Signed photo by Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac is a French statesman and politician. The 22nd President of France (1995-2007). The only politician in the history of the Fifth Republic who became Prime Minister twice.

Interestingly, even before the start of a successful political career, Jacques Chirac was seriously interested in Russian literature. Few people know, but when he was 19 years old, he was engaged in translating Pushkin's poem "Eugene Onegin" into French. The paradox of this situation was that the work of the student Jacques Rainier Chirac was considered very worthy by many university teachers. However, none of the 12 publishing houses where the future politician applied did not want to print it. It was only many years later, when Chirac became Prime Minister of France, that publishing houses themselves began to vie with him with an offer to publish his works. But they received a constant refusal. In addition, he was an expert in Oriental culture, especially sumo wrestling, and collected objects of African art.