From Bunin to Makine…

A writers’ house

As a gathering place in Paris for the Russian émigré community, the Conservatoire established itself as a major cultural centre as early as the 1930s. Beyond music, it welcomed several prominent figures from the literary world.

1931

Tsvetaeva and Bunin were regulars here

The correspondence of Marina Tsvetaeva She reveals her routine at the Russian Conservatoire, which she nicknames «Tokio» (after the street where the institution is located, which was known at the time as Avenue de Tokio). There, she reads some of her works and attends concerts.

The same is true of his compatriot, the Nobel Laureate in Literature Ivan Bunin. He lives just a stone’s throw away, in the Passy neighbourhood. He can often be found at the Russian community’s balls alongside’Alexandre Benois, a painter and set designer for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and another famous writer, Boris Zaitsev, a mainstay of the Conservatoire’s literary salons.

2022

Literary salons, from Boris Zaitsev to the present day

In the late 1930s, literary gatherings were held at the Conservatoire. Among the most notable were the salons organised by the writer Boris Zaitsev, «the Patriarch of Russia beyond its borders», to quote the historian and specialist in Russian affairs Georges Nivat. At the Conservatoire, Boris Zaïtsev reads several of his unpublished texts in Russian: Memories, Raphaël or A conversation with Zinaïda.

In October 2022, following a long hiatus, the tradition of literary salons has been reinstated. The Conservatoire regularly hosts a writer or public figure who has published a work relating to Russian culture or to one of the artistic disciplines taught at the Conservatoire.

Contributions have been received from authors as diverse as Giuliano da Empoli, Aurélie Dupont, Jean-Marie Rouart, Jacques Attali, the late Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, Dominique Fernandez, Marek Halter, Dominique Bona, Hubert Védrine, Emmanuel Todd, Frédéric Vitoux and on two occasions Andrei Makine.

2024

«Russian Destinies in Paris», a previously unpublished account of emigration

These literary festivals are hosted by the writer Erwan Barillot, co-author with Arnaud Frilley from Russian Destinies in Paris: A Century at the Rachmaninoff Conservatoire (1924–2024), a true story that traces the epic history of Russian emigration through the archives of the place and the numerous accounts of those who lived through it. In 2025, Russian Lives in Paris received the The Académie Française’s Consuelo Prize.

You can purchase this book, published by Éditions des Syrtes, in all bookshops, on online platforms, or right here. It serves as a reminder that the Conservatoire has, throughout the ages, been both a home for writers and a place that lends itself to the world of fiction.