The Warrior Woman

In Leskov’s story “The Female Warrior” (Voitel’nitsa), the central focus is a bright, distinctive female character—puzzling due to the strange combination of qualities that seem to exclude each other. Domna Platonovna, a lace-maker—recently a petty bourgeois woman from Mtsensk who moved to the capital—at first glance appears kind, simple, and gentle. However, from the very first lines of Domna Platonovna’s own account of her “idle life,” entirely different traits suddenly show through: worldly experience hardened by life, tight grip on things, and a kind of enthusiastic absorption in the mercantile game.

But the author also values the inexhaustible residue of humanity that keeps her from turning completely into a slick merchant, a person driven solely by profit and calculation. In the inspiring entrepreneurial energy of Domna Platonovna—whatever lowly matters she might involve herself in—there is constantly a hint of artistry. “The main thing,” the narrator notes, “is that Domna Platonovna was an artist—she was passionate about her works…”