Born into the comfort of the imperial nobility, Zinaïda Chakhovskaïa lived through the Russian Revolution, exile, poverty and loss, before rebuilding her life several times over, between Constantinople, Paris, Brussels, the Congo and London. Throughout this breathtaking journey, Zinaïda constantly reinvents herself: student, nurse, correspondent, renowned journalist, then French-language writer.
In this episode, Elizaveta Berquin, doctoral student in history at ULB, plunges us into the incredible existence of this woman who lost everything... except her name, her intelligence and her ability to adapt. We discover a teenager forging her own path, a refugee infiltrating European literary circles, a wife caught between tradition and independence, a journalist bringing Russian and Belgian cultures into dialogue, and a privileged witness to the upheavals of the 20th century. From the Russia of the Tsars to Belgium between the wars, from aristocratic circles to the salons of Brussels, Zinaïda Chakhovskaïa left behind a career path as chaotic as it was fascinating, yet still largely unknown. Come and discover the woman who described herself as "a French writer of Russian origin and Belgian nationality".
Les Grands Petits Belges is a podcast produced by Eve Filée - Modernitas, Faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication - highlighting Belgian personalities, famous or forgotten, who have shaped our country. Told like a story, each episode focuses on a key figure in Belgian history, drawing on existing literature as well as new archives that have been little or never explored. This project invites the general public to rediscover Belgium’s rich human heritage, often little-known even to its own inhabitants.
Research carried out with the support of the MSH Seed-Money grant and as part of the ARC project ’The Artist, The Scientist, The Industrialist’, led by the Modernitas research center, housed at the ULB MSH
About the speaker
Elizaveta Berquin is a doctoral student at ULB’s Modernitas research center, where she is currently working on her dissertation on the cultural history of Russian emigration to Belgium between the wars. Her research aims to extend the established historical canon by analyzing cultural transfers within émigré networks, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.Archives used:
Coudenys, Wim. ’ : 3. ’. ’. Revue des études slaves 73, no. 1 (2001): 151-66. https://doi. org/10.3406/slave.2001.6705 .
Shakhovskoy, Dmitry : / Biography of Youth: The Establishment of Unity. YMCA-Press, 1977. https://archive. org/details/1977_20230731
