EVENING BELL:
A Gift of the Ending Day

Yes, this government decision can only be described as a gift to us, admirers of Viktor Konetsky's work: the name of my favorite writer and sea captain has been given to the unnamed strait between Zhokhov and Vilkitsky Islands in the East Siberian Sea.

Isn't that him in Viktor Viktorovich's drawing?

It was there, near Zhokhov Island, that Konetsky, in collaboration with his friend and director Giya Daneliya, collected material for the remarkable film "The Path to the Pier."

"Danelia and Talankin left me in Dikson. They were running late. They were supposed to fly home by plane, but I stayed on the icebreaker Levanevsky to celebrate my business trip in Arkhangelsk, arriving there by sea.

And so, when the old Levanevsky once tilted to port at a rate of about thirty-five degrees, when it paused in thought, debating whether it should rise again or whether it would be calmer to descend into the peaceful and eternal silence... It was at that moment—which, admittedly, was desperately beautiful, for the storm raged over the Barents Sea under a cloudless, pure black sky and a full moon, and the crest of every wave that rolled over the Levanevsky was illuminated by moonbeams and sparkled with the chandeliers of the Column Hall—it was at that moment that I yearned for my co-author.

I wanted to share the beauty of the world with him. After all, all artists painfully endure the lonely enjoyment of beauty without kindred spirits...

Now, on the Northern Sea Route, which Captain Konetsky sailed 14 times, his enchanting lines have become forever imprinted with him.