The first Russian writer to become a Nobel laureate

On November 10, 1933, all Parisian newspapers came out with large headlines: “Bunin is a Nobel laureate.” Of particular importance to this event was the fact that Ivan Bunin became the first Russian writer to receive this high award.

The news that he became a Nobel laureate, Ivan Bunin received the day before, in the afternoon of November 9th. He left detailed memories of the events of that day in the essay “Nobel Days”:

“November 9, 1933, good old Provence, good old Grasse, where I spent almost ten whole years of my life almost without a break, a quiet, warm, gray day in late autumn … Such days never dispose me to work. Yet, as always, I am at my desk in the morning. I sit down for him after breakfast. But, looking out the window and seeing that it was going to rain, I feel: no, I can’t. There’s a daytime performance at the cinema today – I’ll go to the cinema. Descending from the mountain on which the Belvedere stands, into the city, I look at distant Cannes, at the sea, barely visible on such days, at the misty ridges of Esterel and catch myself thinking:

– Maybe right now, somewhere there, on the other side of Europe, my fate is being decided …

In the cinema, however, I again forget about Stockholm. When, after the intermission, some kind of funny nonsense called “Baby” begins, I look at the screen with particular interest: pretty Kisa Kuprina, Alexander Ivanovich’s daughter, is playing. But then in the darkness near me there was some cautious noise, then the light of a hand-held flashlight and someone touched my shoulder and solemnly, excitedly said in an undertone:

– Phone from Stockholm…

And all of a sudden my life is cut short. I go home quite quickly, but feeling nothing but regret that I didn’t manage to watch how Keys will play further, and some kind of indifferent distrust of what I was told.

(Bunin’s doubts and indifferent distrust were due to the fact that before that he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize several times – in 1922, 1926 and 1930, but each time someone else received the prize. – S.I.)

But no, you can’t believe it: from afar you can see that my house, always quiet and semi-dark at this time, lost among the deserted olive orchards that cover the mountain slopes above Grasse, is brightly lit from top to bottom. And my heart shrinks with some kind of sadness … Some kind of turning point in my life …

The whole evening, the Belvedere is full of ringing telephones, from which some multilingual people shout something to me from almost all the capitals of Europe, is resounded by the calls of postmen, bringing more and more welcome telegrams from almost all countries of the world – from everywhere, except Russia! (…) Along with all the usual things that happen every year around every Nobel laureate, something happened to me, due to the unusualness of my position, that is, my belonging to that strange Russia that is now scattered all over the world, something that I have never experienced not a single laureate in the world: the decision of Stockholm became for all this Russia, so humiliated and insulted in all its feelings, a truly national event … “

However, in order to receive the award, it was still necessary to get to Sweden, and the Bunins, according to the writer Galina Kuznetsova, did not have money for travel:

“There was no money in the house … We talked for a long time the day before in his office, he counted with a pencil. It turned out that for a trip to Sweden you need 50 thousand.

As a result, the money was borrowed, and the writer went on a long-awaited trip. Among other things, he really wanted, as he said in an interview, to again quickly experience the pleasure of a long journey:

“After all, due to my lack of rights as an emigrant, due to the difficulty with which we, emigrants, have to get visas, I have not traveled anywhere for thirteen years, only once went to England. This for me, who once traveled endlessly around the world, was one of the greatest hardships ”(Quoted from the book: Ivan Bunin“ Nobel Days ”).

As Bunin reports in his memoirs, the distribution of prizes to laureates always takes place annually on December 10 and begins at exactly five o’clock in the evening:

“On this day, a knock on the door of my bedroom is heard early, in the evening it was ordered to wake me no later than eight and a half. I jump up and immediately remember what kind of day it is today: the most important day. It’s only eight o’clock, the northern morning is barely breaking, the lanterns are still burning. (…) But I have to start the day early today: the tenth of December is the date of the death of Alfred Nobel, and therefore I have to be in a top hat in the morning and go out of town, to the cemetery, where wreaths should be laid both on his grave and on the grave of the recently deceased his nephew, Emmanuel Nobel. An official invitation to the celebration is sent to the laureates a few days before it. It is written (in French) in full accordance with the exactness that distinguishes all Swedish rituals:

“Gentlemen laureates are invited to arrive at the Concert Hall to receive the Nobel Prizes on December 10, 1933, no later than 4:50 p.m. in the afternoon. His Majesty, accompanied by the Royal House and the entire Court, will come to the Hall in order to attend the celebration and personally present each of them with the proper award, exactly at 5 o’clock, after which the doors of the Hall will be closed and the celebration itself will begin.

It is absolutely unacceptable to be even one minute late, or to arrive even two minutes before the appointed time for any Swedish invitation. Therefore, I start getting dressed almost from three o’clock in the afternoon – out of fear, no matter how something happens: what if the cufflink of the tailcoat shirt disappears somewhere, as all the cufflinks in the world like to do in such cases? We leave at half past five. To the huge “Music House”, where the celebration of the distribution of prizes always takes place, such a dense and endless stream of cars flows that our driver, a young giant in a shaggy fur hat, makes his way through it with great difficulty: we are saved only by the fact that the police at the sight of the cortege laureates, who always follow each other in such cases, are delayed by all other cars.

According to Bunin, the last minute before the award was especially exciting for him:

“The last minute got me excited. Hallstrom’s speech was not only beautiful, but truly cordial. When he had finished, he addressed me in French with little ceremony:

– Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, kindly go down to the Hall and accept from the hands of His Majesty the literary Nobel Prize of 1933, awarded to you by the Swedish Academy.

He was awarded a folder with a Nobel diploma, a medal and a check for 715,000 French francs. Returning to France, the wealthy Bunin first of all paid off his debts, then he donated a rather large amount to help Russian emigrants. And, finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in a “win-win business” (he invests in securities and acquires a stake in a Russian restaurant), but soon “due to his inability to handle money,” as he writes himself, he is left with nothing .

Sergei Ishkov.

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