Born in Kiev on February 11, 1903, Irène Némirovsky is raised in the veneration of the French language, the obsession with the ghetto, and ignorance of Jewish culture. Too young to remember
the pogrom of October 1905, his first memory is of the Nice Carnival, in 1906. His father, Leonid, a "little obscure Jew", is bold in business and knows how to close his eyes to the antics of his wife. Irene, on the contrary, does not forgive her mother for firing her beloved governess. When war breaks out, Leonid became a banker familiar with the circles of power.
In February 1917, Irène attends the " manifestations of the bread", then to a simulacrum of execution: horror follows enthusiasm.
In January 1918, the Bolshevik revolution forced the Nemirovsky family to flee St. Petersburg by sleigh for a Finnish holiday. Irene writes her first verses there and devours the French authors. It’s from Stockholm, at the late spring of 1919, that they manage to reach France, "the most beautiful country in the world"...
1903, 11 February
Birth of Irina Irma N mirovsky, Kiev, only daughter of Leonid N mirovsky and Anna Margoulis. She is nicknamed Irotchka, or Irinouchka. A French governess from about fifty years ago, Zela, will be burdened with her education: In my childhood, she felt the refuge, the light. [] I really loved what she was in the world. (Work Logs, 1934/IMEC)
1905, 17 - 18 October
Following the revolutionary days, Nicholas II published the Manifesto which instituted the Duma of the Empire and guaranteed the rule of justice and civil liberties. Anti-Jewish Pogroms from Kiev and Odessa. Irina, an Orthodox cross on her neck, is suddenly a bed by the hand of Macha.
1917, February
Journ is r evolutionary. Irina attends the great women’s demonstration (23 february), then the mock execution of dvornik Ivan, caretaker of his building.
October 25: Bolshevik Putsch. The Mirovsky brothers settled in Moscow, in an apartment under Lou, a knight-guard. Irina reads Huysmans, Maupassant, Oscar Wilde, Plato.
1918
Irina reads Balzac, Dumas, Gautier and the modern French authors.
1919, July
The Mirovsky N are arriving, Rouen, in France
