About author
Abstract. Memoirs are published from the personal archive of Professor A.M. Ladyzhensky (1891–1972), entitled «Memoirs and Reflections» by the author himself. The life of Professor A.M. Ladyzhensky was closely connected with Rostov-on-Don. Here he spent his childhood and gymnasium years, before entering the law faculty of the Moscow University, then came back to Rostov during the Civil War, worked at Rostov University in the 1920s and in the 1950s. Memoirs were written by the author in the mid-1960s. In addition to valuable autobiographical information, important historical events were reflected in: the revolutions of 1905 and 1917; post-revolutionary life of the capital and provincial Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Stalingrad; persecution of intelligentsia at the turn of 1920s–1930s; as well as the First World War, the Civil and the Great Patriotic War. In the memoirs bright verbal sketches of the state and party figures are given, as well as of famous scientists: V.I. Zasulich, V.N. Figner, G.V. Plekhanov, S.M. Budenny, S.I. Syrtsov, E.N. Trubetskoi, D.I. Bagalei, V.P. Buzeskul and many others. For current publication we have prepared a fragment of memoirs about the gymnasium years of A.M. Ladyzhensky in Rostov-on-Don (1902–1909). This part of the memoirs conveys the atmosphere of the family from the revolutionary circles of the multinational southern city, gives an idea of the upbringing of children in the family and in the gymnasium, the daily life, studies and hobbies of the Rostov schoolboy in the beginning of the 20th century, all this makes possible to feel the public mood of the Rostovites.
Keywords: Alexander Ladyzhensky, professor, Rostov-on-Don, family, gymnasium, university, provincial town.