At the beginning of the 20th century, Lidiya Charskaya’s works were extremely popular among children and young people in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Her numerous novellas and novels praised pure love and depicted the romance of everyday life—gymnasium and institute interests, passions, and the clash of characters. Whatever Charskaya wrote about, she always sought to cultivate in her readers elevated feelings and firm moral principles.
After the revolution, Charskaya’s books were removed from libraries as “not corresponding to ideological and pedagogical requirements,” and for more than 70 years they were not reissued.
“Bold Life” is a historical biographical novella about Nadezhda Durova—the “cavalry maiden,” the first Russian woman officer, who bravely fought in the Patriotic War of 1812.