In 1910 Poliksena Shishkina-Iavein (1875-1947), the first female gynecologist in Russia, became president of the Russian League for Women's Rights. The League made universal women's suffrage its primary goal, and under Shishkina-Iavein's leadership the women's suffrage movement gained a great deal of popular support, both in Russia and abroad. In March 1917 the Provisional Government, which had replaced Emperor Nicholas II's autocracy, granted Russia's women the right to vote and to hold political office. It was the first such reform enacted by a major political power.