An autographed postcard by writer Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov is an outstanding writer, poet, translator and literary critic who has left a significant mark on world culture. He was born in 1899 in St. Petersburg into an aristocratic family. After the revolution, he emigrated, living in Germany, France, and then in the USA and Switzerland. He is best known for his works such as Lolita, The Protection of Luzhin, The Gift, and Ada, characterized by their refined style, complex structure, and wordplay. In addition to his literary work, Nabokov was a passionate entomologist who devoted years to the study of butterflies and made contributions to lepidopterology.

Nabokov not only discovered several new species of butterflies, but also proposed a scientific hypothesis about the migration of butterflies of the genus Polyommatus, which was confirmed decades later by genetic studies. Despite the fact that his theory has long been viewed with distrust by professional biologists, modern scientists have recognized its correctness, which has become a kind of "posthumous" scientific victory of the writer.