Selma Rouff was a victim of a merciless 20th century. Born in Russia to a German family, she absorbed the best of two great cultures but was exiled at the start of WWI because of her German origins. In 1933, she returned to Russia to escape Nazi Germany, only to be sent away to the gulag on a 20-year sentence. With a mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet, Rouff was an extraordinary person who left behind scientific works and literary manuscripts.