L.A. Charskaya (1875–1937)

Lidia Charskaya was the pseudonym of Lidia Churilova, born in St. Petersburg, Russia. At age 23, she began working as an actress at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, where her career continued until 1924. To supplement her income, she started writing. From 1901 to 1916, she published about 80 books, which became wildly popular among young girls.
Her biggest bestsellers were the novels Princess Dzhavakha (1903) and Notes of a Schoolgirl (1908).

Her books included stories set in elite boarding schools for girls; historical novels about women; autobiographical novels that followed the heroine from school to a career; and detective and adventure stories. Her protagonists were usually spirited and independent girls or young women. Charskaya's reputation began to fade in 1912 after the writer and critic Korney Chukovsky called her books formulaic and repetitious. She stopped publishing in 1916, and in 1920, after the Russian Revolution, her works were banned. From 1924 until her death in 1938, she lived in poverty, supported mostly by friends. Throughout the Soviet period, her work was little regarded, although there is evidence that young girls continued secretly to read her works, at least through the 1930s. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Charskaya's work underwent a revival in Russia, and several of her books were re-published in new editions.