Early Years
Parnakh was born into a Jewish family in the Black Sea port of Taganrog on July 26, 1891. His twin sister was the children's author Yelizaveta Tarakhovskaya and an older sister the poet Sophia Parnok. His family name was Parnokh but he later changed it to the more Sephardic–sounding Parnakh (his sister Sophia also later changed her name, but to the less Jewish-sounding Parnok). Parnakh's mother, a doctor, died when he was very young, and his father, a pharmacist, remarried soon after.
In 1913, Parnakh traveled to Italy and the Middle East, staying for a while in Palestine and returning to Saint Petersburg the same year. In Saint Petersburg, he entered the University, where he studied Romance languages, music (under the direction of Mikhail Gnesin) and theater (under direction of Vsevolod Meyerhold). In 1916, while World War I was raging, he moved to Paris, where he stayed for six years. He studied at Sorbonne University and was elected President of the Paris Chamber of Poets, and became fascinated by the jazz music he discovered in Paris.
Read more about this topic: Valentin Parnakh
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