DOVLATOV 1941 Shirt

“I know that if my books are finding their way to my birthplace, they’re being passed gingerly and in secret from one person to the next until they turn to dust. If books had souls and tongues to speak, we’d know each dreams of such a fate.”

—from Dovlatov’s interview with Jane Bobko

Sergei Dovlatov is internationally regarded as one of the most popular Russian writers of the late 20th century. He wrote prose fiction but was unable to get published in the Soviet Union. He managed to smuggle his writings into Western Europe for publication in Russian émigré journals – an activity that caused his expulsion from the Union of Soviet Journalists in 1976.

In 1979, Dovlatov managed to emigrate from the Soviet Union and he settled in New York City, where he later co-edited “The New American”, a liberal, Russian-language émigré newspaper. In the mid-1980s, Dovlatov finally achieved recognition as a writer, being printed in the prestigious magazine, the New Yorker. He died of heart failure at just 48 in 1990.

Dovlatov published twelve books in the United States and Europe and after his death, numerous collections of his short stories were also published in Russia.


• 100% pure ringspun cotton
• 4.5 oz/y² (153 g/m²)
• Pre-shrunk
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Double stitching on the neckline and sleeves add more durability
• Quarter-turned to avoid crease down the center

Size guide