One of the most prominent TV presenters and satirical writers of post-Soviet Russia is Viktor Shenderovich, whose biography is an example of a successful career as a representative of the Russian intelligentsia. Over the years of work, he managed to be a theater actor, a critic, and a columnist. Recently, Viktor Shenderovich has focused on political activities, being one of the key persons of the Russian liberal opposition.
Early years
On August 15, 1958, Viktor Shenderovich was born in the capital of the USSR. The family of the future journalist has deep Jewish roots. His father was an engineer and his mother was a teacher. The worldview of the future oppositionist was strongly influenced by the fact that his grandfather Yevsey Samuilovich was twice repressed for political reasons. Victor's parents were typical representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia. My father published in major magazines Crocodile and Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Being a student of the 10th grade, Viktor Shenderovich was noticed by Konstantin Raikin and got to study at the theater school of Oleg Tabakov. This fact determined the further fate of the teenager. In 1975 heenters directing and after 5 years successfully defends the diploma of the Moscow Institute of Culture and Arts.
After training, Victor is serving in the army. In the future, he said that it was the service that gave him many stories that he embodied in his satirical works. Until 1990, Shenderovich worked at GITIS, where he not only taught stage skills, but also staged his own paintings. So, in 1988, Gennady Khazanov created his performance based on a satirical story by Victor. However, the peak of the director's career came in the 1990s.
The early years of The Dolls
Being familiar with the sought-after playwright Grigory Gorin, Viktor Shenderovich was invited in 1994 to write the script for a new show called "Dolls". According to the idea of the creators, the program was supposed to ridicule the pressing problems of the new Russian society, and the main characters of the plots were figures of politicians created from papier-mâché.
Kukly quickly became one of the most popular shows on Russian television. The episodes, written according to Shenderovich's script, were so sharp and topical that the NTV channel was constantly attacked by offended critics. So, in 1995, the Prosecutor General Ilyushenko initiated a lawsuit against the company's management for the scene "At the Bottom", presented in the next edition of the show. In it, with the light hand of Shenderovich, the poverty of society was exposed, and politicians were presented in the form of homeless people. The leadership of NTV held a press conference on thisabout. The role of the defender of the TV program went to Viktor Shenderovich. From that moment on, he began to be perceived by Russian society as the creator of the most popular television program. A year later, the lawsuit against NTV was closed for lack of corpus delicti.
Peak career
In 1996, the "Dolls" project was awarded the "TEFI" award in the "Best satirical show" nomination. Today, many people remember this project as one of the most successful in the history of domestic television.
In parallel with the main work, Shenderovich begins to try himself as a TV presenter. He launches the Total and Free Cheese projects, which quickly fell in love with the domestic audience for their relevance and sharpness of opinion.
The turning point in Victor's career was 2000. After Vladimir Putin came to power, Kukly showed a video in which the new President was shown in a derogatory light. According to experts, Putin did not forgive such an attitude, and a year later one of the most successful television projects of our time was closed, and the management of the NTV television company completely changed.
Politics
After the closure of Kukol, Viktor Shenderovich focused on working as director of the TV-6 channel, but a year later, the Ministry of Press demanded a number of censorship restrictions and close the program "Total". Shenderovich refused to obey, then the license was revoked from the TV channel. Victor begins to cooperate with Radio Liberty and foreign TV channel RTVi.
Shenderovich took the interest of state authorities as a personal insult to Putin. This is probably why he went into opposition activity. Since 2004, he has been a member of the 2008 Committee headed by Garry Kasparov.
In 2005, Viktor Shenderovich tried to enter the State Duma as a representative of the liberal opposition. He ran for the University District of Moscow, but won about 20% of the vote. After the failure, he goes into street politics, takes an active part in mass rallies, goes out with single pickets. His name is on the 7th line under the manifesto "Putin must go." Today, the journalist is one of the key figures of the non-systemic opposition.
Private life
Viktor Shenderovich, whose photo with his wife is not so easy to find, has been happily married for many years. In 1985, he married Lyudmila Chubarova, also a journalist who had worked for the controversial newspaper Speed-Info for a long time. Together they raise a daughter, Valentina, who lives under her mother's last name.
