10 Facts About Koka Antonova

Koka Aleksandrovna Antonova was a Soviet Indologist specializing in medieval and modern Indian history.

Koka Aleksandrovna Antonova was born in a Czarist prison in 1910 in Saint Petersburg in a family of revolutionaries.

Koka Antonova's mother was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from 1904, while her father joined in April 1917.

Koka Antonova went to school in Brighton, leaving with fluent command over English, French and German, to which she was later to add Urdu, Arabic, Spanish and Persian.

Koka Antonova was allowed to return to Moscow in 1939 to continue her studies.

Koka Antonova defended her dissertation titled India in the time of Governor-General Warren Hastings in 1940.

Koka Antonova obtained her higher doctoral degree in 1950 for her work on the religious politics of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.

Koka Antonova was one of six founding members of the Indian division at the Institute of Oriental Studies.

Koka Antonova began work on the Emperor Akbar because there were no strictures against such research from the Communist Party leadership.

Koka Antonova believed she could write extensively on the Mughal king without fear of being accused of counter-revolutionary claims.