Galina Kuznetsova met Ivan Bunin in 1926 and in May 1927 moved into his place in the town of Grasse in the south of France, where the writer rented villa ‘Belvedere’. She lived with the writer’s family until 1934. She became the writer’s last love, his ‘Grasse Laura’.

She spent a lot of time with the Bunins and made notes about her stay at their villa, described their guests, transcribed conversations. The ‘Grasse Diary’ was published in 1967 in Washington. These notes became not only a historical source, but also a remarkable literary phenomenon.

Not only Galina Kuznetsova’s dramatic relationship with Bunin is recorded on the pages of the book, but also the search for her own creative style. She worked on it and discussed it with the renowned writer. This connection resulted in the so-called “Bunin” features such as impressionistic motifs and lyricism evident in her literary texts.

The term “impressionism” comes from the French “impression”. In literature, it refers to a work which is characterized by fleeting impressions, associations, and freshness of one’s perception of the moment.

In one entry from June 1930, Galina Kuznetsova wrote down a piece of advice Bunin had given her:

The themes of Bunin’s works also influenced Kuznetsova: she began to turn to the themes of love, death, and the lost homeland. Largest emigrant magazines published her poems and prose: ‘Sovremennye zapiski’ (‘Contemporary Papers’), ‘The New Review’, ‘Vozdushnye puti’ (‘Aerial Ways’).

An exemplar of the ‘Grasse Diary’ is displayed in the museum. A researcher who studies the works of Bunin, Alexander Baboreko, donated it to the Voronezh Regional Literary Museum named after I. S. Nikitin in the early 1970s. On the title page of the book, he left an inscription: ‘To the Ivan Nikitin Museum as a gift. This book was sent by Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova at my request for the museum — for residents of Voronezh. A. Baboreko. October 5, 1971’. The museum houses nine letters of the researcher sent to different inhabitants of Voronezh.