Biography
Ladyzhenskaya was born and grew up in Kologriv. She was the daughter of a mathematics teacher who is credited with her early inspiration and love of mathematics. In October 1937 her father was arrested by the NKVD and soon killed. Young Olga was able to finish high school but, because her father was an "enemy of the people", she was forbidden to enter the Leningrad University.
After Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Ladyzhenskaya presented her doctoral thesis and was given the degree she had long before earned. She went on to teach at the university in Leningrad and at the Steklov Institute, staying in Russia even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rapid salary deflation for professors.
Read more about this topic: Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya
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