The article, based on the analysis of a complex of archaic sources and scientific literature, examines the peculiarities of the process of the formation of women's education in the Nizhyn Higher School during the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. Considerable attention is paid to the biography of the first girl who was admitted to the student ranks of the Nizhyn Institute in 1919 – Olena Levkovtseva. It has been established that certain doubts about its primacy remain today, as the evidence and arguments are of a contradictory nature.

The dynamics of the growth of female representatives in the educational environment and personnel of a higher educational institution were studied. It has been proven that the majority of women in the educational environment of the Nizhyn Higher School can be asserted only from the from the second half of the 20s to the beginning of the 30s of the XX century. The everyday life of women intellectuals is analyzed, through the prism of which all the difficulties of educational and pedagogical activity during the Soviet regime are shown.

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16. Departments for ensuring the preservation of documents of the State Archive of the Chernihiv region in the city of Nizhyn. Fund R-6121, Inventory 2, Unit 60 [In Russian].
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