Lev Rubinstein

Born on 19 February 1947 in Moscow to Jewish parents,{{cite news |title=Чем известен Лев Рубинштейн |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6453219 |work=Коммерсантъ |date=14 January 2024 |language=ru |access-date=16 January 2024 |archive-date=15 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115172653/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6453219 |url-status=live }} Rubinstein studied philology at Moscow Pedagogical Institute for Correspondence Studies (now: Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities). After graduating, he worked as a librarian and bibliographer with his alma mater, where he encountered the catalog cards that would inspire his "notecard poems". In the 1970s and 1980s, Rubinstein became a major writer in the underground Soviet literary scene, particularly for his association with Moscow Conceptualism. In his later career, Rubinstein transitioned to journalism and social activism, writing for Itogi and the Weekly Journal. He won the Andrei Bely Prize for scholarship in the humanities in 1999. Rubinstein was married to Irina Golovinskaya and had one daughter, Maria.

Rubinstein was hit by a car in Moscow on 8 January 2024,[https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2024/01/14/1014955-umer-poet Умер поэт Лев Рубинштейн] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114081757/https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2024/01/14/1014955-umer-poet |date=14 January 2024 }}. Vedomosti (in Russian) and died of his injuries six days later at the age of 76.{{Cite web |date=14 January 2024 |title=Умер поэт Лев Рубинштейн |url=https://meduza.io/news/2024/01/14/umer-poet-lev-rubinshteyn |access-date=14 January 2024 |website=Meduza |language=ru |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114075112/https://meduza.io/news/2024/01/14/umer-poet-lev-rubinshteyn |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=14 January 2024 |title=Russian poet and Kremlin critic Lev Rubinstein dies aged 76 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/russian-poet-and-kremlin-critic-lev-rubinstein-dies-aged-76 |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114094143/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/russian-poet-and-kremlin-critic-lev-rubinstein-dies-aged-76 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Cursino |first1=Malu |title=Russian poet and Putin critic Lev Rubinstein dies after car crash |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67975595 |access-date=15 January 2024 |work=BBC News |date=14 January 2024 |archive-date=15 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115014505/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67975595 |url-status=live }} The driver of the car was subsequently convicted to a suspended prison term of one year and eight months and banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.{{cite news |title=Russian Court Sentences Driver Who Struck Poet Lev Rubinstein |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/09/russian-court-sentences-driver-who-struck-poet-lev-rubinstein-a84788 |access-date=10 April 2024 |work=The Moscow Times |date=9 April 2024 }}

Rubinstein was known for his "notecard poems", wherein each stanza is represented on a separate notecard. These notecards highlight the text as both an object and a unit of expression. To read the poem, the reader must interact with the text on a physical level. Although each stanza is discrete and numbered, the cards must nonetheless be read in their prescribed order.{{Cite book|last1=Rubinshteĭn |first1=Lev |last2=Metres |first2=Philip |last3=Tulchinsky |first3=Tatiana|last4=Wagner |first4=Catherine |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/900180527 |title=Compleat catalogue of comedic novelties |year=2014 |publisher=Ugly Duckling Presse |isbn=978-1-937027-42-1 |edition=First |location=Brooklyn |oclc=900180527}}{{Cite journal|last=Janecek|first=Gerald|date=2011|title=The Roots and Development of Moscow Conceptualist Poetry: from VS. Nekrasov to Lev Rubinstein|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23622173|journal=New Zealand Slavonic Journal|volume=45|issue=1|pages=1–22|jstor=23622173|issn=0028-8683|access-date=17 July 2020|archive-date=18 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718020901/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23622173|url-status=live}}

Rubinstein's poems incorporate several forms of literary expression. They move between verse and prose, sometimes adopting the form of a play or even containing cues for the audience. Much of the writing itself is a "quasi-quotation", a quotation that appears to be from everyday life, but is instead carefully constructed with a specific style and meter. Rubinstein often borrowed the style of important Russian writers, yet he adapted his own words to this style, hence creating quotations which were not in fact quotations.

Rubinstein was often associated with the Moscow Conceptualists, a Russian artistic movement in which the ideative concept of art supersedes traditional artistic focuses. Rubinstein himself stated that "Moscow conceptualism unites the inner feeling that the world is divided, all the texts are written, the paintings are drawn. The task of the current artist is to rethink, to rename. And to name is more important than to do. To a certain extent, it is a nominative art." Moscow Conceptualism is also a negative response to Russian socialist realism, centering on the "consciousness of the individual who has to live this myth" of socialist realism.{{Cite journal|last=Rudova|first=Larissa|date=2000|title=Paradigms of Postmodernism: Conceptualism and Sots-Art in Contemporary Russian Literature|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3252067|journal=Pacific Coast Philology|volume=35|issue=1|pages=61–75|doi=10.2307/3252067|jstor=3252067|issn=0078-7469|access-date=17 July 2020|archive-date=23 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723070934/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3252067|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}

Rubinstein's work has been translated in four English-language books:

• Catalog of Comedic Novelties, translated by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky (New York: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2004). {{ISBN|9780972768443}}, {{OL|22604691M}}
• Compleat Catalog of Comedic Novelties, translated by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky (New York: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014). {{ISBN|9781937027421}}, {{OL|28815850M}}
• Here I Am: New Russian Writing, translated by Joanne Turnbull (Moscow: GLAS, 2001). {{ISBN|9785717200585}}, {{OL|9045720M}}
• Thirty-five New Pages, translated by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky (New York: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011).

He also appeared in a number of anthologies. His work has been published in English translation in literary journals such as Asymptote, The Cafe Review, Diode, Drunken Boat, Jacket, The Massachusetts Review, Matter, New England Review, and Poetry International.{{Cite web|title=Resources – Your language my ear // Твой язык моё ухо|url=https://web.sas.upenn.edu/yourlanguagemyear/resources/#Rubinshtein|access-date=17 July 2020|website=web.sas.upenn.edu|archive-date=3 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303091132/https://web.sas.upenn.edu/yourlanguagemyear/resources/#Rubinshtein|url-status=live}}

• 1999: Literary Andrei Bely Prize in the nomination Humanitarian ResearchПремия Андрея Белого: 1978—2004: Антология, compiled by Boris Ostanin. – Moscow, {{ill|New Literary Review|ru|Новое литературное обозрение (издательство)}}, 2005.
• 2012: Literary prize {{ill|NOS (prize)|ru|НОС (премия)|lt=NOS}} for his book Signs of Attention

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• [https://web.sas.upenn.edu/yourlanguagemyear/resources/#Rubinshtein Complete English bibliography]
• [http://magazines.russ.ru/authors/r/rubinshtejn Лев Рубинштейн в «Журнальном зале»]
• [http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/1997/23/kulackov.html Владислав Кулаков. Минимализм: стратегия и тактика]
• [http://www.netslova.ru/ioffe/lr.html Денис Иоффе: Невидимый Готлиб летит над рекой. Интервью со Львом Рубинштейном]
• [https://thequestion.ru/account/751/lev-rubinshtein Страница Льва Рубинштейна на сайте TheQuestion]

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Category:1947 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:Jewish anti-war activists

Category:Jewish poets

Category:Moscow State Pedagogical University alumni

Category:Road incident deaths in Russia

Category:Russian activists against the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Category:Russian Jews

Category:Russian male essayists

Category:Russian male journalists

Category:Russian male poets

Category:Russian opinion journalists

Category:Soviet Jews

Category:Soviet male poets

Category:Writers from Moscow