Russian Alexey Rubin names New York City intersection after Sergei Dovlatov

Alexey Rubin believes he did a very important thing in his life. Photo by Pavel Terekhov

Alexey Rubin is an ordinary Russian immigrant. He graduated cum laude from Moscow Oil and Gas University’s engineering school, but didn’t want to work in his degree field. Alexey decided to travel to the United States and see how Americans live. It happened 16 years ago, and he never came back to his homeland. Everything went well for Alexey: he got a job in a respected U.S. consulting company, and met new friends and his love.

Several years ago it came upon Alexey that he had another dream: to eternalize the name of the famous Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov in America. In September 2014 in New York City, the intersection of 108^th Street and 63^rd Drive in Queens was named Sergei Dovlatov Way thanks to Alexey Rubin. Sergei Dovlatov spent his last and the most fruitful years in New York. It took a lot of efforts for Alexey to make his dream come true. But know the young man knows that nothing is impossible in this life.

Last year, Alexey Rubin was awarded the “Russian American Person of the Year” award in the Emerging Leader of the Year category. The award is granted to Russian-speaking Americans who contribute tremendously to all aspects of living in the United States. The nominations are available in eight categories. The award has been set by the American Council for World Jewry.

Idee fixe

In 2012, Alexey Rubin met a crowd of his friends in a Manhattan bar in New York City. His friends included people who permanently lived in the U.S. as well as those who just came to NYC for a short vacation. Among them was a well-known Russian journalist and anchor Alexey Pivovarov. He hosted Segodnia show on NTV for a while, and now is one of the top managers in STS-Media.

“We were sitting and chatting of life and things. And then Lyosha Pivovarov started expressing his love to Dovlatov’s writing. He asked why nothing was named after Dovlatov in New York, and offered to put on a commemorative plaque on his house. Everyone supported the idea back then. At least we wanted to give it a try,” Alexey recalled the birth of this idea.

Rubin and his friends decided to name a street after Dovlatov in a bar. Photo by Pavel Terekhov

His Moscow friends returned home, but Alexey continued contemplating on this grand project.

“I somehow realized that I had to get into public activities. Honestly, I don’t really love that. I prefer quiet and plain living. But I didn’t want to let go the idea,” Rubin says.

First of all, he started scrutinizing the biography of Sergei Dovlatov. Rubin reread Dovlatov’s A Foreign Woman, in which he describes NYC and 108^th Street. Below is an excerpt from the book, roughly translated from Russian, where he’s describing his U.S. living in detail:

“Subsequently, some locals started speaking Russian. A Chinese man from the diner greets me:

— Dobroe utro, Solzhenitsyn! (He sounds like ‘Solozenisa.’)

The majority of local Americans are German Jews. The third immigration, with some minor exception, is Jewish. So communicating with them is quite simple.

Locals keep asking me:

— Are you from Russia? Do you speak Yiddish?

In addition to Jews, our community is a home to Koreans, Indians, and Arabs. Black people are very few. More of Latinos.

For us, they are mysterious people with trannies. We don’t know them. Just in case, we despise them and are afraid of them.

Cross-eyed Frida is begrudging:

— They’d better leave for their lousy Africa!..

Frida herself hails from the town of Shklov, but prefers living in New York…

If you want to get to know our area better, you should stand at the stationery shop at 108^th and 64^th. Come as early as you can.”

In 1978, Dovlatov left the Soviet Union due to political persecution and settled in Forest Hills in New York. Photo by Nina Alovert

The area called Forest Hills, where Dovlatov settled, is in the middle of Queens in New York. It’s a typical commuter area. In 1980s, Forest Hills was second largest (after Brighton Beach) Russian-speaking community in the metropolitan area. Alexey traveled there several times, and finally managed to find a house where the writer used to live. This was also confirmed by Sergei Dovlatov’s daughter, Ekaterina. She still lives there with her mother. Rubin proposed that a commemorative plaque is put on the house where Dovlatov lived, but the family didn’t think it was possible. Ekaterina kept convincing Alexey that the board of the condo will be reluctant to make the changes.

Rubin found out that the condo residents didn’t want extra attention. They also had other arguments against the plaque.

“They were afraid that if we put a memorial plaque on the building, passers-by would start staring at it. And allegedly, some might fall and break a leg. The entire board of the condo will have to face the case in court,” Alexey says.

So Rubin decided to send a written offer. He mailed a letter to the condo board and started waiting for a response. Only after six months Alexey learned that the paper ended up in a garbage bin.

“They just threw the letter away. They thought my proposal wouldn’t improve living conditions much, so they didn’t event put the issue to vote,” he says.

Where is this street, where is this house?

Rubin got upset, but then he thought of another way out.

“I thought: if we cannot put a plate on the building, then there must be something else. So I’ve had this epiphany. The street where Dovlatov lived belongs to the people, it’s communal. We could name the street Sergei Dovlatov Way,” he says.

Rubin had heard how bureaucratic the U.S. authorities can get, but he realized he would not solve this issue without the officials. First of all, he went to see local council members. They were responsive straight away.

Karen Koslowitz was among the first council members to positively respond to Alexey Rubin’s proposal. Photo: youtube.com

“I met with the New York City Council member from Queens Karen Koslowitz. She took time to explain me the complexity of the street renaming process. The most important was getting support from the district and gather signatures. But how was I supposed to walk around the district with a sheet of paper?” Alexey says.

By that time he had gathered an initiative group. Its members elaborated a strategy, and decided to implement the project in two directions: online and through personal communication with area residents.

“To start with, we drafted a petition, and told about Dovlatov and why we wanted to name a street after him. We uploaded the petition to the special purpose website change.org. This website was created for solving community issues and helping people implement interesting projects. That was the start of gathering signatures online,” Rubin says.

At the same time, the initiative group members were meeting Russian-speaking people living in Forest Hills. It turned out that there is a Russian store named ‘Boris Productions’ at the 108^th Street described by Dovlatov in A Foreign Woman. The store’s owner, Boris Belen’ky, has been a longtime fan of the writer. He decided to help Alexey.

“I brought hundreds of petition letters to Boris, and he was distributing them among his customers. In general, the people were positive about this initiative. All they needed to do was to sign the letter and put an envelope in a post box,” Alexey says.

The official City of New York advised the young people to speak to civic organizations. That’s how Rubin and his team met the community of Bukharian Jews in Queens. They arrived in the U.S. back in 1970s, and enjoy a great influence within the community. They have their own printed newspaper Bukharian Times. Its editor-in-chief Rafael Nektalov wrote an article calling to support the idea.

“He helped us a lot. In addition, Rafael had good connections with local council members. We knew it was extremely important for us,” Rubin says.

The group continued expanding its audience. Alexey was invited to speak on Russian-language U.S. TV stations, and featured in a number of stories for federal Russian TV channels.

“There was this funny case. I was being interviewed outside, and a man in a muskrat hat approached us and asked what the story was about. Having learnt it was about Sergei Dovlatov, the man got excited: ‘That’s a good thing to do, he was a great poet!’” Rubin says.

A Facebook page for Sergei Dovlatov Way initiative was also created, where people could comment on the matter. Alexey Rubin was always saying ‘thank you’ to users who supported the idea. The activists developed their own website that they used to post information on the project’s progress.

The project was joined by well-known people, including writer Alexander Genis, who worked with Dovlatov in The New American («Новый американец») newspaper. Genis addressed a personal letter to the city council. Some Americans who remembered Dovlatov’s articles in New Yorker and New York Times also got involved. However, there were people who didn’t like the idea to name the street after Dovlatov.

“Some people from Russia wrote us that Dovlatov fled the country, and we are now praising him as a Russian writer. Some people who claimed to be patriots wrote that. But we didn’t care,” Rubin says.

The taste of victory

One day Rubin got a call from the New York Mayor’ Office. He was asked to stop campaigning. It turned out that the number of signatures reached 18,000, and that was enough for Mayor Bill de Blasio to consider the draft bill.

“It was too early to celebrate. In order for the paper to end up on the mayor’s desk, we needed approval of local council members. I again contacted Ms. Koslowitz. She wrote a draft bill and sent it to the special committee dealing with parks and recreations. Most of its members supported us. Later, the document was approved at the general meeting of the city council, after which it came to de Blasio,” Rubin recalls the procedure.

The draft stipulated for the intersection of 63rd Drive and 108^th Street to be named Sergei Dovlatov Way.

As soon as the mayor signed the papers, Alexey Rubin started organizing the opening ceremony for the Dovlatov Way. It took place on Sept. 7, 2014.

“I felt euphoric. We won. There were so many people at the opening ceremony. I want to say ‘thank you’ again to those who helped making it happen,” Alexey said.

Rubin says he doesn’t regret the effort and the money he spent (several hundred dollars were needed to print the petition letters and the announcements). Having Sergei Dovlatov Way in New York City is his major life achievement. His dream has come true.

“And we haven’t yet placed a commemorative plaque on the building. The board has agreed to do that as well. So we still have a way to go,” Rubin said back then.

Together with the family of Sergei Dovlatov, Rubin was working on the project for the plaque. The problem was to choose the way to portray Dovlatov.

Alexey called upon Dovlatov fans to cooperate: “If you have ideas for the sketch, please send a message to me or to the group on Facebook. We will be happy to hear from you. Unfortunately, we cannot afford paying you, but you will have a chance to become famous,” Alexey Rubin said.

The group hoped to put the plaque on the building where Dovlatov lived by spring 2016.

The view from Sergei Dovlatov’s apartment. Photo by samsebeskazal.livejournal.com

Dovlatov in cinematography

It’s been a while since Sergei Dovlatov Way appeared in New York. Since then, a movie by well-known Russian director Stanislav Govorukhin, The End of a Great Era, was released. The movie is based on biographic novel by Dovlatov, Compromise, depicting the author’s work as a journalist in an Estonian newspaper.

Another Russian director, Alexey German-junior is planning to start filming a movie titled Dovlatov. It will star Russian actors and actresses: Chulpan Khamatova, Elena Lyadova, and Danila Kozlovsky. There has been no information so far about who will star as Dovlatov himself. Rumors say Ivan Urgant auditioned for the role. The movie will depict several days of life of the writer. It will be shot in St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast.

Elena Dovlatova about her husband

Not only feature films are being made about Dovlatov. Not so long ago, a documentary titled Five Angles of Dovlatov was presented in Armenia by journalist Aza Babayan and Russian blogger Vadim Dubnov. The project was financed by the Armenian Ministry of Culture, for Dovlatov was half-Armenian. The first night was attended by the widow, Elena Dovlatova. She said the film differs a lot from what had been made about Dovlatov earlier.

“The directors of the previous movies were trying to tell Sergey’s biography. This documentary focuses on the Dovlatov’s phenomenon in Russian literature and showing him within the system of the time he was living and creating in,” Elena Dovlatova said.

Dovlatova says she feels she’s getting much more than she hoped to have. Photo: instagram.com/araratmuseum

Asked by ForumDaily whether Sergei Dovlatov was dreaming of being famous, Elena said: “The only thing he wanted was to be published, to have his texts reach the audience. He couldn’t have even thought he would be this popular. All the time, I live with this feeling that I’m getting much more than I hoped to have.”

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