Arian was born to Jewish parents in either 1864 or 1865 in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire.
While a student in the physics and mathematics section of the St Petersburg Bestuzhev Higher Women’s Courses (Vysshie Zhenskie (Bestuzhevskie) Kursy), Arian became radicalized.
The date of her marriage to process engineer Miron Isaevich Arian (Russian: Мирон Исаевич Ариян) is unknown.
[3] Arian was a translator and journalist, writing for a variety of publications including Stock Market Gazette (Birzhevye Vedomosti – Russian: Биржевые ведомости) and Art and Life (Iskusstvo i Zhizn’), to name just two.
The writer Maxim Gorky, the radical activist Vera Figner, the artist Ilia Repin and the psychologist Vladimir Bekhterev all contributed to the Calendar.