Russian community gets a new voice

The doors are still papered over, but Andrey Grebenshikov expects to open EuroWorld tomorrow . It’s an ambitious name for a small store, but Grebenshikov seems to have ambition and energy to burn, plus a genuine desire to serve Spokane’s rapidly growing population of Russian émigrés.

In November, he launched a Russian language newspaper and Web site, both named “Russian Spokane.” The paper’s first edition was only 16 pages, with color on the back and front. December and January expanded to 24 pages, four with color. Grebenshikov’s shooting for 32 pages for March. Copies — he has 3,000 printed — disappear from the stands he puts at Spokane’s 15 Russian churches, as well as other gathering places.

If EuroWorld, located at 3329 E. Sprague Ave., grows as fast as Russian Spokane, watch out, Wal-Mart.

Yet, Grebenshikov admits, he knew nothing about the newspaper business when he got started. And not much about computers. His first calling is hardwood floors, particularly parquetry, the elegant inlaid floors found in many European palaces and, in the United States, very high-end homes.

Andrey’s Hardwood & Decorative Floor Inlays is based in Spokane, but demand for his work has taken him to the Midwest and East Coast. Even off the East Coast. He did a floor in a golf clubhouse on Martha’s Vineyard. Grebenshikov says he encountered huge Russian communities in places like Boston and New York that had their own newspapers.

“Why do we have no newspaper?” he asked himself first. And second “How am I going to do this if I can’t write this stuff?”

He solved that problem by using copy from Russian-language Web sites, a column from a local Russian pastor for the “Christian” page, puzzles, and games. World Relief submitted an article for the February issue. There’s space for funny reader stories about odd situations language and cultural barriers put them in. The paper has a healthy advertising content, including display ads from employers.

Russianspokane.com is similar, and can also be accessed in English. There are links to other Russian-language sites, as well as radio.

Grebenshikov, 27, credits family members with most of the Web work, but his own enthusiasm is infectious. But even with the pending store opening, the newspaper and Web site, his eye-catching flooring remains his work, his hobby and, he says, his art.

Parquetry is the skill he brought with him seven years ago when he emigrated from Taganrog, a city of about 275,000 in southern Russia. Introduced to the art in his mid-teens, Grebenshikov mastered the craft so quickly by age 17 he was in business for himself, with two employees.

But a cousin and uncle who had already moved to Spokane kept urging Grebenshikov and his mother to join them. Already prosperous, he hesitated, but his mother convinced him they would be better off joining their Spokane relatives.

Grebenshikov relented, but soon thought he’d made a mistake.

Used to the good wages his craft commanded in Russia, he was discouraged by Spokane’s decidedly frugal paychecks. He worked first on the graveyard shift for a local boatmaker, then as a house framer. “It was as bad as you can get,” he says, but he kept working on his English — he still has a strong accent — and determined to succeed.

He hustled side jobs doing flooring, and his work quickly drew attention. For two-and-a-half years, he traveled around the country making and installing wood floors for expensive homes.

His wife finally called him home for good, and his affection for Spokane has kept him here despite a standing job offer from contractors in other cities. With a three-year-old son and five-monthold daughter, he says “I want to raise my family in Spokane.”

When he has the time.

“I’m trying to do everything,” Grebenshikov says. “Sleep less, work hard.”

With Russian Spokane, he adds, “I just want to do something important.”