Olga Volkenstein

Olga Akimovna Volkenstein (Russian: Ольга Акимовна Волькенштейн; 27 February 1875 – March 1942) was a Russian journalist, suffragist and a leader of the women's rights movement in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Volkenstein was born in Kishinev on 27 February 1875.^[1][2] Her father was military doctor Akim Filippovich Volkenstein [fr]. Her younger brother Fyodor [ru], born in 1876, became a prominent lawyer.^[2]

Volkenstein worked as a journalist for the newspaper Russian Thought. She was a member of the Saint Petersburg Literary Society. She published under both her own name and various pseudonyms including: V.; V—n, O.; V—ъ, O.; Viktorova, O. I.; O. V.; Olgovich and W—n, O.^[1][3]

Volkenstein was a left wing committee member of the Union for Women's Equality,^[4] which demanded equal political and voting rights for women. She hoped to mobilize female factory workers to the cause,^[5] was critical of the "well-to-do ladies" of the Union,^[6] and organised lecture tours to give talks on the early history of the women's movement.^[7]

She served as a delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) Congress in Copenhagen in 1906,^[6] and organised the first All-Russian Women's Congress. The Union was succeeded by the League for Women's Equality. Volkenstein also became a member of the Social Revolutionary Party.^[8]

Volkenstein died in Leningrad, Soviet Union (USSR) in March 1942 and was buried at Piskarevsky Cemetery.^{[citation needed]}