Zoé Oldenbourg (Russian: Зоя Сергеевна Ольденбург, romanized: Zoya Sergeyevna Oldenburg; 31 March 1916[1] – 8 November 2002)[2] was a Russian-born French popular historian and novelist who specialized in medieval French history, in particular the Crusades and Cathars.
[3] Her early childhood was spent among the privations of the Russian revolutionary period and the first years of communism.
With her family, she emigrated to Paris in 1925 at the age of nine and graduated from the Lycée Molière [fr] in 1934 with her Baccalauréat diploma.
[7] She combined a high level of scholarship with a deep feeling for the Middle Ages in her historical novels.
Other works include The Awakened, The Chains of Love, Massacre at Montsegur, Destiny of Fire, Cities of the Flesh, and Catherine the Great, a Literary Guild selection.