Life
Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, to a wealthy Russian Jewish family. His mother, Henrietta Emmanuilovna Levenson, had studied medicine in France (she died in Baku in 1923, believed to have been killed during civil unrest provoked by an epidemic). His maternal grandmother, Clara Levenson, had been one of the first female doctors in Russia. His maternal grandfather Emmanuil Levenson was a wealthy businessman (he was also the illegitimate father of Korney Chukovsky, who was thus Henrietta's half-brother). Vladimir Rokhlin's father Abram Veniaminovich Rokhin was a well-known social democrat (he was imprisoned during Stalin's Great Purge, and executed in 1941).
Vladimir Rokhlin entered Moscow State University in 1935. His advisor was Abraham Plessner. He volunteered for the army in 1941, leading to four years as a prisoner of a German war camp, and then two years in a Soviet camp after the end of the war. He then returned to mathematics.
Since 1959 he was at Leningrad State University, where he was a very influential teacher.
He died in 1984 in Leningrad. His students include Yakov Eliashberg, Mikhail Gromov, Anatoly Vershik and Oleg Viro.
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“‘Tis of the essence of life here,
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The lasting memory at all clear,
That life has for us on the wrack
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