She was born in
Morshansk, to a violent father, and turned to her studies for solace. 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. Bardina went to Moscow and became friends with
Olga Liubatovich. Together, they went to study in
Zurich., 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." She was sentenced to 10 years hard labour, later commuted to exile in Siberia. She escaped in 1880 and returned to Switzerland, where she fell seriously ill and died by suicide in
Geneva. == Quotes ==