Childhood and youth
Alena was born in Moscow. This event occurred on January 10, 1955. The girl’s parents were doctors: father Stanislav Yakovlevich was a pediatric surgeon, and Kira Vladimirovna was an oncologist surgeon. Alena also had an older brother, Andrei, who was born in 1947, and later also became a doctor. Stanislav Yakovlevich’s second wife, Lola Gennadievna, was also a doctor, whom the girl’s father married in 1984 after the death of his first wife.
Journalist Alena Doletskaya
The Doletskys lived in a communal apartment in the capital. Discipline was encouraged in the family, which was useful to Alena in the future. The girl's father often traveled abroad, since back in 1964 he became a member of the British Association of Pediatric Surgeons, and in 1971 - a member of the International Association of Surgeons. From his business trips, Stanislav Yakovlevich invariably brought two magazines - “Vogue” and “National Geographic”.
Inspired by photographs from Vogue and with the help of her mother, young Alena alters her school uniform. After graduating from school, the girl plans to follow in her parents' footsteps and become a doctor, but her father dissuades her from this idea. Instead of medical school, he entered the Moscow Art Theater School, but left it to study at the Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Alena Doletskaya in her youth
While studying at Moscow State University, Alena was remembered by the teaching staff and students for her clothing style - jeans, a washed men's T-shirt and gloves with cut off fingers, as well as for her production of the Broadway musical "The Lady or The Tiger" at the university theater. By the way, Alena’s cousin Maxim Nikulin, the son of People’s Artist of the USSR Yuri Nikulin, helped stage the play.
Doletskaya successfully graduates from high school with a degree in comparative philology and defends her PhD thesis on “Comparative rhetoric of public Russian and English speech.” For the first time after graduating from Moscow State University, he remained to teach there, while simultaneously translating English-language literature - translating the works of Faulkner and Bradbury.
Alena Doletskaya
Later, the girl marries an employee of the Institute of African Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Boris Rubenovich Asoyan, who later became ambassador to the Republic of Botswana. Thanks to his connections, Alena becomes a media consultant for an international company engaged in the extraction and sale of precious stones. At the same time, Doletskaya went to America for the first time.
Star Trek
Thinking about choosing a profession, Alena Doletskaya did not dare to follow in the footsteps of her parents and connect her life with medicine. Doletskaya preferred to study the humanities. It all started with studying at Moscow State University. Lomonosov at the Faculty of Philology, after which Alena received the specialty of comparative philologist. Having defended her PhD thesis, Alena did not leave the university and remained to work there as an English teacher, and also translated and published books by American writers Ray Bradbury and William Faulkner.
But for the ambitious Alena Doletskaya, who was full of new ideas and wanted to implement them through her career, the teaching profession was clearly not entirely suitable. Achieving major success alone in Soviet times was hardly a feasible task, so Doletskaya’s husband, Boris Asoyan, helped her in building her career. Largely thanks to him, Alena was able to get a job at the De Beers corporation, whose activities were related to the diamond market. She worked there as a media consultant until 1994, when she was fired from the company.
Further, Doletskaya’s track record includes work for Cosmopolitan magazine, as well as the position of a television correspondent. Significant for Alena was the appointment to the position of Director of Public Relations of the British Council in Russia, thanks to which Alena Doletskaya gained a lot of experience working on various cultural projects and organizing exhibitions.
In 1998, Alena received an offer that turned her entire future life upside down: the publishers offered Alena Doletskaya to head Russian Vogue. She had to not just take the post of editor-in-chief, but from scratch and completely develop the concept of the magazine, which would be suitable for the Russian public, since Vogue at that time was the first magazine of such a serious level. Alena Doletskaya’s task was to select a team for the starting project.
Until 2010, she successfully managed to manage Vogue magazine, and also make it one of the most authoritative leaders among glossy publications. She leaves her brainchild of her own free will, at first explaining this with a desire to try herself in something new. In 2011, it became known what idea Alena had been nurturing all this time - she was planning to launch the legendary Interview magazine, which in the last century was the creation of Andy Warhol. In parallel with the Russian Interview, Alena is working on a similar project for Germany. It is also known that since 2008 Alena took part in the Snob project. Alena Doletskaya supports the Northern Crown children's charity foundation.
In 2013, Doletskaya launched her own program on the Dozhd TV channel called “Evening with Doletskaya.”
Journalism
Having worked with the RTL-Television television channel and the BBC radio station, in 1998 the girl returned to work in her specialty - she became the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Vogue magazine. By this point, a number of tragic events have happened in her life - her mother (1984), husband (1992) and father (1994) die one by one.
Aspiring journalist Alena Doletskaya
The position of editor-in-chief becomes a real outlet for the girl - she immerses herself in her work, developing a new concept for the magazine, selecting quality material and working with the best specialists in the field of fashion and culture. In 2010, Doletskaya left the magazine in order to begin work a year later on two new projects at once - the publication of the Interwiew magazine, created by Andy Warhol, in Russia and Germany. This time Alena also gets the position of editor-in-chief.
Alena Doletskaya with the publication of Interwiew magazine
In 2012, Alena began her collaboration with the Dozhd TV channel. The first project is the series of programs “Breakfasts with Alena Doletskaya”, numbering about 75 episodes. The recipes used in these issues will later be published as a separate book. This cycle was followed by the project “Evening with Doletskaya”, released the following year. At the moment, the woman is an irregular guest of various TV channel shows, as well as a regular voiceover.
Editor Alena Doletskaya
Currently he is also co-editor of the restaurant and haute cuisine magazine Gourmet. It is known that even before working with Vogue, Alena managed to work for a short period of time with the publishing house Cosmopolitan, but she does not like to remember this period of her life, as she considers it unproductive.
Biography
Her real name is Elena Stanislavovna Dolekaya. The successful editor-in-chief of domestic media was born on January 10, 1955 in a family of hereditary doctors. Her father and mother were outstanding surgeons, Alena's brother followed in their footsteps and became an anesthesiologist. Father Stanislav Yakovlevich had the title of Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He specialized in pediatric surgery and was a member of the Royal Academy of Britain.
Kira Vladimirovna, nee Daniel-Bek Pirumyan, her mother, specialized in cancer surgery. Even Alena’s stepmother, Lola Gennadievna, whom her father remarried in 1984 after the death of his first wife, was a candidate of science in medicine and specialized in pediatric surgery.
Alena Doletskaya in her youth
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Elena Stanislavovna's grandfather was an NKVD employee. He also worked at TASS, first as executive secretary, then as director of this leading news agency in the USSR. Perhaps it was his genes that had a greater impact on his granddaughter. According to the official version, my grandfather was shot in 1937, but Doletskaya herself believes that he shot himself before his arrest.
Only her older brother Andrei, born in 1947, followed in the footsteps of her parents. He has the title of professor and specializes in the field of anesthesia and resuscitation.
Alena Doletskaya: photo
Parents also did not predict a medical career for their daughter; her uncle, the famous People's Artist Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin, according to one version, helped her enter the Moscow Art Theater School. A.P. Chekhov. According to another version, he advised her to enroll in the Faculty of Philology.
Famous editor Alena Doletskaya
At the insistence of her parents, she did not receive acting education and dropped out of her studies at the Moscow Art Theater. Alena enters the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, from which she graduates with honors. At the same time, the girl during this period became interested in rock and roll and created her fashionable image based on the attributes of this musical movement. Since then, her competence in fashion trends will only grow, which will certainly help her in successfully managing domestic glossy magazines.
Also read: Milana Kerzhakova: photos, latest news of 2020 about drug addiction
Literature
In 2013, Doletskaya released her first book, “Morning. 50 breakfasts”, based on materials from his first project with the Dozhd TV channel. A year later, another book by Alena, “Sunday Lunches,” was published. The next book, “About Jam,” was published in 2020.
King Doletskaya “Morning. 50 breakfasts"
It is known that Doletskaya is still working on a draft of a new work, which, according to rumors, will no longer have anything to do with cooking.
Personal life
Doletskaya had only one official marriage - with the Soviet diplomat and historian Asoyan. In fact, it was he who brought the girl into the world. In 1992, Boris Rubenovich committed suicide. Later, a letter was found in his documents, according to which Asoyan committed suicide because of his wife. Friends and acquaintances of the family noted that the couple could hardly be called loving and exemplary - they quarreled too often.
Alena Doletskaya and her common-law husband John Helmer
Already in the 2000s, Doletskaya again decided to get together with a man who became the American John Helmer, an international journalist. But things didn’t work out with him either - the civil marriage resulted in legal proceedings. By the way, there are officially unconfirmed suspicions that this is not Alena Stanislavovna’s only problem with law enforcement agencies, both at home and in the United States.
Doletskaya explains the lack of relationships by her busyness at work. The journalist does not have any children of her own, only a nephew and niece, so she actively helps the Children’s Home:
“I support a home where children abandoned by their parents live.”
Alena also participates in the work of the Northern Crown charitable children's foundation.
Alena Doletskaya: “Due to circumstances, people love the past more than they try to look into the future”
Sindeeva: Every time I smile when this guest comes to me. Today my guest is the voice of the Dozhd TV channel for 10 years, Alena Doletskaya.
Doletskaya: 10 years have flown by like a year.
Sindeeva: In general!
Doletskaya: One. Fast, bright, young.
Sindeeva: You know, I don’t know how young he is, but he’s definitely very bright. Yes. Alyonushka, I’m very glad to see you. We haven't seen you on air for a long time. Tell me. I deliberately did not introduce you and introduce you only as the voice of the Dozhd TV channel, but you now have many different guises. Tell me, what are you enjoying now?
Doletskaya: Listen, well, I really am going through a period of serious trouble right now. I got involved in one project. And I would be happy to tell you and all the TV viewers of the Dozhd TV channel about it, but it is still in a confidential box.
Sindeeva: Damn it! But maybe a little news if I started?
Doletskaya: Yes, I went in unsuccessfully. But I have other news that I will reveal. And I won’t open this one, but you and all our beloved TV viewers will be waiting for me to open this box. Unfortunately, this is not my personal secret, it is more of a team secret. Corporate and so on.
Sindeeva: But at least give me some direction!
Doletskaya: Direction – Tretyakov Gallery.
Sindeeva: But wait, you still work at the Tretyakov Gallery as a creative, how is that?..
Doletskaya: Consultant, creative consultant. This is such a mini-Ministry of Emergency Situations, I call myself and I feel great about it. But what we are now entering, and we have put a lot of hands on tables, on papers, but synopses, on ideas, on all that stuff, I can’t talk about it directly about meat. But I assure you, as soon as...
Sindeeva: Will it happen soon?
Doletskaya: No, this cannot happen soon, this is a big project. We'll have to wait two years. But will you endure the rain for two more years? Well, pour some more, be patient, clench your teeth! Be patient, stand! And just a measly two years, that’s it. In fact, this is very little for a large exhibition project. This, then, is why I’m sitting here, and I’m having a hard time holding my jaw, like a woman, so as not to tell you all this. Well, really, with difficulty. Another story, it is less, which, nevertheless, is very important, and important not so much to me as to all our listeners and viewers. Just one small part. In short, 19, no, excuse me, on December 16 I finally accomplish an incredible feat of all times and peoples...
Alena Doletskaya now
A woman’s life is very eventful: in 2006 Doletskaya was a member of the jury of the national Big Book award, in 2009 she starred in a cameo role in the film Short Circuit, in 2010 her photo appeared on the cover of Black Square magazine, and in 2011 becomes the face of the Alexander Arne jewelry house.
Alena Doletskaya in 2017
In addition to numerous work trips, Alena often goes abroad with her friends to concerts of legendary bands like Led Zeppelin.
“I generally adore live concerts,” says the woman.
Another favorite pastime of the journalist is walking in the forest with her Siberian Husky, reading books and just relaxing with friends. In such company, Doletskaya can drink vodka - within reasonable limits, of course. Alena Stanislavovna does not forget about her physical fitness - despite her age, Doletskaya will give a head start to many modern girls. Evil tongues are talking about the intervention of surgeons, but there is no official confirmation that plastic surgery was performed.
Alena Doletskaya before and after the proposed plastic surgery
Today, Doletskaya continues to work as editor-in-chief in the already mentioned publishing houses, maintains her blog on social networks (she especially likes Instagram and Facebook), writes a book and teaches a course in glossy journalism. Alena Stanislavovna does not plan to stop working, because she believes that not all horizons have yet been conquered.
Alena Doletskaya: from the untold in fairy tales
Following in the footsteps of Alena Doletskaya’s new book “Not Life, But a Fairy Tale,” Yana Zubtsova finds out from her former boss why she goes without tights in winter, why she fired her, and what we think about feminism. In general, what was not included in the book.
— All the years of working at Vogue, I was terribly worried about the question: why the hell walk in pumps on bare feet in winter? What, show-off is more valuable than money?
- You know, both my dad and my husbands asked this question. In general, for some reason this bothers many people. But, you see, the good thing about Russia is that our houses are heated in winter. And walking with a shift is inconvenient. Now I’m going to a meeting at the Tretyakov Gallery. It will be a long story - with documents, with papers, with conversations. Well, what kind of uggs? What bots? What boots? My feet don’t like being indoors in winter shoes. This is the first one. Secondly, don’t you, the head of Beauty Insider, know that there is nothing more beautiful than a naked female ankle? Third, I feel very good in the shoes...
1/10 of Alena Doletskaya’s shoe wardrobe. “Yes, guilty pleasure, I won’t even make an excuse.”
- ... I suppose I also feel pretty good in my shoes. But I’m sitting in front of you, and again I’m ashamed of my transparent socks. It’s as if those 10 years outside of Vogue never happened.
- What about your socks? Doesn't seem to be torn?
- Probably not. But you are without socks! And I, like a sucker, am wearing socks.
- Well, I’m actually wearing sneakers now. Thanks to new technologies, running shoes now have such advanced insoles that prevent your feet from sweating. But don't worry. I just enjoy walking barefoot. I feel my foot, I feel my step, I like it. In those days when we worked at Vogue, yes, these were not crosses. Mainly Manolo, Prada, Givenchy and Gianvito Rossi, who made the last that was perfect for me. As for hosiery, I can’t stand it when they have even the slightest shine. They should be completely matte. I’ve been wrong so many times - on the packaging of some Falke it says 100% matt, you buy it, put it on... and they, bitches, shine! And it pisses me off. In addition, they do not create much heat.
- Oh well, they don’t create them. Put it on - take it off - feel the difference.
- & Other Stories have these, very short ones, similar to follow-ups, I love them, but they disappear from sale all the time. A couple of weeks ago, when the temperature dropped to -11, they wouldn’t have hurt: I stopped to talk with a friend and immediately felt that I seemed to be standing in the snow with my bare feet. But you have to understand: I’m a car person. I jumped out and ran halfway through Tolmachevsky and Lavrushinsky - normal. And again, tone. If I were traveling on foot, I would wear UGG boots, like a pretty girl. So sit in your socks, don't worry.
- OK thanks.
“Although, you know, if we’re being completely honest, yes, sometimes show-off is worth more than money.”
Globe Trotter suitcase, the latest collection inspired by Murder on the Orient Express. I haven’t traveled to many countries with Alena yet, but we love it because it perfectly fits three pairs of shoes and two dresses. And yes, it is cabin size
- Well, finally, I pulled out a confession. Okay, let's move on to less pressing issues. For example, feminism. About healthy lifestyle in your book - and especially in the interview on Lenta.ru - everything is said in detail. As the daughter of doctors, your position is close to me. But I couldn’t find a word for feminism. How are things going with him?
“Somehow I don’t fully understand him with him.” In my opinion, this word has changed its orientation over the past two or three years. We all read The world according to Garp (“The World According to Garp” by John Irving) about the first feminists, everyone admired it, and everything seemed clear. Now this is a wildly complicated question. Everyone puts their own meaning into the word “feminism,” and I don’t know what, for example, you mean. The fact that women have every reason to receive equal salaries to men and occupy the same positions is undoubtedly true. The fact that this does not always happen in reality is again yes. The day before yesterday I spoke with my friend Ingeborga Dapkunaite, who in a recent interview said: “Well, guys, let's be honest. Look at the number of male roles in films - and the number of female ones. Look at the number of male screenwriters and female screenwriters, male directors and female directors. And then look at the payment for this work.” This is all true, and here I am for feminism. But if we talk about absolute equality, we must understand that - yes, we are equal, only once a month us girls are knocked out by menstruation for five days, and we also have pregnancies in varying degrees, and then childbirth, and who breastfed , they complain that they haven’t thought anything for a year - their brains are filled with milk. So there are nuances.
Alena’s relationship with healthy lifestyle is not very good, it’s a well-known fact. However, for me it’s even less so. And I’m even pleased that in her face I find support for many of my own sins
—Have you personally experienced gender discrimination?
- Never in my life. I went about my work - teaching, academic activities, PR and art marketing, journalism - and did not think about who my supervisor was, a man or a woman. It was more important to me what I do and how. And I don’t know how I feel about all kinds of protest movements. More precisely, I often intuitively fear them. Lesha Zimin wrote well about this on the Interview portal: “There are people who are destined to perform in the “against” genre. They are great at it. But there are people for whom it is more natural to perform in the “pro” genre. In all likelihood, I am more successful in the “pro” genre. I will break anyone for us, for the girls. But it’s difficult for me to go against something, no matter what. And I don’t think that with feminism everything is so simple. For example, I will not vehemently protest against the fact that there are fewer female pilots than male pilots and say “let’s quickly level everything out now!” Because adjusting take-off and landing schedules to the women’s cycle - well, no, no. On the other hand, I don’t like that there are much fewer female city mayors than male ones. A woman, with her instinct to take care of the hearth, will arrange the city no worse, and perhaps better. She will arrange it like a home, and she will live in it comfortably. The best real estate salespeople are also women. For the same reason. As for flying, everyone should have the right to train to become a pilot. And then let her demonstrate brilliant results and prove that she can manage her cycle in such a way that it will not become a problem for the crew and passengers. In general, there is some kind of reverse bias in the current version of feminism: a woman is always better. No not always. There are areas where it is better. And in other areas she should have equal rights with men. Which does not mean that she will automatically be better than a man because she is a woman. Sometimes she will have to prove that she is no worse. And that's probably okay.
- It didn’t seem to me? Did you say "probably"? Are you in doubt about something? I was sure that you did not know how to doubt. I didn’t hear your doubts in the book either. A leader, a leader—shouldn’t he say, “I don’t know”?
“I’m just a person who often doubts.” On the one hand, on the other hand, on the third side. Either to the right or to the left. Black? Or maybe black and white is better? It’s as if I’m not a Capricorn, but some kind of Libra. But at work, the manager is the manager because he is called that and receives a higher salary, because he says: “we consulted, and I decided.” Without a doubt.
— Takes responsibility?
- Exectly. And for this responsibility we receive flowers, gifts, souvenirs and other crap. But we also get an incredible sense of shame in a situation where your editors screw up and write “liquid foundation” instead of “cream-powder.” And then the advertisers take the duodenum out of you and wrap it around your forehead: “How could you?! You disgraced our brand, you disgraced your brand, you disgraced the planet!” And you sit, endure this stream of shit, and say: “Sorry! Yes, yes, we really, how could we, well, of course, it’s a liquid foundation!” And at the moment when you are ready to take the fire without flushing your guys down the toilet, you become a leader. No matter how your subordinates behave, they have you. Including for protection. On the other hand, to make decisions. They work, fold, rearrange, invent, re-invent. And you listened and said, “Darling, everything is cool, but let’s now work on this brilliant idea of yours to fit the format? We'll cut here, we'll cut here. And then it will work out.” And if the leader scratches his turnip and says, “Well, I don’t know...” - everyone will think until the end of time. And the product - Vogue magazine, or your website, or any other - it must go, go and go. Yes, not without misfires. Not without mistakes. But go ahead.
The most amazing thing about this certificate is not that Alena won the pioneer all-around, but that someone once called her Lena
— I also wanted to ask about mistakes. Everyone is discussing the chapter of the book that talks about your dismissal from Vogue. Some even start reading from there. It is described brilliantly and honestly: here is the situation, here is your reaction and assessment. But there is no analysis of one’s own mistakes. Although in any accident there are two parties to blame. Yes, he cut you off. But why didn’t you slow down, you asshole?! This was not stated in the book.
- It sounded! I turned it into a metaphor, and it probably didn’t fully count. In fact, my principle of life is It takes two to tango. It takes two to tango. I think Reagan said this when he came to talk to Gorbachev? It also takes two to have an accident. I was dragonflying as if I had been blown up. I was intoxicated by what we were doing, it seemed to me that we were the coolest, and we just needed to turn this coolness up more and more. Reckless plowing - well, you remember - and reckless rapture. But I forgot the great phrase: “Be careful, gentlemen!” You can't be so careless about yourself when you work for a big corporation. Why am I breathing with such happiness now? Because I'm out of it. I don't need to work this muscle every day. But this is now. And when you are in, you must train the tension gauge. I didn't train enough. And in terms of the corporate battle, she lost.
The matryoshka doll standing in the corner on the windowsill is one of those created by the best designers for the 10th anniversary of Russian Vogue. It was sold at a charity auction organized by Irina Kudrina. The matryoshka was bought by businessman Shalva Breus - and gave it to Alena
— Some people are now saying that your Vogue was too multicultural and too unfashionable. Someone even then gave you the example of Harper's Bazaar Shahri Amirkhanova, who spoke to it-girls as an it-girl, and collected her dividends in this clearing.
— There were such conversations. I heard them and listened. I wasn't against more young-hot-sexy-fiction. The main word that was given to us then from above, along with the role model in the form of Harper's, is be commercial. We need to make a more commercial product. And we sat, thought, decided: yes, girls like it that way, and let’s add more pages with things in the clipping, and if you tell us what exactly is warm in our magazine, and not hot, we will increase the heating temperature. They were promoted to some level. But, apparently, this is not what we are looking for. Well, in the end - in all the gloss we now have a dialogue between two press releases. These magazines are useful for publishers, but are completely unnecessary for people.
The book “Not Life, But a Fairy Tale” will soon have an audio version. Special. Alena reads her fairy tales not in complete silence, but with the active participation of listeners. If you buy it, know that the third restrained grunt in the fifth paragraph of the fourth tale is mine.
— The chapter about dismissal ends with the phrase: “And I flew on.” You really fly, I saw it in Astana (we met by chance at an event organized by the St. Regis Astana hotel, approx. Ya-z-va). An incredible level of drive in every look, gesture, and question. Where do you get the strength to fly?
“The picture was taken by St. Petersburg photographer Fedya Bitkov. Very cool. Some time later, at Nina Gomiashvili’s exhibition, I saw a photo of Marilyn Monroe taken in the year of my birth. I bought it, brought it home, and realized how similar our poses are. We even smoke, both of us. And the mood is completely different.”
— Drive, Yana, is different for everyone. I have a lot of friends - reserved, not loud, even phlegmatic. But their inner drive amazes and energizes me. So let's figure out what drive is. Professional drive, in fact, is simply the highest motivation to do something very well. As soon as you realize that she has gone somewhere, you need to leave. If you don’t understand, or you’re afraid to understand, let your leader do it for you. Well, the man’s fire has disappeared, well, he doesn’t have it. He writes stories, does filming, does layout - everything is bad, flat, sluggish. There is no ricer, the taste is gone. Tired? Is the material used up? One day my designer wrote a letter of resignation. I ask - what's the matter? There are no overloads, no rush jobs, everything seems to be in order. She says: “You know, I can’t tell the beautiful from the ugly anymore.” For the designer, this is the cover. I signed the application and she went to recharge. You either want, are hungry and know how to do it - or you don’t want, are not hungry, and therefore don’t know how. Then collect your belongings and go wash your brain or intestines. This is called "mental hygiene".
“Wonderful book. I'll sit down for her soon. The catch is that you need to practice it every day, at least for 5 minutes.”
— Is it possible to learn to maintain this drive through willpower? Read the smart book “How to stop worrying and start flying” and soar? Every How To book section is filled with waste paper containing life hacks. It's amazing that humanity still walks on the sidewalks and doesn't soar in the sky.
- There are life hacks - and life hacks, tips - and advice, there is, whatever her name is, Marinina, and there is Akunin. Some people read Nabokov, others read Bokov. I don't deny the How To genre completely. The book that I have now downloaded to my iPad is Sven Brinkman, “The End of the Self-Help Era.” Excellent. Who did I study with? First of all, from the parents, from their hands. The teaching method I believe in most. My parents just walked back and forth, and I thought: “Ah! If so, that's good. But this is something not very good.” That’s why I repeat so often in the book - I was incredibly lucky with my parents. For those who are less fortunate, I sympathize and am ready to offer them any organ, even a shoulder, even a chest - lean against it. I will help as much as I can.
From the last books I read - Elisabeth Barille, about the relationship between Akhmatova and Modigliani. “I bought it in St. Petersburg. Not the best book - written with an unbearably excessive amount of the author’s imagination.”
When you have no one to lean on, you start looking for life hacks. And here you can fall into a trap. Trap of vulgarity. Banality. Or just advice that doesn't suit your essence. Where to look for help? In good literature or in decent cinema. For me, books are interlocutors, friends, a society of select people whom you want to reach, even if you stand on tiptoe. You read Murakami - and yes, of course, he captivates you, he makes you laugh, but at turns you think - oh, I couldn’t do that here, of course. With the same feeling you read Seneca’s letters to Lucilius. Replace the vocabulary, change “gladiators” to “warriors”, forget about the century - and here it is, today’s arena of life. We still have the same emperors, the same gladiators, the same groveling before some and trampling on others. Seneca simply writes about this to Lucilius, who, I suspect, opened each letter and learned it by heart. Understand?
— I understand about Seneca and Murakami. But I would like to hear more about living teachers, besides parents.
— There were also friends of my parents. In general, according to my observations, children often listen to their parents’ friends more than their own mother and father. For example, Volodya Vysotsky sat down to talk with my dad. About what - I didn’t catch it very accurately, I was too young. But I felt the dynamics of the conversation. They would suddenly start arguing over poetry - and I would think: “Hmm! It turns out that you don’t have to love Akhmatova? Or Nekrasov? So, are they different, these writers that everyone talks about with aspiration? So it’s possible to have a different opinion?” And this tiny childish thought sprouts like a seed in you. So my parents’ friends are my second group of “influencers,” as they call it now. There's some kind of influenza going on in the world, don't you think? And at the university I was forged by the philology professors, there is a book about it.
— And at the time of Vogue, who did you study with from a professional point of view? After all, the first editors of the Russian gloss were found for no reason, and none of you had any idea what this gloss was, how the magazine should function, and what its goals were, other than to explain why a T-shirt with a crocodile costs $200, and T-shirt without a crocodile - 20. Those who came for you have you - as a role model or denial. But you didn’t have any samples.
- Yes, it wasn’t. I generally had a different background - journalistic and production experience at the BBC, art exhibitions at the British Council, preparing art catalogs, a philological department, and a love of words. Visual culture, print culture, production culture - everything has worked out well. And then - gap, gap, abyss: how, exactly, is glossy journalism done? I got permission from my boss at the time, Bernd Runge, to go to London and took an intensive course at the British School of Journalism by Barbara Nordon. She explained how best to turn the material, which headlines are more catchy, and how to write an intro. Brilliant course. Next is practice.
“My friend and I were walking around Tuscany. We see 9 men sitting in a row, all as if they had been selected. I had to dilute it. The friend clicked. Why don’t you like a Dolce & Gabbana ad?”
Have you ever wondered what successful people have in common?
— What do you mean by the concept of “successful person”? How will we measure success?
— Success in this case is the complete implementation of plans and reward. Both material reward and spiritual reward, that is, the presence of some kind of authority.
- OK. Successful people simply love doing what they do. And everything you list is a consequence of this. You came up with, implemented, gave birth to a product - it doesn’t matter whether it’s a book, a play or a cozy yard - and it was a success. They believed in him. And you automatically acquire that same authority and influence. But in general, it seems to me that the concept of “success” is overrated. Especially today, when people who have half a million followers on Instagram are considered successful characters. I don’t know how long such a success criterion as a thousand and one likes will last. But it's working for now. And this is especially interesting considering that the world of Insta is sterile, there are no painful falls, despair and everything that makes success real and authentic.
- If we started talking about falls and despair. How to learn to keep your face? I've seen you in difficult situations. Many have seen even worse ones. But you found the strength to smile or at least not cry. When it smudges me, everything is visible.
- You know, it seems to me that I can see everything too. Although the ability to gather is again a family school. Mom could come home tired and irritated. And dad told her: “Come on, get yourself in order and come in with a smile. You have no right to humiliate yourself into a bad mood.” It seemed incredibly callous to me - how could he?! This is cruel! Something must have happened to her at work! Then, slowly, I began to understand what he meant. Family is an analogue of society. It brings together several people. And not everyone is ready - and not everyone can - withstand your momentary problematic state. This must be treated with care, otherwise vampires will settle in the house and cut off the rest: everything is bad for them, everything did not work out, and let you decide. And this is “get yourself in order and come in with a smile” - if you want, a kind of culture of behavior.
As I grew up, I was surprised to discover how often and with what enthusiasm people talk about their illnesses. “Oh, it hurts here, and it’s even worse for me, and you’re treating it with something, and I’m using this, but it helps, if only.” I listened and felt embarrassed. Support, yes, is sometimes necessary. But for this there are only the right moments and the only right people. You and your pain can come to a specific person and cry on his shoulder, and that’s normal. But organizing exhibitionism sessions is a no-no.
— Is it taboo to say that you feel bad?
- Not taboo. But - not publicly, not as a topic for general conversation. Another similar topic is who gets how much and what costs how much. Oh, it's so expensive. Phew, it's so cheap. Let's now count our neighbor's money. Neither money nor health were discussed at home. And not because we were fabulously rich or healthy. But wasting the air with such conversations was considered bad. As for the very difficult situations in which I found myself - the death of loved ones, for example - I tried to remember that there were people next to me. And it hurts them too. Why should they suppress my hysteria at this moment? And at work, a manager simply must be able to keep his face. Otherwise the team will die.
— You recently accepted an offer to become a creative consultant to the general director of the Tretyakov Gallery. What to expect from the Tretyakov Gallery with your participation?
— I collaborated a lot with the Tretyakov Gallery when I worked at the British Council. We held four large-scale exhibitions there. And now this is a kind of return to origins. The tasks that Zelfira Tregulova, director of the Tretyakov Gallery, sets for herself are very ambitious, complex and, from my point of view, correct. But Moscow was not built right away. There's enough to do. There is still no Wi-Fi in the new building on Krymsky, do you know? The largest national museum of a great country, 2018. In general, I would like to do so much there that if I start listing everything, even your online publication will run out of pages.
A fresh La Mer care program, prescribed to Alena the other day, and a government telegram from the Deputy Minister of the Press - congratulations on her birthday. “I went to the La Mer procedure at TSUM recently. Very cool!"
— The last question is as personal as the first, about socks. Why did you sign my resignation letter 10 years ago? The story went like this. I wrote about culture for Vogue, and I was bored out of my mind. I wanted to do beauty, just like in the Domovoy magazine. But at Vogue, the beauty department was beautiful and fully stocked. I was invited to Harpers Bazaar - for a beauty position, hurray. I was about to leave. Negotiations began with the management of Conde Nast, boiling down to the topic - what is needed for you, Yana, to stay. The second topic after beauty that inspired me was fashion. I was ready to stay as a fashion writer. But one character in the Vogue fashion department said: “It’s either me or Zubtsova.” You, Alena, chose him and made me understand that if I get into fashion writing, I shouldn’t expect anything good. They spoke in a distinctly cold manner. I left your office with a light heart: the decision had been made, all that remained was to pack up my belongings and move to Polkovaya in Harpers Bazaar. Now I am grateful to you: if you weren’t so cold, I don’t know if I would have a Beauty Insider. But why?! I wrote awesome about fashion! And she loved you wildly.
Exchange of printed materials. Alena’s autograph on her book, given to me, reads like this: “Yanochka Zubtsova with love in Russian sense of the word”
— You wrote well about fashion, and generally wrote well. But I saw that the whole Conde Nast system is not to your liking. And I saw that you were already fidgeting on your butt. And if an employee fidgets, he should be released, and, if possible, make sure that he leaves with a light heart. I couldn’t offer you Beauty at that moment, but you were burning with it. You may not have realized it yourself: you are leaving on time. And look at the end result: your authoritative Beauty Insider. When you started it, they told me - Zubtsova?! Beauty blogger?! And I wasn't surprised at all. I knew you would succeed.
It's a rare pleasure when you can tell your ex-boss everything you think about him.
PS. I deliberately did not write anything about the book “Not Life, But a Fairy Tale” at the beginning. Well, she's out and that's something to talk about, but for now it doesn't matter what I think about her, read the interview. And then - now - I will say that this is the most honest of the autobiographical prose of the latest glossy time. And it does not hurt anyone casually - except for those whom, obviously, the author was not averse to hurting quite deliberately. A filigree work for an autobiography.
Having finished reading (in one night and half a day), I experienced a strange feeling: you witnessed many of the events described and did not find any inconsistency between what you saw then and what you read now. There were mistakes, there were insults, there were stupidities, there were no screw-ups. And there is no mess in the book.
Alena did not write about much of what could have embellished her heroine (is this word applicable to autobiographies?). For example, she was reproached for being interested in people only when she needs them. If you don’t need it, don’t try to call her, she can go years without picking up the phone. Perhaps this is so (I did not call Alena often). But we had one guy at Vogue, a designer. He became deathly ill. She went to see him at the hospital every week. From a practical point of view, this boy could no longer be useful to her. Moreover, he died soon after. Try to imagine how packed the editor-in-chief’s schedule is five years in advance, but she still went to see him. This could very well make a fat chapter. She didn't write it.
Then, I remember, one advertiser pestered me. He was ready to give me some kind of exclusive in exchange for a promise that I would make a story out of this for at least 5 pages. (Yes, the work of a PR specialist is measured in stripes; a centimeter is often used.) The distribution of the exclusive was supposed to take place in Paris. In general, I wanted to go to Paris. But, not knowing exactly what kind of exclusive this was, and how much journalistic meat there would be, I refrained from written confirmation of the volume of publication. And in general, Vogue editors were not recommended to guarantee anything (and rightly so). The advertiser pressed. I held the line. The ping-pong with letters continued for a month, at some point I made Alena a copy. In the end, I abandoned this idea. For my birthday, Alena gave me an intricately woven bouquet: thin twigs formed a transparent but durable dome over the crown of flowers. There was a note inserted into the bouquet. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the quote, but the meaning boiled down to the fact that you, Yanochka, are protected. That would also be a good chapter, by the way. I think she didn’t remember this episode, but I won’t forget.
Then who knows how much more there was. Almost everyone who came into the circle fell in love with Alena, regardless of gender, they fell in love instantly. I didn’t fall in love—I thought so. At least I didn't idealize her. We didn't even have a perfect work relationship. I had a lot of complaints about her. I suspect she has even more feelings for me. But, analyzing all the editors-in-chief I came across (among whom were wonderful people, talented people, decent people and different people), I can say that Alena Doletskaya was the only one, Alena Doletskaya.
Read the book if you haven't already.
PSS. As you noticed, I decided not to ask questions on the topic of beauty in the interview. But she couldn’t help but take advantage of the situation and quietly go into Alena Doletskaya’s bathroom with her iPhone. You wouldn’t forgive me for this, and especially not her. I would say something like “This, Yanochka, is unsuitable for the head of Beauty Insider.”
Here's what's on the shelves. If anyone is interested, take a look.
And below is an unexpected find in the refrigerator, where I reached for another non-healthy lifestyle product. Yep, my favorite Mosmake eye patches.
But just in case, keep in mind: Alena Doletskaya still does not store candles in the refrigerator. The faded Diptyque serves as a glass, either for soda or something similar.
And here's another thing.
T-shirts #Not life, but a fairy tale, like Alena’s, you can buy. The price of one is 2000 rubles. All proceeds from the sale will go to the Vera hospice fund. To order, you need to write to [email protected] You will be answered immediately. There is no other way (especially on Instagram) to buy this T-shirt; everything else that they offer you is a fake.
I ordered.
