Vyazemsky Yury Pavlovich is one of the brightest representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. He is known to a wide audience as the host of an intellectual program for schoolchildren called "Smarts and Clever Girls". However, this remarkable person has many different guises - he is a fairly well-known writer, professor, religious philosopher, and also the head of the department of the country's most prestigious university. We will talk about this interesting person in this article.
Origin
Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich comes from a famous and ancient noble family. Several of his closest relatives became famous in various fields of activity. More than one entertaining novel can be written about the history of this man's family. The grandfather of the TV presenter bore the surname Stankevich, was involved in the Tukhachevsky case and was convicted. After that, Yuri Pavlovich's grandmother, in an attempt to save her own son from persecution by the authoritiesmarried a man of low birth. She herself belonged to an ancient Swedish family. This fact became decisive in her fate - soon after the marriage, she was exiled and shot.
Little Pasha was lucky - he ended up in a foster family. He was adopted by Vasily Simonov (sculptor), who gave the boy his own surname and patronymic. Subsequently, Pavel Simonov became an academician, a well-known biophysicist and psychologist.
Yuri's second grandfather, Sergei Vyazemsky, was a major historian, the creator of a huge archive containing information about the history of St. Petersburg. This remarkable scientist was forced to renounce his noble roots throughout his life.
Yuri's mother - Olga Sergeevna - worked as a teacher of foreign languages. The future TV presenter was born in 1951 on June 5, in Leningrad. He was born in the clinic of the Military Medical Academy, where at that time his father, Pavel Vasilyevich, was studying. Three years later, Yuri's parents had a second child - Evgenia Simonova, a future movie star.
Strange disease
Vyazemsky Yuri (father - Simonov) grew up in difficult conditions. In his early years, he was seriously ill, so he lived in the care of his grandfather and grandmother Vyazemsky. The famous Leningrad professors could not recognize the nature of this strange disease. The fact is that the boy suddenly lost consciousness while maintaining all motor functions. In this state, he could suddenly fall off the bridge or run out onto the roadway. Everyone was waiting for the disease to go away on its own. Once and soIt happened. The day came when the seizures literally tormented the weakened boy. It was probably a crisis, because after that they completely stopped. And Yuri was finally able to move to the capital to his parents.
Childhood
All this time, the boy's father and mother, together with their younger sister, lived in Moscow. The father of the future TV presenter entered the service at the hospital. Burdenko, who was in the capital. Having recovered, Yura left his grandparents and moved in with his parents. The boy attended a music school at the Leningrad Conservatory, learned to play the violin.
At school, the future celebrity did not study well. The boy hardly mastered the exact sciences, felt like a humanitarian and did not immediately come to the final choice of his profession. As a child, Yuri Vyazemsky raved about the stage - he dreamed of a career as a dancer or opera singer. After graduating from music school, he asked his mother to give him English lessons. In this field, success awaited him - the boy comprehended the basic program in just six months and switched to study at an English special school. Now Yuri Pavlovich speaks five languages to varying degrees - French, German, English, Swedish and Spanish.
Education
Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich, whose biography is interesting, received a certificate in 1968. Then he entered the Faculty of International Journalism at MGIMO and successfully graduated from it. After that, the future TV presenter began working as a journalist in the International Life publication, and also worked as translators invarious international organizations. By that time, Yuri Pavlovich had already married a former classmate.
An extravagant act
A year after receiving his MGIMO diploma, Vyazemsky did, without exaggeration, the most extravagant act of his life. The guy argued with a friend that he could enter the famous Shchukin school as a free student. Yuri Vyazemsky's sister at that time was taking her first steps on the theater stage. At that time she was a student of "Pike" and was in a very bright and interesting company. Her social circle included such eminent actors as Leonid Yarmolnik, Yury Vasilyev, Stas Zhdanko. Yuri was so imbued with the success of his sister that he won his unusual dispute and entered an artistic university. It was not easy - Vyazemsky went through the first two rounds relatively calmly. But on the third, he was almost let down by a kart "r". Vladimir Etush especially made fun of him. This infuriated the guy, and he so convincingly performed Shakespeare's Mark Antony's monologue before the commission that he was immediately accepted. However, after studying for six months and getting rid of the speech defect, the guy realized that he had made a mistake. Probably, the birth of the eldest daughter, Anastasia, also played a role. Four years later, she had a sister - Ksenia.
First literary experiments
Further Vyazemsky Yuri directed his creative aspirations to the field of literature. As a pseudonym, he chose his mother's maiden name and henceforth became for the general public not Simonov, but Vyazemsky. The talented writer has written severalworks. Among them is the story "The guns were brought", the hero of which was the actor. In 1982, the first book by Yuri Pavlovich was published. It published stories and a psychological story "Jester", in which a gifted teenager brutally takes revenge on his offenders. The story gained great popularity, an approving review was published on it in the Literary Gazette. In 1988, The Jester was filmed. The script was written by Vyazemsky himself. The film was watched by seven million people. Despite the resounding success, Yuri Pavlovich changed his creative direction and began to lean towards philosophy. As a result, in 1989 a fundamental study en titled “On the Origin of Spirituality. Yuri Vyazemsky wrote it together with his father, Pavel Simonov.
Television work
Then, in 1989, the hero of our article began working on Central Television. At first, he led the youth program "Image", built in the form of a quiz on literature. Subsequently, due to new political trends, this project was closed. Then Yuri Vyazemsky, whose biography is very rich, went to work at Ostankino on the ORT television channel. Here he created the program of the educational direction "Clever and clever". This project has no analogues on any TV channel in the world. The intellectual show for schoolchildren, the victory in which provided seven participants with admission to MGIMO, quickly became popular. He was awarded the Taffy award three times, and in 2003 the program reached the final of the Television Festival,held in New York. The host of "Clever Girls" Yuri Vyazemsky showed himself to be a brilliant showman, a great artist who knows how to create intrigue in an academic intellectual show. His second wife, Tatyana Smirnova, helped him work on the program. In the past, she worked as a French teacher, and then became the chief editor of the project and executive director of the TV-image television studio created by Yuri Pavlovich. No one, including the creator, could have thought that "Clever and Clever Girls" would last 22 years on television. Vyazemsky still does not consider himself primarily a writer, and not a well-known media person.
Scientific activity
Yury Vyazemsky has a lot of energy. "Clever and Clever Girls" is a project in which its potential is far from being fully revealed. In 1993, Yuri Pavlovich, without leaving television, took up another serious and responsible business - he took the post of head of the department of world literature at MGIMO. Now he teaches at this university several disciplines of a cultural and religious nature in Russian and English. Among his scientific publications are the following:
- "Odysseus Armament".
- "And peace on earth."
- "An open letter to Ivan Karamazov."
Literary works
Yuri Vyazemsky also manages to engage in literary activities. Books by this author are published with enviable popularity. In 2008, the writer offered the reader a series of "Sweet spring bakkurot" in which a mixture ofgenres - historical research, fiction, philosophical essay. In addition to the main work, it included the stories “The Childhood of Pontius Pilate” (2010), “The Poor Parrot, or the Youth of Pilate” (2012), “The Great Lover, or the Youth of Pontius Pilate” (2013). In addition, since 2010, the writer has been releasing a series of books based on the materials of the “Clever and Clever” program. They are collections of questions and answers in different fields of knowledge. The latest book in this series to date is From Dante Alighieri to Astrid Erickson (2014).
Private life
Yuri Vyazemsky got married twice. The first wife - classmate Irina - was the TV presenter's school love. He recalls that he managed to interest the girl only after the ninth grade, when, having gone to Sverdlovsk, he learned to drink, smoke and play Vysotsky's songs with the guitar. Lovers signed at the age of nineteen. In this marriage, two girls appeared: Ksenia and Nastya. Vyazemsky's eldest daughter graduated from the Literary Institute and became a translator, the youngest followed in her father's footsteps and completed her studies at MGIMO. Both women live abroad. The youngest (Xenia) is in London, she has a son, George, and a daughter, Olga. And the eldest (Nastya) got married three times, and in each of these marriages she gave birth to a child: in Switzerland, in Holland and in Iran. Thus, Yuri Pavlovich has five grandchildren from his first marriage. For the second time, the TV presenter married Tatyana Aleksandrovna Smirnova. In this marriage, he has no children of his own, but he raised his stepson Sergei.
Yuri Vyazemsky's children rarely meet withhis famous father. He sadly notes that he is more often seen with his smart and smart girls than with close relatives.
Attitude towards religion
As a highly intelligent and educated person, Yuri Pavlovich came to faith through various conclusions. He grew up in a family of atheists and never thought about God. His movement towards faith began through art and literature. At first, Vyazemsky was impressed by watching the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The recording of this masterpiece was brought to him by his father from America. The TV presenter thought about many things when he first read The Master and Margarita. So Yuri Pavlovich's coming to faith was specific. He did a lot of stupid things in his life, he was often on the verge of life and death, but he invariably overcame all obstacles. Once he thought about who to thank for the fact that he is still alive and unharmed. And I realized that I need to thank God. Now the TV presenter is sure that there is no death, and he tells his students about it at lectures. In addition, Vyazemsky owns the phrase that an absolute atheist is close in his attitude to an animal. However, he immediately notes that there are few such people in the world. Most still believe in some kind of Higher power that protects them.
Today
Now Yury Pavlovich is still very busy. He acts on television, teaches at the university, writes new literary works. His main environment is books that fill the TV presenter's huge office. This room is truly impressive. The fact is that Vyazemsky didstudy a separate one-room apartment, in which he lived with his wife Tatyana for twenty years. Luckily, the couple managed to buy a house nearby. Therefore, at the time of work, Yuri Pavlovich leaves his wife and goes to a neighboring apartment. Now Vyazemsky is working on another work about the life of Christ (there are 7 in total). This job makes him truly happy.
