New York City lawmakers have approved naming a street after Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov, who settled in the city after emigrating in 1979 from the Soviet Union, where authorities stymied his efforts to publish his work.
The New York City Council on June 26 voted in favor of assigning the name "Sergei Dovlatov Way" at an intersection in the borough of Queens, where Dovlatov lived until his death in 1990 at the age of 48.
The initiative to name the street after Dovlatov was launched late last year by fans of the writer, whose popularity in Russia has soared in the two decades since his death, when his works were published and widely read in Russia.
The approved bill will be sent to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to be signed into law.
Dovlatov also hosted programs for RFE/RL.