Sophia Bardina

Her family were landowners in Tver province, so she decided to study agronomy so that she could farm the land, rather than live off peasant labour.

Together, they went to study in Zurich.,[4] where Bardina was a leading figure in the Fritsche circle of young feminist Russian students, among whom she was known as 'Auntie', "on account of her reliability and diplomatic talents.

In 1873, the Russian government ordered all women students in Zurich to return home.

Bardina returned to Moscow, and in 1874, and obtained a job in a factory, hoping to recruit workers for the revolutionary movement.

and was a defendant at the Trial of the 50, alongside Olga Lyubatovich, Lydia Figner, Pyotr Alexeyev and others.