Olga Levashova

{{Short description|Russian revolutionary (1837–1905)}}

File:Ольга_Степановна_Левашова.png

Olga Stepanovna Levashova ({{langx|ru|Ольга Степановна Левашова}}, née {{lang|ru|Зиновьева}} ({{Transl|ru|Zinovyeva}}); 1837–1905) was a member of the Russian section of the International Workingmen's Association (IWMA) in Geneva, and financed the journal Narodnoye delo.{{Cite web|title=ЛЕВАШОВА ОЛЬГА СТЕПАНОВНА|url=https://rus-big-enc-dict.slovaronline.com/35708-ЛЕВАШОВА%20Ольга%20Степановна|access-date=2022-02-06|website=Словарь Онлайн|language=ru}}

Levashova was active in the revolutionary Russian émigré community in Geneva.{{Cite book|last=McClellan|first=Woodford|url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004335462/B9789004335462_014.xml|title=Russians in the IWMA: The Background|date=2018-03-10|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-33546-2|doi=10.1163/9789004335462_013}} Nikolai Utin and Johann-Philipp Becker sponsored her membership into the Russian section of the International there. Kropotkin described her as "a most sympathetic Russian lady, who was known far and wide amongst the workers as Madame Olga. She was the working force in all the committees."{{Cite book|last=Kropotkin|first=Pyotr|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-memoirs-of-a-revolutionist|title=Memoirs of a Revolutionist|year=1899|language=en}} Along with Utin, his wife Natalia, Viktor and Yekaterina Bartenev, and Anton Trusov, she took part in the Basel congress of the IWMA.

In 1867, Nikolay Zhukovsky, her brother-in-law, convinced her to fund a newspaper he was planning with Mikhail Bakunin. Named Narodnoye delo, the first issue was published in September 1868. When conflicts arose in the émigré community about the direction of the paper, Levashova used her financial influence to press Bakunin to resign from the editorial board in favour of Utin.{{cite book|last1=Senn|first1=Alfred Erich|url=https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12259/31736|title=The Russian Émigré Press: from Herzen's Kolokol to Lenin's Iskra|publisher=Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas|year=2008|isbn=978-9955-12-470-2|pages=28–30}}

She returned to Russia in 1874, to her estate in Kamenka, in Volga, where she hosted members of the liberal intelligentsia.