Vourdalak. Le Vampire.

Inscribed in French 'A mon honorable confrère G. Alexinsky, Teffi devouée'.

Grigory Alekisnky was a prominent Marxist and Bolshevik before being arrested by the Cheka in 1918. He escaped to Europe and based himself in Paris until his death in 1967. He joined the flourishing émigré community in the French capital, writing articles and speeches which largely blamed Lenin for leading Russia down a violent path and forming a suppressive state.

Teffi was immensely popular in Russia and was perhaps the only writer to be admired by both Lenin and Tsar Nicholas II. In her new life in Paris she played a vital role in amusing and distracting her audience with her witty prose. As this presentation copy exemplifies, she became close friends with a number of prominent émigrés and formed a lively and creative literary circle.