I recently got hold of an English translation of Boris A. Kordemsky’s The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations, which was first published in 1956. In American mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner’s introduction, the book was said to be “the best and most popular puzzle book ever published in the Soviet Union.” Being a fan of brain teasers myself, I immediately flipped through its pages and was surprised that I was already familiar with some of the puzzles involving matches and coins, some of them I learned from my brother and my father. What struck me the most, however, is the puzzle I found I remembered to have been taught me by my own mother.

My mother grew up in the province and never went to high school. She told me and my siblings of a puzzle about a farmer who had to cross a river with his goat, dog, and a bag of goat feed. She said that the puzzle was actually one of many such stories an old man in their village was fond of telling rural children, including her. I was really surprised to find it as puzzle no. 11 in Kordemsky’s book. According to the book, the puzzle can be found in eighth-century writings.

Several puzzles in the book were stated in a historical context. Puzzle No. 217, for instance, talks about the shortage of tractors during the rebuilding after World War II and has something to do with maximizing the use of a limited supply of tractors in neighboring towns. It actually tries to encourage the use of algebraic, arithmetic, or graphic skills.

A similar approach was used in Puzzle No. 182 which mentioned a 1918 civil war dialogue with some “Red commander” before stating the actual puzzle which involves a caliper, a ruler and a cylindrical part with unknown indentations. The puzzle belongs to a set under the heading “Skill Will Find Its Application Everywhere.”

Most puzzles are straightforwardly mathematical, but there are situational ones, which mention specific types of workers, perhaps indicating the ruling ideology of Kordemsky’s society at that time. This includes a craftsman (2, 13, 178, 245), a watchmaker (30), factory workers (61), an electrician (102), a blacksmith (87), a cabinetmaker (163), a fur dresser (164), an agronomist (160), machine shop marker (75), 149), an artist (176), irrigation canal builders (179), construction workers (194), a bookkeeper (242), and so on. There is also a puzzle (266) naming various ranks and skills in the Soviet Army.
Puzzles are not only for the mathematically inclined individuals. We are surrounded with lots of puzzles every day of our lives. For urban poor families, learning how to budget a meager income (or even where to get it) is one big, totally stressful puzzle in itself. Even in a hunting-gathering society, men (and women) have to contend with so many puzzles in their environment. From crossing a river, to fashioning hunting weapons, he is preoccupied with solving one puzzle to another in order to survive in a perilous environment. And without doubt, creating, developing and improving tools and instruments for various purposes continue up to now.

This usually labeled-geeky interest towards puzzle-cracking is inherent to all humans. Various social factors later in life only prevents many of us from pursuing it. In a society that is structured in a way that such negative ideas about this productive endeavor are eliminated, man can expect to survive any challenges nature imposes upon him.

One can say that facing the day-to-day challenges in life is mainly about puzzle solving. Even in science, the physicist and science historian Thomas Kuhn said that most of the current scientific activity in research and development is usually a whole career devoted to a process of puzzle-solving. In life, the puzzle-solving that we face is oftentimes framed not as a puzzle but more often as a difficulty in our day-to-day production activities. In this sense, puzzle solving becomes not only a matter of it being an intellectual challenge but a question of trying to eke out the best in a difficult world.

Puzzle-cracking usually requires the solver to recognize patterns, which are usually not immediately obvious. The tenacious puzzle solver would usually do many examples before being able to figure out the solution. In life, we call this dogged determination as practice and experience.

I haven’t solved all puzzles in the book but there is one question (260) which, I have to admit, until this writing I don’t have any clue as to how to answer: “It is raining at midnight—will we have sunny weather in 72 hours?”