About

Konstantin Balmont (1867, near Vladimir, Russian Empire – 1942, Noisy-le-Grand, France) – Russian symbolist poet, translator of Western authors and essayist, nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature (1923).

He visited Paris for the first time in 1896. After Gorky involved him in the 1905 revolution, Balmont took refuge in Paris until 1913, where he lived in the Passy district. He returned with his family to France permanently in 1920, masking their flight with a supposed “professional move”. The Russian immigrant community in Paris reluctantly accepted him. Among his few friends were Marina Tsvetaeva, Aleksandr Kuprin and Ivan Shmelov. He lived his last years of emigration in great poverty.

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