Elsa Triolet
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Ella Yuryevna Kagan, known as Elsa Triolet, was a Russian-French writer and translator known for being the first woman to be awarded the Prix Goncourt.
Triolet in 1925
Elsa (right) with her mother, Yelena, and her sister, Lilya, in 1906
Lilya Brik
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Lilya Yuryevna Brik was a Russian author and socialite, connected to many leading figures in the Russian avant-garde between 1914 and 1930. She was the lover and muse of Vladimir Mayakovsky, even whil
Elsa Triolet
…was born into a Jewish family of Yuri Alexandrovich Kagan, a lawyer, and Yelena Youlevna Berman, a music teacher, in Moscow. She and her older sister Lilya Brik received excellent educations; they were able to speak fluent German and French and play the piano. Ella graduated from the Moscow Institute of…
Brik in 1928
Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik
A 1918 photo that appeared retouched in official Soviet publications in the 1960s