Henri Troyat

Henri Troyat, born Lev Aslanovitch Tarassov; in Moscow (Russian Empire) on Nov. 1, 1911, died in Paris (France) on March 2, 2007, is a prolific French writer and member of the Académie Française. His family migrated to France in 1917, during the Bolchevik revolution and he was raised in France mainly whithin the Russian community in exile. In his book "Un si long chemin", published in 1976, he clearly confirms the Armenian origin of both his parents.

French Armenians knew him to be of Armenian background, but he always claimed he was Russian like the other exiles in France. But after the great earthquake of 1988, he approached Charles Aznavour with a heartfelt donation for Armenia and laughed when Aznavour responded by saying "verchabes khelket klooghet yegav..." (finally you've come to your senses).

Should he have used his name in Armenian, it would have been: Լևոն Ասլանի Թորոսյան Levon Aslani Torosyan