Olga Andreyevna Shapir was a Russian writer and feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

.

Biography

Shapir was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov, Russia

Lomonosov, Russia

Lomonosov is a municipal town in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, west of St. Petersburg proper. Population:...

) in 1850. She was one of nine children. Her father, a peasant, served as an army clerk, for a while under the Decembrist leader Pavel Pestel

Pavel Pestel

Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Pestel was a Russian revolutionary and ideologue of the Decembrists.In 1805-1809, Pavel Pestel studied in Dresden. In 1810-1811, he was a student at the Page Corps, from which he would graduate in the rank of praporshchik. Pestel was then sent to the Lithuanian Regiment of...

. Her mother was of Swedish descent.

She married Lazar Shapir in 1872. The couple had connections with several prominent revolutionaries. They lived for a time in a commune in St Petersburg, where they were associated with the Kornilova circle, one of whose members was Sofia Perovskaya. They were also on the fringes of a group ran by Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...

. Lazar spent eight months in the Peter and Paul Fortress

Peter and Paul Fortress

The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...

 for radical activities before his marriage to Olga.

Her first work of fiction was published in 1879. In her fiction she defended the Russian revolutionary movement against its critics. She wrote her novel The Stormy Years to counteract what she saw as the distortions of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (in The Possessed) and others. After this her works were published in many of the most popular journals of the time, including Otechestvennye Zapiski

Otechestvennye Zapiski

Otechestvennye Zapiski was a Russian literary magazine published in St Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers, known as the intelligentsia...

, Severny Vestnik

Severny Vestnik

Severny Vestnik was an influential Russian literary magazine founded in Saint Petersburg in 1885 by Anna Yevreinova, who stayed with it until 1889.-History:...

 and Vestnik Evropy

Vestnik Evropy

Vestnik Evropy was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia; it lasted from 1866 to 1918....

. Her ten-volume collected works were published in 1910.

Her primary public activity was in feminist organizations. She joined the Russian Women's Philanthropic Society in the 1890s, and was a member of the committee of the 1908 Women's Congress.

English translations

• The Settlement, from An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing, 1777-1992, Oxford University Press, 1994.