Underwear

Leonid Levin, Director General of the Nord-Press Publishing House

Son Slava says that the father did not go the last days anymore. He called it, dictated detailed orders for a publishing house: what needs to be done first, what is in the second. Then he asked to record a letter to friends. I did not have time ...

And on January 14, Levin was supposed to be in Moscow, to receive a prize of the Russian government. A few years ago, the same was handed him to Yakutsk Evening, the newspaper uncompromising, honest and gambling. I will say carefully, one of the best regional newspapers in Russia, and in my opinion - just the best. In those days, I worked in the Union of Journalists, we presented the newspaper, but, frankly, there was no hope of success. And I don’t know which gears in the starry sky then turned, but a miracle happened.

And this is later, after the award, the scoundrels with NTV launched an air of the “foreign agents” in the field of Russia's mass media on their air. And the main hero of the film, the scoundrels accurately chose “Yakutsk Evening” and personally - Levina. "Why did you even talk to them?" - Then they served from him. “I thought to explain something to them, tell them ...” Levin justified embarrassedly.

He thought that everything could be explained to everyone.

Until the very last, Levin remained huge, powerful, noisy. As I understand it, both the article and character went to the father, the commander of the partisan detachment near Kiev. After the war, during the period of exacerbation of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, he told me, someone called his father in the tram of the Jews. The father pulled him by the scruff of the stop at the stop ... He got into the station, he began to sew a criminal case ... unknown as the fighters of his detachment, seemingly not notified by anyone, gathered, the plot threatened to undergo a pogrom, his father chose to let go without consequences ...

Did everyone love him? Of course not. But the decent people loved the more or less-everything, respected-everyone, considered his opinion-everything. At any most important meeting, at any most optional table, Levin was the main center of attraction, an arbiter of any dispute, toastmaster and cunning. Its direct, like an arrow, a biography, it would seem, an ideal illustration of the nostalgic memories of the former Soviet life: the Komsomol employee, the editor-in-chief of the youth newspaper, the director of the republican publishing house ... In 1985, after national unrest in Yakutsk, he was thrown by the political committee at the very focus-the secretary of the party committee of the university, giving the most serious authority for “guidance order ". Thirsty to make excuses to Moscow and distinguished her before her pushed to the search and punishment of the guilty, but Levin became a wall and did not punish anyone.

Then, taking advantage of the obvious oversight of inattentive power, Levin “went to business”, created his publishing house (“Nord-Press”) and, among others, the city newspaper (“Yakutsk Evening”), which became the most massive publication in a huge republic. And when the authorities realized, it turned out that time was gone. Then he was refused the printing house (the very one that he once led and which he recreated from collapse), a reception worked out throughout the country. But if somewhere “in Europe” it was possible to transfer the order to the neighboring region and somehow hold out, the Yakut distances did not allow this.

But Levin took a loan from a foreign bank (they didn’t give his own), bought a printing press in India, dragged the Northern Sea Route and Lena to Yakutsk, launched ...

And he almost ruined state competitors, because all the customers ran to him - Levin printed better and cheaper.

And now there was nothing to do with him - it is impossible.

Levin said that the officials were constantly calling him, asked not to print something, to soften something, to correct something ... "Why are you calling me? - invariably answered Levin. “Call them to the editor.” - "They are useless ..." - "It is all the more useless to me ..."

The young and desperate editorial office of Vespers brought him a continuous headache. But never once! - He did not press, did not insist, did not shout.

So few are able to.

By the way, the foreign loan, which the Pacactors with NTV tried to reproach him, Levin paid for a long time and with interest. It is not easy to live "Nord-Press" now. But after all, it lives.

On the country's media card, Yakutia - despite all the changes in recent years, is an obvious phenomenon. Levine publications had a decisive influence on everyone else, everyone stretched next to him. Even no one has managed to trample even the sprouts of professional solidarity here.

... and one more personal memory.

In November 2007, against the backdrop of the newly aggravated relations with the authorities in the republic, Levin turned seventy years old.

On the day of the anniversary, a little dumbfounded Levin walked around a publishing house in an exquisite tailcoat, dedicated by employees with red paper kisses. It was impossible to even speak with him, he answered out of place.

The banquet was appointed for the evening. In the afternoon, someone called a mobile phone. “Of course, come ...” said Luda. - Well, what, that there is no ticket? Don’t worry, they will let you in ... I say - they will let you go ... ”I turned off. "Who is this?" I asked. “Vice President,” Luda answered.

In Yakutia, then a certain simplicity of morals was still preserved, and not to let the vice president, as I understand it, could not let it on the banquet.

The vice-president came to a banquet with a huge bouquet, explained why he did not come, “himself”, uttered a sensational speech, announced the decree and awarded Levin with an important republican order, with which he walked among the guests ... and then swore to me that no one awarded it with any order. Although I saw him myself, and a hundred people saw him ... Really - lost? .. Levin, I remember, came up to me, took it by the shoulders and said in the ear: “No matter how much they bloomed me, it will be hard to work ...” - and the heavy order “For merits in front of the republic” (second degree) touched my hand ...

Nobody managed to bloom him.