His father, Mikail Izraylevich (1846?-1921), was a relatively prosperous itinerant coppersmith and copper engraver from the region of Bialystok in the Kingdom of Poland, in an area of Belarusian and Lithuanian influence.

His mother, Elizaveta Solomonovna Averbach (1864-1900), was related to merchant families of Nizhny Novgorod which, since the beginning of the 19th century, had experienced vigorous economic development.

Reluctant to pursue his studies and prepared from adolescence for any adventure, the young Zinovy trolled the streets of Nizhny Novgorod on the fringes of legality, spending his time with the many thugs on the banks of the Volga.

Originally from the region where he was placed under house arrest (Nizhny Novgorod, his home town, is 100 km north of Arzamas, where he was exiled), Maxim Gorky – who was then 28 years old – took under his protection the young Zinovy, who he undoubtedly saw as a kind of double as well as a quirky reflection of his own journey.

At the same moment, his election to the Academy of Literature – which had been annulled by Nicholas II – a major public event, joined another more private one, the adoption at Arzamas, under Russian Orthodox rites, of the young Zinovy.

In order to bypass the law limiting movement and settlement of Jews in the empire, but also to mark his link with the writer, Zinovy was baptized on September 30, 1902, in the city church.

[2] Unfortunately American opinion, at first charmed by the oratorical capacities of Gorky, to which Peshkov’s intermediation provided picturesque relief, changed quickly when it learned that the writer was travelling not with his wife, but with his mistress, Maria Andreieva.

This was the period of the “School of Capri”, which was an especially formative time for him since many intellectuals and artists (Chaliapine, for example), gathered there; in addition, there were Bolshevik revolutionaries in exile – Lenin, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Bazarov, etc.

– generously hosted by the writer who assumed all the costs of these visits, in which political theory and action were in daily contact, threatening the Tsarist empire with the greatest danger.

Without our being able to know the deeper reasons – he had no particular ties to France during his exile from the empire, having resided mainly across the Atlantic or in Italy – he went to the French consulate in Genoa to enlist in the Foreign Legion.

Peshkov, who was special – in addition to Russian, he knew French, English, Italian and German, which was useful in a unit containing men from all over the world – was given the rank of 1st class on October 21, 1914.

Introduced into high society, where he was a sensation, he gave lectures on the horrors of war, probably inspired by the meetings organized with Gorky several years earlier, which had a great public success.

In Paris, he met Philippe Berthelot, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who realized what this young mutilated soldier, bedecked with decorations, could bring in terms of propaganda aimed at neutral countries, first of all the United States, a place with which Peshkov was well acquainted.

Convinced of the value of this strategy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Briand sent Zinovy to the French Ambassador, Jusserand, with the grade of temporary 3rd class interpreter (lieutenant), for the duration of his mission.

Lenin’s seizure of power in October was rapidly followed in December by the Brest-Litovsk armistice, which put an end to the Russo-German war, which was a setback for the French diplomatic mission.

Zinovy returned to Paris, but the French government, aware of the diplomatic capabilities of Captain Peshkov, soon sent him to advise the White Armies on all the fronts of the civil war which was then bloodying Russia.

Still tied to Russia, Zinovy, secretary general of an organization “against famine”, relayed the desperate appeal of Gorky to the international press to gain popular opinion for food aid for his country.

Peshkov, who received French nationality only the following year, was again in the Foreign Legion with the rank of chief of battalion, although he had no training in command and no experience in the position.

In June 1925, his left leg was injured during an attack at Bab Taza, “for the sake of symmetry” he quipped, showing the right sleeve of his uniform, useless for the past ten years.

His stay at the French embassy in the United States from 1926 to 1929 did not prevent him from paying a visit to Gorky at Sorrento during vacations, prior to the writer’s permanent departure for the USSR.

During his many stays cut short by his command in Morocco, he played an important role in the Levant, particularly intervening with Shi’ite groups in Gabal Amil (now southern Lebanon).

On the eve of global conflict, chief of battalion Peshkov commanded a unit in Morocco with panache and vigor; his celebrity brought him into close and regular contact with many personalities, members of high society and journalists.

Nevertheless, at the end of 1941, de Gaulle promoted him to the rank of colonel (he remained almost 20 years the head of battalion) and sent him on a mission to South Africa, where he organized the transport of arms for the Allied troops, while keeping an eye on Madagascar, which was relatively near.

Appointed Brigadier General in April 1944, Peshkov was soon sent as a delegate of the French Committee of National Liberation to the Republic of China to meet with Chiang Kai-shek, who had just broken with Vichy.

Upon arrival at Chung King, the new capital of the country due to the Japanese occupation, Zinovy had to deal with the presence of another French mission sent by General Giraud, a competitor which he knew how to marginalize with subtlety.

Made ambassador in November 1944, his presence once again gave him an occasion to demonstrate his capacity to make himself appreciated by leaders of all backgrounds which were so numerous in a China in full revolution.

Since France had decided to support the People's Republic of China – i.e. to recognize it diplomatically – the announcement of this turnaround had to be done with the greatest respect for the aged marshal in refuge in Taiwan.