'Immigration was a success': how a Ukrainian became a popular radio host in New York

Oleg Tubenshlak was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Today he is a popular radio DJ in New York. Oleg told the publication Facts about the achievements of post-Soviet emigration, the largest wave of which occurred in the early 1990s. And about how “ours” live in the Big Apple today.

Russians in New York

Today, a huge Russian diaspora lives in the Big Apple. Brighton Beach remains the largest demographic and cultural center of the Russian diaspora in the city.

Today it is possible to meet “ours” not only in Brighton - over the past 20 years, immigrants from the USSR and the CIS have infiltrated many areas of American society. Russian is heard in Bronx auto repair shops, in Manhattan offices, in the corridors of government offices, and behind the scenes of Broadway musicals.

One of those who personify "Russian" New York is Oleg Tubenshlak, aka DJ DUSIK.

Oleg was born in the city of Chernivtsi in Ukraine, in the family of the famous wrestling coach Danila Tubenshlak. The guy was once a rocker, and today he is a popular presenter of American radio music programs in Russian. “Emigration, I think, was a success: we are here, and we are our own,” smiles Tubenshlak. - This is so, if only because today few of our "people" use the words "emigration", "emigrant". I have been in America for 18 years, and during this time the mentality of those who have arrived has changed significantly. At first, we felt like aliens from outer space, shied away from every American word, gesture. Today, even those who have recently arrived do not feel as alien to the local life as our "call" felt in the 1990s. "

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He continued: “We experience nostalgia to some extent even today - not without that, because for many half of their mature life has passed on the other side of the ocean. For example, a young couple Anton and Lena Novatsky arrived just two years ago from Khmelnitsky. Although each of them is not even 30 years old, in Ukraine they managed to go through the "school of capitalism". In Brooklyn, they immediately opened a private printing house, at first they served the "Russian" businesses of Brighton, a year later indigenous, so to speak, New Yorkers were drawn to them. They chat in English vividly and without complexes, their children are no different from the locals. "

According to Tubenshlak, there are a lot of Russians in New York: two million officially and three more illegally. “If you go to a grocery store in Brighton, then you experience deja vu - it seems that you have not gone anywhere. Baltika beer, pelmeni, vodka with Nemiroff pepper, Riga sprats, Buratino sweet water, Alenka chocolates. The signs, as it were, are also in Russian, but some are funny and hardly understandable to the tourist: "Fresh shrimps!" (these are shrimps), "Israeli Turk" is not about the buried Israelis, this is just a turkey, "he said.

Brighton Beach: the brand of "Russian" America

“It is believed that Brighton Beach is sort of like a brand of“ Russian ”America. Here live those who “do not go to America”. They do not want, they say, to change and adapt, they keep the Odessa-Soviet way of life practically intact, - said the musician. - Brighton Beach, they say, is not a place, but a lifestyle. In the early years of emigration, it was so. Then, if in a fish store you were indignant at the excessive "aroma" of the fish that had been cut off, you could hear in reply in pure Odessa-Russian: "Do you control yourself when you sleep?" What do you want from fish? "

But today a lot has changed. “The legendary“ Russian ”restaurants, which the whole world knew from the songs of Willie Tokarev, Lyuba Uspenskaya, have sunk into oblivion: the“ Caucasus ”restaurant has closed - I managed to catch him only in the first year of my New York life, for several years now there is no restaurant“ Odessa ” "," Russia "is a cool restaurant ... it was, but it was closed, - continued Oleg Tubenshlak. - There is a glimpse of past glory, a myth that Brighton uses for purely tourist purposes. Although the largest concentration, the enclave of "Russian" Americans, is still there. "

Times are changing, and with them the established stereotypes. Previously, for example, it was believed that New York Chinese are famous for restaurants, Italians for the mafia, and Russians for vodka. “Today, Italians are more famous for restaurants, Chinese for the mafia (in Brooklyn I know only one Chinese restaurant with traditional food, and all the others are fast food eateries for those who do not care about their stomachs). “Ours” are famous for the fact that, firstly, they completely changed the face of South Brooklyn - new buildings, houses, shops. Secondly, we are the most cultural community in New York - TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, concerts. And thirdly, we already have "our" people in the leadership of the state, "Tubenshlak said.

How South Brooklyn has changed

He also remembered how South Brooklyn was changing before his eyes. It was back in the 1990s. Then this area was considered not prestigious and unpromising. “Ours” settled here en masse out of poverty - it was considered a good form to move somewhere to Staten Island, Long Island, and even to Manhattan after getting rich. Today, a major New York official, Thomas di Napoli, a city auditor, calls South Brooklyn one of the most economically successful in the city, and Senator Karl Kruger argues that it was the "Russians", our talent, work, energy, that transformed this area and made it a preferred investors ", - said Tubenshlak.

It was “ours” who built new houses, business and medical offices, shops, restaurants, clubs, banks. Thanks to them, children's educational and play centers appeared here, working in Russian and intended mainly for Russian-speaking clients.

A little later, a Russian church and a theater were erected, and soon opposite, on the very shore of the ocean, the expensive Ocean residential complex, in which apartments cost from 540 thousand to more than two million dollars, grew. “It is prestigious for Americans to own real estate here. They say that one of the developers of Osean was a crime boss from Sochi, and he wanted to name the complex "Oksana" - in honor of his girlfriend, a certain Oksana, an illegal immigrant from Zhitomir. Today she is a socialite of a sophisticated Broadway get-together, - shares information Tubenshlak. "Whether this is true or a story from the Legends of Old Brighton series, nobody knows, but today it is part of the New York atmosphere, our contribution, so to speak."

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As for culture, two years ago Russian became one of the official languages ​​of New York. “And this is natural, - says Oleg. - Neither the Irish, nor the Chinese, nor, for example, the Puerto Ricans have so many publications in their native language. Newspapers, magazines, my native “Davidzon Radio” - the daily audience of listeners is about 500 thousand people, and the total - more than a million, their own TV channels, its own theater “Millennium” for touring performances. It was specially built in southern Brooklyn, a few meters from the ocean - today not only Russian and Ukrainian guest performers perform there, but also artists from other countries and other US cities. And the local authorities cannot do without us: in 2007, former Muscovite Alec Brook-Krasny was elected to the New York State Assembly, and he is still a deputy. "

Have we become Americans?

“Have we become Americans? - Oleg asks. And he himself answers: - Only three categories of people feel like XNUMX% Americans: those who are here in the third or fourth generation, those who do not live in New York, and ... Indians! We are "Russian" Americans. Just as there are Americans "Italian", "Irish", "Chinese", and that's okay. "

Those who have formed as a person in another country, but have already lived in New York for a long time, listen here mainly to the Soviet repertoire of the 1980s. Most of the young "Russians" grew up here and prefer American pop music. “If you follow the attendance of concerts - on tour or ours, then everything here is more than unpredictable. Sometimes only 100-150 tickets are sold for a famous artist or group, and the concert is canceled (I don’t want to give names so as not to offend anyone), and sometimes for relatively young and seemingly little-known groups - sold out, ”Tubenshlak said. - It should be noted that the people have recently been somewhat overfed with musical concerts, therefore performances and shows are in great demand. But the concerts of Okean Elzy and Boombox are always sold out.

Today Tubenshlak named the band “Gogol Bordello” from the “Russian” Americans who have made it to the stars. “However, he is not very well known to 'ours', because their songs are in English,” Tubenshlak said.

Oleg in New York tries to popularize what is an integral part of his culture. “I come from Bukovina, so the songs of Ivasyuk, Sabadash, Mozgovoy,“ Smerichka ”are an integral part of my culture. And I am sorry that practically nobody popularizes Ukraine, its songs, art in "Russian" America. Except for me (I will definitely not die of modesty!) I do this constantly in my programs, but I am alone, and this is a reason not for pride, but for regret, - he stressed. - As well as the fact that there are no ties between the “Ukrainians” of the last waves and the “old” Ukrainian diaspora. In places where the "old" Ukrainian enclaves are densely populated, sometimes festivals of Ukrainian music are held with the participation of stars from Kiev, but they have their own wedding, we have our own. "

Once in Brooklyn there was a restaurant "Bukovina", where Chernivtsi people loved to meet. “It was the only restaurant where people who love their city gathered. Unfortunately, the owner of the restaurant Igor Dorman died several years ago, and the Bukovina restaurant no longer exists, - said Oleg. - And immigrants from other cities of Ukraine - Kiev, Lvov, Kharkov, Kherson - have never had such a "meeting place". Alas".

Speaking about the qualities that helped him to achieve success in New York, Oleg Tubenshlak said: “I have succeeded thanks to my love for music and perseverance. For the first - thanks to my mother, she instilled a love of music since childhood. And perseverance is the merit of the father. Danila Tubenshlak brought up a galaxy of famous Ukrainian and Soviet wrestlers. Since childhood, he trained me in sports, brought up character and strong-willed qualities, for which he had a special thank, of course ”.