Nina Mikhailovna Christesen (23 December 1911 – 8 August 2001) (née Maximoff) pioneered the study of Russian in Australia and founded the Department of Russian Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne in 1946. Personal life and education Christesen was born on 23 December 1911 in Blagoveshchensk, Russia to Mikhail (Michael) Ivanovitch (6 Sep 1885–1967) and Tatiana Siemenovna (c.1889–1979) Maximoff. In 1917 she and her mother left Saint Petersburg to join her father, a captain in the merchant navy, in Harbin, Manchuria where she began her secondary education. In 1925 the family migrated to Brisbane, Australia. Christesen gained admittance in 1926 to the Commercial High School in Brisbane where she passed the Junior Public Examination in 1930. In February 1931 Christesen passed the Supplementary and Adult Matriculation Examination, giving her admission to the University of Queensland from which she later graduated, receiving a Dip.Ed in 1938. She received her British Naturalization Certificate on 19 December 1933. While teaching at the Institute of Modern Languages at Queensland University she met Clem Chistesen who was taking lessons in German. They were married at St John's Cathedral in Brisbane on 23 January 1942. In 1945 the couple moved to Melbourne. They moved into "Stanhope" in Eltham (designed by architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear), and lived there for the rest of their lives. In 1947 her portrait was painted by the artist Lina Bryans. Christesen died on 8 August 2001, predeceasing her husband by two years. Judith Armstrong wrote The Christesen Romance about their life together. Work Following graduation from the University of Queensland, Christesen taught French at St Aidan's Church of England School for Girls, Coorinda from 1936-1944, a tutor at the Women's College and lecturer in Russian at the Institute of Modern Languages at the University of Queensland. Being appointed full-time lecturer in Russian at the University of Melbourne in 1946, Christesen established the Department of Russian Language and Literature the following year and remained at its head until her retirement in 1977. According to Jane Sullivan's obituary, "Nina campaigned for a new Russian department at the university, but was so unassuming that she did not apply for the job of a founding lectureship in Russian language and literature. She had to be persuaded to sit down and type an application. Nina later wrote:"In every way I was obliged to begin from scratch at Melbourne University. There was no established department, no staff,