Ten places in New York with Russian history

The structure of North America's most important city is largely due to waves of immigrants from the British Isles and mainland Europe; but the Russians also left their mark on New York. About 10 places, behind the history of which Russians stand, the edition told Russia Beyond.

“New York is a place where Russia and art, and Russia and politics, meet and sometimes collide,” says critically acclaimed travel and culture writer Professor Barry Goldsmith, who is also a longtime resident of the city.

1. House of the former Prime Minister of Russia Alexander Kerensky

• 111 East 91st Street

Kerensky lived here for the last 20 years of his life, occupying the entire upper floor. He also taught Russian history and politics at Stanford University in California.

In 1917, the socialist-revolutionary Kerensky took over the government, which was brutally overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. After escaping from Russia, Kerensky ended up in Europe, and after World War II he settled in New York and died in St. Luke's Hospital in 1970.

2. Roerich Museum

• 319 107th West Street

This is the world's second largest and best collection of works by the great mystical Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, who lived in the United States in 1920-1923. This private museum was founded in 1923, when Roerich had a huge number of fans in the United States, thanks to the popularity of his philosophical teachings about global peace and harmony.

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Today, this three-story townhouse on the Upper West Side houses about 200 of his works, from paintings of the Himalayas to sketches of scenery for Russian ballets. The museum continues to promote Roerich's ideas of global harmony, which are visually conceptualized in his philosophical symbol and motto Pax Cultura (Peace through culture).

3. RCA building

• 30 Rockefeller Plaza

Thanks to the collaboration, David Sarnov and Vladimir Zvorykin developed the first television produced by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Sarnoff, who was born in Minsk, was the CEO of the company, and Zvorykin, who was born in Murom but studied in St. Petersburg, was a genius inventor.

This 1930s Art Deco skyscraper is the centerpiece of the famous Rockefeller Center. The Standard Oil Company, which was the most powerful company in the United States and was controlled by oligarch John Rockefeller, decided to move its headquarters to the RCA building, which was slated to open on May 1, 1933.

However, Vladimir Lenin, although long dead, managed to postpone the opening for two weeks due to disagreements over the painting by artist Diego Rivera "The Man at the Crossroads."

“It was in the RCA building that America’s most famous capitalist, Rockefeller, commissioned the murals for the communist Diego Rivera,” says Professor Goldsmith. - The result was an artistic clash of capitalism and communism, when Rivera made a portrait of Lenin next to the portraits of the Rockefellers. Capitalism won when Rockefeller ordered the destruction of all the frescoes. "

4. Lower East Side

This entire area was New York's first home for over 1 million Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. The Lower East Side at that time became one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Abraham Kahan, editor of the most popular Jewish newspaper Forward, wrote that the area “occupies a relatively small area, something less than half a square mile, in which there is a small town with a population of 500 souls: men, women and children, almost exclusively Polish and Russian Jews. "

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There were dozens of synagogues, Yiddish theaters and Yiddish newspapers. Out of the Shadows: Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side is an eyewitness account by Rose Cohen of the harsh reality of tenement life.

5. "Russian Samovar"

• 256 West 52nd Street

In late Soviet times, this popular restaurant was a meeting place for influential immigrant intellectuals and creative minds. The Russian Samovar appeared in 1986, when Soviet immigrants Roman Kaplan, choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov and Nobel Prize laureate poet Joseph Brodsky decided to open a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, where Frank Sinatra once rested.

Brodsky's favorite table has survived, as well as Baryshnikov's children's grand piano, which is still in use. The restaurant is also known as the site of the romantic scene between Baryshnikov and Sarah Jessica Parker in the American TV show Sex and the City.

6. Apartment of Lev Theremenvora

• 37 54th West Street

According to many, the Russian inventor Lev Theremin was the founder of electronic music. In 1918, using the newly discovered vacuum tube technology, he designed and built the first musical instrument that used electronic vibrations to reproduce sound.

In 1927, he came to New York, where he also created the world's first electronic security system, which he installed at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Celebrities such as Albert Einstein played the violin at concerts held at Thereminvoor's apartment. The inventor was a celebrity in New York in the late 1920s and 1930s, but in 1938 he was kidnapped by Soviet agents and returned home.

7. Jewelry store A La Vieille Russie

• 745 Fifth Avenue

Founded in Kiev in the mid-1800s, this upscale store has been a symbol of New York high society since 1930, selling Faberge and other fine Russian jewelry. Throughout the twentieth century, the elite in New York and around the world have been regular buyers of Russian treasures at A La Vieille Russie.

“My grandparents presented wonderful works of Faberge art to the United States, and A La Vieille Russie is proud to have consistently offered exquisite and exclusive antique jewelry and treasures of the Russian Empire in New York since the 1920s,” said Mark Schaffer, Member of family who owns the store.

8. Main post office

• 8th Avenue and 40th Street

Built in 1912, the lobby of New York City's main post office displays the official emblems of the leading countries that founded the Universal Postal Union. Therefore, it is not surprising that a huge replica of the Russian imperial eagle hangs on the ceiling. However, today many native New Yorkers are shocked when they first see it.

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9. Carnegie Hall

• 881 7th Avenue

On May 5, 1891, Pyotr Tchaikovsky conducted the New York Symphony Orchestra during the grand opening of Carnegie Hall. The board of directors implored the great Russian conductor to make a nine-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, St. Petersburg was the world's cultural capital, and New York was still a cultural backwater, although it was a city with many new wealthy families with big ambitions. Tchaikovsky conducted several concerts at Carnegie Hall as part of the opening week.

10. The headquarters of Trotsky and "Novy Mir"

• 77 St. Mark's Place (East Village)

This address was the headquarters of Novy Mir, a small Russian revolutionary newspaper in exile edited by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexandra Kollontai.

On January 14, 1917, the United States welcomed a very unusual refugee from Europe - the notorious revolutionary Leon Bronstein (Trotsky). When he entered New York Harbor, his name was so well known that major newspapers such as the New York Times wrote about his arrival. Trotsky lived in the Bronx near Croton Park and took the subway almost every day to work at Novy Mir.

Trotsky delivered over 30 revolutionary speeches at places such as Cooper Union and Beethoven Hall. When Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, Trotsky returned to Petrograd. After the Bolsheviks seized power in November, he took a key position in the new Soviet government, helping to create and lead the Red Army. This prompted Bronx Home News to publish the headline: "Bronx Man Leads Russian Revolution."