Viktor Sadovnichiy

Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichiy (Russian: Виктор Антонович Садовничий; born 3 April 1939) is a Russian mathematician, winner of the 1989 USSR State Prize, and since 1992 the rector of Moscow State University. One of the main opinion leaders in Russia, Sadovnichiy has significant political and social influence.

On numerous occasions Viktor Sadovnichiy was accused of being one of the organizers of the infamous antisemitic admission policies of the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics during the 1970s and the 1980s.

Sadovnichiy was born in the village Krasnopavlovka in Kharkiv Oblast, now in Ukraine. He graduated from the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and defended his doctoral thesis in 1974. In 1975 he became Professor, since 1982 until the present day he is the head of the Mathematical Analysis chair of the department. He held different offices in the administration of the University until he was elected the rector in 1992. In 1996, 2001 and 2005 Sadovnichiy was reelected without any other candidates.

As Vice-Rector (1982-1984) and First Vice-Rector (1984-1992) of Moscow State University, he directed the Admission Committee of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and pursued a policy of preventing Jews from being admitted to the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty. As a pro-rector he personally signed refusals in appeals. He has also been accused of discrimination against Jews while he served as a professor.

Sadovnichiy has been a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1994, Doctor Emeritus of universities throughout the world, as well as the author of some 150 works. In 1989 he was awarded with the USSR State Prize. He is also a Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In their co-authored article “On the Possibilities to Forecast the Current Crisis and its Second Wave” (with Askar Akaev and Andrey Korotayev) in the Russian academic journal “Ekonomicheskaya politika” (December 2010. Issue 6. Pages 39–46 Клиодинамика - математические методы в истории) the three authors published «a forecast of the second wave of the crisis, which suggested that it may start in July — August, 2011».

In the october of 2014 the Moscow State University, the Russian Post and "The teacher's newspaper" orginzed a contest essays among one hundred thousand of Russian high schol student on the topic "The person I trust". A few best essays, all of them written about the Russian president Vladimir Putin, were personally presented by Sadovnichiy to president Putin in October 2014

In 2022, he was the lead signature on the Address of the Russian Union of Rectors, which called to support Putin in his invasion of Ukraine.

On April 3, 2022 Sadovnichiy initiated a letter of the rectors of Russian universities supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The document, signed by Sadovnichy and co-signed by 304 other rectors of Russian universities, calls, among other things, for the "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine", for "support [to be given to] the [Russian] army and the president". The letter says that "supporting the patriotism is a duty of the [Russian] universities", and that the "[Russian] universities were always [among the] supporting piers of the [Russian] state".