On the French perception of Ivan Bunin in 1933

The receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature by Ivan Bunin (the first ofthe Russian authors) in 1933 not only became an important event in the writer’s fateand Russian émigré life, but also was widely responded in the European (primarilyFrench) press. This issue has long been the subject of research attention, but has notbeen fully studied yet due to the active discussion of the Nobel campaign, possiblecandidates for the prize and, finally, the figure of the winner in the contemporarypress. In French literary circles, Bunin was not considered a favorite from majorRussian writers, being inferior in popularity to M. Gorky and D.S. Merezhkovsky;reporters began to seek meetings and interviews with great interest. The article issupplied with the most revealing newspaper articles and Bunin’s interviews, and,by contrast, two Merezhkovsky’s interviews, previously not translated into Russian.They show the main paradox — the magical transformation of the author, unknown toFrench journalists and readers before, into an international celebrity and equally rapidpsychological change of Bunin himself.