More than 15 years ago, the editors of the newspaper “Metrostroyevets” first wrote about the poet originally from Chistopol, Ruslan Galimov, the author of original and touching free verse. In the 1970s he was a metro construction worker. Galimov passed away in 1982, but in the Moscow Metrostroy they still remember his fate and work to this day.
In the fall of 2017, in the Moscow library named after A.P. Chekhov's Fifth Annual Readings “They're Gone. They stayed." In previous seasons, such evenings were dedicated to poets who passed away in the 90s, while still young, who did not have time to fully develop their potential, but still left their mark on literature.
This time, the organizers shifted the time frame one decade back: they remembered those whose life path was unexpectedly cut short in the 80s. Among the first people talked about at the memorial readings was the former builder of the Moscow metro, Ruslan Galimov (1946 - 1982).
His widow Lidia Galimova, a former employee of the Kultura TV channel, spoke about the life of the poet:
– Ruslan came to Moscow in 1976 from Naberezhnye Chelny, where he built KamAZ and was a member of the Orpheus literary association. Upon arrival, he only had with him a homemade canvas bag with manuscripts. He passed the creative competition at the Literary Institute easily, but did not take the exams - it was only important for him to check what level he had reached. At first, Ruslan was sheltered in the capital by the poet Arvo Mets, who also helped him get a job at Mosmetrostroy, where he could get a place in a dormitory.
In January 1977, Galimov was accepted as a 3rd category tunneler at SMU-2. But after four months, the newcomer was transferred to surveying workers due to health reasons. In February 1978, for the same reason, a transfer to surface work took place. Ruslan left Mosmetrostroy in November 1979. By that time, he had published poems in the New World and short stories in the magazine Literary Studies.
Metro construction mechanic Ruslan Galimov was a participant in the 7th All-Union Conference of Young Writers, as a result of which his prose book “The Storyteller” was recommended for publication. The collection was published by the Young Guard publishing house. Unfortunately, the author never held his literary firstborn in his hands. The hundred thousandth edition was printed after the sudden death of the poet. He was overcome by leukosis in just a few days, and it happened in the midst of work on the manuscript of his second book.
“Ruslan wrote free verse, like no other,” recalled the Kazan writer Vladimir Lavrishko in the newspaper “Star of the Volga Region,” who met the poet in Naberezhnye Chelny during the construction of a KamAZ truck.
It is known that that Galimov’s prose was noted by such masters as Yuri Nagibin and Alexander Prokhanov. His free verse, included in several anthologies, also finds connoisseurs. Both facets of his literary talent are presented in the book “You will not be called for an encore,” published in Naberezhnye Chelny in 1994.
In the poet’s hometown of Chistopol, the B. Pasternak Memorial Museum houses Galimov’s archive. The documents were donated to the museum fund by his widow, mother and friends from the literary association of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. But not a single collection exclusively with free verses by Ruslan Galimov has been published so far.
One of Ruslan Galimov’s free verses:
What a long way to the Nobel Prize!..
Life is even longer if you don’t know,
what do you live for.
So choose.