Search Results

This chapter provides background on the inter-war Russian emigration, its numbers, geographic spread, demographic make-up, and political divisions. It explains that most Russian émigrés expected their exile to be short; this was particularly true of military émigrés. Russians of all sorts experienced both economic hardship and xenophobia during their years of exile. This produced a growing sense of isolation and of paranoia. The Russian emigration split into smaller and smaller political groups. The chapter describes various émigré political groups and their leaders, such as P. N. Miliukov, Smena Vekh, the Eurasian movement, monarchism, and the Mladorossy.

This chapter concerns Russian emigration. Historians have contrasted the political weakness of the Russian emigration with its vibrant artistic and intellectual life. In 1922, the Bolsheviks expelled 220 of Russia's leading intellectuals on the so-called “philosophers' steamer.” They and other émigrés made important contributions to a large range of subjects, including philosophy and history, while émigré communities produced hundreds of journals and newspapers. In the post-Soviet era, as Russian politicians and intellectuals have sought non-communist sources of inspiration, many have turned to émigré writings. Important political figures such as President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have cited émigré thinkers in their speeches. Although it was cut off from the vitally important developments taking place in the Soviet Union, the emigration is an integral part of Russian history.

This chapter examines the growth of Russian human capital since the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to understand whether the health and demography of the population can support the country’s foreign policies under Vladimir Putin. It examines trends of stubbornly low, although improving, life expectancy, and fertility, high male mortality, emigration and immigration trends, and overall population growth in the post-communist period. The chapter also looks at the effects of high Russian social inequality and wealth concentration. In order to understand whether Russian social trends are supportive of increasing the global reach of the country under Putin’s leadership, the chapter also looks at post-secondary educational reforms in Russia, and the degree to which the Russian labor force is prepared to support increased economic growth in Russia.

Moving to Paris in 1924, Nabokov was briefly the roommate of painter Pawel Tchelitchew in Montparnasse and began associating with French musicians such as Georges Auric and Henri Sauguet. Going through a religious crisis, he also became close to the circle of Jacques Maritain and his wife Raïssa. After he was introduced to Serge Diaghilev, who in turn introduced him to Stravinsky, his career took off in 1928 when the Ballets Russes mounted his ballet-cantata Ode, in a choreography by Leonide Massine, with a futuristic set by Tchelitchew.

Nabokov pursued his musical education, first in Stuttgart with Joseph Haas, in 1920–21, then in Berlin with Paul Juon and Ferruccio Busoni. In Berlin, he became close to his uncle Vladimir, assassinated in 1922. His Berlin friendships included Felix Bethmann-Hollweg (son of the German chancellor), the future anti-Nazi diplomat Albrecht von Bernstorff, Russian emigre writer Aleksei Remizov, and art patron Count Harry Kessler. The end of the chapter discusses Nabokov’s controversial meeting with Rainer Maria Rilke.

Nabokov left France in 1933 to lecture at the Barnes Foundation. Shortly afterward, his ballet Union Pacific, on a scenario by poet Archibald MacLeish, the first ballet on an American theme, triumphed in a choreography by Massine. Nabokov’s friendships in New York included photographers Cartier-Bresson and Beaton and composer Elliott Carter, to whom he always remained close. In 1936, after visiting his mother in Nazi Germany, he took up a position as music professor at Wells College, in upstate New York.