Gertrude Clafton Vakar (1904 – 1973) was born in Reval,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, to family of British descent that had been in the

since 1795. She grew up in

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

, Russian Empire.

Life

During the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, the Clafton family moved to England, while Gertrude—the oldest of five girls—went to the Russian

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on a scholarship. She graduated at the top of her class in 1923. On a visit back to Paris, she met Nicholas Vakar, a former

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

officer, then a writer for the Russian language daily ''

Posledniye Novosti ''Posledniye Novosti'' (, 'Latest News') was a Russian White émigré daily newspaper, organ of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets). It was published in Paris from April 1920 to July 1940. Its editor was Pavel Milyukov Pavel Nikolayevi ...

''. They married in 1926 and settled in Paris. They had two daughters, Catherine in 1927 and Anna in 1929; both girls have escaped from France to the United States in 1940. The latter is well-known Canadian haiku poet residing in

Oliver, British Columbia Oliver is a town near the south end of the Okanagan Valley in the southern British Columbia Interior, interior of British Columbia, Canada, with a population of nearly 5,000 people. It is located along the Okanagan River by Tuc-el-nuit Lake betwe ...

. Vakar,

trilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monoling ...

since childhood, translated some 37 novels into

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, from

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

or English, perhaps also

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, for

serialization In computing, serialization (or serialisation, also referred to as pickling in Python (programming language), Python) is the process of translating a data structure or object (computer science), object state into a format that can be stored (e. ...

in the Russian newspapers. She also translated a number of academic works from Russian into English., including many of the works of the psychologist

Lev Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (, ; ; – June 11, 1934) was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his ear ...

References

1904 births 1973 deaths People from Tallinn People from the Governorate of Estonia Russian people of English descent 20th-century Russian translators Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom French emigrants to the United States {{russia-translator-stub