About
Sergei Dovlatov was born in Ufa, USSR, during World War II. He grew up in Leningrad, studied Finnish at the university, and was drafted into the Soviet Internal Troops, where he served as a guard in prison camps. This experience inspired his novel 'The Zone'. As a journalist, he was censored and emigrated to the United States in 1978. In New York, he co-edited an émigré newspaper and worked for Radio Liberty. His short stories were published in The New Yorker. He died in 1990 in New York.
* 1941-09-03 — † 1990-08-24
Major works
- The Compromise (1981)novel
- The Zone (1982)novel
- Pushkin Hills (1983)novel
- Ours: A Russian Family Album (1983)novel
- The Suitcase (1986)novel
Key milestones
- 1976Expelled from the Union of Soviet Journalists and his first book's typeset destroyed on KGB orders.
- 1978Emigrates to the United States and settles in New York City.
- 2014The New York City Council names an intersection in Queens 'Sergei Dovlatov Way'.
Themes
Soviet lifeEmigrationCensorshipMemoryHumor
Sources: counterpointpress.com · newyorker.com