On January 8, Lev Rubenstein, a poet, writer, and social activist, passed away as a result of injuries he got when he was struck by a car in a Moscow crossroads. Rubenstein was 76 years old. Maria, his daughter, sent a message on LiveJournal stating, “My Papa, Lev Rubenstein, passed away today.” This information was supplied by Maria. There was an overwhelming amount of tributes to Rubenstein posted on social media and in independent Russian media.
Sergei Parkhomenko, a journalist, posted the following message on his Facebook page: “Lev Rubinstein, an incredible, one-of-a-kind poet, essayist, and wise man, passed away during the night.” His poems, his short tales, his ideas about what makes people tick, and his attempts to comprehend and explain the world around him will continue to be with us and will continue to be with us long after we are gone.
The accident occurred on January 8 at an intersection in Moscow, and Rubenstein was transported to Sklifosovsky Emergency Hospital after being struck by a car. According to his friend, poet and writer Igor Irtenyev, who reported the accident, Rubenstein had suffered shattered bones and was in severe condition. Irtenyev also stated that Rubenstein was in critical condition. A traumatic brain damage was alleged to have occurred, according to TV Rain. A medically induced coma was placed on him after the surgical procedure.
Rubenstein was born and raised in Moscow, where he attended Moscow State University to study language and literature and later worked as a librarian. Rubenstein’s life began and ended in Moscow. He was a member of the underground literary scene in Moscow throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and he is regarded as one of the founders of the philosophical movement known as Moscow Conceptualism.
It was not until the late 1980s that his first works were accepted for publication in the Soviet Union. It was in the 1990s that he started penning articles and other types of content for various publications, such as Kommersant, the magazine Itogi, and a great number of other journal publications. Following the publication of hundreds of works, he was honoured with the Andrei Bely Prize in the year 1999. He was referred to as “Today’s Chekhov” by the literary critic Dmitry Bavilsky, who said that he had more subtext than text and more pauses than words.
In addition, Rubenstein was a significant social activist who participated in protests against the repressions in Russia and Belarus, as well as against the conflict in Ukraine. He was also against the persecution of writers and artists. “War is dreadful in any form, and not just because it is simple to start a war and extremely difficult to put an end to it. Not only does war result in the death of people and the destruction of cities, but it also kills people. When people are consumed by battle, their spirits are distorted and destroyed. There are occasions when the consequences of conflict are so devastating that they even affect future generations.
Towards the end of his New Year’s essay for the newspaper Republic, he concluded by saying, “I wish you all a friendly curiosity.” To be more specific, curiosity about things that are unfamiliar, incomprehensible, and in the new. The answer is yes; what is new? For this reason, ever since I was a young child, I have always placed the emphasis in the common phrase “new year” on the word that is most important.
