Page "International Congress of Mathematicians" Paragraph 14

The Soviet Union sent 27 participants to the 1928 ICM in Bologna and 10 participants to the 1932 ICM in Zurich.

No Soviet mathematicians participated in the 1936 ICM, although a number of invitations were extended to them.

At the 1950 ICM there were again no participants from the Soviet Union, although quite a few were invited.

Similarly, no representatives of other Eastern Bloc countries, except for Yugoslavia, participated in the 1950 congress.

Andrey Kolmogorov had been appointed to the Fields Medal selection committee for the 1950 congress, but did not participate in the committee's work.

However, in a famous episode, a few days before the end of the 1950 ICM, the congress ' organizers received a telegram from Sergei Vavilov, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The telegram thanked the organizers for inviting Soviet mathematicians but said that they are unable to attend " being very much occupied with their regular work ", and wished success to the congress ' participants.

Vavilov's message was seen as a hopeful sign for the future ICMs and the situation improved further after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953.

The Soviet Union was represented by five mathematicians at the 1954 ICM in Amsterdam, and several other Eastern Bloc countries sent their representatives as well.

In 1957 the USSR joined the International Mathematical Union and the participation in subsequent ICMs by the Soviet and other Eastern Bloc scientists has been mostly at normal levels.