Ekaterina Shakhovskaia and Turgenev’s Suppression of Women’s Writing in ‘Pervaia Liubov’’

This article examines Turgenev’s choice to depict Zinaida Zasekina, the female protagonist of “Pervaia liubov’” (“First Love,” 1860), without pen in hand, despite the fact that she is based upon the figure of Ekaterina Shakhovskaia (1815-1836), a published poet known in literary circles. Why did Turgenev choose to elide Shakhovskaia’s literary activity when he transformed her into Zinaida? This article sheds light on a woman writer pointedly consigned to oblivion, reviews what we know about Shakhovskaia, her milieu, and her ties to the Turgenev family, examines her book-length Snovidenie and Turgenev’s choices to reframe the past as he did.