In 1929, Ms. Yershova graduated from Moscow University. She was involved in the work that led to the production of radium in Russia. In 1937, she worked in Paris at the Radium Institute in the Marie Curie laboratory, which at that time, was headed by Irene Joliot-Curie.
Ms. Yershova became legendary and in scientific circles she was called the Russian Madame Curie.
In 1943, she was involved in the Soviet atomic project and developed the technology to produce metallic uranium and plutonium. She made a large contribution to the creation of the first atomic bomb, which was tested in August 1949 and ended the United States' monopoly on atomic weapons.
The spokesman also said that Ms. Yershova's work on another radioactive element, polonium, ushered in the era using isotope sources of energy for Kosmos satellites and self-propelled moon rovers.
Ms. Yershova headed the work to create technology to produce tritium for a hydrogen bomb. The peaceful continuation of this work resulted in the creation of an experimental thermonuclear reactor in the Soviet Union.
Her work is important for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a perspective and safe source of energy.
Ms. Yershova worked until she was 85. She won a Stalin Prize and two State Prizes. She died on April 25, 1995, at the age of 90.
Well-known Russian television journalist Nikolai Svanidze, who is married to Ms. Yershova's granddaughter, describes her as "a fragile and slender woman who always wore high heels, even at home," and as "smart and authoritative." "She was very particular about her dresses," he said. "A family legend is that when she was preparing to go to Paris, she was especially thorough in her choice of dresses. She had presented the Soviet way of life and all her dresses had to be 'Made in the USSR.' Apart from that, she had a moleskin waistcoat that was made in Moscow, which was a great success in Paris."
Mr. Svanidze said: "Zinaida Vasilyevna believed that radiochemistry, a rapidly developing science, was a female domain. Maybe because the founder of radiochemistry was Marie Curie, the Professor Yershova's only idol."
