Journalist Mikhail Taratuta, whose biography has been associated with the United States for many years, is considered a true symbol of perestroika. He embodied the hopes of Russians to improve relations with the West, but they were not destined to come true. Let's talk about the life of Mikhail Taratuta and what he does today.
Early years and education
Taratuta Mikhail was born on June 2, 1948 in Moscow. The family was, according to the journalist, bohemian. Mom worked in the cinema, her stepfather was the director of the Great Hall of the Conservatory. Mikhail grew up in an atmosphere of the sixties, but he did not think about politics and was implicitly convinced that the communist idea was not so bad, it was just that something was not being implemented as it should.
In his youth, Mikhail did not plan to be a journalist. He received an excellent education at the Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages. He studied as a translator with knowledge of English and Swedish. After graduating from high school, Taratuta was sent to Egypt as an interpreter, and then was drafted into the army, whichserved in Bangladesh as an interpreter.
Beginning of professional career
After serving in the army of Taratuta, Mikhail, by the will of fate, comes to journalism. He gets a job at the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Service, in the foreign broadcasting service. It was a special radio that covered life in the USSR for foreign countries, the tasks for journalists were exclusively ideological, they had to popularize the Soviet way of life. For 14 years, Taratuta has gone through all the steps of the career ladder from editor to deputy head of broadcasting in the USA. At the same time, the journalist was a member of the party, was a party organizer and still had no doubts about the correctness of communist ideas. In 1988, a small incident happened to him: he allowed the presence of an American journalist at the party meeting. The label "lost political vigilance" was stuck to Taratuta, this somewhat complicated his professional life, and he began to look for an opportunity to change his job. And he did not think about leaving the radio. He even asked a high-ranking friend to help him leave as a correspondent in the United States. But life decided everything in its own way.
Working in the USA
In 1988 Vladimir Dunaev, correspondent of the TV program Vremya in the USA, suddenly died. And Taratuta was quickly ordered: get ready and go to America, we are waiting for a report from you. So he found himself in every sense in an alien environment. He moves to San Francisco, where he heads the correspondent office for the Vremya program. He had to learn everything from scratch. He mastered the basics of the profession of a television journalistdirectly in the course of work. Perhaps this is what allowed him to develop his own manner of presenting and selecting material. In total, Mikhail Taratuta made more than 1000 reports in 12 years. After 4 years, he matured to create his own author's program. In 1992, the program "America with Mikhail Taratuta" goes on the air for the first time. This program told about life in the USA, about ordinary people, about everyday life. The journalist literally opened the United States for the Russians. He says he was lucky to be the first correspondent in the United States who could honestly carry out his professional duties without being swayed by ideology. We can say that Taratuta Mikhail Anatolyevich became a symbol of perestroika. His transmission embodied the interest of Russians in another world, into which they hoped to merge. In a sense, the fate of Taratuta repeated the fate of perestroika, after years of popularity and demand by the end of the 20th century, he ceased to be needed, they gradually began to forget about him.
Mikhail Taratuta says that life in America has changed him a lot, he has acquired many new habits, for example, he has become extremely punctual. His views also changed, he began to understand all the lies of communist propaganda.
Homecoming
In 2000 Taratuta Mikhail, an American journalist, returned to Russia. Far from his homeland, he idealized the processes taking place here, he dreamed that Russia would become like the United States. But everything turned out differently. Upon his return, he worked for some time on television, released the Russian Hills program, butafter changing several television companies, he never received the desired ratings, and the program was quietly closed. Taratuta explains the reason for this failure by the fact that he could not fit into the new television format. He says he can't make a program about something he doesn't believe in.
Life today
In recent years, the journalist has been working at the Ekho Moskvy radio station. His accent still retains a slight American accent. Therefore, Mikhail Taratuta, who defines his nationality as Russian, is still often associated with the United States. He wrote several books about his life in the States, about the peculiarities of this country. Today, a journalist often acts as an expert on America, gives comments on various events.
Family
The journalist does not like to talk about his personal life. The family of Mikhail Taratuta is a closed topic for him. However, it is known that he has been married for many years. His wife Marina is a lawyer, specializing in corporate and family law. A daughter grew up in the family. Ekaterina is a screenwriter, journalist, translator, for some time she worked with her father in his program in the United States, and then in Russia she did the program “Roller Coasters” with him. She is married to director Vladimir Druzhinin. Mikhail Anatolyevich says that he loves his family very much, friends and relatives say that Taratuta has a very strong marriage, everyone is very friendly with each other. The journalist has a younger brother Emelyan Zakharov, the difference between them is 18 years. He is engaged in business and says that Mikhail is a very calm and reasonable person,and very honest.
