Helen Rappaport - After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris Between the Wars

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For Sue Woolmans, a good companion

on many of my Russian literary journeys

I have packed my Russia in my bag,

And take her with me anywhere I go.

VLADISLAV KHODASEVICH, POEM READ TO NINA BERBEROVA AS THEY LEFT RUSSIA BY TRAIN, 1922

There is no sweeter destiny than to lose everything.

There is no happier fate than to become a vagabond.

And youve never been closer to heaven

Than here, tired of boredom

Tired of breathing,

Without strength, without money,

Without love,

In Paris

GEORGIY ADAMOVICH, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, 1931

They do not know us. They do not know the Russian emigration. For most people, the migrs are nothing but down-at-heel aristocrats, dragging their nostalgia and fatalism around the bars. You only need to add balalaikas, sonorous songs of the Volga, a disorderly dance and there you have itthe Russian emigration.

COUNT VLADIMIR KOKOVTSOV, IN JEAN DELAGE, La Russie en exil, 1930

The list below comprises the most frequently cited Russian names in the text.

Akhmatova, Anna (18891966) one of Russias most revered poets; in Paris before World War I

Antonina Nesterovskaya (18901950) morganatic wife of Prince Gavriil; in Paris granted title Princess Romanovskaya-Strelninskaya

Bakst, Lon (18661924) painter and costume and set designer, famous for his work in Ballets Russes with Diaghilev

Benois, Alexandre (18701960) artist and critic, close collaborator in Ballets Russes with Diaghilev and Bakst

Berberova, Nina (190193) leading writer of the Russian Paris emigration; after 1951 enjoyed distinguished academic career in United States; partner of Khodasevich

Bunin, Ivan (18701953) much admired short story writer; leader of Paris literary emigration; Nobel laureate in 1933; husband of Vera Muromtseva

Chagall, Marc (18871985) Belarusian Jew, born Moishe Shagal; leading modernist painter in Paris; emigrated to the United States in 1941

Chaliapin, Feodor (18731938) opera singer who performed with Diaghilev and the Saisons Russes in Paris and toured Europe extensively

Countess von Hohenfelsen (see Princess Paley)

Diaghilev, Sergey (18721929) influential art critic, patron, and ballet impresario; founder of the Ballets Russes; associate of Bakst, Benois, Nijinsky, and Stravinsky

Don-Aminado (18881957) pen name of Aminodav Shpolyansky; journalist and satirist noted for his humorous short stories

Egorova, Lyubov (18801972) ballet dancer from St. Petersburg Imperial Theater; danced with Nijinsky for Diaghilevs Ballets Russes

Ehrenburg, Ilya (18911967) pro-Soviet journalist, essayist, and writer who commuted between USSR and France and associated with many of the Paris literary migrs

Fokine, Michel (18801942) born Mikhail Fokin, choreographer and ballet dancer, collaborator with Diaghilev

Gazdanov, Gaito (19031971) writer who supported himself in Paris driving a taxi from 1928 through 1952; member of French Resistance during World War II

General Alexander Kutepov (18821930) White Russian leader; commander of ROVS; in exile in Paris from 1928; abducted and murdered by OGPU in 1930

General Yevgeny Miller (18671939) succeeded Kutepov as head of ROVS in Paris; abducted in Paris 1937 by the NKVD; tortured and shot in Moscow

Gippius, Zinaida (18821945) poet, critic, and religious thinker; founder of Paris literary group the Green Lamp with her husband, Dmitri Merezhkovsky

Gorgulov (Gorguloff), Pavel (18951932) migr who assassinated French president Paul Doumer in 1932

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (18901958) daughter of Grand Duke Paul; sister of Grand Duke Dmitri; daughter-in-law of Princess Poutiatine

Grand Duchess Vladimir (18541920) born Marie Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; became Maria Pavlovna on her marriage to Grand Duke Vladimir in 1874; mother of Grand Dukes Kirill, Boris, and Andrey and Grand Duchess Elena, Princess of Greece

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (see Sandro)

Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich (18501908) son of Tsar Alexander II; brother of Grand Dukes Vladimir and Paul

Grand Duke Andrey Vladimirovich (18791956) son of Grand Duke Vladimir, husband of Kschessinska

Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich (18771943) son of Grand Duke Vladimir

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (18911942) eldest son of Grand Duke Paul, brother of Grand Duchess Maria; lover in Paris of Coco Chanel

Grand Duke Kirill (Cyril) Vladimirovich (18761938) curator of the Romanov throne in exile; proclaimed himself Emperor in Exile; husband of Victoria Melita

Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (18781918) brother of Tsar Nicholas II; not to be confused with Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich (18611929), who was known as Miche-Miche

Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich (see Nikolasha)

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (18601919) son of Tsar Alexander II and brother of Grand Dukes Vladimir and Alexis; father of Grand Duke Dmitri and Grand Duchess Maria; husband of Princess Paley

Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (18471909) brother of Grand Duke Paul and husband of Grand Duchess Vladimir

Gul, Roman (18961986) writer and critic

Karsavina, Tamara (18851978) prima ballerina who danced with Diaghilevs Ballets Russes in Paris

Kerensky, Alexander (18811970) minister of war, then prime minister of the Provisional Government in 1917; in Paris, editor of migr journal Dni

Khodasevich, Vladislav (18861939) leading poet and literary critic of the Paris emigration; partner of Nina Berberova

Knorring, Irina (190643) underrated poet of the emigration who died tragically young of diabetes

Kschessinska, Mathilde (18721971) Russian prima ballerina of Polish parentage; formerly mistress of Nicholas II when he was tsarevich; wife of Grand Duke Andrey

Kuprin, Alexander (18701938) short story writer; returned to Soviet Union in 1937

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (18701924) Bolshevik revolutionary; head of the first government of the Soviet Union from October 1917 through 1924

Lifar, Serge (Sergey) (190586) ballet dancer and choreographer; danced with Karsavina for Diaghilevs Ballets Russes in Paris

Merezhkovsky, Dmitri (18651941) influential poet, philosopher, and religious thinker; with his wife, Zinaida Gippius, founder of the Green Lamp literary society in Paris

Milyukov, Pavel (18591943) foreign minister in Russian Provisional Government in 1917; in Paris, editor of major Russian language newspaper