, after which with a first-degree diploma (1914) he was left as a professorial scholarship for preparation for scientific and teaching work.
After the overthrow of tsarism, MP Kravchuk entirely devoted himself to the development of young Ukrainian science, secondary and higher schools, the education of talented youth, and did it so consistently and persistently. He always combined his pedagogical and public work with a broad and varied scientific work. A number of his fundamental results on the theory of variable matrices, the theory of bilinear forms and linear transformations laid the basis for a doctoral dissertation defended by him in 1924, and in 1925 he was given the title of professor. Mikhail Pilipovich was a member of the mathematical societies of France, Germany, Italy. On June 29, 1929, he was unanimously elected an active member of the VUAN.
M. P. Kravchuk is the author of over 180 scientific works, including 10 monographs, from various branches of mathematics. Scientific terms that bear his name, such as "polynomials and q-polynomials of Kravchuk", "q-functions of Kravchuk-Meixner" became widely known in the world mathematical literature. He is considered to be one of the most prominent algebraists of the first half of the 20th century.
Selfless labor of M.P. Kravchuk in the honor of building up of the Ukrainian science, his remarkable teaching skill and authority among students and young scientists could not pass unnoticed. On February 21, 1938, he was arrested and accused in a standard set of stereotypes of counter-revolutionary activity for those years: Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist, spy, etc. On September 23, 1938, Mikhail Pylypovych was convicted to 20 years in prison and sent to a five-year exile to Kolyma. Three backbreaking winters and summer he spent there sick and oppressed by injustice, and on March 9, 1942, he died. Exonerated posthumously on September 15, 1956.
In 1992, the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine held a series of events of Mikhail Pilipovich commemorating dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth. In particular, an international conference of M. Kravchuk's memory was organized with the visit of his homeland, and memorial plaques were installed in Kyiv and Lutsk. According to the Institute, the name of Mikhail Pylypovych Kravchuk was included in the calendar of UNESCO (1992-93) of the celebrations of outstanding people and historical events. For many years, the National Technical University "KPI" have been held scientific conferences named after Academician Kravchuk. A monument of this prominent scientist, on the pedestal of which his words were stamped: "My love is Ukraine and mathematics," was erected on one of the pathes of the university park. In the village Chovnytsya was open the museum of M.P. Kravchuk. A non-hand-made monument to Mikhail Pilipovich was a greetings from Jerusalem to the participants of the International Conference devoted to the 100th anniversary of his birth, held at the Institute of Mathematics, well-known mathematician S.I. Zukhovitsky: "Ukraine has the right to be proud of its prominent son, a wonderful scientist and a magnificent man, its academician Kravchuk, lost in the bloody torture of the Stalinist regime at the heyday of his scientific and social activities. Beautiful, with the face of Christ and with very intelligent eyes, he loved his homeland-Ukraine, its people, the language of this people, which he enjoyed both at lectures and at home, with all his heart, and which sounded like a song of his mouth."