Sergei Dovlatov and Svetlana Menshikov: a love story

It was bright and clear history of the relationship then unknown Sergei Dovlatov and girls whose photo he saw in the newspaper. It was the first bright feeling, filled with hope. Nine months and hundreds of letters, which then consisted of expectation, happiness and loyalty. Later, Sergey Dovlatov, becoming a famous writer, he confesses in the distant 60s Svetlana Menshikov had saved his life.

The photo in the newspaper

After deduction Dovlatov Sergey from Leningrad University for academic failure, the future writer was called up for military service in the army. And sent to Chinyavoryk, settlement in the Republic of Komi, where a colony was located. He was to guard the prisoners. There, among the gloomy grayness of everyday life of soldiers, mixed with a grim penal colony, he caught the eye of the girl in the photo paper.

Svetlana Menshikov (center). The picture from the newspaper "Youth of the North", which saw Sergei Dovlatov.

She stood at the top of the podium and smiled broadly at the camera. Again and again, looking at the picture he wanted to track down the girl that won the Komi ASSR Championships in Athletics. In his mind he had already called her princess Syktyvkar. The friend decided to help track down the girl through Dovlatova acquaintances living in Syktyvkar.

The first letter from a soldier Sergei Dovlatov conscripts came to college, where she studied while Svetlana. She carefully grasp the meaning of the lines, and did not know whether to answer it. Soon a second letter arrived. In the third, he already wrote his poems, sad and hopeless. These lines Svetlana just could not offend his silence.

In the young people started to correspond. She received several emails a day and carefully hid them from their parents. Afraid that they will frustrate the return address on the envelope.

"Today I showed you in my dreams ..."

In the first meeting of Sergei Dovlatov girl picked up with a friend, so it was not so bad. So she went with her in Chinyavoryk, 200 kilometers from Syktyvkar.

He met them on the platform, a big, tall and incredibly joyful. Although life Sergei Dovlatov was a man of gloomy. She felt that he wants a close relationship. However, learning about the innocence of a girl he has withdrawn it to the fire until the morning and sang the songs of the guitar. Svetlana seemed that he was disappointed with the meeting and the whole story was over there by the fire. But the letters began to come more often.

Svetlana letters he read so many times that he knew by heart. vestochek expectation of it seemed endless. He himself several times began to write, and then tore the letter, which explains his love for her.

Messages from the girls were a breath of fresh air for him. Colony atmosphere depressed him. He lived in hell and only the letter was kept in him the desire to live. He has in the past been unsuccessful experience of family life, but out of the zone, he wrote only parents and other Syktyvkar princess. When she dreamed of him, he woke up absolutely happy and she wrote: "Today I showed you in my dreams ..."

Shards of happiness

It has been in practice in Ukhta, not far from Sergei duty station. Receiving a leave, he immediately rushed to his "svetlenkie, thin, gold." They all day wandering through the streets, and in the evening asked the guard to let them into the building of the bus station. Kuta under his greatcoat and carried on long conversations. Sleep they did not succeed.

Sergei and Svetlana dreaming about the future, but their fragile happiness is shattered by a random slander. She danced on the institute's party with an officer who carried it to the house then. He served in one piece with Dovlatov, and seeing his photo Svetlana decided to boast in front of a soldier with his victory. A story about a passionate kiss officer and Svetlana struck Dovlatov. She did not consider it necessary to justify himself. Why, if he so quickly believe absurd slander ...

And just before the break, he wrote to her that Svetlana had saved his life by my letters. There, in the Komi Republic, he seriously considered himself a missing person and to get involved in any fight. Their correspondence was cut short when Sergei Dovlatov moved to end the service in Leningrad. And yet their lives were in another meeting.

"I'm sorry that we're not together,"

A friend Svetlana corresponded with other Dovlatova from Peter, he invited the girls to see the city on the Neva. Each led them on a visit to Sergei. Dovlatov introduced the girls with his mother and with his second wife. And then I asked her for forgiveness for the fact that they have not been able to be together.

But the mother joyfully embraced Svetlana and eternally grateful for saving his son lives. Nora Stepanovna remember which letters he wrote the son of the zone, and how it has changed the mood with the advent of Svetlana life.

The more they have never seen. The fact that Sergei Dovlatov became a famous writer, she learned from TV shows already in the 80s. Svetlana has no regrets about the past. In memory of their light novel she left hundreds of his letters and several poems dedicated to her. Sam Sergei Dovlatov felt a sense Svetlana one of the brightest in his life.