The weekly illustrated literary magazine ‘La Russie Illustrée’ (‘Illustrated Russia’) was published in Paris in Russian. It was published from 1924 to 1939, and was almost a mirror of the emigrant life at that time. The issues of the magazine were printed on high-quality coated paper and had colorful covers. Ivan Bilibin, Filipp Malyavin, Konstantin Korovin, Alexandre Benois and many others worked on the design and illustrations for the magazine.
Articles on different topics relevant for Russian emigrants were published in this magazine. The magazine had a page for women and a page for children, articles about culture and sports, and numerous photographs, crossword puzzles and riddles. Such universally interesting topics made the magazine extremely popular. The favorite part for most readers, however, was the literary section where prominent emigrant writers were published: Aleksandr Kuprin, Nadezhda Teffi, Sasha Chorny, Vladislav Khodasevich and, of course, Ivan Bunin. Bunin published his poems and short stories, as well as his articles about Maxim Gorky and Leo Tolstoy in this magazine. Fragments of the novel ‘The Life of Arseniev’ were also published in some issues of the magazine.
Ivan Bunin’s article about Leo Tolstoy, whom he admired all his life, is printed on pages 1–4 of this issue of the magazine. During the early years of his career, Bunin was extremely passionate about moral and religious ideas of Tolstoy: he visited the colonies of tolstoyans in Ukraine, learned about their philosophy of simple life — a lifestyle characterized by refraining from luxury and indulgence. The term itself (“oproschenie” in Russian meaning “simplification”) became popular because of Leo Tolstoy’s teachings. As part of simple living, Ivan Bunin even tried to become a cooper — a person who is trained to make barrels and other wooden items from timber staves held together with wooden or metal hoops. The author came back to Tolstoy’s philosophy and reflected on it a lot throughout his life. The last book that Bunin read was “Resurrection” (Leo Tolstoy’s novel).
After Bunin had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘La Russie Illustrée’ published an issue titled ‘Russian Literature Day’ devoted entirely to the writer. That issue came out in November 25, 1933, with a big photograph of the author on the cover. Bunin’s poems, Mark Aldanov’s article ‘The choice of the Swedish Academy’, biography of the author, and his numerous pictures were printed on the pages of this magazine issue.
Articles on different topics relevant for Russian emigrants were published in this magazine. The magazine had a page for women and a page for children, articles about culture and sports, and numerous photographs, crossword puzzles and riddles. Such universally interesting topics made the magazine extremely popular. The favorite part for most readers, however, was the literary section where prominent emigrant writers were published: Aleksandr Kuprin, Nadezhda Teffi, Sasha Chorny, Vladislav Khodasevich and, of course, Ivan Bunin. Bunin published his poems and short stories, as well as his articles about Maxim Gorky and Leo Tolstoy in this magazine. Fragments of the novel ‘The Life of Arseniev’ were also published in some issues of the magazine.
Ivan Bunin’s article about Leo Tolstoy, whom he admired all his life, is printed on pages 1–4 of this issue of the magazine. During the early years of his career, Bunin was extremely passionate about moral and religious ideas of Tolstoy: he visited the colonies of tolstoyans in Ukraine, learned about their philosophy of simple life — a lifestyle characterized by refraining from luxury and indulgence. The term itself (“oproschenie” in Russian meaning “simplification”) became popular because of Leo Tolstoy’s teachings. As part of simple living, Ivan Bunin even tried to become a cooper — a person who is trained to make barrels and other wooden items from timber staves held together with wooden or metal hoops. The author came back to Tolstoy’s philosophy and reflected on it a lot throughout his life. The last book that Bunin read was “Resurrection” (Leo Tolstoy’s novel).
After Bunin had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘La Russie Illustrée’ published an issue titled ‘Russian Literature Day’ devoted entirely to the writer. That issue came out in November 25, 1933, with a big photograph of the author on the cover. Bunin’s poems, Mark Aldanov’s article ‘The choice of the Swedish Academy’, biography of the author, and his numerous pictures were printed on the pages of this magazine issue.
