000n. Ksenija Borisovna Godunova / Ксения Борисовна Годунова
Who was "Russia's first woman poet"? The earliest female poet (or writer) mentioned in Golicyn's 1889 Dictionary is the legendary Cossack singer Marusja Čuraj, to whom we've devoted a couple of posts ( Marusja , Marusja bis ). But maybe there were some others before Marusja? Let's pause for a moment to think about what question we're asking – because answering the question "who was the earliest Russian woman writer" (to the extent that we are able to do so) requires that we reflect on the definitions of both "Russian woman" and "writing." Does "Russian women" also include women from other countries and cultures who live and write in Russia (such as Catherine the Great)? Should we consider only women who write in Russian or can we admit those who also (or even exclusively) wrote in other languages, such as French or German? And are we interested solely in women who produced examples of unmistakabl...