Fermat’s Last Theorem: The Reading Practices of a Zemstvo Teacher in the Early 20^th Century

The purpose of the article is to introduce into scholarly discourse the marginalia of A.E. Popko, preserved in the 1913 issue of the journal Bulletin of Knowledge from the collection of the Scientific Library of Tomsk State University. The calculations in the margins of the article on Fermat’s theorem not only characterize the level of mathematical training of a zemstvo teacher, but also demonstrate the breadth of intellectual inquiry that could be developed by individuals who engaged in self-education through printed materials. The biography of A.E. Popko, a native of a peasant family, who became a teacher at the Tomsk State Pedagogical Institute, demonstrates how the mechanisms of social mobility that had developed in Russia by the beginning of the 20^th century worked. Further progressive development of this process was interrupted by social revolutions and wars.

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