Olga Novikova, 1862-1910

Born Olga Aleksieevna Kirieeva [used initials OK] in 1840 into the Russian upper-class. Brothers Alexander (1833-1910) and Nicholas (died 1876). Brought up in court circles, with a variety of foreign governesses. In 1860 married Ivan Novikov and took the feminine form of his name: Novikova. Novikov was nominally following a military career (and became a general), but was interested in educational administration, and became Curator of St. Petersburg University.

Bore Alexander (Sasha) in spring 1861. In spring 1862 she entered court and salon society in St. Petersburg, where she was a confidante of Lord Napier, the British Ambassador, and a disciple of Count Keyserling, the Estonian scholar. She was greatly interested in theology and science; but in mid-1862 her brother Alexander was sent to Poland, which was in a state of rebellion. It seems to have been at this time that she developed an interest in international politics, and conceived the need for a Russian spokesman in England, and an English spokesman in Russia.

During the Anglo-Russian crises between 1876 and 1904 Novikoff was an unofficial lobbyist in England for Russia and for the Pan-Slavic cause; she also took great interest in the "Old Catholic" movement. She published books and newspaper articles on these and allied subjects, largely in English. She was a cosmopolitan Russian, spending part of her year in Russia, part at Continental spas and capitals, and part in England, where she established a political-literary-scientific-theological-diplomatic-social salon, 1873-1904; her coterie included influential Europeans as well as influential Englishmen.

In 1886 OK began a correspondence with Max Nordau, a young many-sided social critic who was to become the Grand Old Man of Zionism; in 1888 they began a sporadic affair. In 1890, her husband died. By 1915, OK seems to have settled permanently in London with “one of her nieces.” She continued writing; and died in England in 1925.

For further biographical information, and background on certain of Novikova's correspondents (Gladstone, Napier, Kinglake, Froude, Keyserling, Beust, Laveleye, and Nordau, Dufferin, Villiers, Clarendon, Stanhope, Tyndall, Paulina Irby, Campbell-Bannerman, Lyall) ksrl.sc.novikovabios.pdf

From the guide to the Correspondence of Olga Novikova, 1862-1910, 1862-1910 & n.d., (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Department of Special Collections)