Ekaterina Oskarovna Dubrovina
Ekaterina Oskarovna Dubrovina, born Ekaterina Deikhman on May 29, 1846, in Irkutsk, Siberia, was a notable Russian writer and intellectual known for her exploration of women's issues in the late 19th century. She received a home education from tutors, who included revolutionary thinkers, and her family's salons became a hub for educated discourse and countercultural ideas. After her father's political arrest and subsequent release, Dubrovina faced her own challenges, including a tumultuous marriage to Nikolai Dubrovin, marked by his alcoholism and infidelities, from which she eventually separated while pregnant.
Relocating to St. Petersburg, she graduated from the St. Petersburg Higher Women's Courses and began hosting her own salons, engaging with revolutionaries and drawing government suspicion, which led to her arrest and brief exile. Dubrovina's literary career began with her first novel, "Sfinks," which, although poorly received, highlighted the struggles of middle-class women. She later authored works that featured strong female protagonists and reflected on class struggles, as well as historical fiction that focused on character relationships amid significant historical events. Despite facing health challenges and declining recognition later in life, her writing has recently gained renewed appreciation as important contributions to Russian literature, particularly for its insights into women's experiences across different social classes.
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Ekaterina Oskarovna Dubrovina
Writer
- Born: May 29, 1846
- Birthplace: Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia
- Died: January 10, 1913
Biography
Ekaterina Oskarovna Dubrovina was born Ekaterina Deikhman, May 29, 1846, in Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia, to Oskar and Aleksandra (Petrovna) Deikhman. Her father transferred the family to Petrovsk, where he managed an ironworks factory. Dubrovina was educated at home by tutors, including revolutionary intellectuals such as Fedor Nikolaevich L’vov, Mikhal Larionovich, and Ivan Ivanovich Gorbachevsky. Her parents hosted several salons at their home, which attracted the educated and members of the counterculture. At the age of sixteen, Dubrovina’s father was arrested for a political denunciation, but was cleared four years later.
While her father was imprisoned, Dubrovina married Nikolai Nikolaevich Dubrovin, who took her father’s position as the manager of the ironworks factory. Dubrovina left her husband while pregnant with their only daughter due to her husband’s alcoholism and infidelities. After the marriage, Dubrovina moved to St. Petersburg where she graduated from St. Petersburg Higher Women’s Courses.
It was in St. Petersburg that she hosted her own salons with the city’s revolutionaries and gained suspicion from the government. She was eventually arrested and briefly exiled. Upon her release, she took up a series of jobs including midwifery, but decided she truly wanted to support herself through writing.
Her first novel, Sfinks (the sphinx), focused on the plight of middle-class women and their less than satisfactory lives. This novel, although poorly received, would set the tone for Dubrovina’s future works, such as Peterburgskaia l’vitsa: Povest’ iz velikosvetskoi zhizni (the lioness of St. Petersburg) and Ocherki i rasskazy (sketches and stories), which revolved around strong female characters and class battles. Later in her writing career, Dubrovina turned to historical fiction, setting novels such as Rukhnuvshii velikan (the collapsed giant) and Zasluzhennaia kara: Istoricheskii roman vremen Arakcheeva (a deserved punishment), during Poland’s destruction at the hands of its leaders and Russia’s under Czar Alexander I. The novels are historically accurate, but are centered more on the characters’ relationships than on historical events. Dubrovina went on to write a fictionalized account of people she grew up with, including relatives and Gorbachevsky, one of her tutors who participated in the December revolution and was subsequently exiled to Siberia.
With severe health problems, coupled with heavy opium use, Dubrovina moved to Tiflis in 1907 to live with her daughter. She died January 10, 1913, virtually forgotten as a writer. Reference collections are beginning to publish and cite Ekaterina Dubrovina’s work once again as stellar examples of Russian literature of the late nineteenth century, particularly for her treatment of women, regardless of their class. This has become her greatest achievement.