Sofia Kovalevsky, born in Moscow, displayed unusual mathematical ability from childhood. Desperate to escape the strictures of gentry womanhood, at eighteen she contracted a "fictive" marriage with the paleontologist and social activist Vladimir Kovalevsky, who took her to the Western Europe to study. In 1874 Kovalevskaya, mentored by the eminent German mathematician Karl Weierstrass, received a doctorate from Göttingen University. Afterward, the Kovalevskys, now married in fact, returned to St. Petersburg, where their daughter was born in 1878. In 1883, faced with worsening mood swings and the possibility of being prosecuted for his role in a stock swindle, Vladimir committed suicide.
Unable to find suitable teaching work in Russia, Kovalevskaya, at the urging of Weierstrass and the Swedish mathematician Gustav Mittag-Leffler, accepted a professorship in the newly established Stockholm University, becoming the first woman in modern Europe to hold such a post. In Sweden the homesick Kovalevskaya wrote her vivid reminiscences of girlhood; a novella based on a true incident, “The Nihilist Girl”; two plays written in Swedish with writer Anna Charlotte Leffler under the title “Struggle for Happiness”, concerning the contrast between real and ideal fates in life; and some journalistic articles. In 1888 Kovalevskaya received the prestigious French Prix Bordin for mathematics. Death from pneumonia in 1891 cut short Kovalevskaya's dual careers as mature scientist and budding author. In the early twentieth century her story served as inspiration for science-minded girls throughout Europe. Her mathematics - in particular, equations describing the motions of rotating solids over time ("Kovalevsky's top") - has particular relevance in the space age.
Brilliant Ksenia and Sofia! The life of Ms Kovalvskaya makes me think about the link of independent thinking which quite obviously mathematics inspires in an individual and her connection to extreme political views. Although I accept the point there is no obvious evidence of her actually being an active member of such a group.
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