Olga Lebedeva (née Barshcheva; Russian: Ольга Сергеевна Лебедева; 1852 – 193?) was a Russian translator, linguist and Orientalist. She was a founder of the Society of Oriental Studies in St Petersburg. Writing under the pen names Madame Gülnar, Gülnar Hanım, Gülnar Lebedeva and Olga de Lebedeff, she was one of the first to introduce Russian literature to Turkey. She is recognised for her pioneering contributions to the literary networks between the Ottoman and the Russian empires at the end of the 19th century.
Biography
Olga Sergeevna Barshcheva was born into an aristocratic family in the Saint-Petersburg Governorate in 1852. She is said to have learned the Tatar language from Tatar people working the local fields. Her second husband was Alexander Lebedev, who served as Mayor of Kazan. She attended Kazan University, studying Persian, Arabic and Turkish under the Tatar educator Kaium Nasyri.
In 1881, Lebedeva travelled to Istanbul, planning an extensive project of translating Russian works into Turkish. Though the Ottoman authorities allegedly suspected her of espionage and initially forbade the publication of her translation of Pushkin, a set of her translations was published in 1890, and Sultan Abdul Hamid II bestowed a medal upon her. She became popular in Turkish aristocratic circles, organising literary soirees attended by notable figures such as Nigâr Hanım and Fatma Aliye.
In February 1890, Lebedeva founded the Society of Oriental Studies, of which she became honorary President ten years later. The Tsarina Alexandra became its Patron in 1911. Her last known address is dated 1913 in Saint Petersburg; her later life and death remain unknown.
Career
Literary work
In 1886, she translated the Qabus nama of Keikavus from Tatar into Russian. In 1889, she attended the Eighth Congress of Orientalists in Stockholm, where she met the Turkish writer and publisher Ahmet Mithat. This meeting led to a programme of publication of Russian literature in Turkey. Her translations of Pushkin and Lermontov appeared in Mithat's newspaper. She also prepared an Anthologie orientale covering Persian, Turkish and Arabic literature. In 1895, her major work Rus Edebiyatı (Russian Literature) was published in Ottoman Turkish, providing a comprehensive introduction to Russian literature for the Turkish reading public.
Oriental Studies
Lebedeva is thought to have attended successive Congresses of Orientalists in London, Geneva, Paris, Rome, Hamburg, Algiers and Athens between 1892 and 1912, presenting reports on topics such as women's status in the Caliphate, women's rights under Islam, and the conversion of Georgians to Christianity. She published the treatise On the Emancipation of Muslim Women in 1900.
Educational work
Lebedeva was interested in improving the education of the Tatars. In 1893, she requested permission from the Russian chief censor to open a Tatar school and a newspaper, but her request was denied.
Selected works
- Кабус Намэ (translation of Keikavus's Qabus nama, 1886)
- Rus Edebiyatı (1895)
- De l'émancipation de la femme musulmane (1906)
- Abrégé de l'histoire de Kazan (1899)
- Translations of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, and Fatma Aliye into Ottoman Turkish
