Abstract:
Continuing the historical survey of the first math olympiads and history of extracurricular math education in Leningrad, this talk tells us about someone from that time whose fate remained forgotten for far too long. Olga A. Beloglavek (1892-196?) was the first director of the "Scientific Station for the Gifted Students", the very first all-city center of extracurricular math education for high school students created in USSR. Interestingly enough, she had been, herself, one of the most gifted students of her generation, graduating her all-girls gymnasium in Tiflis in 1910 with gold medal, then enrolling and graduating the Bestuzhev Women's College in St.Petersburg with major in math and science (1913-17). Many years later, in 1930, she was accepted into the PhD program at Leningrad State University with Professor Grigory M.Fichtenholtz as her advisor. In 1931, as the result of reorganization and the university-wide elections, she became the first ever dean of the just organized Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics (then called a Sector of Mathematics and Mechanics) at LSU. She served in that role for the following 16 months and then returned to her regular studies. In 1937 as the result of the infamous Great Terror purges she was exiled to northern Kazakhstan, which began the final and the most unfortunate stage of her life. Olga Beloglavek taught math at the local high school in the small town of Schuchinsk until 1952 when she was arrested on fabricated charges; she subsequently spent the next five years of her life in the Karaganda prison camps. After her release she lived out the remaining few years of her life in Schuchinsk, never given an opportunity to return back to Leningrad or Tiflis. Alas, we do not have any photos of Olga Beloglavek; many basic facts of her life or even the exact year of her death are still unknown.
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