Irina Grekova


Elena Sergeevna Ventsel, known by the pen name Irina Grekova, was a Russian writer. She was also a PhD in mathematics, and wrote a book on probability theory.

Biography

Her father taught mathematics and her mother taught literature. Believing that higher mathematics was actually simpler than arithmetic, he began giving her lessons when she was only seven or eight.
In 1923, when she was sixteen, she entered Petrograd University, where she studied with Boris Delaunay, Ivan Vinogradov, Gury Kolosov and Grigorii Fichtenholz, among others. In 1929, she graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Department.
From 1935 to 1969, she worked at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy then, from 1969 to 1987, at the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering. She began writing prose in 1962 and became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1967.
Her husband,, was a Major General and head of the ballistics department at the Air Force Academy
In 2003, her novel Hostess was filmed as Bless the Woman; directed by Stanislav Govorukhin.

Works in English