# First International Topological Conference

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The **first International Topological Conference** was held in [Moscow](/source/Moscow), 4–10 September, 1935. With presentations by topologists from 10 different countries it constituted the first genuinely international meeting devoted to [topology](/source/Topology) in the world history of the mathematical community.[1] Although a previous mathematical conference had been held in [Kharkiv](/source/Kharkiv), and attended by [Jacques Hadamard](/source/Jacques_Hadamard), this turned out to be the only truly international conference organised under the [Stalin regime](/source/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1927%E2%80%931953)).[2] [Pavel Aleksandrov](/source/Pavel_Aleksandrov) played a key role in organising the conference.[1] The foreign delegates were accommodated in major hotels across Moscow, although according to [André Weil](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Weil), the principal form of sustenance was Caviar Canapes served in the conference hall, as no food was available in the hotel restaurants.[2]

## Presentations

Documentation of the conference varies, but this summary was drawn from various sources.[1]

### Homology theory

- Karol Borsuk: ‘‘On spheroidal spaces’’
- Eduard Čech: "Accessibility and Homology'"
- Israel Isaakovich Gordon: ‘‘On the intersection invariants of a complex and its residual space.’
- Solomon Lefschetz: ‘‘On locally connected sets.’’

## Attendees

The following topologists made presentations:

- Czechoslovakia: - [Eduard Čech](/source/Eduard_%C4%8Cech)

- France: - [André Weil](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Weil)

- Netherlands - [Hans Freudenthal](/source/Hans_Freudenthal) - [Egbert van Kampen](/source/Egbert_van_Kampen)

- Poland: - [Karol Borsuk](/source/Karol_Borsuk) - [Kazimierz Kuratowski](/source/Kazimierz_Kuratowski) - [Juliusz Schauder](/source/Juliusz_Schauder) - [Kazimierz Zarankiewicz](/source/Kazimierz_Zarankiewicz)

- United States: - [James Waddell Alexander II](/source/James_Waddell_Alexander_II) - [Garrett Birkhoff](/source/Garrett_Birkhoff) - [Solomon Lefschetz](/source/Solomon_Lefschetz) - [John von Neumann](/source/John_von_Neumann) - [Albert W. Tucker](/source/Albert_W._Tucker) - [Hassler Whitney](/source/Hassler_Whitney)

- USSR: - Pavel Aleksandrov - [Felix Frankl](/source/Felix_Frankl) - [Israel Isaakovich Gordon](/source/Israel_Isaakovich_Gordon) - Maria A. Nikolaenko - [Julia Rozanska](/source/Julia_Rozanska) - [Lev Pontryagin](/source/Lev_Pontryagin) - [Vyacheslav Stepanov](/source/Vyacheslav_Stepanov) - [Lev Tumarkin](/source/Lev_Tumarkin)

## References

1. Apushkinskaya, D.E.; Nazarov, A. I.; G.I. Sinkevich, G. I. (2019). "In Search of Shadows: the First Topological Conference, Moscow 1935". [arXiv:1903.02065](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.02065)

1. Weil, Andre (1992). [*The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician*](https://books.google.com/books?id=73REHmJ9JNUC&dq=%22First+International+Topological+Conference%22&pg=PA106). Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783764326500.

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