Kateryna Yushchenko was born in Ukraine on the 8th of December 1919 just after the Russian Revolution. She studied Mathematics and in the 1950s became involved in the MESM project, the Soviet Union’s first computer.
As a result of this work, in 1955 Yushchenko created the Address Programming Language, one of World’s the first high-level programming languages. It was incredibly advanced for its time and contained features that wouldn’t be seen in other programming languages for nearly a decade.
Yushchenko’s story isn’t a simple one of genius meets opportunity though, like many great people, particularly great women, her path to success was one of struggle.
- In 1937 her father was arrested for being a Ukrainian Nationalist. This led to the imprisonment of both Kateryna’s parents. They served ten years and were only released after Stalin’s death due to a lack of evidence.
- At 17 Kateryna was expelled from Kyiv University, because of her parents ‘crimes’, and she had to move to Uzbekistan to complete her studies.
- During World War Two she had to work in a factory producing scopes for tank guns.
- She returned to Ukraine after the war and gained her PHD in 1950, 14 years after her studies began, she was 31.
Kateryna not only had to contend with being a woman in an age when feminism was in its infancy but also a World full of turmoil. Her story and her contribution to software development are incredible. She rightly deserves to be regarded as one of the most important people in the history of computer science.
Useful Resources: