Blessed memory of Rimma Romanovna Ozerskaya

Rimma Romanovna was born on February 14, 1929 in the village of Artukha, Irkutsk region, in those very distant lands that remained close to her heart all her life. She loved Buryatia to the very end — she knew its history, culture, spiritual heritage, and folk customs; her colleagues called her the unofficial ambassador of the Buryat people on Pushkin Square for a reason.

Rimma Ozerskaya belonged to the first graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University in 1952, the same one where Alexey Adjubey and Rada Khrushchev studied. As a student, she married a classmate, Mikhail Ozersky, the son of the famous photojournalist Mikhail Ozersky. Classmates wrote joking lines in honor of this couple: "Mishka grew a mustache the color of Rimka's braid." After university, the young couple went to Transbaikalia: Mikhail — to the Zabaikalsky Rabochy, Rimma — to the Buryat-Mongol Truth. She was already in charge of the letters department at that time, a job that would become her life's work.

In 1962, Alexey Adjubey invited them to Izvestia. Mikhail managed to work for less than a year — he was struck down by a serious illness. And Rimma Romanovna remained in the editorial office for 36 years.

She came to the letters department, which was the hottest in those years when correspondence was brought to the newspaper in sacks. Then, on the initiative of Ajubey and with her direct participation in Izvestia, the first public reception appeared, which she headed for many years. Subsequently, there were 25 such receptions — they covered the whole country. Thanks to them, the newspaper became closer to millions of readers, better understood their problems and worries. The Izvestia reception existed for more than a quarter of a century. I can't count how many people Rimma Ozerskaya has helped, how many hot topics she has brought to the newspaper pages.

She recalled as follows: "They often came to us with the words: "Everyone has been bypassed — there are still "Izvestia". And the editorial staff provided real help to people — the authority of the newspaper was very high. Rimma Romanovna never gave up in front of a crowded reception room: she went out into the hall, looked through the visitors' cards, directed some to colleagues, and told others where to turn. "Working in the reception area is not an easy bread," she said. And she added that it was this case that gave her the main thing: the joy of human communication. The ability to listen and, most importantly, to hear. Be able to empathize and sympathize.

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Rimma Romanovna did not only work with letters. On a signal from the reception, she went on business trips — to Buryatia, the Kaluga Region, and the Far East.

One day, a short letter in a few words appeared in the mail: "Children are being sold in a village in the Kaluga region." She rushed off on a business trip. The reason turned out to be fictitious, but there was a real production conflict behind it, which had to be dealt with. And another story, about the director of a forestry enterprise, who was wrongfully convicted on an anonymous denunciation, had a huge public response. Edwin Polyanovsky's articles, based on materials from the reception, led to the complete rehabilitation of the convict. And most importantly, in the wake of these publications, a decision was made that outlawed anonymous letters.

She worked at Izvestia from 1963 to 1998, and then headed the editorial board of veterans for more than 20 years. Her name was "Mama Rimma" — and this was not a nickname, but an accurate definition of her role. The total active journalistic experience is almost 50 years.

Her colleague Lev Shinkarev wrote: "Just thinking about Rimma Romanovna makes my soul feel light and warm. A sincere, reliable, active person. For more than forty years at Izvestia, she has done so much for the newspaper and the staff that she has been loved by more than one generation of journalists." And yet: "Rimma is a gifted person, she owes her successes most of all to her colossal own efficiency."

The reader has always been considered the number one author on the Izvestia pages — and for Rimma Romanovna it was not a formality. She made the pain of others her profession. She responded to the cry of despair immediately— and did not delay.

She's not with us. But the memory remains — not only in the archives and files, but also in the people she helped, in the topics she raised, in the tradition of treating the reader that she built all her life. Traditions in which man comes first.

Bright memory of Rimma Romanovna Ozerskaya.