O pewnych dokumentach z Archiwum Kapicy dotyczących Pobytu Stanisława Natansona i Piotra Wertensteina w łagrach sowieckich

In 2003, one of the authors of this publication (Stanisław Domoradzki) presented in Moscow a paper on mathematics in Poland in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. In the discussion after the talk, Professor Vladimir D. Jesakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences – the co-author of the monograph Kapitza, the Kremlin and Science, asked S. Domoradzki about the Polish mathematician Stanisław Natanson whose correspondence is kept in the Kapitza Archives in the Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems (named after P.L. Kapitza) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the discussion that followed, the lecturer (S. Domoradzki) thanked for the information provided, and stated that so far – to a high degree of probability – Stanisław Natanson was never mentioned in the context of the activities of the Lvov-Warsaw School of Mathematics; he also declared that he would be keen to study the materials from the Kapitza Archives. Shortly afterwards, Professor Pavel J. Rubinin (1925–2008), Head of the Museum of the Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems, sent S. Domoradzki a copy of one S. Natanson’s letter and typescripts of several other letters kept in the Kapitza Archives, associated with the mathematician Stanisław Natanson and with Piotr Wertenstein, son of Professor Ludwik Wertenstein, a well-known pre-war Polish physicist. P.J. Rubinin in his letter dated 31 July 2004 informed us that the Kapitza Archives have preserved letters of Polish mathematicians and physicists. Rubinin knew of the fate of Ludwik Wertenstein, but he knew nothing of the fate of his son Piotr, who was arrested by (as he put it) “our authorities”. Neither he did know of the fate of Stanisław Natanson who, while suffering from nephritis, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a Gulag’s labour camp. He also sent P.L. Kapitza’s correspondence with S. Natanson and with mathematicians N.N. Luzin and A.N. Kolmogorov that concerned not only S. Natanson. Looking for answers to P.J. Rubinin’s question we collected materials, which – thanks to the encouragement from the late Professor Andrzej Pelczar – on April 28, 2010 we presented at a meeting of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. The paper was entitled On the fate of Polish scientists in Soviet labour camps. In one of his letters Stanisław Natanson included his biography and listed his scientific achievements. He seemed to us so unknown in the world of mathematics and so interesting because of the tragic circumstances he found himself in that we began a step by step examination of the data from his autobiography. We got in touch with the Natanson family and – courtesy of Stanisław Natanson’s cousin, Mrs. Barbara Wojtowicz-Natanson – we contacted his daughter Maria. In this paper we present the available correspondence between the 28-year-old Stanisław Natanson and P.L. Kapitza, and between P.L. Kapitza and N. Luzin and A. Kolmogorov. These excerpts contain important messages which shed light on the relations, connections, and the good or the bad faith of the respondents. We do not know S. Natanson’s first letter addressed to P.L. Kapitza with his dramatic request for help. However, Kapitza’s answer showed that he had informed Kapitza about his situation as well as about his mathematical papers, probably in set theory. Briefly about Stanisław Natanson family: he was a son of Edward Natanson (1861–1940) an engineer-technologist who engaged in physics and worked in the industry. Edward had five children: Maria Wyganowska (1901–1980); Halina Świerczewska (1902–1982), mathematician; Ludwik (1905–1992), physicist, Professor at the Łódź University and at the Institute of Nuclear Research, Warsaw; Krystyna Glińska (1909–1970); Stanisław (1913–1985) who had four children: Edward, Maria Teresa, Louis, Jacques. The other material presented in this article concerns Piotr Wertenstein who also was imprisoned in a Soviet labour camp. He was son of Ludwik Wertenstein (1887–1945), professor of radiology at the Free Polish University and the co-founder of the Polish Physical Society. Hereby, we make the correspondence in question available to a broader range of researchers.