Olga Ilyin


Olga Ilyin was a Russian-born American poet and novelist.

Early life

Ilyin was born into the Russian nobility in Russia. She went to school in Europe, and returned to Russia as a young adult.

Career

Ilyin became a poet. Her works were published in Russia and Europe.
Ilyin tried to flee Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. She was arrested in Siberia in 1918, but she was eventually able to emigrate to the United States. She settled in San Francisco, California, where she became a novelist.
Her first novel, Dawn of the Eighth Day, is about Nita Ogarin, an aristocratic daughter who marries an army officer soon killed in the Bolshevik Revolution. Her second novel, St. Petersburg Affair, is set in the 1850s. Kyra Beherev, an aristocratic heiress, agrees to marry Count Anatole Melin to appease her aunt, Princess Shubalov. The couple initially decides to remain abstinent and divorce within a year, but they consume their marriage, only to have affairs with other people later. Her third novel, White Road: A Russian Odyssey, is about an aristocratic heiress who decides to flee Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Personal life

Ilyin was married and had a child before the Bolshevik Revolution. She lost her father and her brother in the revolution.

Selected works