Rainer Maria Rilke's widely celebrated fiftieth birthday in December 1925 and his sudden death on 29 December 1926 framed his correspondence with members of Boris Pasternak's family and Marina Tsvetaeva- Efron, for which Leonid Pasternak's initial greetings to his old Moscow friend and Rilke's prompt reply had set the stage. It was agreed that Rilke's letters from Switzerland would be sent to Boris Pasternak in Moscow via Marina Tsvetaeva in Paris. Against all historical and political odds, the three poets decided to form a union, the last one, perhaps, of an era which still believed that the making of poetry equaled the making of life. Rilke's participation in this association reassured uprooted Russian writers of their continuing link with European culture and history.