24 August 1990 year
Writer and journalist Sergei Dovlatov died in New York.
A decent person is one who does nasty things without pleasure
He was born in 1941 in Ufa. His father was theater director Donat Mechik, and his mother was actress Nora Dovlatyan (Dovlatova). The family was evacuated to Ufa from Leningrad, where they returned three years later. After high school, Dovlatov enrolled in the Finnish language department of the Leningrad State University's Faculty of Philology. He was expelled for poor academic performance, but did not complete his studies.
I walked and thought—the world is gripped by madness. Madness is becoming the norm. Normality evokes a sense of wonder.
From 1962, he served in the internal troops for three years, guarding penal colonies in Komi. According to Brodsky's recollections, he returned from the army "with a scroll of stories and a certain bewilderment in his gaze."
I looked at the empty suitcase. At the bottom – Karl Marx. On the lid – Brodsky. And between them – a lost, priceless, unique life.
He enrolled in journalism and worked for a newspaper. In 1972, he moved to the Estonian SSR. To obtain a residence permit in Tallinn, he worked as a stoker for a couple of months. He got a job at the newspaper "Sovetskaya Estonia"—his sketches from that time would later be included in the book "Compromise."
Selfless lying is not a lie, it is poetry
In 1975, he returned to Leningrad. His works were not accepted for publication for ideological reasons. The typeset of his first book, "Five Corners," was destroyed on orders from the KGB. Dovlatov's works circulated in samizdat and in émigré journals. In 1976, he was expelled from the Union of Journalists.
I think love has no dimensions at all. There is only yes or no.
In 1978, he immigrated to the United States with his mother on an Israeli visa. He lived in New York and became editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Novy Amerikanets" (New American). The editorial board included Pyotr Vail, Alexander Genis, and others. The newspaper became popular among émigrés. Dovlatov's prose, too, saw the publication of 12 books in the United States over 12 years.
People are used to asking themselves: who am I? A scientist, an American, a driver, a Jew, an immigrant... But we should always be asking ourselves: am I shit?
