A visit by French writer Maurice Druon this week was like a journey through time for millions of Russians.
They were not necessarily sent back to 14th century France, where Druon's novels are set, but to the Soviet book boom of the 1970s and early '80s when he was one of a handful of authors whose works were picked by the government to be published in millions of copies and sold in exchange for 20 kilograms of recyclable paper. People often spent the night in line to claim a ticket to buy -- literally -- a piece of pulp fiction.
"I did not know that he was alive! I was so surprised to see on TV yesterday that he had come to Moscow!" said Irina Chernova, who was waiting in line with hundreds of people at the Moskva bookstore Thursday for Druon to arrive for a book signing after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
"For us, Alexandre Dumas and Maurice Druon are peers," she said.
Minutes later, Druon, an imposing 84-year-old with an old-fashioned monocle hanging from the collar of an immaculate pinstripe suit, made his way through the crowd and emerged on a podium in front of a dozen television cameras and microphones.
"Dobry vecher!" Druon said, enthusiastically greeting his admirers before switching to French. "I know that the number of my readers in Russia is large, and they are readers of many ages, because small children have already turned into grandparents from the time when you began reading me in Russia."
Despite selling millions of copies in this country, Druon timed his current visit with the first copyrighted publication of his seven-novel series "Les Rois Maudits," or "Cursed Kings," by OLMA-Press, which reportedly paid Druon his first Russian honorarium of about $3,000. And unlike his previous, virtually unnoticed visit in the early 1990s, this one got widespread media attention due to the meeting with Putin.
Putin did not say publicly whether he ever collected old newspapers and cardboard boxes to buy a Druon book. But he made it clear that he was honored to associate with someone who had begun his career by working with one of his political idols -- Charles de Gaulle.
"I am pleased and honored to meet you and speak in person with a man whose life is, to a certain extent, legendary," Putin said, addressing Druon as "Mr. Minister" in a nod to his stint as culture minister in 1973-74. "You started out together with de Gaulle, after all, and served France throughout your life so effectively," he said.
Instead of a one-hour meeting, Druon accepted a lunch invitation from Putin and said he spent 3 1/2 hours at the president's country residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. Without going into details, he said they discussed Russian-French cultural relations and promised to convey a message to French President Jacques Chirac, whom Putin is scheduled to meet next month.
Druon said meeting Putin was one of the high points of his long life and said the president made an "excellent" impression. Asked what he thinks about those who compare Putin with de Gaulle, Druon replied: "I think that in a certain number of years this opinion will be confirmed. He is a man of the state."
Druon, who was part of the French Resistance during World War II and then joined France Libre in London, also worked as a war journalist in the final years of the war. In 1948, he received the Goncourt prize for his novel "Les Grandes Familles," which has never been translated into Russian. Since 1966, he has been a member of the French Academy and currently serves as its honorary lifetime secretary.
As a right-of-center politician and political writer, he was an opponent of the 1968 leftist rebellion and has defended the purity of the French language. But he has criticized elitism in literature and written books understandable to a mass public.
It is the simple language, the palatial intrigue of Renaissance-era France and the romantic stories of his historical novels that won the hearts of millions of Russians, particularly young girls in the early 1980s.
"In the fifth grade [in 1983], all girls read the entire "Cursed Kings" series, exchanging books among ourselves," said Olga Loseva, an office manager. "You know, it's a time when girls get romantic. I read Druon at night, then came to school and deliberately sat at a desk in the last row to read him under the desk."
Dmitry Sakharov, 52, waited for Druon earlier Thursday at the Leo Tolstoy Museum, with three early 1980s books for Druon's autograph. One had a print run of 4 million copies; the others had runs of about 1 million.
When Druon failed to show due to his extended visit with Putin, Sakharov moved to the Moskva bookstore.
Sakharov, a retired military pharmacist, recalled how he would get up at 3 a.m. to stand in line with stacks of recyclable paper to be turned in for a ticket of a Druon book.
"Altogether, my mother and I turned in about 1,500 kilograms of paper," said Sakharov, who boasted of a library of about 4,500 books. "At the time, any normal book that was not Marx, Lenin or their 'successors' was desirable. That was an entire era!"
They were not necessarily sent back to 14th century France, where Druon's novels are set, but to the Soviet book boom of the 1970s and early '80s when he was one of a handful of authors whose works were picked by the government to be published in millions of copies and sold in exchange for 20 kilograms of recyclable paper. People often spent the night in line to claim a ticket to buy -- literally -- a piece of pulp fiction.
"I did not know that he was alive! I was so surprised to see on TV yesterday that he had come to Moscow!" said Irina Chernova, who was waiting in line with hundreds of people at the Moskva bookstore Thursday for Druon to arrive for a book signing after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
"For us, Alexandre Dumas and Maurice Druon are peers," she said.
Minutes later, Druon, an imposing 84-year-old with an old-fashioned monocle hanging from the collar of an immaculate pinstripe suit, made his way through the crowd and emerged on a podium in front of a dozen television cameras and microphones.
"Dobry vecher!" Druon said, enthusiastically greeting his admirers before switching to French. "I know that the number of my readers in Russia is large, and they are readers of many ages, because small children have already turned into grandparents from the time when you began reading me in Russia."
Despite selling millions of copies in this country, Druon timed his current visit with the first copyrighted publication of his seven-novel series "Les Rois Maudits," or "Cursed Kings," by OLMA-Press, which reportedly paid Druon his first Russian honorarium of about $3,000. And unlike his previous, virtually unnoticed visit in the early 1990s, this one got widespread media attention due to the meeting with Putin.
Putin did not say publicly whether he ever collected old newspapers and cardboard boxes to buy a Druon book. But he made it clear that he was honored to associate with someone who had begun his career by working with one of his political idols -- Charles de Gaulle.
"I am pleased and honored to meet you and speak in person with a man whose life is, to a certain extent, legendary," Putin said, addressing Druon as "Mr. Minister" in a nod to his stint as culture minister in 1973-74. "You started out together with de Gaulle, after all, and served France throughout your life so effectively," he said.
Instead of a one-hour meeting, Druon accepted a lunch invitation from Putin and said he spent 3 1/2 hours at the president's country residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. Without going into details, he said they discussed Russian-French cultural relations and promised to convey a message to French President Jacques Chirac, whom Putin is scheduled to meet next month.
Druon said meeting Putin was one of the high points of his long life and said the president made an "excellent" impression. Asked what he thinks about those who compare Putin with de Gaulle, Druon replied: "I think that in a certain number of years this opinion will be confirmed. He is a man of the state."
Druon, who was part of the French Resistance during World War II and then joined France Libre in London, also worked as a war journalist in the final years of the war. In 1948, he received the Goncourt prize for his novel "Les Grandes Familles," which has never been translated into Russian. Since 1966, he has been a member of the French Academy and currently serves as its honorary lifetime secretary.
As a right-of-center politician and political writer, he was an opponent of the 1968 leftist rebellion and has defended the purity of the French language. But he has criticized elitism in literature and written books understandable to a mass public.
It is the simple language, the palatial intrigue of Renaissance-era France and the romantic stories of his historical novels that won the hearts of millions of Russians, particularly young girls in the early 1980s.
"In the fifth grade [in 1983], all girls read the entire "Cursed Kings" series, exchanging books among ourselves," said Olga Loseva, an office manager. "You know, it's a time when girls get romantic. I read Druon at night, then came to school and deliberately sat at a desk in the last row to read him under the desk."
Dmitry Sakharov, 52, waited for Druon earlier Thursday at the Leo Tolstoy Museum, with three early 1980s books for Druon's autograph. One had a print run of 4 million copies; the others had runs of about 1 million.
When Druon failed to show due to his extended visit with Putin, Sakharov moved to the Moskva bookstore.
Sakharov, a retired military pharmacist, recalled how he would get up at 3 a.m. to stand in line with stacks of recyclable paper to be turned in for a ticket of a Druon book.
"Altogether, my mother and I turned in about 1,500 kilograms of paper," said Sakharov, who boasted of a library of about 4,500 books. "At the time, any normal book that was not Marx, Lenin or their 'successors' was desirable. That was an entire era!"