Meetings with Mark Vishik

Mark Iosifovich Vishik was my husband Vladimir Chepyzhov's advisor during his years as a student in the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University, and afterwards they worked together for almost 30 years. This is why I knew him personally while not being a mathematician myself: we sometimes talked on the phone, and met during common trips and a few holidays. In his last years, after the death of his devoted wife who was also his best friend, my husband and I decided to visit Mark regularly in order to comfort him in his loneliness, and many other of his friends did the same. I can say without exaggeration that Mark loved to talk with me about everyday matters, to reminisce about his wife Asya Moiseevna, their friends and relatives, to tell stories of his youth and the wonderful encounters that had so enriched his life. We had the idea to write down our conversations and publish them as a book. Unfortunately, few such conversations lay ahead. The last one took place in January 2010. We did not write a book, but we did write an article [1], which was published in English in the form of an interview with Mark.
The present article is based on our conversations with Mark. Here I will try to recount his memories about people who played an important role in his life.