Tyrkova A.V. (1869-1962), the public and political figure

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
TYRKOVA (in marriage Williams) Ariadna Vladimirovna (1869, St. Petersburg - 1962) was a public and political figure, journalist, and writer. She studied at the Private Gymnasium of Princess A.A. Obolenskaya (which she never completed), and in 1889-90 at the Department of Mathematics of the Highest (Bestuzhev) Courses for Women. From 1897 on, she made her living as a writer. On 4 March 1901, she was arrested for participating in the demonstration near Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral, later she participated in the activity of the Union of Liberation. From November 1905, she was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and from April 1906 she was a member of its Central Committee. Up to March 1917, she was the only female in the party, in charge of the Bureau of Press (before 1914). In 1906, she married English journalist G. Wiliams (their flat on Kirochnaya Street was one of the centres of public and cultural life of St. Petersburg, D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, Vyach. I. Ivanov, V.Y. Bryusov, A.A. Blok, A.N. Tolstoy, V.V. Rozanov, F. Sologub, A. Bely were among frequent visitors. She was one of the leaders of feminist movement in Russia. From 1912, she was an editor of the newspaper the Russian Rumour (serving as the first ever female editor in Russia). In the years of World War I of 1914-18 she worked in the All-Russian Union of Cities, organising sanitary detachments, visiting the frontline, doing charity work. After February Revolution of 1917, she was a member of the Food Commission, in the summer of 1917 she was elected a Deputy of the Central City Duma, and became a Head of the Faction of Cadets. She actively supported the march-off of General L. G. Kornilov. After October 1917, she was a member of the Anti-Bolshevik National Centre, doing agitation work among the detachments of officers and dispatching them to the Don. In March 1918, she emigrated to Great Britain, then she lived in France and in the USA. In the early 1919, she participated in organising the Committee for Liberation of Russia, initiating the creation of the Society of Help for the Russian Refugees and serving as its leader. At the same time she became the Head of the Russian Society of Colonization. From August 1921, Tyrkova was an editor of Russian Life journal. She authored stories, tales, novels, biography of A. S. Pushkin (volumes 1-2, Paris, 1929-48), and the memoirs On the Ways to Liberty, New York, 1952; second publication - London, 1990; This What Won't Happen Again, Paris, 1954; Moscow, 1999).

References: Канищева Н. И. А. В. Тыркова // Воспоминания о будущем. М., 1997. Вып. 2; Шелохаев В. В. Ариадна Владимировна Тыркова // ВИ. 1999. №11/12. С. 67-81.

N. I. Kanishcheva. Bely Andrey (real name Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich)
Blok G.P.
Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich
Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna
Ivanov Vyacheslav Ivanovich
Kornilov Lavr Georgievich
Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeevich
Obolenskaya Anna Alexandrovna, Duchess
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich
Sologub Fedor (real name Teternikov Fedor Kuzmich)
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich
Tyrkova Ariadna Vladimirovna
Kirochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Канищева Н. И. А. В. Тыркова // Воспоминания о будущем. М., 1997. Вып. 2
Шелохаев В. В. Ариадна Владимировна Тыркова // ВИ., 1999. № 11/12. Bestuzhev's Courses
Kazansky Demonstrations
February Revolution of 1917
City Duma