Maria Arbatova, is a Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, journalist, talk show host, politician, and one of Russia's most widely known feminists in the 1990s. Maria Arbatova was born in 1957 in Murom. Her parents gave her complete freedom, once provided Maria with her pen name of Arbatova, which she took as her legal last name in 1999. Known as a non-conformist since her youth. She studied in the School of Young Journalists at Moscow State University, later transferring to the Faculty of Philosophy. She left the University due to ideological issues. She then studied in the Dramatic Arts division of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, and underwent training in psychoanalysis. She was also a hippie activist. In the pre-perestroika years, her literary works were banned by the censorship Today she is a member of the Moscow Writer's Union and the Union of Theatrical Workers of Russia. She continued studying at the Maxim Gorky Literature institute. After finishing her studies, Maria published some prose and poetry works, however she returned to writing drama, as she claims it is more natural expression for her than other genres. In the pre-perestroika years, the years before 1985, her literary works were banned by censorship. Before glasnost and perestroika, the political program of restructuring and openness of Michail Gorbatsjov, Arbatova had just one play staged, a play that was commissioned. An example of a play that was censored is the play called "Equitation with two knowns". It was banned by the ministry of culture for 10 years. The play is about a female genealogist performing abortions. The play was misinterpreted as a statement of good or bad of abortion. However the purpose of the play is to bring up the unfair share of responsibility for birth control and child-raising. Nowadays Arbatova is a member of the Moscow Writer's Union and the Union of Theatrical Workers of Russia. She is the author of fourteen plays staged in Russia and abroad, twenty books, and numerous articles in newspapers and periodicals. She has received multiple accolades for her literary and public achievements In general, Arbatova in her feminist ideas advocate against the traditional male-female relationship in Soviet society. Women do not value their creative potential and consider marriage as a highest possible social achievement. In her own autobiography María makes an example of her mother, who she believes was the starting point for María to become a feminist. Women cannot fulfill their lives only through their role as a wife\mother. In My Name is Women published in 1997, Maria addresses the issue of the conditions in maternity hospitals. She discusses in an angry tone her experience of giving a birth and concludes with words : "All this happened to me seventeen years ago for the sole reason that I am a woman. And as long as there are people who do not regard this as a suitable subject for discussion it will happen each day to other women, because being a woman in this world is not something worthy of respect, even when you are doing the only thing that men cannot do." Maria Arbatova’s activities-through her books, her numerous appearances and statements in the press and her social work- have brought to the forefront the theme of discrimination of Russian women, a fact acknowledged by the majority of Russian women and representatives of the political elite. She has always shunned grants for her activities, eschewing mercenary gains for her “missionary” work.

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