Sofia was attracted to mathematics at a very young age. When she was 11 years old, her bedroom walls were papered with pages of notes on calculus.
Sofia was forced to marry so that she could go abroad to enter higher education. Her father would not allow her to leave home to study at a university, and women in Russia could not live apart from their families without the written permission of their father or husband.
In 1869 Sofia travelled to Heidelberg to study mathematics and the natural sciences, only to discover that women could not matriculate at the university. Eventually she persuaded the university authorities to allow her to attend lectures unofficially, provided that she obtain the permission of each of her lecturers.
She is regarded as one of the worlds best mathematicians of her time. She was the first woman member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the first modern European woman to attain a full professorship.