The fate of a person is determined by the inclinations and abilities of the individual. Even if the wrong choice is made, sooner or later a person enters the line of life that was originally laid down. Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilyevich is a statesman, diplomat, journalist and writer, one of those people whose life is striking in its unpredictability and richness.
Cherche la femme
Born, as Vyacheslav Vasilyevich himself likes to emphasize, in a simple worker-peasant family on August 24, 1940 in Moscow. My mother was a weaver and my father was a driver. We lived on 2nd Meshchanskaya. I studied mediocre at school, I didn’t have enough stars from the sky, and after graduating from school I decided to enter the Institute of Steel and Alloys, because my friend’s mother worked there. Subsequently, he could have a career as an honorary steelworker. But instead of the institute, it turned out to enter only a vocational school as a turner.
After training, he went to work at the factory. After some time, I grew up to a turner of the 5th category, one more step and I would have been a master, but … I met a girl with whom I fell in love. And she didto the Faculty of Journalism, well, the young man rushed for his beloved. However, before entering the institute, he took courses and tutors for a year. And when he became a student at the same institute, he found out that his beloved was happily married.
All changes for the better
Vyacheslav Kostikov grieved a little and found himself a wife, Marina Smirnova, at the same institute. He has been living happily with her for 50 years.
While studying in 1964, young people went to work in Vorkuta, to the local Vorkuta Pravda, and ended up in the editorial office where former prisoners worked. Around the city there were still recently operating camps. This made a deep impression on Kostikov, and he learned firsthand what the era of repression is.
After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, Vyacheslav Kostikov will attend a journalism course at the University of Sheffield in the UK in 1968, and in 1972 he will receive an additional diploma in international economics from the Academy of Foreign Trade. The fate of Vyacheslav Vasilievich turned abruptly! From turners, he got into translators in India, where he went immediately after graduating from Moscow State University. Over the years, he worked as a political observer for the Novosti Press Agency, as an employee of the information department of the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris, and then as an editor.
Presidential Press Secretary
Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilievich in 1992 is part of the team of Russian President Boris Yeltsin as a press secretary. In this post, he will work until 1995, untilfatal letter, after which joint work will be impossible. Remembering that period of his life, Vyacheslav Vasilievich notes the special spirit that reigned then in the Kremlin. The whole team was like a single family, everyone tried to help each other, they were like-minded people of the president. A special atmosphere of close and trusting relations made it possible to be honest with each other and with the president.
Unlike today's realities, when the president's relationship with the team is built on a formal platform in the form of an order-execution, then the assistants were more like comrades-in-arms, they worked in the name of an idea. But over time, such a situation developed that some decisions and the actual behavior of Boris Yeltsin complicated the already difficult political situation in the country and abroad.
Letter
Relations between the team and the president gradually heated up. The last straw that overflowed the cup of patience was a trip to Berlin on the occasion of the withdrawal of the remnants of Soviet troops and the liquidation of the military base. Boris Yeltsin, in a state of intoxication, reacted very emotionally to this event. In a fit of emotions, he behaved not quite correctly…
Then no one was a secret of Yeltsin's addiction, however, to put it mildly, such behavior of the head of state discouraged many. Therefore, all the media, both Russian and foreign, expressed their opinion on this matter.
The helpers saw what was happening, how the press, the people and the political elites of other countries reacted, and tried to talkfrankly with the president, but the conversation did not work. After some time, it was decided to write a letter to Yeltsin about everything that was happening and to express his opinion. The letter was compiled by Vyacheslav Kostikov. The President did not like the letter, and a crack appeared in the relationship. And soon Kostikov received an offer to leave as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Vatican.
Vatican
The paperwork took about six months, during which time the president's anger cooled down, and he, as before, addressed his former press secretary in his own way. Contrary to all norms and rules, Boris Nikolaevich organized a farewell party in the Kremlin for Vyacheslav Kostikov, and in a personal conversation offered to remain in his former position. But the former ally refused.
He did not stay long in the Vatican, only one year. I had to resign because of the scandal. A book was written in Rome called Romance with the President. Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilyevich described in it his work in the team of Boris Yeltsin. The book was published on the eve of the elections, when there was a struggle between Gusinsky and Berezovsky, in which journalists also participated. One journalist from NTV interviewed Kostikov, where he spoke about the book, but his words were redrawn, some statements were taken out of context, and it turned out that Kostikov wrote something disgusting. Naturally, he was fired after that.
Arguments and Facts
After returning to his homeland, he worked at MDM Bank. But, according to Vyacheslav Vasilyevich, he could not be a wedding general for a long time. Throughfor a year he went to the Media-Most holding as deputy director of public relations, where he worked for 5 years. For a long time, Kostikov has been the analytical director of the Argumenty i Fakty publishing house.
From the height of his life and professional experience, Vyacheslav Vasilievich writes articles on current political and social topics, where he argues his point of view, based on scientific research and sociological surveys. But not everyone shares the opinion expressed by Vyacheslav Kostikov in AiF. Sometimes accusatory articles appear against him. As they say, how many people, so many opinions. But, in any case, Vyacheslav Vasilyevich is an example of an interesting person with an unusual fate.
