Sergei Dovlatov and His Narrative Masks

4. The Compromise: Journalism and Fiction

87 Chapter Four The Compromise: Journalism and Fiction ARRIVING IN TALLINN in late September 1972, Dovlatov was unable to find a permanent position and worked as a freelance journalist for Molodezh’ Estonii (Youth of Estonia) and Vechernii Tallin (Tallinn Evening News).1 During his first few months in Tallinn he even worked in a boiler room, which was not an unusual situation for members of the artistic intelligentsia. He was then taken on as a freelance contributor to the weekly paper Moriak Estonii (Sailor of Estonia), which belonged to the Estonian Marine Steam Navigation Company (Estonskoe Morskoe Parokhodstvo). He moved in with Tamara Zibunova, whom he had briefly met in Leningrad . By 1973 Dovlatov was working for the daily Sovetskaia Estonia (Soviet Estonia). Sergei Dovlatov’s novel Kompromiss2 (The Compromise) is a collection of stories that reflect his experiences as a journalist for Soviet Estonia in the 1970s.3 The intellectual atmosphere in the Baltic republics was more relaxed than in the rest of the Soviet Union. For the majority of young writers , any possibility of self-realization within the framework of official culture was out of the question. In this stifling atmosphere many intellectuals left Leningrad. Two of their favorite destinations were Tallinn and Tartu. In their book 60-e: Mir sovetskogo cheloveka (The Sixties: The World of the Soviet Man), Vail’ and Genis describe the more liberal atmosphere of the Baltic republics: At the beginning of the sixties the Baltic republics were perceived by many as the gateway to Europe: Gothic art, jazz, and street cafés. Siberians frequently wondered what currency was in use in Tallinn. The metropolitan intelligentsia preferred the cool Riga Bay to the all-Union sanatoriums of the Crimea. Writers sent their young heroes there in search of the meaning of life (V. Aksenov’s Ticket to the Stars). Poets for some reason switched to English (“Friends and enemies, farewell, goodbye”—A.Voznesensky’s Autumn in Siguld).4 Chapter Four 88 Dovlatov gives varying (but not necessarily mutually exclusive) accounts of his own motivation for moving there: “There were no rational motives. I was able to get a lift” (SS 3:55). And in The Compromise: How could I answer? By explaining that I had no home, no country or refuge ? That I’ve always been searching for a quiet harbor? Or that I only ask one thing out of life—to sit like this, quiet and without thinking? “The food supply,” I said, “is good here. Night bars . . .” (C, 132) Chto ia mog otvetit’? Ob”iasnit’, chto net u menia doma, rodiny, pristanishcha , zhil’ia? . . . Chto ia vsegda iskal etu tikhuiu pristan’? . . . Chto ia proshu u zhizni odnogo—sidet’ vot tak, molchat’, ne dumat’? . . . Snabzhenie, govoriu, u vas khoroshee. Nochnye bary . . . (SS 1:316) It was also the case that for the real-life Dovlatov the chances of being published in Estonia were much greater because the censorship was not so strict. Almost any topic except issues of nationalism could be discussed in literature (particularly if it was written in Estonian). Problems of nationalism were an exception. For the small circle of Russian intellectuals living in Estonia, life there provided opportunities that were not available elsewhere. As mentioned in chapter 1, Dovlatov’s Fiveways was accepted for publication there and even reached the page-proof stage. However, the KGB had a last-minute change of mind and the book was banned. Evidently it fell foul of directives from Moscow which had instructed that more attention be paid to the education of the masses. The stories Dovlatov selected for this collection were the ones he thought were uncontroversial. The internal reviews by such specialists as Valery Ivanovich Bezzubov from Tartu University were excellent, and Dovlatov felt encouraged by them. In the unpublished edition of The Invisible Book he “quotes” Bezzubov’s conclusion: “S. Dovlatov is a mature writer. His stories have undoubted literary qualities.”5 The director of the publishing house Eesti Raamat, Aksel Tamm, is said to have called Dovlatov’s book Fiveways “the best Russian book in the last few years.”6 Other stories, less suitable for publication, circulated only among friends. One of those to whom Dovlatov gave some of these other stories to read was Vladimir Kotel’nikov. A number of them were then found and confiscated during a KGB search of Kotel’nikov’s flat. In the published version of The Invisible Book Dovlatov devotes a few lines to “The Mysterious Kotel’nikov”: “One thing made me a little...