Quick success in our studies gave us joy. But solving a problem that would have been easy for a pupil of the fifth class of a boy's Gymnasium made us realise how far we still were from the study of real science.

Life in Zurich was wonderfully exciting and intellectually stimulating for Litvinova and the other Russian women, but there were many problems. As always, financial difficulties loomed in the students' minds. They tried to minimise these by banding into lodging, eating, and studying cooperatives. Some of the poorer ones are even reputed to have shared winter coats and shoes; they arranged their class schedules so that only one of them had to be outside at any time!

Another problem was the attitude of the Swiss citizens toward the Russian women. The Swiss could not understand the eager desire of the Russians for education, especially for education in such "unfeminine" fields as the natural sciences and medicine. Moreover, the Swiss disliked the politics of the majority of the Russian students. The fact that most of them seemed to spend any time they had left over from their studies discussing the form of the revolution to come could not win favour with the bulk of the Swiss burghers. In addition, the comradely, casual relations of the Russian women with their student countrymen scandalised the Swiss. For them, the Russians' tendency to talk in each others' lodgings late into the night, go about in mixed sex groups, and treat each other with informality meant that the Russian women were little better than prostitutes. The women consequently found it difficult to obtain rooms, and they were discriminated against in the shops and markets as well.

Litvinova's lot was even harder than most. She chose to pursue her studies at the Polytechnic Institute rather than the university, where there were far more women students. In many of her lectures she was the one woman in a class of 150, and she was afraid to raise her eyes or look in anyone's direction too long for fear they would get the wrong impression of her. (Since the Swiss had such prejudices against the Russian women, it was fatally easy to give them "the wrong impression.")

Inaugural Dissertation for obtaining the Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to the Higher Philosophy Faculty of the University of Bern by Elisabetha von Litwinowa-Iwaschkina from Tula in Russia.

Dedicated in gratitude to my esteemed teachers Professor Dr Schläfli in Bern, and Professor Dr H A Schwarz in Göttingen.

In this thesis I try to give the solution to a mapping problem. This was given to me by Dr H A Schwarz, professor in Göttingen, and it is expressed as follows:

A curve is given of such a nature that the product of the distances between its points and two fixed points, the so-called foci, should be constant. It is required to map the two pieces of the surface bounded by this curve conformally, i.e. similar in their smallest parts, onto a simple circular surface.

Litvinova was forced to accept a post as a teacher in the lower classes of a women's academy. She was paid by the hour and did not have the rights to pension and vacations of a licensed teacher. Nine years later, after repeated pleas by her and her superiors, she became [in 1887] the first woman in Russia permitted by the Ministry of Education to teach mathematics in the upper division of the gymnasium (although she was still not granted the rights and privileges of male teachers of her rank).

Litvinova not only taught her students the usual mathematical rules and theorems. She also used mathematics to teach her pupils how to think logically, how to make generalisations, how to extract principles and laws from a series of individual cases.

Such an attitude toward herself explains a great deal about her career. ... Like all the prejudices we must struggle against, the prejudice against the ability of women to do intellectual work exists not only in those around us, but also in ourselves. ... It would never occur to the most mediocre man that he was not sufficiently prepared to carry out the duties of a lecturer.

You don't have to be a genius to understand that, but you do have to be a Russian.

The international group focused on five major themes: women's civic rights; the nature of patriarchy; women's economic rights; the status of the feminist movement; and women and public charity.

In a sense, Litvinova's career as an original mathematician was nipped in the bud by the penalties that arose from defying the Tsar's decree. However, even under difficult circumstances, her influence made itself felt. Litvinova's contribution to mathematics was twofold: as a proponent of advanced pedagogical methods and an inspiration to her students, some of whom went on to become scientists, and as a disseminator of information about cultural, social, and other issues, which, in an era of heavy censorship, she introduced into her biographical works.