Late Years
Struve was married to Elizaveta Khrystoforovna (1874–1964) and they had two sons and two daughters. Their first child, son Otto, was born in Kharkiv in 1897, and later became one of the most famous astronomers of the 20th century. Later, Otto served as a White Russian officer in the losing side of the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution. Therefore, to avoid Bolshevik's repressions, Struve had to move in 1919 to Simferopol where he had assumed professor position at the Tavria University. He left in Kharkiv a collection of about 1400 historical letters involving his father and grandfather, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve. The collection had survived two wars and was preserved till the present days.
After leaving Kharkiv, life of the Struve turned tragic. In summer of 1920, his 9 year old daughter Elizabeth drowned in front of him. Later, his son Werner (1903–1920) died from tuberculosis. Soon after, Struve himself died of a stroke. He was survived by his wife and daughter Yadviga (1901–1924). They returned to Kharkiv and Yadviga had taught German at Kharkiv Technology Institute, but died in 1924 of tuberculosis.
Read more about this topic: Ludwig Struve
Famous quotes containing the words late years, late and/or years:
“No such sermons have come to us here out of England, in late years, as those of this preacher,—sermons to kings, and sermons to peasants, and sermons to all intermediate classes. It is in vain that John Bull, or any of his cousins, turns a deaf ear, and pretends not to hear them: nature will not soon be weary of repeating them. There are words less obviously true, more for the ages to hear, perhaps, but none so impossible for this age not to hear.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The fire I praise was once perduring flame
Till it snuffs with our generation out;
No matter, it’s all one, it’s but a name
Not as late honeysuckle half so stout....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“till seven years were gane and past,
True Thomas on earth was never seen.”
—Unknown. Thomas the Rhymer (l. 79–80)