Miss Silver Age.

Famous Russian poetess Nina Nikolaevna Berberova was born on August 8 (July 26) 1901 in Saint Petersburg to a family of a Ministry of Finance employee. She received a good education, graduating from a city gymnasium. However, her further studies in the former capital were interrupted by the Bolsheviks' rise to power and the onset of red terror.

On her father's side, Nina Nikolaevna came from Armenian roots in Rostov, and in 1919 her family moved to her grandfather's homeland, the well-known Rostov doctor Ivan Minasovich Berberov. There she graduated from the Archaeological Institute and the Historical-Philological Faculty of Don University. The Berberov family house still stands in Rostov, where Nina Nikolaevna lived for several years.

After the arrival of Soviet power in Rostov, Nina Berberova decided to return to Petrograd. In 1921, she enrolled in the Institute of History of Arts and joined the Petrograd branch of the All-Russian Union of Poets. Her first poem was published in 1922. During the New Year holidays, she met the famous writer Vladislav Khodasevich, and in the spring they got married.

Realizing that in the new society there were few chances for a creative future, the couple obtained permission to leave the country and emigrated through Lithuania to Germany in June.

In exile, they initially lived in Germany and Italy, and in 1925 settled in Paris. The poetess took on any job, from embroidering towels to working as a typist in a newspaper office. This challenging period allowed her to enter the larger literary world. In 1939, Khodasevich died. Nina Nikolaevna was a literary collaborator for 16 years at the newspaper "Poslednie Novosti" ("Last News"), collaborated with publications "Sovremennye Zapiski" and "Dni", and since 1926 was co-editor of the magazine "Novy Dom".

Berberova was also a member of the Paris Union of Russian Writers and Journalists. Her works were published in many magazines, including "Sovremennye Zapiski", "Zveno", and "Vstrechi".

By the end of the 1920s, Nina Nikolaevna Berberova's name became known throughout the Russian emigration, and a cycle of 12 stories about the lives of Russian emigrants titled "Biyankurskiye Prazdniki" secured her place in the creative elite of Russian exile. In 1927, she was invited to the literary gathering "Zelenaya Lampa", created at the initiative of Merezhkovsky and Gippius.

In 1936, Nina Nikolaevna published the book "Tchaikovsky", based on unknown materials obtained from Rachmaninoff, Glazunov, descendants of von Meck, and relatives. In 1939, her play "Madame" was staged on the Russian stage in Paris, translated into Czech, German, and English. Her works became known in various countries and were popular not only among Russians.

After World War II, widowed Berberova decided to move to the USA and lived in New York from 1950, where she worked for eight years in an archive and studied in English language courses. From 1958, she taught Russian at Yale University, later became a professor of literature at Princeton University, and was part of the editorial board of the almanac "Mosty" (Munich, 1958-1968).

The main work of her life became the book "Kursiv Moy". Nina defined it as an autobiography, but it is more a description of an entire generation and era, a documentary snapshot of time. The book contains portraits of contemporaries, letters, diary excerpts, and sketches of emigrant life. It is a cultural treasure, recreating a world that has forever passed away.

Nina Nikolaevna outlived many of her contemporaries and witnessed the collapse of communism, which took away her homeland and loved ones. In 1989, she visited her native land for the first time in 67 years and saw the changed cities. Nina Nikolaevna died on September 26, 1993, in Philadelphia, where she found her final resting place.

She is considered one of the most significant figures of the Russian diaspora. Andrei Voznesensky called her "Miss Silver Age" and introduced her at joint performances.