Russian red carpet on Brighton: how the diaspora celebrates its immigration  

The 12 of September in Brooklyn at the Master Theater (formerly Millennium) at Brighton will host the Russian Red Carpet ceremony, so named after the Hollywood Oscar award ceremony. On the Brooklyn path, they will also present awards - however, not to cinematographers, but to the leaders of the Russian-speaking community.

Saving amendment

The occasion for the holiday was a nontrivial anniversary: ​​the 40 anniversary of the amendment to the US law on trade Jackson – Vanik. It restricted trade with countries that impede emigration, as well as violate other human rights. The amendment was named after its authors, Congressmen Henry Jackson and Charles Vanik.

It was signed by 5 on January 1975 of the year by then US President Gerald Ford. Formally, the amendment was introduced because of restrictions on the emigration of Soviet citizens, but it also acted in relation to other countries: China, Vietnam, and Albania.

In the middle of 1970's, practically only Jews stated their desire to emigrate from the USSR. They sought permission to leave under the pretext of reuniting with their relatives (often just namesakes) in Israel. The Jackson – Vanik amendment gave them hope.

The 40th anniversary of its adoption, the Boston journalist and cinematographer Leonid Komarovsky and his colleagues decided to celebrate with a large-scale project in three parts: make a documentary, write a book and install memorials in New York and Boston.

“Among my friends and acquaintances, many were“ in denial ”: they were not given permission to emigrate, they were fired from their jobs, they were deprived of their livelihood, - said Leonid Komarovsky. - Only years later, they got out into the wild, came to Israel or America, realized their talents, made a career, got on their feet. And it seemed to me interesting to tell their stories. ”

As a result, 60 hours of interviews with former Soviet citizens, and now citizens of the United States, Britain and Israel, were filmed. These materials formed the basis of the documentary film “The Amendment, or How the Soviets Traded Jews”, as well as a book that is now being prepared for publication.

Komarovsky reminds that during the years of the amendment, about one and a half million people left the Soviet Union, and then from Russia.

“Everyone who gave us an interview for the film literally spoke with one voice what important role this amendment played in their fate,” said Komarovsky. “She gave them the opportunity to live where they want, do what they want, liberated them from the heavy pressure of the Soviet state.”

The film will be shown at the 12 Master Theater in September, and there, Viktor Rashkovich, the general producer of the entire big project, will present the layout of the memorial.

Museum piece

However, the “Jackson – Vanik immigration” is only one of many waves of exodus from the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet space.

Another gigantic project is dedicated to all the Russian-speaking emigrants and the generations of their descendants. Here, in the Master Theater, 12, September, the owner of this theater, co-owner of the Net Cost Market supermarket chain known in the United States, Edward Schneider, will publicly announce the creation of a new museum - the Russian Heritage Museum.

The collection of materials has been going on for more than one year, and today we can say that a whole gallery of outstanding characters has been compiled - Americans with Soviet and Russian roots. The museum will be predominantly virtual, although there is also a place for a small permanent exhibition in the Master Theater.

Attempts to collect personal stories of immigrants have been made by many. For example, in San Francisco there is a “white immigration” museum. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the Jewish Immigrant Society, five years ago collected personal stories of immigrants who traveled to America with HIAS and posted them on its website in My Story. Each collector has their own selection criteria.

But the Brooklyn Museum of Russian Heritage will be able to absorb many of these collections and greatly increase them, becoming a collection of stories of the formation and success of people with Russian roots. According to the definition of the Museum of the Russian Heritage, all people from the Russian Empire and the former Soviet Union, as well as their descendants, fall under the category “Russian roots, Russian origin”.

Image is our all

It often happens that when creating museums, writing books, shooting movies, the collected material dictates its own conditions, breaks the original concept.

It seems that this does not threaten the new Brooklyn Museum. In any case, for two years of collecting materials, the original concept, which Schneider, the author of the idea and the initiator of the creation of the museum, formulated very clearly, has not changed a bit.

Then, at the end of 2013, Edward first told about his new brainchild to journalist Gennady Katsov, who specializes in “Russian” America.

“The main idea of ​​the museum is to show us Russian Americans outside of stereotypes,” said Schneider. “Many Americans associate“ Russians, ”as we are called in the US, with vodka and bandits. The article about Brighton Beach on Wikipedia lists the characters in this area that are significant to the history. And in the first place - who would you think? - criminal boss Marat Balagula. And on the fourth, after the Brooklyn saxophonist Eddie Daniels and the author of the popular songs of Howard Greenfield - the famous “godfather” Vyacheslav “Jap” Ivankov ”.

Schneider is convinced: Americans' representations of Russian-speaking immigrants are formed by television and computer games, and there the “Russians” (in the broad sense of the word) are often negative characters. The goal of the patron is to show that the Russian-speaking diaspora has significantly changed America.