The Ostankino television center has never been just television. He was the sovereign of brains, the main patrol of the country, and in the early nineties - the political platform of both presidential candidates of Russia and the oligarchs, the first to realize that it was information that rules the world. The world by the mid-nineties became absolutely criminal. Television presenters and producers perished one after another, but this was not a lesson for anyone. Tamaz Topadze, Gleb Boyky, Oleg Slabynko ... The list goes on.
The decision to corporatize ORT (aka Channel One) arose in the depths of the Kremlin. The initiator was Boris Berezovsky. His main stakes are political influence and advertising money. Both that, and another depended on Vladislav Listyev. The Soviet and Russian television presenter and journalist, the first director general of ORT, understood that there could be different outcomes in the struggle in which he joined.
Early biography
Vladislav Listyev was born on May 10, 1956 in Moscow. His father worked at a factory, his mother first studied at a technical school, and then began working at a research institute as a draftsman. He graduated from the boarding school of the sports society "Spartak". The young man became a candidate for master of sports and USSR champion in kilometer running among juniors. Vlad Listyev worked as an instructor in the Spartak Sports Society. He served in the Taman Guards Division near Moscow.
Zhurfak Moscow State University
From childhood, he did not plan to engage in journalism, but wrote small notes on a sports topic. To enter the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University in those years was far from everyone's strength. At the journal faculty, mainly children from families in whom international relations was a family affair studied. To get into this elite company, Listyev was helped by the faculty of working youth, unusual charm and sociability.
During his studies at the university, Vlad Listyev (photo in his youth below) was a sports organizer and team leader on potatoes. Students helped Borodino state farm to harvest in September and October. First-year students of the international department and the entire second year were sent on a long trip. Listyev graduated from the Faculty of Journalism in 1982 with a degree in literary television.
Carier start
In 1982, several graduates were invited to the youth editorial office of central television. Then, on television, one could see glorious factory workers who said that they earn good money, get apartments, and in the evenings they relax, watch a movie. It was too boring, especially for a youth audience. Perestroika changed the country. This country needed a new television.
The first program “Sight” was aired on October 2, 1987. The program was listed as musical entertainment, but after only three months, “Vzglyad” became a symbol of new freedom of perestroika. Working materials of the program cannot be watched without laughter. Young journalists were inexperienced and embarrassed to feel in the frame. I had to work a lot with them. But the creative biography of Vlad Listyev was just beginning.
Program “Glance”
The popularity of Vzglyad was controversial and scandalous. Ten years later, Ogonyok positioned the presenters - Listyev, Zakharov, Mukusev, Politkovsky and others - as national heroes who personified changes within the country. The audience asked what year Vlad Listyev was, because the young presenter interested many women.
Those people who had not appeared on television before were actively invited to the program. We started with criticism of Stalin, then came Mark Zakharov, who proposed to take Lenin out of the Mausoleum. The whole country learned to speak with them not in a whisper in the kitchen, but out loud: in the USSR there is still sex, rock and roll is alive, capitalism can have a human face ...
It was “Vzglyad” that showed the public “Nautilus Pompilius”, “Cinema” and DDT, discovered Soviet rock and literature of caring people. TV presenters criticized the Soviet system, the first to raise the issue of Soviet prisoners of war in Afghanistan. They were so influential that they could organize and end the strike. On the air of the program, Mark Zakharov burned his party ticket to a member of the CPSU. For an hour and a half, the hosts and guests managed to talk about everything.
After the collapse
In 1991, the famous team “Vzglyad” broke up. Then the Soviet Union ceased to exist. When the country collapsed, everything changed. Vlad Listyev became the author and host of the television game Field of Miracles. It was a fundamentally new television program. The capital show was an overwhelming success. Then it turned out that Listyev was a universal presenter, because in the new image he was loved no less than at the time of Vzglyad.
The idea of the program was born after watching the American version ("Wheel of Fortune"). Vlad Listyev took the name of the program from A. Tolstoy’s fairy tale “The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio”. The authors (Listyev’s program did together with Anatoly Lysenko) tried to acquire the original license, but the distributor was not interested in cooperation. I had to shoot the Russian version from scratch. The program has become extremely popular.
Talk Show "Theme"
In mid-1991, Listyev decided to stop working on the program in order to start a new project. In this program, the most pressing problems of our time were discussed. Popularity was not long in coming. The viewer didn’t really care who was in front of him - a journalist, artist, commentator, announcer. It is important that there is an interesting person on the screen. Vlad Listyev was just that. The audience remembered the cunning eyes and the sincere smile of the TV presenter.
After “Themes”, “Rush Hour” appeared on the screens. It was a program in the genre of television interviews - exactly what the modern Russian audience needed. The topic of conversation, as a rule, was built around an informational occasion, some event in culture, sport, politics or economics. In some cases, guests were invited without reason. The key factors were not the guest’s fame, but his interest for the viewer and professionalism.
It was in this program that Vladislav Listyev tried on an image that first became a cause for controversy, and then its corporate identity. Suspenders and Leaf glasses “shamelessly stole” from Larry King, as his colleagues Leonid Yarmolnik and Vladimir Pozner said. Posner generally spoke very positively in the TV presenter. Listyev joked that "Larry King is holding on to suspenders, and most importantly, choosing the right ones."
Even then, journalist and TV presenter Vladislav Listyev was the general producer of his own television company. VID to this day releases television programs for Channel One. Due to conflicts with his colleagues, Vladislav Listyev left the television company, becoming the general director of ORT (Public Russian Television). He was only thirty-eight years old. By the standards of the time, the boy became the television boss of such a high rank.
Personal life
Vlad Listyev was married three times. He has repeatedly said that women played an important role in his life. Elena Yesina and Vlad Listyev got married after graduating from a boarding school. Their union broke up after two and a half years. The first child of the spouses died after birth. Daughter Valery today works at the Academy of Hairdressing on the Arbat.
Vlad Listyev met Tatyana Lyalina (his second wife) in his student days. The first son of Tatiana and Vlad died at the age of six. The boy was disabled, at three months old he lost his hearing and vision due to the negligence of doctors. The second child, Alexander, has been working on television since 2002.
The third wife of the TV presenter was Albina Nazimova. After the death of her husband, she married again (for Andrei Razbash). The children of Vlad Listyev at the moment are left alive only two - Valeria and Alexander.
Shortly before the murder
The last program that Vladislav Listyev offered to Russian television was the entertaining Guess the Melody. The first program went on the air 34 days after the murder of Vlad Listyev. He left a lot in Russian television, even the principle of production itself. Vlad Listyev knew how to make a product that would appeal to viewers. But the money allocated by the budget was clearly not enough for this.
In 1995, everyone, including criminal structures, fought for the advertising market. Vlad Listyev has repeatedly stated that he wants to engage in creativity, and not to beg money from advertisers. It was he who announced the decision of the ORT leadership to introduce a moratorium on advertising from March 1, 1995. Working in the conditions in which television existed then was risky, but the decision to ban advertising had to be made. Two weeks later, two fatal shots sounded.
The murder of Vlad Listyev
Two hours after the last broadcast of Leaves, he was killed at the entrance of his house. On March 1, 1995, the TV presenter was returning home. At the entrance of his house on Novokuznetskaya street, he was attacked by two unknown persons. The first bullet hit the right forearm, and the second to the head. The life of Vlad Listyev tragically ended in the fortieth year.
The large amount of money and valuables Listev had with him remained untouched. This led to the assumption that the murder was related to the political or business activities of the presenter. Law enforcement authorities have repeatedly argued that the investigation will end soon, but neither customers nor murderers have been found.
Public response
The death of Vlad Listyev caused a wide public outcry. On March 2, all television channels stopped broadcasting. On the screens was a portrait of the director of the central television station with an inscription that he was killed. Only news releases were aired. No other event in the history of modern Russia has become the reason for the cancellation of the air of all television channels. At 19:00 on March 2, the program “Rush Hour” was released without a permanent presenter. The program was dedicated to the life and work of Vlad Listyev.
Investigation versions
Despite the fact that the case has not yet been resolved, there are several versions of who could be the customer of the murder of the presenter. The main suspect for a long time was Boris Berezovsky. American journalist Paul Khlebnikov suggested that Berezovsky controlled the founders of criminal networks in Russia. By the way, Boris Berezovsky himself in 2010 accused Vladimir Putin of Listyev of being killed. Possible involvement in the murder of journalist and presenter Sergei Lisovsky. He was repeatedly mentioned in the media, he was interrogated by law enforcement agencies. Lisovsky never tried to hide from the police. Another accused, Alexander Korzhakov, was indirectly charged with murder by a former FSB lieutenant colonel.