As the Russian named after Dovlatov a crossroads in New York

Alexey Rubin knows that he has done a very important thing in his life. Photo by Pavel Terekhov

Alexey Rubin is a regular Russian immigrant. In Moscow, he graduated with honors from the Russian University of Oil and Gas and received an engineering degree. But by profession I did not want to work. Alex decided to go to the United States and see how Americans live. It was 16 years ago, and it never came back. And somehow everything was going well for him: he found a job in a prestigious consulting American company, met new friends, then love.

Several years ago, he realized that he had another dream - to immortalize the name of the famous Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov in America. In September 2014, thanks to Alexey Rubin in New York, the intersection of 108th Street and 63rd Drive in Queens was named “Sergei Dovlatov Way”. It was in New York that Sergei Dovlatov spent the last and, perhaps, the most fruitful years of his life. It was not easy for Alexey to make his dream come true. However, now the young man knows that nothing is impossible in life.

In Alexey Rubin received an award "Man of the Year Russian-speaking America» in nomination «Leader of the Year». The competition marks the outstanding success of Russian-speaking Americans in all spheres of life in the United States. Figurines were awarded in eight nominations. The award was established by the American Forum of Russian-speaking Jewry.

Idea fix

In 2012, Alexei Rubin decided to meet his friends at a New York bar in Manhattan. The company has gathered big. Among Alexey’s friends were those who constantly live in America and those who just came to New York to rest for a few days. Among them - the famous Russian journalist and TV presenter Alexei Pivovarov. For a long time, he led the program “Today” on NTV, produced several documentary films, and now holds a senior position in CTC-Media.

“We sat and chatted about life and business. And then Lesha Pivovarov once again began to confess his love for Dovlatov's creativity. He asked why in New York there is nothing with the name of the writer? And he offered to hang a memorial plaque on the house. This idea was supported by everyone then. At least, we wanted to at least try, ”Alexey recalls how the idea was born.

The idea of ​​renaming the street came to Alexei and his friends at the bar. Photo by Pavel Terekhov

Moscow friends returned home, and Alex was all the time thinking about the grand project.

“I realized that I needed to somehow plunge into social activities. Honestly, I don’t really like it. For me it is better - a quiet and modest life. But I didn’t want to let the idea go, ”says Rubin.

The first thing Alexey began to carefully study the biography of Sergei Dovlatov. I re-read the story “The Alien Woman” in which the writer talks about New York and 108-th Street. For example, in this passage, he quite thoroughly talks about his American life:

«As a result, some local residents spoke in our way. A Chinese diner greets me:

- Good morning, Solzhenitsyn! (He turns out - "Solozenisa").

The local Americans are mostly German Jews. The third emigration, with rare exceptions, is Jewish. So finding a common language is quite simple.

Every now and then the locals ask:

- You are from Russia? Do you speak Yiddish?

In addition to the Jews in our area live Koreans, Indians, Arabs. We have relatively few blacks. Latinos more.

For us, these are mysterious people with transistors. We do not know them. However, just in case, we despise and fear.

Oblique Frieda complains:

- We would go to our lousy Africa! ..

Frida herself is from Shklov. He prefers to live in New York ...

If you want to get acquainted with our area, then get up near the stationery shop. It is at the intersection of the hundred and eighth and sixty-fourth. Come as early as possible. ”

The area called Forest Hills, where Dovlatov lived, is located in the center of Queens in New York. This is a typical sleeping area. In 1980, Forest Hills became the second largest (after Brighton Beach) Russian-speaking area in the megalopolis. Several times Alexey came here and finally found the house in which the writer lived. The daughter of Sergey Dovlatov, Ekaterina, helped to ensure this. Together with her mother, she still lives there. Rubin suggested that the family install a memorial plaque on the house in memory of Sergei Dovlatov. But the writer's family did not take the idea seriously. Catherine convinced Alexey that the board of the cooperative house where they live would not want to change anything.

In addition, as our hero managed to find out, the tenants of the house did not want to attract too much attention to themselves. There were other arguments against.

“They were afraid that if we hang a plaque, passersby will constantly stare at it. And supposedly someone might stare, slip and break his leg. The whole board of the cooperative will have to answer in court for this incident, ”says Alexey.

Then Rubin decided to make his offer on paper. A letter sent to the board and waited for an answer. And only six months later, Alexey learned that this paper was in the trash.

“They just threw away this letter. It was considered that it is not of great importance for, so to speak, improving life. And they didn’t even put the question to a vote, ”he still wonders.

Where is this street, where is this house

Alexey Rubin was upset, but he still found a way out.

“I thought: if we cannot hang a memorial plaque on the house, it means that something else is needed. And a thought struck me. The street where Dovlatov lived belongs to the people, it is common. Then you can call the street Sergei Dovlatov Way, ”he recalls.

Rubin heard about the difficulties of the American bureaucracy, but he understood that this issue could not be solved without officials. The first thing he went to the district deputies. Those responded immediately.

“I met with a member of the Queens City Council Karen Koslovice. She explained to me the whole convoluted procedure of renaming the street. The most important thing was to enlist the support of the area and collect signatures. But how will I walk around the whole district with a piece of paper? ”- Aleksey was frightened.

By this time he had already assembled an initiative group. Its participants developed a whole strategy and decided to implement the project in two directions: on the Internet and through personal communication with the residents of the district.

"At first we wrote petitionin which they told about Dovlatov and justified why we want to call the street in his name. The petition was placed on a special Internet site - change.org. This site was created in order to solve social problems and help people achieve interesting projects. So we started collecting signatures on the Internet, ”says Rubin.

In parallel, the participants of the initiative group got acquainted with the Russian-speaking people who live in the Forrest Hills area. It turned out that on 108-th street, about which Dovlatov wrote in “Alienka”, there is a Russian store “Boris Productions”. His master, Boris Belenky, is a longtime fan of the writer. And he decided to help Alexei.

“I brought to Boris hundreds of letters with a petition. Boris distributed them to his customers. People reacted positively to the action. They only had to sign this letter and throw the envelope in the mailbox ", - clarifies Alexey Rubin.

В New York City Hall young people were advised to speak with representatives of public organizations. So, Rubin and his team met the community of Bukharan Jews in Queens. They came to America from the USSR back in the 1970 and now have a strong influence in the area. The community has its own newspaper "Bukharian Times". Editor-in-chief edition Rafael Nektalov wrote Article and encouraged everyone to support the idea.

“He helped us a lot. In addition, Raphael had good connections with local district deputies. We knew that it was very important for us, ”adds Alexey.

Capture the audience continued. Alexey acted on Russian-speaking American TV channels. He became the main hero of the reports and Russian federal channels.

“There was a funny incident. I'm doing an interview on the street, and a man in a muskrat hat comes up to the crew and asks what we're filming about. Having learned about Sergei Dovlatov, the man says admiringly: “Oh, you’re doing the right thing, he was a very good poet!” - says Rubin.

Facebook has been created page "Sergei Dovlatov Way"where everyone could leave their comments. On the Internet, Alexei Rubin always thanked users who supported the idea. Activists have developed their own brokerwhere posted information about the progress of the project.

Famous people joined the project. Among them is the writer Alexander Genis, who worked with Dovlatov in the newspaper “New American” (read more about the history of Russian-speaking media in New York in this article). On his own behalf, Genis sent a letter to the mayor’s office. Connected and some Americans who remember Dovlatov on articles in The New Yorker и New York Times. But, according to Alexei Rubin, there were also those who didn’t like the idea of ​​renaming the street.

“They wrote to us from Russia that Dovlatov fled the country, and now we present him as a Russian writer. Someone wrote this on behalf of some Russian patriots. But we didn’t even take it seriously, ”says Rubin.

The taste of victory

At one point, Alexey Rubin received a call from the New York City Hall and asked to stop campaigning. It turned out that the number of signatures exceeded 18 thousands. That was enough for the mayor of the city, Bill de Blasio, to consider the relevant law.

“It was, of course, early to rejoice. For the paper to be on the mayor’s table, it was necessary to get approval from the district deputies. I again went to the deputy Koslovits. She wrote draft local law and sent him to a special committee that deals with the activities of parks. Most of its members supported us. Then the document was approved at the general meeting in the city hall, and only then it appeared in the office of De Blasio, ”says our hero about the procedure for making such decisions.

The law stipulated that the intersection of 63rd Drive and 108th Street in honor of Sergei Dovlatov would be named “Sergei Dovlatov Way.”

As soon as the mayor signed the necessary papers, Aleksey Rubin set about organizing the opening ceremony of Sergey Dovlatov Street. Solemn events were held 7 September 2014 of the year.

“I was in euphoria. We won. At the opening there were a lot of people. I now want to say thanks to everyone who was somehow involved in this event ", — Alexey shares his impressions.

Alexey Rubin with the participants of the initiative group. Photos from the personal archive

Alexey Rubin says that he does not spare the effort and money spent (several hundred dollars were spent on the release of leaflets and letters of petition). For him, the appearance of the crossroad of Sergey Dovlatov in New York — main achievement in life. His dream came true.

“We have not yet installed a memorial plaque on the house. The cooperative has already agreed to this at home. So everything is ahead ", — Alexey shares his plans.

Now Rubin, together with his relatives, is working on a sketch of a memorial plaque. The only problem is how best to portray the writer.

Alexey encourages all Dovlatov fans to cooperate: “If you have ideas for a sketch, please write me or us on Facebook. We welcome any suggestions. Unfortunately, we will not be able to pay, but you have the opportunity to become famous throughout the world, ”says Alexei Rubin.

Dovlatov in the cinema

After the appearance of the Dovlatov crossroad in New York, a year has passed. During this time a feature film has been released. "The end of a beautiful era" famous Russian director Stanislav Govorukhin. The movie was shot based on Dovlatov's biographical story “Compromise”, in which the author tells about his work as a journalist in an Estonian newspaper.

As the “Forum” found out, at the beginning of the next year another director, Alexey German Jr., will start shooting the film “Dovlatov”. Stars of Russian cinema will take part in it: Chulpan Khamatova, Elena Lyadova, Danila Kozlovsky. Who will play Sergei Dovlatov himself is still unknown. According to unofficial information, Ivan Urgant has already tried for this role. It is known that the film will tell about several days of the writer's life. Shoot a picture of planning in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. Now the film crew collects the necessary props for the picture.

Elena Dovlatova about her husband

Not only feature films are made about Sergei Dovlatov. About a month ago, the premiere of the documentary film “Dovlatov’s Five Corners” by Radio Liberty journalist Aza Babayan and Russian blogger Vadim Dubnov took place in Armenia. The film was financed by the Ministry of Culture of Armenia - Dovlatov is half Armenian. The writer's widow, Elena Dovlatova, attended the premiere. According to her, the film is very different from anything that has been filmed before.

“The directors of all previous films tried to tell exclusively the biography of Sergei. But in this documentary, the creators wanted to reveal the phenomenon of Dovlatov in Russian literature and show it in the system of the time that he described and in which he lived,” admits Elena Dovlatova.

Elena Dovlatova says that she lives with the feeling that she gets much more than she expected to receive. Photo: instagram.com/araratmuseum

When asked by ForumDaily whether Sergei Dovlatov dreamed of fame, Elena answered: “The only thing he wanted was to be published, so that his works would reach the reader. He could not have imagined that his popularity would reach such proportions. I live all the time with the feeling that I get much more than I expected to get.”

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