Who was Sobchak's father? Biography of Anatoly Sobchak: wife, children of a politician. The mayor of St. Petersburg called the deputies of the Leningrad City Council "riffraff" and "cattle", and the Russian flag - a rag
Anatoly Sobchak has been a well-known political figure for a long time. It was thanks to his work that the city of St. Petersburg became exactly the way its residents were accustomed to seeing it over the past several decades.
To begin with, at least in Anatoly’s inner circle was the (then, however, future) President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. And at one time Sobchak rendered great influence on this person.
Generation Soviet people remembers that the nineties were not the easiest period. But Anatoly showed every concern for his country and tried to restore its well-being. Even despite the fact that many printed publications spread gossip and rumors about him, none of which were true.
The story of Anatoly Sobchak is interesting to many people. Those who are interested not only in the history of the political formation of Russia, but also in the personalities of then and contemporary politicians, are interested even in little things. For example, what was their height, weight, age. The years of Anatoly Sobchak’s life are not secret information.
There is no officially confirmed information regarding his physical parameters, that is, height and weight. As for age, he would have been 81 years old. Those who are looking for photos of Anatoly Sobchak in his youth and now will only be able to find one photo.
By the way, there were rumors for some time that real name Sobchak Anatoly – Filgestein. But the politician’s wife denied this information.
Biography and personal life of Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Sobchak was born in the last month of the summer of 1937. His father, Alexander Sobchak, worked as an engineer at railway, and my mother, Nadezhda Litvinova, is an accountant. He also had brothers - Sasha, Egor and Yura.
Biography and personal life Anatoly Sobchak's life began to unfold in earnest when he transferred from a university in Tashkent to Leningrad. He was a successful student. And he got married for the first time even before completing his studies.
After graduating from university, Anatoly began working at the bar, a little later became a graduate student and even defended his dissertation. For eight years he was an assistant professor at LTI. During his second marriage, he was already working at the Faculty of Law at Leningrad State University.
In 1989 he received a seat as a deputy, and in 1991 he became the first mayor of Leningrad. At the end of the same year, he proposed returning the city to its previous name - St. Petersburg.
Everything was fine, but in the mid-nineties, Sobchak’s persecution began, which could not but affect his health. He suffered two heart attacks and it is possible that it was the third that caused his death.
Family and children of Anatoly Sobchak
As we know, Anatoly Sobchak was a politician, held high position, often made long trips. He had very little free time, so it is not surprising that Anatoly Sobchak’s family and children very rarely saw him at home. Even in the difficult years of political persecution, they were and remained his reliable rear. The only island of peace where you could always return. The family never doubted Anatoly and always supported her in everything.
His wife, Lyudmila Narusova, said that on rare free days Sobchak loved to walk with her and her daughter along the streets of St. Petersburg, where they once settled.
Daughter of Anatoly Sobchak - Maria Sobchak
The politician’s first-born, Anatoly Sobchak’s daughter Maria Sobchak, appeared to him at a time when the politician himself was still a student. The girl was born in Anatoly’s first marriage, but she was raised not by her parents, but by her maternal grandmother. The little girl especially loved stories and bedtime stories. For example, “Cinderella,” which I never tired of listening to over and over again.
When Mashenka was still in school, she received only excellent grades. And at university I studied to be a lawyer. Now she is married and raising a wonderful son named Gleb, who is now a student at the same university where his grandfather and mother studied.
Daughter of Anatoly Sobchak - Ksenia Sobchak
The youngest daughter, now known to many, Ksenia, was born in 1983. Interestingly, the baby was named after Saint Xenia. The girl appeared in her second marriage, and the parents tried their best to take care of the baby. They literally did everything they could for her. Ksenia grew up very gifted - she studied well in private school, went to different circles.
When Anatoly died, the girl was only seventeen. And she took his death hard. Having come to her senses, Ksenia found a job on television and became a presenter.
The daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, Ksenia Sobchak, is known today not only as a presenter, but also politician.
Ex-wife of Anatoly Sobchak - Nonna Handzyuk
The ex-wife of Anatoly Sobchak, Nonna Handzyuk, is originally from Odessa, and moved to St. Petersburg when she was little with her parents. The girl met her future husband, Anatoly, while a student. Thanks to her appearance, young Nonna was often surrounded by the attention of guys. Anatoly also fell under the influence of her beauty.
The lovers got married just a few months after they met, and lived happily together for twenty-three years. When Anatoly fell in love again, he did not hide it from his wife. And she, in turn, did not start scandals and let her husband go to another woman. Now she doesn’t hold a grudge against Anatoly’s new wife and even sometimes communicates with her.
Anatoly Sobchak's wife - Lyudmila Narusova
Anatoly Sobchak's wife, Lyudmila Narusova, was born in Bryansk, and came to St. Petersburg to receive higher education. There she received a candidate's degree in historical sciences.
In 1991-94, this woman had nothing to do with politics. Lyudmila managed hospitals and hospices. But in 1995 she became a member of the State Duma parliament. And at the beginning of the 2000s, she was already able to head the foundation founded by her husband. Around the same time, she began hosting one of the popular shows on television.
Repeatedly Lyudmila managed to occupy the post of senator of the Supreme Council of Russia. Years have passed, but she continues to engage in political work, but also does not forget about the role of her grandmother.
Cause of death of Anatoly Sobchak
Soon after the funeral took place, a variety of rumors about the first official mayor of St. Petersburg began to appear in the press. There was even talk that he was with young girls in the sauna, and it was there that death occurred. As you can see, the cause of Anatoly Sobchak’s death literally became a sensation for the yellow press. There was no end to the various rumors.
He himself and his family carefully hid all news regarding the politician’s health. But not so long ago, Lyudmila said that doctors forbade her husband to worry, but he refused to quit work. Ultimately, how Anatoly Sobchak died remained unknown. Although at one time there were even rumors that he was killed. Indeed, in politics such an outcome is not uncommon.
Instagram and Wikipedia Anatoly Sobchak
Instagram and Wikipedia of Anatoly Sobchak are the resources that everyone who is interested in politics and the personality of this amazing man is looking for. He died in 2000, which is why you won’t find his profile on Instagram even if you wanted to. But his photographs can be seen on the Instagram pages of his wife Lyudmila and daughter Ksenia. It is noteworthy that there he is presented not as a politician, but as an ordinary family man.
But in the Internet encyclopedia you can find some information about his personal life and political activity. Although, there is almost no information about his family.
Anatoly Sobchak is a well-known democratic reformer and political figure during Perestroika, one of the authors of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation, the first mayor of St. Petersburg. IN recent years life became a scandalous key figure Russian politics, accused of corruption, abuse job responsibilities and bribery. Many high-ranking officials and diplomats worked under his leadership at the St. Petersburg City Hall modern Russia, which includes the President of the Russian Federation and the Prime Minister of Russia.
Sobchak Anatoly Aleksandrovich was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita in an ordinary family. His father, Alexander Antonovich, worked as an engineer on the railway, and his mother Nadezhda Andreevna was an accountant. Young Sobchak was not only child in the family, he had three more brothers.
Sobchak spent his childhood in the city of Kokand, located in Uzbekistan. The family moved there because the father was transferred to work. The future politician studied at a regular local school with his brothers. He was a talented, attentive, diligent and persistent student who did not cause trouble to either his parents or teachers. After graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Law at Tashkent University, but literally a year later in 1954 he transferred to Leningrad State University, which most likely marked the beginning of his fateful reunion with St. Petersburg.
At the university, student Sobchak actively demonstrated his desire and ability to study, thanks to which he became a Lenin scholarship recipient. In 1959, after graduating from university, young Anatoly was assigned to work at the Stavropol Bar Association. In 1962, Sobchak returned to Leningrad, completed his graduate studies at Leningrad State University and defended his Ph.D. thesis.
Then he taught for three years at the special police school of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, and from 1968 to 1973 he was an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at Leningrad State University. In 1985, Anatoly Aleksandrovich headed the department of economic law at the same faculty.
Career
Sobchak's political career began rapidly in 1989, when, after joining the CPSU, he was elected as a people's deputy to the Supreme Council. Then he headed the subcommittee on economic legislation and law and order and became one of the founders of the Interregional Deputy Group of the USSR Armed Forces. Less than a year later, Anatoly Alexandrovich joined the Leningrad City Council and a month later headed it, and in 1991, based on the election results, he became the first mayor of Leningrad. After Sobchak came to power, the city on the Neva returned its historical name and again began to be called St. Petersburg.
Most of the young specialists at that time, who are currently high-ranking officials and diplomats in the Kremlin, worked in the St. Petersburg mayor's office under Sobchak. In particular, the confidants of the mayor of St. Petersburg were Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the head of Gazprom, the president of Rosneft and many famous Russian politicians.
In the very first year after taking office as mayor of St. Petersburg, Sobchak actively showed himself and gained authority among the population. He took an active part in the creation of the Democratic Reform Movement, opposed the actions of the State Emergency Committee at the August 1991 putsch in Leningrad, organized and called on the population to protest rallies against the actions of the State Committee for Emergency Regulations, which allowed Leningrad to resist the decrees of this department.
However, the authority of the first person of St. Petersburg was not indisputable. His sincere commitment to democracy closely intersected with his commitment to authoritarian methods of governing the city, which entailed endless conflicts with the local legislative power.
There has always been a stir around Anatoly Sobchak Sobchak also repeatedly became a figure in high-profile foreign voyages and banquets in order to attract investors and humanitarian aid flows to the city. But the “bet on the West” led to the suppression of local industry in St. Petersburg. At the same time, city residents condemned the mayor for regularly international events on the banks of the Neva and were accused of squandering the city budget.
In 1995, Sobchak's associates persuaded him to run in the Russian presidential elections in 1996 and become a competitor to the ex-head of state. However, Anatoly Alexandrovich completely and categorically abandoned the idea. In 1996, he also lost the gubernatorial elections to his deputy Vladimir Yakovlev and left the post of mayor of St. Petersburg.
Sobchak's career as a politician faded away as quickly as it began. The first mayor of St. Petersburg became a symbol of the bright social group Russia, which in the early 90s sought changes in the country. For one part of society, Anatoly Alexandrovich is associated with the destroyer of a stable and familiar world order, while others perceive him as a figure leading the country to freedom through a revolutionary change.
Criminal prosecution
In October 1997, Anatoly Sobchak was brought to the criminal case of corruption in the St. Petersburg mayor's office as a witness by the Prosecutor General's Office. After some time, Sobchak was brought to this criminal case as a defendant under the articles “Bribery” and “Abuse of Official Power”. Then the family of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg became loudly discussed in the media and society, and accusations of all mortal sins rained down on Sobchak.
Against the backdrop of these events, Anatoly Alexandrovich’s health condition seriously deteriorated, and instead of a prison cell, he ended up in a cardiology department with a heart attack. After some time, Sobchak left the city and flew to France for treatment. He lived in Paris until 1999 inclusive, where he decided to remember his scientific activity. He lectured at the Sorbonne and other leading universities in France, wrote two books and published more than 30 scientific articles.
In November 1999, the criminal case against Sobchak was dropped for lack of evidence of a crime, and he returned to Russia, declaring his intention to re-enter big-time politics. At the beginning of 2000, Sobchak took the position of confidant of Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and headed the Political Council of Democratic Movements and Parties of St. Petersburg.
Personal life
Sobchak's first marriage took place during his student years. Then he married the first beauty of the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen Nonna Handzyuk, who gave birth to his eldest daughter Maria. But in 1977 family idyll went out, the future mayor of St. Petersburg divorced his wife, having lived with her for 21 years.
Anatoly Sobchak with his wife Lyudmila Sobchak’s second wife was, whom he met as a lawyer and helped in a complex divorce proceeding with her first husband. Sobchak's second wife became his reliable and true ally in political career, she always took an active part in her husband’s affairs and supported him in all his endeavors.
At the same time, the wife of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg was involved in the implementation of her own projects, in particular, she was a representative of the Russian government in the trustee German Foundation “Memory, Responsibility and the Future”, and also held several responsible positions.
Anatoly Sobchak with his daughter Ksenia In 1981, a daughter was born into the politician’s family, who is currently a Russian TV presenter and successful journalist. Sobchak’s daughter, like Anatoly himself, is a controversial figure in society.
Death
On February 20, 2000, while serving as a confidant of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, Anatoly Sobchak died in a hotel in Svetlogorsk. According to official data, Sobchak's death occurred as a result of acute heart attack.
The sudden death of Anatoly Sobchak became a high-profile incident that led to widespread gossip. Rumors about the death of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg appeared and multiplied with lightning speed. Some stated that Sobchak was killed because he knew a lot, others put forward the version of alcohol poisoning and Viagra.
In May 2000, the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region opened a criminal case regarding the murder of Sobchak by poisoning. But an examination after an autopsy showed that there was no alcohol or medicines, as a result of which on August 4 the criminal case of Sobchak’s murder was closed.
Anatoly Alexandrovich Sobchak was buried on February 24 in St. Petersburg at the Nikolskoye cemetery.
Difficult childhood, fast-paced career, happy personal life and bullying at the end. What twists and turns were there in the biography of Anatoly Sobchak?Childhood and family of Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Sobchak grew up in the family of railway engineer Alexander Antonovich Sobchak. Due to the father's profession, the family changed their place of residence more than once. Mother, Nadezhda Andreevna Litvinova, served as an accountant. The family had four sons. When Tolya was two years old, his father was transferred to serve in Uzbekistan. There he went to school and received a certificate of secondary education. Anatoly managed to enter the university in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. He chose the Faculty of Law, but did not study there for long. In his second year, in 1954, he transferred to the city of his destiny - Leningrad. At Leningrad State University, the student was able to become a Lenin Scholar - he turned out to be an attentive, hard-working and talented student.Academic success was not easy for him. Youth and spring love took their toll. Anatoly Sobchak first married during his student years to the bright beauty Nonna Handzyuk. The wife studied at the philological department of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute. Soon the newlyweds were happy with the birth of their first child. Anatoly Sobchak’s daughter from his first marriage, who was named Maria, followed in her father’s footsteps and became a lawyer. Now, in adulthood, she works as a criminal lawyer. The daughter managed to pass on the family talent to her grandson; her son Gleb is studying at the Faculty of Law of the now St. Petersburg State University.
Legal experience of Anatoly Sobchak
When Anatoly Sobchak received his diploma, he and his family were assigned to the Stavropol Regional Bar Association, where he served for three years. He started as a lawyer in the town of Nevinnomyssk, then rose to become the head of a legal consultation.The experience allowed him to think about more, and in 1962 Anatoly Sobchak went to Leningrad, where he entered, and three years later he successfully completed graduate school, defending his Ph.D. thesis. In 1965, now Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak began giving lectures to students of the Leningrad Special Police School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Receives the scientific title of associate professor and in 1968 moves to the position of associate professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry, where he continued to work until 1973.
Over the years of work as a teacher, Anatoly Aleksandrovich wrote more than 200 books and scientific articles on economics and law, flawlessly confirming his right to academic degrees. In 1982, he defended his doctoral dissertation and continued to work as a professor at the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University. He created and headed the first department of economic law in the USSR. Over the years, his first family broke up and a new one was born. In 1980, Anatoly Sobchak married Lyudmila Narusova. The bride had a PhD in historical sciences and was an assistant professor in the department of Russian history at the Academy of Culture. In his second marriage, a daughter, Ksenia, was born.
Anatoly Sobchak - the first mayor of St. Petersburg
While the scientific career of the future first mayor of St. Petersburg (still Leningrad) was developing successfully, global changes were already brewing in the country. In 1989, the first democratic elections were held, and by the will of Leningraders, Anatoly Alexandrovich received the mandate of People's Deputy of the USSR in the 47th electoral district of Leningrad. This district includes the famous Vasilyevsky Island. He immediately, at the very first congress, became a member of the Supreme Council, the Committee on Legislation and Law and Order. He became the chairman of the parliamentary commission to investigate the tragic defeat of the rally by troops on April 9, 1989 in Tbilisi. An interregional deputy group was organized to clarify all the details.Personal life of Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Sobchak perhaps moved more and more away from his family and devoted more and more energy and time to solving public affairs. On June 12, 1991, he was elected the first mayor of the city - now - St. Petersburg. It was under him that the city’s historical name was returned. As mayor of the country's second city, Sobchak was a member of advisory councils under Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, and headed the Constitutional Council, whose work was the new democratic Constitution of Russia. 
Anatoly Sobchak knew how to see talent in those around him and did not block their path, but helped them find their way. Many of the first team now hold government positions in Moscow. Under this mayor, St. Petersburg became a European city, investments began to be attracted to it, and it once again justified its status as a cultural capital. In 1994, the Games were held in St. Petersburg Goodwill, it has become a city of festivals, forums, conferences...
Harassment of Anatoly Sobchak: three heart attacks
However, not everyone liked the policies of the first mayor, and by the time of the second elections an opposing coalition had formed. The prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the special services did not find any advantages in the work of Anatoly Sobchak. In the next election, his opponent received 1.2 percent more votes. Denigrating publications in newspapers began about Anatoly Sobchak, as well as about his family, and a corruption case was opened. At this time, Anatoly Alexandrovich’s health began to deteriorate. He continued to be called in for questioning. On October 3, 1997, he was supposed to testify in a corruption case, but a pre-heart attack sent him not to prison, but to the hospital. For another month, the former mayor was treated after a heart attack in the cardiac intensive care unit of the 122nd medical unit. A third heart attack occurred. He was transferred to the Military Medical Academy, from there on November 7, 1997 he flew to France... 
In Paris, Sobchak not only received treatment, he continued to teach, wrote books, and spent a long time in the archives. However, despite persecution at home and repeated warnings from friends, he decided to return to Russia.
Anatoly Sobchak arrived in St. Petersburg on July 12, 1999. In October of this year, he was officially notified that the criminal case against him for corruption had been dropped. Sobchak could not become mayor again - 1.2 percent of the votes were missing. In 2000, he became a confidant of Russian presidential candidate V.V. Putin. He was traveling to Kaliningrad on business, but didn’t have time. Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak died on February 20, 2000 in Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region. Thousands of people came to see off the first mayor of St. Petersburg on his last journey; the Tauride Palace, reserved for the mournful ceremony, could not accommodate everyone. The grave of Anatoly Sobchak can be honored at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
The mayor of St. Petersburg called the deputies of the Leningrad City Council "riffraff" and "cattle", and the Russian flag - a rag
Original of this material© Radio Liberty, 02/25/2010, Photo: Kommersant
Who canonizes Sobchak and why?
Boris VishnevskyLast week we were clearly shown how history is falsified. But not the history of the Great Patriotic War, but quite recent history. One problem: most of the eyewitnesses of these events are still alive and remember perfectly well how everything really happened. They have every reason to declare: both shown on the channel "", and numerous statements by the first, second and third parties of the state, made at ceremonial events in connection with the 10th anniversary of the death of the first and the last mayor of St. Petersburg, have approximately the same relation to reality as the film "Kuban Cossacks".
Over the course of several days, we were told a great many fables concerning Anatoly Alexandrovich, both old and new.
Of course it was in once again it was announced that in 1991 it was Sobchak who returned the city to its historical name - and it doesn’t matter that he opposed it and had nothing to do with the referendum appointed by the Leningrad City Council.
Other legends of modern times were also repeated. So, it was once again announced that it was Sobchak who played a decisive role in the victory over the State Emergency Committee - and it doesn’t matter that the mayor arrived in the city only in the evening of August 19, 1991, that resistance to the putschists was organized not by the mayor, but by the Leningrad City Council, and that on the night of On August 20-21, 1991, Sobchak left for the Kirov plant, where it was safe - while the defenders of the Mariinsky Palace, having learned that in Moscow to White House The tanks moved and were waiting for the assault. They kept silent about this, of course, but they did it (in the film by Alexander Gabnis) major discovery: It turns out that it was Sobchak who first uttered the word “putsch” in August 1991! And it was his voice that “was heard by the whole country.” But it is not difficult to see that it was not Sobchak who first uttered the word “putsch”: the “putschists” were announced in the “Appeal to the Citizens of Russia,” which was signed by Boris Yeltsin, Ivan Silaev and Ruslan Khasbulatov on the morning of August 19.
It was repeated for the hundredth time what a supporter of the rule of law the late mayor of St. Petersburg was. And not a word was said about how lawyer Sobchak literally signed orders in batches regarding the distribution of city property, how more than 200 of these orders were canceled by the Leningrad City Council and how the mayor lost all the courts in which he tried to prove his case. Not a word was said about the fact that Sobchak consistently advocated for strengthening his personal power, for his right to make unilateral and uncontrolled decisions, for giving officials a free hand and for removing Lensoviet deputies from influence on the executive branch and from control over it. And of course, we were not reminded how in December 1993 Sobchak organized Boris Yeltsin’s decree to disband the Leningrad City Council, which severely limited the mayor’s omnipotence.
The apotheosis of Gabnis’s film was the footage where Sobchak’s faithful students - Dmitry Medvedev and then Vladimir Putin - spoke touchingly about Anatoly Alexandrovich’s devotion to the ideals of democracy, which they learned from him. But at least two questions arose here. What, the current state of Russian democracy - with blatantly dishonest elections, dispersal of opposition rallies, an obedient parliament, Basmanny justice and Kremlin television exactly corresponds to the democratic ideals of Professor Sobchak? Or were the second and third presidents of Russia terrible students?
We, of course, heard that Sobchak was a “real St. Petersburg intellectual.” And, of course, neither in Gabnis’s film nor at the ceremonial events were the opponents of the late mayor given the floor, who could talk about his intolerance for other people’s opinions, about the Bolshevik habit of ridiculing opponents, getting personal instead of arguing on the merits, about how he called the deputies of the Leningrad City Council “riffraff”, “pests” and “cattle”, just as he resorted to the help of Alexander Nevzorov when it was necessary to fight with legislators...
Of course, it was once again stated that Sobchak was “harassed” and “persecuted” - which is why he lost the 1996 gubernatorial elections. That he, poor thing, “didn’t immediately begin to pay attention to the one-sided coverage of his activities as mayor,” and when he noticed, it was too late. Let us note that the coverage of his activities was indeed “one-sided” - almost all St. Petersburg media fiercely supported the mayor and mocked the deputies of the Leningrad City Council, and before the 1996 elections they completely turned into a crossword puzzle with one word “Sobchak” both horizontally and vertically . But they didn’t tell us about this - just as they didn’t tell us about the disastrous financial situation St. Petersburg found itself in after Sobchak’s resignation: what exorbitant debts he accumulated, how many non-repayable loans he gave out from the budget and how many apartments he allocated to his associates.
But it was said that in 1989, Valentina Matvienko, then deputy chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, against the will of the city party leadership, supported Anatoly Sobchak in the elections people's deputies The USSR - which Valentina Ivanovna herself recalled touchingly during the ceremonial events. True, we have not been presented with witnesses to this heroic act - and, frankly, it’s hard to believe in it: for such a thing, Valentina Matvienko would have been miserably kicked out of office. And Sobchak himself, if such a miracle happened, would not fail to mention it in his book “Walking into Power,” published in 1991...
But that's not all. In Gabnis’s film, they finally reveal the truth to us: supposedly Sobchak had every chance of becoming president of Russia in 1991 and the Interregional Deputy Group discussed this issue, Sobchak’s rating was higher than Yeltsin’s, but Anatoly Alexandrovich nobly refused in favor of Boris Nikolayevich and even became his confidant. It’s as if there are no more people left who remember well that no one then even considered Sobchak in this capacity.
And during the ceremonial events in St. Petersburg, we were told that it was Sobchak on August 21, 1991 who first raised above government agency red-blue-white tricolor - despite the fact that this was done not on August 21, but on August 22 in pursuance of the decision of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR to change the national flag of Russia, and the flag was raised over the Mariinsky Palace by deputy Vitaly Skoybeda, one of Sobchak’s main opponents.
And a completely unexpected discovery. It turned out that Sobchak’s election headquarters in 1989 was headed by “the young guy Dima Medvedev” - such a lucky coincidence! And it’s okay that Sobchak didn’t mention a word about this in the same book “Walking into Power”...
Admiration for Anatoly Alexandrovich is a “deflection” Russian elite not in front of the late Sobchak, but in front of the living Putin. Anyone who doesn’t believe it should try a thought experiment and imagine that today the “national leader” would be a person who worked not in St. Petersburg, but in the Moscow mayor’s office.
Finally, there is no way to ignore the ending of the film by Alexander Gabnis: they say, having arrived in Kaliningrad in February 2000, Sobchak “will light a candle in Orthodox church and will go to rest." And in the morning, when he is no longer there, "the candle that he lit will still burn."
It is strange that we learned about the miracle that happened only ten years later, and not from the parishioners of the temple, and not from the priests. But we will not be surprised if in another ten years it becomes known about miraculous healings at Sobchak’s grave or about the life-giving power of his portrait.
"The bosses doted on such a mayor"
Original of this material© "Our Version on the Neva", 02.22.2010, Death of an unnecessary person, Photo: "Kommersant"
Two months before the end of his physical existence, Anatoly Sobchak finally turned into a political corpse
Zhanna Ilyina[…] Anatoly Aleksandrovich was considered an extremely cautious politician; in 1988 he joined the CPSU, a year later he went to the polls under well-intentioned socialist slogans, until the last he opposed the renaming of Leningrad, and called the tricolor Russian flag a rag. Only when it became safe and profitable to defend new ideals did Sobchak unleash all his considerable talent as an orator and demagogue on their opponents.
Killers disguised as heart attacks
However, in the last years of his life, this staunch careerist made many enemies. Court filmmakers never tire of cursing the adversaries who persecuted the idol, but for some reason they do not name the persecutors. They don’t say a single word about the essence of the criminal cases in which Sobchak was involved, or about the strange circumstances of his death. Meanwhile, both supporters and opponents of the former mayor are of the widespread opinion that his death was not natural.He recalled the mysterious enemy forces destroying Russia in a conversation with his young wife transcribed on the website Kompromat.ru friend Yulia Vetoshnova and Anatoly Alexandrovich himself twelve years ago. […] “They just wanted to replace the weak Nicholas with a stronger, so to speak, monarch,” the former mayor enthusiastically denounced the organizers February Revolution 1917. - And the country was presented to the Bolsheviks on a silver platter. This is exactly the same situation now. When, you know, there is confusion in the country and everyone is talking with a sincere desire, so to speak, about the future of Russia and is ready to hand over to these scoundrels on a silver platter a country that they will then rape. So I just want to emphasize this side of the matter, I’m writing about this right now, so that it finally comes through, at least some things reach our damn fellow citizens.”
Who did our Don Juan mean? Former deputy Vladimir Yakovlev, who clearly did not defeat him in the gubernatorial elections. Communists? But the conversation took place on the night of January 1, 1998, a year and a half after, having been defeated in the presidential elections, they lost their last chance to come to power. Hostile intelligence officials? His elder brother Alexander spoke about their involvement in Sobchak’s death in an interview with Express Gazeta, at the same time commenting on rumors about the death of a relative in a bathhouse with girls and the authoritative businessman Shabtai Kalmanovich, who was recently shot in Moscow.
“Anatoly had a lot of enemies, he stopped fitting into the system,” said Alexander Alexandrovich. - I am sure that in Kaliningrad there was a most ordinary murder, which was covered up by a heart attack. Maybe there was a woman with Anatoly. So what? My brother was a prominent man. And another big question is who slipped this woman to him, and what is her role in this whole story.”
Korzhakov's terrible revenge
One of his most ardent persecutors, a St. Petersburg correspondent for the newspaper, spoke more specifically about the conflict with Sobchak. Soviet Russia» Sergey Ivanov. It was his article “Nevsky Octopus”, which appeared in print on April 25, 1996, that marked the beginning of a series of revealing publications that played almost a decisive role in the elections of the head of St. Petersburg that took place a few months later. Some believe that the revealing text was written at the request of the mayor's enemies, which the author prefers to refute.“In fact, Sobchak himself became the organizer of the Sobchak case,” Comrade Ivanov told our correspondent. - It was he who instructed the St. Petersburg police department to conduct an inspection, during which the director of the real estate company “Rennesans” was arrested Anna Evglevskaya. Finding herself under interrogation, Evglevskaya decided to intimidate the investigator with her connections and named several high-ranking officials, including the mayor. Based on the case materials, it turned out that the businesswoman united three-room apartment owner of Smolny with neighboring four-room apartments, paying 45 thousand dollars for it. At that time, the Kremlin group, which included the mayor, was in conflict with another influential clan, which was represented, in particular, by Yeltsin’s security chief Alexander Korzhakov.
I have reason to think that, having extensive connections in the authorities, he quickly learned about the revelations of the director of Renaissance, and soon an investigative team appeared in St. Petersburg. But no Korzhakov could have given the case such resonance if not for the hatred of Sobchak, which rallied many people. Employees law enforcement agencies, deputies, journalists, officials, entrepreneurs, having learned who the main defendant was, lit up with enthusiasm and began to literally dig the ground to bury the politician they hated. This wave captured me too, I established contact with them, and soon the first “Nevsky Octopus” appeared on the pages of our newspaper, and then new articles from this series followed. The “hero” threatened to sue, but never took the risk. “I am still proud that I contributed to Sobchak’s defeat in the gubernatorial elections, and then to the inglorious end of his political career.”
Of course, our interlocutor is a biased person. But even supporters of the deceased agree with him that the mayor has turned too many people against him. What is the reason for such hatred? Those nostalgic for the USSR could not digest Anatoly Alexandrovich as a destroyer of their Motherland; poor St. Petersburg residents were irritated by the mayor, who constantly appears at social events and travels on international visits, while the city entrusted to him is falling apart before their eyes. The mayor was suspected of corruption, and, according to Ivanov, the case materials he studied suggested the existence of accounts in one of the banks in the American city of St. Petersburg. However, similar sins can be found in other politicians, but they did not cause such irritation, and sometimes even restored the damaged public trust. This did not happen with Sobchak, and the point here is not in corruption or unprincipledness, but in the character traits of a professor at the law department of Leningrad State University who unexpectedly stepped into politics.
Dangerous Liaisons
The mayor's numerous contacts with dubious businessmen are well known. So, during one of his trips to Italy, he was accompanied by the deputy director of the elite clothing store Oxus, Lyudmila Anufrieva. Sobchak's wife Lyudmila Narusova loved this once famous boutique. According to Novaya Gazeta, on December 10, 1995, in the store there was a package of expensive clothes worth $4,216 with the inscription “Sobchak” pinned on it, and even earlier, Mrs. Narusova wanted to buy 6 suits there at once with a 50 percent discount. For reference: we are talking about the socialite Anufrieva, who later became the owner of the very elite clothing gallery Vanity (“Vanity”), and after the ruin of the fashion business, she disappeared somewhere in Europe. The Vanity building has direct relation to the family of the famous authority Gennady Petrov, whom the indomitable Spanish law enforcement officer Baltazar Garzon is now trying to imprison.The notorious UNESCO support center, which in fact had not the slightest connection with this venerable international organization, became a real breeding ground for St. Petersburg criminals. But the offices of the famous authorities Sergei Miskarev (Broiler), Mushegh Azatyan (Misha-rezany), Viktor Greshnikov (Isaak), the imprisoned antique dealer Alexander Khochinsky (Khachik), who had recently been released from the pre-trial detention center Mirilashvili Jr. (Kuso) and himself the famous one is Vladimir Kumarin (Kuma). The St. Petersburg administration was forced to deal with some of these “businessmen.” When Sobchak and his colleague, co-chairman of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments Alexander Margolis created Foundation "Renaissance of St. Petersburg", the question was not limited to almost 7 million rubles and numerous jewelry collected by friends for repairs historical center cities. In addition, the rescue fund established JSC Neva-Chance, which in turn established the Konti casino - the patrimony of Mikhail Mirilashvili Sr. (Misha Kutaissky), who recently served 8 years for the kidnapping.
It is not surprising that the bosses doted on such a mayor. “This is the same stinking democracy for which we were all ready to die for Sobchak, in ninety-one - ninety-three...” the late Ruslan Kolyak (Lupaty) recalled on the pages of the book “Gangster Petersburg”. Far from it simple words: we should not forget that it was first of all the lads, led by Lupaty’s colleague, the future owner of the St. Petersburg port, Ilya Traber (Antikvar), who came to defend Anatoly Alexandrovich from the State Emergency Committee.
But soon the honeymoon ended. It seems that Anatoly Aleksandrovich considered that some authorities, like the democratic deputies who elevated him to power, were a past historical stage. A worn-out step that not only can, but also must be discarded on the way to the heights of power. The situation was aggravated by a smug, sometimes lordly style of communication. This was endured with particular difficulty, since in the city on the Neva, due to the well-known St. Petersburg snobbery, everyone remembered that the lawyer Sobchak did a special favor for the Leningraders by arriving to lead them from his historical homeland - sunny Uzbekistan. It is not surprising that numerous relatives of the mayor flocked to St. Petersburg - for example, the owner of night clubs Alexander Valerievich Sobchak, who ended his business biography after being accused of the murders of several prostitutes. According to the investigation, Mr. Sobchak’s bandits did not just take the lives of the “butterflies,” they staged a bloodbath: they cut their noses and throats, gouged out their eyes and disfigured their faces.
However, Anatoly Alexandrovich himself sometimes made ridiculous, unsubstantiated calls like “kill criminals on the spot.” As a result, the unprepared actions of the police hit the mayor himself, and in 1996 he was already drowned by a previously unimaginable coalition. Investigators, mafiosi, Prosmolny bankers, communists, security officers, fascists, democrats, journalists like Alexander Nevzorov, who previously supported the mayor, former associates like vice-mayor Shcherbakov united around Sobchak’s deputy Vladimir Yakovlev. And previously, far from any politics, the utility worker plunged into dust his former idol, who was left without allies.
What follows is known: illness, threat of arrest, flight abroad in a Jetflite private jet rented by a friend, Rostropovich, termination of the criminal case, long-term litigation with varying success with offending newspapers, and the last political failure in the 1999 Duma elections. By that time, Anatoly Alexandrovich had already lost such a sense of reality that he rejected offers of help from enemies who were ready to forget past grievances.
“Sobchak turned out to be an absolute idiot,” Alexander Nevzorov told his boss Boris Berezovsky at the time. - And in response to the offer of help, and the most sincere one - I could help and wanted to help - he took a number of hostile steps, absolutely hostile. He started calling me again a sadist, a necrophiliac, distributed some leaflets... Lyusya, his wife, immediately wrote a denunciation against me to the Central Election Commission. You can’t deal with such people... He would have to believe in the sincerity of my desire, because I hate his competitor more than I hate him. And we could do a lot for him. But in response to the offer of help, this kind of spitting followed an open heart.”
In this situation, defeat was predetermined. Having failed to get into the Duma, Sobchak lost all chances to independently return to power, without which, being a truly outstanding person and thirsty for public recognition, he could no longer imagine his further existence. Physical death became a natural consequence of political death, and it is unlikely that the long-disgraced Korzhakov was involved in this sad event.
"Putin and Medvedev continue Sobchak's work"
Original of this material© Radio Liberty, 02/16/2010, Sobchak’s case through the eyes of its successors, Photo: Kommersant
Anastasia Kirilenko
On February 19, channel "Russia 1" will show the film by Lyudmila Narusova and Alexander Gabnis "10 years later. Anatoly Sobchak", dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the death of the first St. Petersburg mayor. The film includes interviews with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The president is interviewed by Sobchak's daughter Ksenia, the prime minister is Sobchak's widow Lyudmila Narusova. […]
ABOUT documentary film“Sobchak. 10 years later,” director and scriptwriter Alexander Gabnis tells in an interview with Radio Liberty:
10 years ago I wrote the script for my first film about Sobchak, which was shown at the same time on Channel One. It so happened that I ended up last person, to whom Anatoly Alexandrovich gave a television interview. This was four days before his death. This archival interview became the basis of the new film - such a voice from the past... I then recorded a three-hour interview, part of it was used in the first film. But some fragments were not included in that film. I decided to return to them. In addition, it seemed important to me that the new film contains interviews with Sobchak’s students - the president and prime minister. I turned to Lyudmila Narusova to help me interview them. As a result, these conversations appeared in the film, and besides them, memories of Sobchak by the Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, the Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko, and, naturally, the daughter and widow of Anatoly Alexandrovich.
- Did you like Ksenia Sobchak’s work as an interviewer?
Well, she was prepared to talk. I wrote the questions for Putin and Medvedev.
- Did you coordinate them?
I didn't agree on anything. I simply formulated the questions to which I wanted to receive answers from the two leaders of our country.
- And were you able to ask all the questions?
Almost everything.
- In 1992, a commission of the St. Petersburg City Council was created to investigate the activities of Vladimir Putin as Sobchak’s deputy on suspicion of corruption and embezzlement of funds. The commission presented a report known as report by Marina Salye, and the city council called on Sobchak to dismiss Putin and entrust the investigation to the prosecutor's office. Anatoly Sobchak, however, ignored the recommendation. Is Marina Salye's report mentioned in the film?
- Why?
It is impossible to embrace the immensity. I originally wanted to keep it to 44 minutes, but the result was an hour-long film.
- In terms of time, the interviews with Medvedev and Putin probably take up most of the film?
I would say a good portion. […]
Are there interviews with Sobchak's opponents in the film? For example, with those who inspired the dropping of leaflets from a helicopter, with those who accused him of criminal offenses?
No, this movie doesn't have that. There is an attempt at analysis there. I’m trying to figure out why a situation arose in which the persecution of Sobchak became possible.
- Why, in your opinion?
He always told a person to his face what he thought about him. Many people didn't like it.
- Were you closely acquainted with Sobchak?
15 years ago, when Sobchak lost the gubernatorial elections, but the election struggle was still going on, I was offered to become the editor of the Mayor's Hour program, which was hosted by Sobchak, and I prepared these programs for him. And I came across him closer, saw him, and became imbued with his ideas even more.
- How would you formulate the main idea of the film?
In my opinion, the president formulated it quite accurately in the film. He says: what Sobchak taught, his colleagues and his students are now trying to put into practice. He taught to be honest in politics, he taught not to be afraid of anything.
- Do you think Putin and Medvedev are continuing Sobchak’s work?
I think so,” said Alexander Gabnis.
August 10, 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of the first mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak.
Russian politician, first mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak was born on August 10, 1937 in the city of Chita. His father worked as a railway engineer, and his mother served as an accountant. Two years after Anatoly’s birth, the family moved to Uzbekistan.
Anatoly Sobchak graduated from Uzbekistan high school and entered the Faculty of Law at Tashkent University. In 1954 he transferred to Leningradsky state university(LSU, now St. Petersburg State University).
In 1959, after graduating from university, Anatoly Sobchak was assigned to work for three years at the Stavropol Regional Bar Association - first as a lawyer in the city of Nevinnomyssk, and then as the head of a legal consultation.
In 1962, he returned to Leningrad, graduated from graduate school at Leningrad State University, and defended his Ph.D. thesis.
From 1965 to 1968, Sobchak taught at the Leningradskaya special school police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. From 1968 to 1973 he was an assistant professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
From 1973 to 1981 - associate professor, since 1982 - professor at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University. Here, after defending his doctoral dissertation in 1982, he created and headed the first department of economic law in the USSR.
In 1989, Anatoly Sobchak was elected people's deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and was chairman of the subcommittee on economic legislation of the USSR Supreme Soviet Committee on Legislation and Law and Order.
He became one of the founders of the Interregional Deputy Group, formed from deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in June 1989.
In April 1990, Anatoly Sobchak was elected as a deputy of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies, and on May 23, 1990 became chairman of the Leningrad City Council.
Following the results of the first popular elections of the head of the city on June 12, 1991, he became the mayor of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Since 1994, he simultaneously headed the government of St. Petersburg.
Under Sobchak, on September 8, 1991, the city of Leningrad was returned to its historical name - St. Petersburg.
Anatoly Sobchak was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council under USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, a member of the Presidential Council under Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and participated in the work of the Constitutional Conference that prepared the democratic Constitution of the new Russia.
In 1993, he headed the federal RDDR list in the elections to the State Duma of the first convocation (based on the voting results, the RDDR list did not overcome the 5 percent barrier).
In 1996, Sobchak ran for the post of governor of St. Petersburg as a registered candidate. In June 1996, he lost in the second round of elections to Vladimir Yakovlev.
In November 1997, Anatoly Sobchak went abroad for treatment, after which he lived in France.
In September 1998, a criminal case was opened against him on charges of bribery and abuse of power.
In July 1999, Sobchak returned to Russia and announced his intention to return to public politics.
In October 1999, the criminal case against him was dropped.
At the beginning of 2000, Anatoly Sobchak became a confidant of Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and headed the Political Advisory Council of Democratic Parties and Movements of St. Petersburg.
On February 20, 2000, Anatoly Sobchak died in Svetlogorsk (Kaliningrad region). The cause of death was acute heart failure.
In 2003, a monument created by sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin was erected at the grave of Anatoly Sobchak at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
In 2004, a monument to Anatoly Sobchak was unveiled in the park named after April 9 in Tbilisi (Georgia).
In 2005, by decree of the government of St. Petersburg, the square in front of the southern facade of the Palace of Culture named after S.M. Kirov was given the name "Sobchak Square".
June 12, 2006 in St. Petersburg to Anatoly Sobchak (sculptor Ivan Korneev and architect Vyacheslav Bukhaev). The monument was made with funds from the Sobchak Foundation and donated to the city.
Anatoly Sobchak was married twice.
The first time he married during his student years was a student of the philological faculty of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, Nonna Handzyuk. This marriage produced a daughter, Maria, who, like her father, became a lawyer; she has a son, Gleb, the grandson of Anatoly Sobchak.
In 1980, Sobchak married for the second time. Wife - Lyudmila Narusova, member of the Federation Council; daughter - Ksenia, a famous television presenter.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
