In March 2013 S.P.Novikov published his next interview under the name «Vision of mathematics», presented, for example, in Internet on the site polit.ru. In it he again and again spoke out roughly to my address (it is worth saying, that nearly every year here or there S.P.Novikov condemns A.T.Fomenko and many other mathematicians, whom he didn't like). Comments to the article of S.P.Novikov immediately appeared on this site in Internet, and many of them critically estimated the activity of S.P.Novikov. A speech of A.A.Tuzhilin, a famous and honored mathematician, geometer, professor of mech.-math. Faculty of the MSU deserves special attention. I publish it here.
<<I like very much reading the thoughts of Sergey Petrovich Novikov about Himself and about the place of the surrounding reality in Himself. Judging by what Sergey Petrovich usually writes, he is a bright, strong scientist; his life is full of important events, outstanding people. His intellectual abilities are so strong, that he even could rather quickly surpass his teacher M.M.Postnikov, whom, having realized his superiority, he knocked dead and morally destroyed, by this he confirmed his victory and even thinks, that he hit the right road.
Now Sergey Petrovich has big influence in the world of international mathematics, many of those, who distribute grants, appreciate his opinion, so even those, who were close to him one day and were offended by him (like Postnikov), will not defend neither their own nor somebody's else dignity. They are in fear to be not only damned, but also trod down.
But there is one more extremely difficult circumstance, which Sergey Petrovich didn't manage to get through: it is Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, who, being a member of the department, headed by Sergey Petrovich, didn't remain dependent, as nearly all other members did. When Fomenko became an academician, a department of differential geometry, which was in due time headed by P.K.Roshevsky - a teacher of Anatoly Timofeevich, was restored at the mech.-mat. faculty of the MSU, and Fomenko was appointed its head. The second circumstance: Fomenko was also appointed the head of the department of mathematics on mech.-mat. faculty of the MSU. And Sergey Petrovich was very much offended by these two events (he probably also wanted to be the head of the department of mathematics).
He tried to solve the problem: he wrote a letter and sent it to different mathematicians «Many years ago I with my brother Andrey …», where he laughed and abased new chronology, the main author of which was Fomenko. Also he tried to abase Fomenko as a scientist. There was also one obstacle, the fact that Sergey Petrovich supported mathematical activity of Fomenko before he was offended (I myself participated in the seminar, where Anatoly Timofeevich told about his results in geometry of Hamilton systems, and Sergey Petrovich rather favorably commented this work). But now all this was important only because it was necessary to create «reasonable» passages, which would demonstrate, that Sergey Petrovich has always been objective.
In the present interview Sergey Petrovich already doesn't hesitate (somebody joked in comments about age and memory). « … Fomenko is a very middling mathematician». This is already below the belt. And what is remarkable: no reasons to bring to trial! Who will judge? And Sergey Petrovich understands it well: his opinion is respected, so if he would say a word - the entire world will tremblingly repeat it. May be to kill with a word?! And all this pathetic comes out of one thing: the offence. Of course he wanted to live well in the USA, and in Russia everyone would wait him like a favor, like a concubine waits for her lord. And the only his name, that has saturated mech.-mat., was enough for the happiness of these small mathematicians, who didn't go anywhere else and vegetate at the faculty. And Fomenko «spoiled everything»: he created such department, where everyone wanted to come back after any foreign trip.
The strongest intelligence was directed at the work with this offence. The goal is to prove, that Fomenko is a middling mathematician. Here is an example, how it was done. Quote: «1992 … a devastating comment of a famous American mathematician Almgren on the book of Fomenko on multidimensional variation calculus appeared in «Bulletin of AMS». I have read a review of Almgren, but didn't find anything «devastating» in it. There were two remarks: one was regarding annotation on the cover page of the book, where Fomenko, wanting to be more understandable, a bit informally explained the core of the results, and the second – about inaccuracy in the wording of the student's result. Except this, the review is written in the spirit: «Anatoly T. Fomenko is the most prominent mathematician in the Soviet Union». What do you think, if such words could be written in a devastating review? Everyone can easily find this review in internet, but often people prefer to have opinion, based on the «authoritative buzz», not on personal experience. As I already noted, Sergey Petrovich decided to estimate the review in a different way. Do you think, he didn't understand, that he distorted the meaning?
Of course, reading such interviews and numerous memories of Sergey Petrovich Novikov, sometimes I want to shout: but this is lies! This is rough immoral behavior! To shout about a shame, conscience … But who will listen this?! If these words can stop the stream of dirt, which, like from the horn of abundance, always flows from the mouth of Sergey Petrovich, if he just touch the topic of Fomenko. All one can do is wait, as eternity is a true judge>>. (The end of speech of A.A.Tuzhilin).
In conclusion I would add several words from myself. This part could be named like this:
HOW NOVIKOV PRAISED MATHEMATICAL WORKS OF FOMENKO.
Here it is worth to bring the original of presentation of the works of Fomenko by Novikov for a prestigious award of the Department of mathematics of the Academy of Science of the USSR in 1987. This award was granted by the Presidium of the Academy of Science of the USSR. The presentation was sent by Novikov through the Department of mathematics of the Academy of Science of the USSR. I got the award of the Presidium in 1987.
Exactly for development, in particular, of these my works, I (together with A.S.Mishenko) was awarded a State Award of the RF in 1996. Opened by me invariants of integrated systems (columns with marks) were later actively used also, for example, in the theory of turbulence, developed by the academician V.P.Maslov and professor A.I.Shafarevich.
Here is the full text:
«PRESENTATION. I propose Fomenko Anatoly Timofeevich for the award of the Department of mathematics of the Academy of Science of the USSR for 1987 as a big specialist in geometrical variation subjects, symplectic geometry and topology, as the author of the work «Topology of the surfaces of permanent energy of integrated Hamilton systems and obstacles to integration capacity», Izvestiya AS USSR, 1986, v.50, � 6, pp.1276-1307. In the work a symplectic topology of the integrated systems is built. Within its frames a topological classification of permanent energy surfaces of integrated systems is given, resulting from this new topological obstacles to the integration capacity of Hamilton systems in the class of smooth integrals of general position were discovered. A classification of reconstructions of general position of toruses of Liouville is received, what gives a picture of quality dependence of solutions of integrated systems from the initial data (with fixed energy value). From the point of the theory of particularities this gives classification of typical bifurcation of toruses, replying to the points of bifurcation diagram of reflection of the moment. In particular, a theory of Morse type for integrals on constant-energy surfaces is built, what lets to get structural splitting of these surfaces and to estimate from the below a number of stable periodic solutions of the system through topological invariants of surfaces. Topological invariant of integrated systems is open, using which such systems are classified.
I think that this work fully deserves the award of the Department of Mathematics of the AS of the USSR.
November 11, 1987. Academician S.P.Novikov
Signature of academician S.P.Novikov
verified
Academic secretary of the department of higher geometry
and topology of the mech.-mat. Faculty of the MSU
A.P.Veselov».
I will add, that in 1991 S.P.Novikov proposed me to the academicians of the RAS, having written, in particular, the following: «I can't keep silence about Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko (MSU),a great mathematician, a person of wide intellectual interests (including art), who became a correspondent member of the AS USSR not long ago. He would decorate the RAS". See details on our site, in the section «Replies to our critics (in particular, S.P.Novikov, A.A.Zaliznyak…», in paragraph «Notice-reply of A.T.Fomenko of 1999».
