Annenskaya was born in a village in Pskov Governorate, her parents came from a noble but poor family.

Her most popular story may have been One's Own Way which features a young girl who finds her own purpose after she is forced to care for another younger child.

[1] In 1873 she achieved success with a version of Robinson Crusoe, and she translated stories by Mark Twain, Ethel Voinich, Mary Ward and H. G.

[1] In the 1890s she took to biographies creating descriptions of the lives of people like Charles Dickens,[2] George Sand and Gogol.

She also described the exploits of explorers and role models like Michael Faraday, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.