Mihai Horia Botez (18 November 194011 July 1995) was a Romanian mathematician and dissident, nicknamed "Romania's Sakharov" by the international press. A leading mathematician, he played a key role in founding the study of futurology in the Eastern European country, before becoming a critic of the communist regime's catastrophic economic policies. He survived four suspicious attacks, including a stabbing, a car ramming and a beating that left him hospitalized and which human rights groups blamed on the country's secret police. Botez was granted asylum in the United States in 1987, before returning to Romania in 1989 after the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

. He died on 11 July 1995, at the age of 54 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botez, Mihai 1940 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Romanian mathematicians Ambassadors of Romania to the United States Permanent Representatives of Romania to the United Nations 20th-century diplomats