The article presents the creative biography of Julia Abramovna Dobrovolskaja (1917–2016), a talented and prolific translator, linguist, lexicographer, teacher and memoirist. She had been translating Italian literature since the mid-1950s, working with texts by such masters as L. Sciascia, G. Parise, G. Rodari, A. Moravia, P.P. Pasolini and others. She’s the author of the classic “Practical Italian Course” (in Russian; 1964). Her philological activity Yu.A. Dobrovolskaya continued in Milan (since 1982) as a Russian specialist - the author of textbooks and dictionaries for Italians, as well as translations of Russian literature.