Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (Moscow, 1850 – Stockholm, 1891) was the first Russian mathematician of importance. Of gypsy ethnicity, she was a descendant of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Her grandfather, because he married a gypsy and was related to that ethnic group, lost the hereditary title of prince. Her father did not allow her to study and she married to be able to go to university, but only women were allowed to attend as listeners. Finally she was the first woman to get a university teaching position in Europe (Stockholm, 1881).