Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was an Austrian writer. In 1928, Stefan Zweig traveled to the Soviet Union, where his books were published in Russian at the urging of Maxim Gorky, with whom he was in correspondence. In 1934, he fled from the Nazis through London and New York to Brazil. On the night of February 22 to 23, 1942, Stefan Zweig took his own life in Petrópolis near Rio de Janeiro. He had been suffering from depression for years. His wife Lotte followed Zweig in death. In his farewell letter, Zweig wrote that he would leave life "of his own free will and with a clear mind." The destruction of his "spiritual homeland Europe" had left him feeling uprooted, and he felt that his strength had been "exhausted by the long years of homeless wandering." Stefan Zweig became a symbol for intellectuals in the 20th century fleeing from tyranny.