The astronomer alexander I. Postoiev (1900–1976)

Abstract This is a biographical note on the life of Dr Alexander I. Postoiev, a victim of Stalin's purge of Soviet astronomers in 1936-1937 (McCutcheon, 1985). Along with his family, he left the Soviet Union in 1943, and lived in Germany as a refugee and “displaced person” until 1952, when he moved to Brazil. Then he started the second part of his professional career. Thanks to his efforts the Astronomical and Geophysical Institute (IAG) from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) was involved, for the first time, in programme of international cooperation, thus contributing to the institutional consolidation of IAG/USP as a leading centre of astronomical research and teaching today in Brazil.