The Ivan Nikitin House-Museum displays an envelope from Ivan Bunin’s letter to Peter Struve dated from November 30, 1925.

Peter Struve was a renowned philosopher, politician, journalist, and editor of the most important emigrant publications. He was a close friend of Ivan Bunin.

Although they had probably met before, the first truly important meeting took place in Paris in the spring of 1920. Bunin had already emigrated, and Struve came to France to negotiate with representatives of the French government. Right after he arrived, Struve wrote a letter to Bunin in which he expressed his warm feelings: “As I have loved you, I want to see…”

In the spring of 1925, Peter Struve moved to Paris, and soon became editor of the Paris newspaper “Vozrozhdenie” (translated as “renaissance” or “revival”). The name directly expressed the journal’ goals — to revive former Russia; the editorial staff included politically active emigrants who stood against Bolshevism. Ivan Bunin became an employee of the publication.

At the same time, the writer lived in Provence, in the city of Grasse, located at a considerable distance from Paris, about 675 kilometers. He refused to relocate:

Thus, Peter Struve agreed to a compromise and the journal’s literary department started working “in close participation of honorary academician I. Bunin”. Fragments of his novel “Cursed Days” were published by the newspaper.

Due to the shared place of work, correspondence between friends also resumed in 1925-1926. It concerned articles and stories that Struve commissioned Bunin to write (or the ones Bunin offered to Struve), as well as discussions about fees and other authors. Bunin always tried to help Shmelyov and Amfiteatrov, highly praised Osorgin and Don-Aminado, recommended young writers Fedorov, Korchemny and poet Levitsky.

In a letter to Struve, Bunin called the first anniversary of “Vozrozhdenie” “our common holiday”. In August 1927, when the founder of the newspaper fired Struve due to political disagreements, Bunin and many other employees also left. Galina Kuznetsova wrote in her “Grasse Diary”: “He is concerned about the situation with “Vozrozhdenie”, which he left because P. Struve had been fired. There are endless debates in the house on this topic.’