Like all of Russia's female revolutionaries, Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kuskova (1869–1958) forged her political career in a male-dominated oppositional movement that relegated women to a secondary, supporting role. Her forceful personality, however, along with an ability to articulate the demands of the moderate socialist and left liberal intelligentsia enabled her to overcome this marginalization and assume a place at the very centre of Russian revolutionary politics. By 1917, Kuskova had achieved considerable prominence as a non-party social democrat, well known even beyond intelligentsia circles for her work as a journalist and an activist in the cooperative movement. By this time, too, she had entered the ranks of Russian feminists as an outspoken advocate of women's rights. But it was socialism rather than feminism that informed Kuskova's politics in the period between the February and October revolutions, and she subordinated all other interests to the establishment of democracy in Russia. Moreover, throughout 1917 she continued, as she had in the past, to ignore her identity as a woman, remaining unconcerned with, if not actually unaware of, the extent to which her gender shaped her politics.

Any account of Kuskova's politics during this crucial year must remain incomplete until additional archival sources become accessible. Nevertheless, available sources are adequate to construct a fairly detailed, if still preliminary, description of her efforts to lay the foundations of democracy in the period between February and October.