Laureate of the Lenin Prize, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR Alexey Zy-novyevich Petrov is widely known in scientific circles as a major specialist in the modern theory of gravity. A. 3. Petrov was born in 1910. in s. Cats of Kuibyshev region (former Samara province) . After his father's death, he was raised by a teacher named B.. In. Petrova . From the age of 15, he began to work and only at the age of 22 passed the external exams of secondary school. In the same year, A. 3. Petrov entered the physical-co-mathematical faculty of Kazan University, which he successfully graduated in 1937. Among the teachers of the university were such well-known professors as P. A. Wide, N. G. Chetaev,N. N. Parfentiev, N. G. Chebotarev, who had a huge impact on all further scientific and scientific-pedagogical activities of A. 3. Petrova .