In 1921 Balmont moved out of Paris into the provinces where he and his family rented houses in Brittany, the Vendee, Bordeaux, and the Gironde. In the late 1920s his criticism of both Soviet Russia and what he saw as the leftist Western literary elite's indifference to the plight of the Russian people, became more pronounced. Great Britain's acknowledgement of the legitimacy of (in Balmont's words) "the international gang of bandits who seized power in Moscow and Saint Petersburg" rendered "a fatal blow to the last remnants of honesty in post-War Europe." Still, unlike his conservative friend Ivan Shmelyov, Balmont was a liberal: he detested fascism and right-wing nationalist ideas. All the while, he shied away from Russian Socialists (like Alexander Kerensky and Ilya Fondaminsky) and expressed horror at what he saw as France's general 'enchantment' with socialism. His views were in many ways similar to those of Ivan Bunin; the two disliked each other personally, but spoke in one voice on many occasions.