In 1874, Sofia Kovalevskaia became the first woman in Europe to obtain her doctorate in mathematics. To her and many other Russian women, this achievement was a political act. Historian Ann Hibner Koblitz argues that in the late nineteenth century, women such as Kovalevskaia pursued careers in math and science as an act of defiance against a reactionary government. After the administration of Tsar Nicholas I, she explains, a thirst for social revolution grew amongst the youth of the Russian intelligentsia, and they saw education as a way to fight back.

These social revolutionaries became known as the “nihilists.” Originally an insult, they embraced the label—they in fact wanted to tear down traditional tsarist institutions and start anew. While Nicholas I’s government had been hostile to science, the nihilists saw science as symbolic of progress and social revolution. As a result, writes Koblitz,  they viewed a scientific career as “an active blow against backwardness.”

When Nicholas I died and Alexander II became tsar, the nihilists were hopeful. The Russian government began cautiously cultivating scientific institutions. Women began attending scientific lectures at universities in Russia, although they still could not earn degrees.

After Alexander II announced the emancipation of the serfs, however, the situation changed. Koblitz explains that the proclamation “was followed almost immediately by a wave of student demonstrations protesting its inadequacies and injustices.” Alexander II cracked down on the protests, and the universities closed their doors to women. A group of Russian women led an exodus from Russia, in search of places to study math and science.

“They came from one of the most reactionary countries in Europe and approached the European educational establishment with determination,” writes Koblitz. Many ended up in Zurich, where entering a university was possible, and the cost of living was low.

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Koblitz reports, 203 women studied at Zurich University, and 148 of them were Russian. They formed communities to support each other while pursuing degrees in science, mathematics, and medicine.

“For the middle-class citizens of Zurich,” Koblitz explains, “the nihilist women’s short hair, simple dress, unstudied mannerisms, and liking for cigarettes were shocking.” Kovalevskaia lived in a community like this in Germany.

But in 1873, the Russian government ordered women to return, threatening to prevent employment in government or higher education. Some returned home due to financial pressure, some to bring their activism directly to Russia.

Others, including Kovalevskaia, remained in Europe. Kovalevskaia studied in Berlin and Heidelberg before earning her doctorate summa cum laude at the University of Göttingen. She became a professor and joined the editorial board of the journal Acta Mathematica. Iulia Lermontova and Nadezhda Suslova became the first women to earn doctorates in chemistry and medicine, respectively. All three made important contributions to their fields.

Over the next couple decades, desperation for educated workers led the government to make concessions. But Koblitz explains that these were very limited—women gained access to some jobs, but they couldn’t become full professors in Russia.

“They were largely prevented from educating a new generation of women,” she writes, “and circumstances led some of them into the revolutionary underground.”

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