Irina Grekova (pseudonym of Elena Sergeevna Venttsel') ranks among the most prominent women writers in Soviet literature. She began writing fiction in the 1960s while still engaged in a successful career as a scientist and professor of mathematics. As Venttsel', she has published influential studies on game theory and probability, including Issledovanie operatsii (1972; translated as Operations Research, 1983) and Teoriia veroiatnosti (1958, Probability Theory). As Grekova, she has written stories and novels about women's lives in the former Soviet Union.

Grekova was born Elena Sergeevna Dolgintsova on 21 March 1907 in Reval (now known as Tallinn, the capital of Estonia) into a family of prerevolutionary intelligentsia. Dolgintsova's father, Sergei Dolgintsov, was a mathematician whose benevolent influence was apparently quite considerable. The affectionately drawn character N. N. Zavalishin in Grekova's novella Kafedra (first published 1978 in the journal Novyi mir [The New World], collected 1980; translated as "The Faculty," 1979) bears a noticeable resemblance to Sergei...