Elsa Triolet (born Ella Yuryevna Kagan; (Russian: Элла Юрьевна Каган); 24 September [O.S. 12 September] 1896 – 16 June 1970) was a Russian-French writer and translator. Ella Yuryevna Kagan was born into a Jewish family of Yuri Alexandrovich Kagan, a lawyer, and Yelena Youlevna Berman, a music teacher, in Moscow. She and her older sister Lilya Brik received excellent educations; they were able to speak fluent German and French and play the piano. Ella graduated from the Moscow Institute of Archi ...