Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff

A Generous Approach to Marie Bashkirtseff

This project makes accessible the complete, unabridged diary of Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884) — a Ukrainian noblewoman, painter, and proto-feminist who kept one of the most remarkable intimate documents in history from age thirteen.

The diary's story

After Marie's premature death from tuberculosis, her mother published the diary heavily censored to protect herself and her family. For a hundred years, the diary was considered one of Those Diaries that shape people's lives — sharing a girl's inner world and values like the importance of education, women's rights, religion...

Only in 1995–2005 was the complete version published in 16 volumes by Cercle des Amis de Marie Bashkirtseff. They published it in a limited print run — today it's nearly impossible to find.

This project

The project was created as part of archetypal.cz, where we translate meaningful texts that a commercial approach couldn't deliver. First I discovered the shortened diary, then learned that a full version exists, and then that it's not easy to obtain.

Several years of spare-time work. It took many hours to obtain the complete diary in electronic form. Now I want to make it accessible to the world.

Current Status

We're currently in the research and annotation phase — carefully documenting historical context, identifying people and places, and preparing the source material for high-quality translation.

The AI-assisted translation infrastructure is already operational. Early translations into Czech are in progress, and the system can support additional languages.

GitHub collaboration is currently private while we establish workflows, but will be opened to contributors soon.

Vision

My goal is to help Marie Bashkirtseff's spirit make a comeback. To publish the diary in all languages at once. You click which version (censored/complete/selection) and language you want, and you can read, share paragraphs, paragraph images...

Translations are created using AI, with emphasis on preserving Marie's layers of meaning, unique voice, and period context. If a translation in some language doesn't exist yet, the project includes tools that can generate it and then just fine-tune it by humans.

"I will be famous or I will die." Je serai célèbre ou je mourrai.
— Marie Bashkirtseff, 1884

Marie's words and spirit for everyone who wants to see them.

What Others Have Said

"A book without a parallel."
— William Gladstone, British Prime Minister

Her diary influenced generations of writers — Anaïs Nin, Katherine Mansfield, Mary MacLane. Simone de Beauvoir drew on it for The Second Sex.

Privacy

This site has no corporate tracking, no advertising cookies, and no data sold to third parties. We use our own simple analytics to understand which entries are read and how the site is used — nothing more. When you install the app, your reading data stays on your device.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Cercle des Amis de Marie Bashkirtseff for their work on the complete diary edition — especially Ginette Apostolescu, who transcribed the diary, and Michel Fleury.

Contact

/r/bashkirtseff · kerray@archetypal.cz · GitHub

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