Since the demise of the USSR, she has become noted for her memoirs and extensive letter correspondence, which provides a unique glimpse into the interwar years of Russia's past.

[2] Her paternal uncle, Joseph Antonovich Lubny-Gertsyk, built the Baranov Manufacturing plant in the Alexandrovsky District town of Karabanovo.

[3] Her mother, who died when Gertsyk and her sister, Adelaida, were young children was of German and Swiss heritage, though the family was entirely Russified, they were Lutheran.

[2][4] After their mother's death in 1880, Gertsyk's father remarried Eugenia Antonovna Vokach (Russian: Евгении Антоновны Вокач) and a half-brother Vladimir was born in 1885.

[5] All the children received a broad early education from tutors and governesses, which included the study of five languages encompassing English, French, German, Italian and Polish.

[4] She became a close friend of the poet, Vyacheslav Ivanov, defending his classicist style against more modern trends in Russian literature[1][10] and wrote an article Религия страдающего Бога (The Religion of the Suffering God) about him.

[4] The family home in Moscow was nationalized during the war, forcing the Gertsyk clan to remain in Crimea, despite the desperate conditions and famines.