In an interview sometime around 2010, I was asked: could you name the people you consider your mentors?
It was an unexpected and somewhat strange question; I had never really thought of any of the people I knew in quite those terms — “mentor.” I said I needed to think about it and would answer later.
Then I sat down and thought it over: who I truly regarded as a guide, and whose advice I genuinely needed. The next day I emailed the journalist three or four names, and one of them was: Anton Nosik.
I can’t say we were especially close even then, but “I need to talk this over with Nosik” kept popping into my head whenever I thought about anything connected with the internet, IT, media, journalists, blogs, communicating with people online, and so on.
Later, we really did become friends. Both Yulia and I did — Nosik had become a friend of our family. He had an absolutely decisive influence on my views and practices related to the internet and journalism. I’m sure many others could say the same. He didn’t much like being introduced as “one of the creators of Runet” (the Russian-language internet), but that’s exactly what he was.
And he was always posting little photos from Venice on social media. I kept telling him: you’re driving me crazy with that — me, a man without an international passport. He would laugh and say: don’t worry, sooner or later you’ll get one, and I’ll give you and Yulia a tour of Venice, and then Jerusalem too.
He died last night, and now he’ll never show us Venice. He was only 51 — still so young.
Today, many people will sincerely write, “this is a great loss for us.” It is for our family too. For me personally, this really is that very “irreplaceable loss” people so often write about in obituaries. There is truly no one who could replace him. There is no one else like him: brilliant, ironic, cheerful, and always ready with the best advice.
Just now I went to Google what special words one is supposed to say for a deceased Jew. And I can immediately imagine how hard he would have laughed at that.
You will be missed terribly, Anton, but may you rest in peace all the same.
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