Anne Jaclard

Anne Jaclard, born Anna Vasilyevna Korvin-Krukovskaya (, October 1843 – 12 September 1887), was a Russian socialist and feminist revolutionary. She participated in the Paris Commune and the First International and was a friend of Karl Marx. She was once courted by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who published two of her stories in his journal. Her sister was the mathematician and socialist Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850–1891).

Early life Anna Vasilevna Korvin-Krukovskaya was born in Saint Petersburg. were raised in an enlightened household. As young women they read the materialist literature then popular—books by Ludwig Büchner, Carl Vogt and others—and the writings of nihilist and Narodnik social critics like Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Peter Lavrov. Both women became associated with radical Narodnik circles.

In the 1860s, Anna was courted by the famous writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. but they remained on friendly terms for the rest of her life. It is thought that Dostoyevsky based the character of Aglaya Epanchina in The Idiot on Anna. a medical student and Blanquiste leader of the Montmartre contingent of the National Guard during the Paris Commune. and on the committee supervising the education of girls; she was active in organising the food supply of the besieged city of Paris and being a paramedic; she acted as one of the representatives of the Russian section of the International and she participated in a committee on women's rights. She was convinced that the struggle for women's rights could only succeed in conjunction with the struggle against capitalism in general. Anne Jaclard, as she was then known, collaborated closely with other leading feminist revolutionaries in the Commune,

Later years

In 1874, Anna and her husband returned to her native Russia. Victor found a job as a French teacher, and Anna worked primarily as a journalist and translator. She contributed to such oppositional papers as Delo and Slovo. The Jaclards also resumed friendly relations with Dostoyevsky. Neither Dostoyevsky's earlier efforts at courting Anna nor their strong political differences with the Jaclards prevented cordial and regular contact between them. She occasionally assisted him with translations into French, in which she was fluent. Anne Jaclard also resumed her contacts with revolutionary circles. She was acquainted with several members of the Narodnik movement 'to the people' in the 1870s and with the revolutionaries who, in 1879, formed the group Narodnaia Volia (The People's Will). In 1881, this group assassinated the tsar, Alexander II. However, the Jaclards had left Russia by then, and were not caught up in the repression which followed. In 1880, a general amnesty enabled Anne and Victor Jaclard to return to France. There, they resumed their journalistic work.

Anna Jaclard died on 12 September 1887 and is buried in Neuilly-sur-Seine Old Communal Cemetery in Hauts-de-Seine, France.