Author. She was a playwright in Paris during the turn of the 19th century into the 20th. Being part of the first wave of feminism, she was a free-thinker, proclaiming women's rights. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in the Russian Empire, she was the daughter of a publisher from St Petersburg, Ilya Efron, who left their homeland seeking religious freedom. Her family was known for publishing Russian and Hebrew textbooks by the volumes, including the "Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedia." The surname of Efron or Ephron was changed by many family members to the French version of Effront. At the age of 16, she joined the riots against the Tzar's regime and was forced to leave the country for fear of retaliations. She became a life-long colleague of Vera Gurary, who also escaped after revolutionary activities from the Russian Empire to France. Starkoff left Poland in 1883 for Switzerland, entering the University of Geneva the next year and studying philology. Speaking French perfectly, she migrated to Paris at age 20. Upon reaching Paris, she published a booklet written in the form of a travel journal entitled "Siberia" in 1899. In the 1904 play, "L'Issue," she presented on stage a young woman, who refused to accept the man that had been chosen by her parents for marriage, supporting the reform of women's rights. Her short play "Le petit verre" condemned alcohol use in the peasant society as the consumption was the root of many problems. Later, the play was translated into Italian and is still in print in the 21st century. Her main theatrical works include "Siberia" in 1899, "Free Love" in 1902, and in 1904 "The Issue," "The Antisemitic Janitor," and "The Small Glass." As a columnist for the female-managed magazine, "La Fronde," she published an article on Russian political prisoners in 1906. In 1892 she married Léon Paul Nicod, with whom she had two children before her divorce. Her second husband was Robert Adolphe Schutz, who authored one of Leo Tolstoy's biographies. She was an admirer of Tolstoy. On December 21, 1900, the Federation of Women's Unions was founded with her serving on the first executive board. Considered as a Russian author with the surname of Starkoff, she began to published essays dedicated to the working class. On September 15, 1906, she published the essay, "The Literary Movement in Russia" and in 1915, she published "Appeal to German Women and Mothers." At the dawn of World War I in 1915, she signed, with other women, a declaration opposing any contact between the citizens of the "belligerent countries." From 1900, she was a member of the Freemason within the Order of Human Rights. She, along with other members of her family, abandoned the Jewish heritage, converting to Protestantism. In 1909 she founded the Théâtre de l'Idée or Theatre of Ideas, which is still opened. For an income, she taught Russian to the French citizens. In 1917 she supported the October Revolution and translated into French the works of Russian authors such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Chernyshevski and Vladimir Korolenko. She published in 1922 a small 70-page book, entitled "Le Bolchévisme." Her true identity as an author or activist was never revealed during her lifetime. She is a cousin of Belgian beer inventor Jean Effront. She is buried with her uncle, Akim Efron.