Ekaterina Kniazhnina

{{Short description|Russian poet}}

Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Kniazhnina ({{langx|ru|Екатери́на Алекса́ндровна Княжнина́}}; 1746 – 6 June 1797)[http://russian_xviii_centure.academic.ru/379/Княжнина_Екатерина_Александровна Княжнина Екатерина Александровна], biography at the 18th Century Russian Language dictionary // Словарь русского языка XVIII века. — М:. Институт русской литературы и языка, 1988—1999. was an 18th-century Russian poet. Her surname also appears as Knyazhnina.

Kniazhnina was the daughter of Alexander Sumarokov, a poet and playwright, and Ohanna Khristiforovna Balk, a lady-in-waiting to the future Catherine the Great.{{Citation |last=Levitt |first=Marcus |title=1. Sumarokov: Life and Works |date=2017-12-17 |work=Early Modern Russian Letters |pages=6–21 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com:443/document/doi/10.1515/9781618116741-003/html?lang=en. |access-date= |publisher=Academic Studies Press |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781618116741-003 |isbn=978-1-61811-674-1|doi-access=free }} She was born and lived in St. Petersburg. She married Yakov Knyazhnin in 1770. She was one of the first Russian women to have poetry published in Russian journals.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lI4hPO8u3ecC&pg=PA298 |title=Dictionary of Russian Women Writers |pages=298–99 |last=Ledkovskai︠a︡-Astman |first=Marina |author2=Rosenthal, Charlotte |author3=Zirin, Mary Fleming |year=1994 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=0313262659}} Kniazhnina was the hostess of an important literary salon.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_Vu_qlYkNgC&pg=PA330 |title=A History of Women's Writing in Russia |page=330 |last=Barker |first=Adele Marie |author2=Gheith, Jehanne M |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=1139433156}}

She was the first Russian woman to write an elegy and is considered by Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary to be "the first Russian woman writer".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbCH3Zc9NOkC&pg=PA47 |title=The Romantic Poetess: European Culture, Politics, and Gender, 1820-1840 |page=47 |last=Vincent |first=Patrick H |year=2004 |isbn=1584654317}} She, along with {{Interlanguage link multi|Elizaveta Kheraskova|ru|3=Хераскова, Елизавета Васильевна}} and {{Interlanguage link multi|Alexandra Rzhevskaia|ru|3=Ржевская, Александра Федотовна}} were the first women to see their works printed in Russian journals.{{ВТ-ЭСБЕ|Княжнина, Екатерина Александровна}}

Ivan Krylov wrote a parody about Kniazhnina and her husband in 1787, Prokazniki (The trouble-makers).