Elisaveta Shakhova was the contemporary of prominent Russian women writers such as Elena Andreevna Gan, Karolina Karlovna Pavlova, Evdokiia Petrovna Rostopchina, and Iuliia Valerianovna Zhadovskaia. She is known predominantly as a poet, although she also wrote essays, a play, and a novel. Fluent in French and Polish, Shakhova was also a skilled translator, as was her elder sister, who instructed her in French. Having entered the convent at the age of twenty-three, Shakhova wrote primarily about religious themes and pious sentiments throughout her life.

Elisaveta Nikitichna Shakhova was born on 30 March 1822 in St. Petersburg to an old and noble family. Her father's ancestors were from Persia. Her great-grandfather (her paternal grandmother's father) had been a leader of a Tatar warring horde and was known for his valor and independence. Her paternal grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich Shakhov, had been a commanding officer of the admiralty during the reign of Catherine...