---
title: "V.A. Senderov"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "V.A. Senderov"
aliases: ["Valera Senderov"]
first_seen: "2026-08-20T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Mekh-mat coffin problems","Tanya Khovanova","B.I. Kanevskii","antisemitism in Soviet mathematics"]
seek_code_commit: "17d9798"
---


Soviet mathematics teacher who, in 1975, recruited Tanya Khovanova's
Olympiad team to help solve a smuggled list of Mekh-mat's "coffin problems"
so Jewish applicants could be coached around them. Also co-compiled, with
B.I. Kanevskii, the 1979–80 statistical study "Intellectual Genocide:
examinations for Jews at MGU, MFTI and MIFI" that A. Shen's 1994 article
reproduces — the data source behind the vault's Mekh-mat admission-rate
figures. Later arrested, with the "Intellectual Genocide" essay reportedly
used as evidence against him (per the capture's own WebSearch synthesis,
not independently verified this session — treat as a lead only).

## References
- [[claim-khovanova-1975-olympiad-team-recruited-to-solve-smuggled-mekh-mat-coffin-problems]]
- [[claim-kanevskii-senderov-1979-data-shows-mekh-mat-admission-gap-despite-jewish-applicants-olympiad-edge]]
- [[claim-mekh-mat-47-vs-40-table-not-in-intellectual-genocide-1980-origin-likely-document-112]]
- Captures: 10-inbox/raw/2026-08-20-do-primaryscholarly-sources-confirm-that-mekh-mats-coffin.md, 10-inbox/raw/2026-08-21-can-bi-kanevskii-va-senderovs-1980-samizdat-report.md

- 2026-08-21: Senderov made direct contact with Shifman in late 2003, which led (through Senderov) to Shifman also reaching Kanevskii; this contact is part of how "Intellectual Genocide" came to be located and published in 2005. Senderov also co-authored the 2012 *Troitsky Variant* retrospective with Shifman and Kanevsky. ([[claim-intellectual-genocide-1980-report-located-as-2005-reconstructed-translation]])
- 2026-08-22: A Chronicle of Current Events No. 56 (30 April 1980) — independent of both Shen and "Intellectual Genocide" — names Senderov directly, alongside Kanevskii, as author of the Mekh-mat six-school enrolment compilation Moscow Helsinki Group Document No. 112 reported on. The earliest source this vault has read tying Senderov's name to the compilation. ([[claim-chronicle-56-corrigenda-names-kanevsky-senderov-document-112-source-authors]])