For some time, it seemed widely accepted that G. Y. Rainich was the author of the note Rabinowitsch, J. L., Zum Hilbertschen Nullstellensatz., Math. Ann. 102, 520 (1929). JFM 55.0103.04., which describes a short proof of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz by what became known as Rabinowitsch Trick. This claim appears to be solely based on Bruce Palka's ``"Editor's Endnotes", p. 460 of Am. Math. Monthly 111, No. 5 (May, 2004), p. 460, who reports:
Peter May shares the following correspondence that he received from
Richard Swan. [..][…] The following anecdote may explay why you couldn't
find him [Rabinowitsch]. Unfortunately I can't remember who told me
this.
It seems that Rainich was giving a lecture in which he made use of a
clever trick which he had discovered. Someone in the audience
indignantly interrupted him pointing out that this was the famous
Rabinowitsch trick and berating Rainich for claiming to have
discovered it. Without a word Rainich turned to the blackboard, picked
up the chalk, and wrote
RABINOWITSCH
He then put down the chalk, picked up an eraser and began erasing
letters. When he was done what remained was
RA IN I CH
He then went on with his lecture.
Surprisingly, this anecdote without proper source has become universally accepted knowledge, making it, e.g., into Wikipedia, or the MO thread on mathematician's pseudonyms. In several comments, KConrad (some as recent as Feb 11, 2022 -— many thanks to Manfred Lehn for notifying me about this) questions this attribution, observing that
The topic argument is likely less relevant -— his main field until 1922 was algebraic number theory, including G. Rabinowitsch, Eindeutigkeit der Zerlegung in Primzahlfaktoren in quadratischen Zahlkörpern., J. für Math. 142, 153-164 (1913). JFM 44.0243.03. which earned him a talk of 1912 ICM G. Rabinowitsch, Eindeutigkeit der Zerlegung in Primzahlfaktoren in quadratischen Zahlkörpern., Proc. 5. Intern. Math. Congr. 1, 418-421 (1913). JFM 44.0244.01. (more about this later). Clearly, he had sufficient algebraic expertise.
First, one notes that none of them mentions the Rabinowitsch Trick, least of all its attribution to Rainich. All make it clear that Rainich didn't use his old name after fleeing to the U.S. in early 1923. The reasons for his escape from Odessa (he was arrested in 1922 -— some sources say for unknown reasons, while his daughter claims that his work in General Relativity was incompatible with then Communist Doctrine, so he was declared enemy of the state -— and nearly died in prison) make it highly unlikely to claim an affiliation in Moscow (actually, he published just in the preceding volume of the Annalen his
Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich and George Yuri Rainich
In the American world of mathematics, Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich and
George Yuri Rainich came together at Vassar University in 1925, when
Professor L. J. Mordell challenged the originality of a paper given by
my father. Upon immigrating Yuri, in order to simplify, changed his
surname to Rainich by omitting the third, sixth and seventh letters of
Rabinovich (he had hoped to make the change by omitting the third,
fifth and seventh, as consecutive primes, but it didn't work out), and
had also reversed the initials of his first and his middle name
(patronymic), thus becoming G. Y. Rainich, the name by which he was
known in America,
Yuri had just presented a paper on 'Expansion of Simple Factors in
Quadratic Fields', when Mordell commented: "Perhaps you are unaware,
Professor Rainich that this work was already done by Rabinovich, in
Odessa." "But I am Rabinovich!" Yuri replied. This was the origin of
the story that has followed him, as well as me, throughout our lives.
This incident is part of American mathematical history. Yuri had still
been Rabinovich when he presented the paper in 1912 at the
International Congress of Mathematicians at Cambridge. The paper was
immediately published in the very prestigious German publication:
'Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Mathematik and Physik' (Journal of Applied
Mathematics and Physics), better known as 'Crelle's Journal'. Though
Yuri was already a well-known scholar at the time having presented
papers at Twelfth and Thirteenth meetings of 'Russian Mathematicians
and Physicists,' this publication proved to play a very important role
in the young scholar's life.
Eighty-seven years after this scene played out I read for the first
time a different conclusion to the incident. In the newer (to me)
version, Yuri, upon being challenged, walked over to the blackboard,
and picking up the chalk wrote 'RABINOVICH' in large letters. He
then erased the 'B', the 'O' and the 'V'. We shall never know which
version is the true one.
A good indication how many embroidered variants circulated is the anecdote accompanying the Rainich Lecures at U. Mich.
Perhaps the closest link, however, is to the author of "Sur les courbes planes du quatrième ordre possédant deux points doubles", Mathesis 45, 286-290 (1931). JFM 57.0827.02, a M. Rabinowitch from Liège. It's not just the next chronological appearance of this name in the math literature, it deals also with a topic closely related to the note in Mathematische Annalen two years earlier -— indeed, one may easily imagine how studying hyperplane sections of singular varieties in the singular points may lead to the Rabinowitsch Trick.
