Valentin Parnakh

In 1922, feeling alienated from most of the political emigrants from Russia, Parnakh returned to Russia, bringing jazz scores, saxophones, tam-tams, and trumpet sordinos, and he soon founded the "First Eccentric Orchestra of the Russian Federated Socialist Republic - Valentin Parnakh's Jazz Band", which held its debut concert at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow on October 1, 1922.

Parnokh also published numerous articles on the contemporary music culture of the West and was the first to promote the work of Charlie Chaplin and the first to introduce French Dadaist poetry into the Soviet Union.

In October 1925 Parnokh returned to Paris, where he published many articles on theater and dance in Russian immigrant newspapers and in the French press and translated Spanish literature.

The main character of Osip Mandelshtam's 1928 novella Egyptian Stamp is named "Parnok" and was perceived by Parnakh as a derogatory caricature.

During World War II, Parnakh, like many other members of the Writers Union, were evacuated to Chistopol and had absolutely no means of support.

Desperately seeking work, he applied together with the poet Marina Tsvetaeva (a long-ago lover of his sister Sophia) to the Soviet Literature Fund asking for a job at the LitFund's canteen.