Editing Romain Gary (section)

== Early life ==
Gary was born Roman Kacew ({{langx|yi|{{Script/Hebrew|רומן קצב}}}} ''Roman Katsev'', {{langx|ru|link=no|Рома́н Ле́йбович Ка́цев}}, ''Roman Leibovich Katsev'') in [[Vilnius]] (at that time in the [[Russian Empire]]).<ref name=ivry>{{cite news|first=Benjamin |last=Ivry |url=http://www.forward.com/articles/134609/ |title=A Chameleon on Show |work=Daily Forward |date= 21 January 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.baltelatino.com/ROMAIN_GARY_et_la_LITUANIE.pdf Romain Gary et la Lituanie] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110626103906/http://www.baltelatino.com/ROMAIN_GARY_et_la_LITUANIE.pdf |date=26 June 2011 }}</ref> In his books and interviews, he presented many different versions of his parents' origins, ancestry, occupation and his own childhood. His mother, Mina Owczyńska (1879—1941),<ref name=ivry/><ref>Myriam Anissimov. ''Romain Gary, le Caméléon''. Paris: Les éditions Folio Gallimard, 2004. {{ISBN|978-2-207-24835-5}}, pp. ??</ref> was a [[Jewish]] actress from [[Švenčionys]] (Svintsyán) and his father was a businessman named Arieh-Leib Kacew (1883—1942) from [[Trakai]] (Trok), also a [[Lithuanian Jew]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} The couple divorced in 1925 and Arieh-Leib remarried. Gary later claimed that his actual father was the celebrated actor and film star [[Ivan Mosjoukine]], with whom his actress mother had worked and to whom he bore a striking resemblance. Mosjoukine appears in his memoir ''[[Promise at Dawn (novel)|Promise at Dawn]]''.<ref>{{cite news|work=The Harvard Advocate|url= http://theharvardadvocate.com/content/122/ | title=Romain Gary: A Short Biography  | first= Madeleine | last= Schwartz}}</ref> Deported to [[central Russia]] in 1915, they stayed in [[Moscow]] until 1920.<ref>Passports of mother Mina Kacew and nurse-maid Aniela Voiciechowics. See Lithuaninan Central State Archives, F. 53, 122, 5351 and F. 15, 2, 1230. Copies of the documents are in the personal archive of a Moscow historian Alexander Vasin.</ref> They later returned to [[Vilnius]], then moved on to [[Warsaw]]. When Gary was fourteen, he and his mother emigrated illegally to [[Nice]], France.<ref name="Marzorati" /> Gary studied law, first in [[Aix-en-Provence]] and then in Paris. He learned to pilot an aircraft in the [[French Air Force]] in [[Salon-de-Provence]] and in [[Avord Air Base]], near [[Bourges]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180619-romain-gary-the-greatest-literary-bad-boy-of-all|title=Romain Gary: The greatest literary conman ever?}}</ref>