What is Lev Rubinstein famous for – Kommersant

On January 14, the poet and publicist Lev Rubinstein died. Details of his biography are in the Kommersant article.

Lev Semenovich Rubinstein was born on February 19, 1947 in Moscow. In 1971 he graduated from the philological faculty of the Moscow State Correspondence Pedagogical Institute (now the Moscow Pedagogical State University).

After graduating from university, he worked as a bibliographer and at the same time studied literature. In 1973, inspired by his work, he came up with the “card index” genre, when the text is written in the form of small passages and poems on several cards. Together with the poets Vsevolod Nekrasov and Dmitry Prigov, he is considered one of the founders and leaders of Moscow conceptualism. His works have been published in the West since 1979; the first publications in his homeland appeared in the early 1990s.

Since 1995, he has worked for periodicals, including the Kommersant newspaper, Itogi, Politburo and Weekly Magazine magazines. As a writer, he published books of poetry and essays “Home Music Playing”, “Chasing a Hat and Other Texts”, “Signs of Attention”, “The Whole Year. My calendar”, “Four texts from the Big Card Index”, etc.

In 1994, he became a fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD in Berlin. In 1999, for his collection of essays “Cases from Language” he received one of the most important poetry prizes in Russia – the Andrei Bely Prize. According to the message on the prize’s website, it was awarded “for an impressive example of masterly analytical work with material from everyday speech practice.” In 2006 he received the Mikhail Khodorkovsky grant (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) “Poetry and Freedom”, in 2012 he received the “NOS” award for the book “Signs of Attention”.

In addition to literature, he is known for his opposition activities. Together with other cultural figures, he signed letters against the war in Chechnya, the dispersal of the NTV channel, support for the LPR and DPR, and the conduct of a special operation. In March 2013, he went out on single pickets for the release of members of the group Pussy Riot. In April of the same year, he recorded a video in defense of Yaroslav Belousov, convicted in the Bolotnaya case.

On January 8, 2024, in Moscow, at a pedestrian crossing near house 9 on Obraztsova Street, the poet was hit by a car. After the incident, he was taken to the Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after. Sklifosovsky with fractures and traumatic brain injury.