Bunin laments the departure of Galina Kuznetsova. 1943

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870-1953)
Bunin laments the departure of Galina Kuznetsova. 1943
Autograph letter signed (‘Iv. Bunin’) to Nikolay Roshchin, Villa Jeanette, Grasse, 10 May 1943.

In Russian. One page, 171 x 170mm. Envelope.

Bunin laments the departure of his muse and mistress Galina Kuznetsova.

My dear Captain, here is news for you. Our 17-year story with G.N. [Galina Kuznetsova] has finally come to an end. For the entire year I had seen her only twice and even that was in the distance ... now, surely, I will never see her again: last Saturday, – suddenly a note from her to Vera Nikolaevna [Bunina] was posted from Marseille: 'We are leaving France...'. I don't understand it – in what capacity has she been taken away to Germany by Mlle Marga Steppuhn [sic]?

Bunin's private life was notoriously complicated. He had fallen in love with the then 25 year old poet Galina Kuznetsova in 1927 when the latter was on holiday with her husband in Grasse: she not only left her husband but also moved in with the Bunins with Vera Bunina's consent, ostensibly as a secretary and 'family member'; the situation was further complicated by the relationship between Vera and another member of the household, Leonid Zurov. Bunin's long affair with Kuznetsova ended bitterly when she fell in love with another guest of the household, the opera singer Margo Stepun: they left the household in 1942, and the present letter announces the apparent coup de grace – prematurely in fact, as Galina and Margo did not emigrate to the United States until 1949.

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