Gaito Gazdanov [about 1950?]

Source:
Society of friends of Gaito Gazdanov: The Photo Album:
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 47

In 1936 Gazdanov married Faina Dmitrievna Lamzaki. They stayed in Paris throughout the war, sheltering Jews and helping them to escape the Nazis. In 1942 the couple joined a guerilla group organized by former Soviet prisoners of war. Gazdanov edited an information bulletin and Faina served as a messenger.

Gazdanov documented the history of wartime Russian guerilla fighters in France in Je m’Engage à Défendre (I Pledge to Defend, 1946). The original Russian version was not published until 1995.

In 1953 Gazdanov was recruited along with other well-known Russians to work for Radio Liberty in Munich. He was director of Radio Liberty’s Russian service when he died of cancer in 1971.

His association with Radio Liberty ensured that his works remained unpublished in Russia but this changed in the 1990s. He is now regarded in his homeland as one of the most important twentieth century Russian writers.