When was Anatoly Sobchak born? Anatoly alexandrovich sobchak biography. The beginning of a political career
Anatoly Sobchak is a well-known democratic reformer and politician of the times of "Perestroika", one of the authors of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation, the first mayor of St. Petersburg. AT last years life became a scandalous key figure in Russian politics, accused of corruption, abuse of office and bribery. Under his leadership, many high-ranking officials and diplomats of modern Russia worked in the city hall of St. Petersburg, including the President of the Russian Federation and the Prime Minister of Russia.
Sobchak Anatoly Alexandrovich was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita in an ordinary family. His father, Alexander Antonovich, worked as an engineer at railroad, and mother Nadezhda Andreevna was an accountant. Young Sobchak was not the only child in the family, he had three more brothers.
Sobchak's childhood passed in the city of Kokand, located in Uzbekistan. The family moved there due to the transfer of his father to the service. The future politician studied at an ordinary local school with his brothers. He was a talented, attentive, diligent and persistent schoolboy who did not cause trouble for either parents or teachers. After graduating from high school, he entered the Tashkent University at the Faculty of Law, but literally a year later in 1954 he transferred to Leningrad State University, which most likely was the beginning of his fateful reunion with St.
At the university, student Sobchak actively showed his desire and ability to learn, thanks to which he became a Lenin scholar. In 1959, upon graduation from the university, young Anatoly was assigned to work in the Stavropol Bar Association. In 1962, Sobchak returned to Leningrad, graduated from graduate school at Leningrad State University and defended his Ph.D. thesis.
Then he taught for three years at the special police school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and from 1968 to 1973 he was an assistant professor of the law faculty at the 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 a people's deputy to the Supreme Soviet. 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 Aleksandrovich became a member of the Leningrad City Council and a month later headed it, and in 1991, following the election results, 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 the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the head of Gazprom, the president of Rosneft and many well-known Russian politicians.
In the very first year after taking office as the mayor of St. Petersburg, Sobchak actively showed himself and won authority among the population. He took an active part in the creation of the Movement for Democratic Reforms, opposed the actions of the State Emergency Committee at the August 1991 coup in Leningrad, organized and called on the population to protest against the actions of the State Committee on Emergencies, which allowed Leningrad to resist the decrees of this department.
However, the authority of the first person in St. Petersburg was not indisputable. His sincere commitment to democracy was closely intertwined with his commitment to authoritarian leadership in the city, which led to endless conflicts with the local legislature.
There has always been excitement around Anatoly Sobchak Also, Sobchak has repeatedly become a figurant of high-profile foreign trips and banquets in order to attract investors and flows of humanitarian aid to the city. But the "stake on the West" led to the suppression of the St. Petersburg local industry. At the same time, city residents condemned the mayor for regular international events on the banks of the Neva and accused him of squandering the city budget.
In 1995, Sobchak's associates persuaded him to run for the presidential elections in Russia in 1996 and become a rival of the ex-head of state. However, Anatoly Aleksandrovich completely and categorically rejected the idea. In 1996, he also lost the gubernatorial elections to his deputy Vladimir Yakovlev and left the post of mayor of St. Petersburg.
The career of the politician Sobchak faded out as quickly as it began. The first mayor of St. Petersburg has become a symbol of a vibrant social group in Russia, which in the early 90s sought changes in the country. For one part of society, Anatoly Aleksandrovich is associated with the destroyer of a stable and customary world order, while others perceive him as a figure leading the country to freedom through a revolutionary turning point.
Criminal prosecution
In October 1997, Anatoly Sobchak was prosecuted by the General Prosecutor's Office as a witness in the corruption case at the St. Petersburg City Hall. After some time, Sobchak was brought to this criminal case as an accused under the articles "Bribes" and "Abuse of Official Powers". Then the family of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg became loudly discussed in the media and society, and accusations of all mortal sins fell on Sobchak.
Against the background of these events, Anatoly Alexandrovich's health condition seriously deteriorated, and instead of a prison cell, he ended up in cardiology with a heart attack. After a while, Sobchak left the city and flew to France for treatment. He lived in Paris until 1999 inclusive, where he decided to recall his scientific activities. He has lectured at the Sorbonne and other leading universities in France, wrote two books, and published over 30 scientific articles.
In November 1999, the criminal case against Sobchak was dropped for lack of corpus delicti, and he returned to Russia, declaring his intention to re-enter big politics. In early 2000, Sobchak took the position of a confidant of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and headed the Political Council of Democratic Movements and Parties in St. Petersburg.
Personal life
Sobchak's first marriage took place in his student years. Then he married the first beauty of the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen Nonne Gandzyuk, who gave birth to his eldest daughter Maria. But in 1977 the family idyll faded, 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 became, whom he met as a lawyer and helped in the difficult divorce proceedings with her first husband. Sobchak's second wife became his reliable and real companion in his 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 engaged in the implementation of her own projects, in particular, she was a representative of the Russian government in the trusteeship of the German Fund "Memory, Responsibility and Future", and also held several responsible positions.
Anatoly Sobchak with his daughter Ksenia In 1981, a daughter was born to the politician's family, who is now a Russian TV presenter and a successful journalist. Sobchak's daughter, like Anatoly himself, is a figure of an ambiguous character in society.
Death
On February 20, 2000, Anatoly Sobchak died in the Svetlogorsk hotel while serving as a confidant of the presidential candidate Vladimir Putin. According to official data, Sobchak's death occurred as a result of an acute heart attack.
The sudden death of Anatoly Sobchak was a high-profile incident that entailed large-scale gossip. Rumors about the death of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg appeared and multiplied at lightning speed. Some said that Sobchak was killed because he knew a lot, others put forward a version of alcohol and Viagra poisoning.
In May 2000, the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region opened a criminal case regarding the murder of Sobchak by poisoning. But the examination after the autopsy showed that there was no alcohol or drugs in the politician's body, as a result of which the criminal case on Sobchak's murder was closed on August 4.
Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak was buried on February 24 in St. Petersburg at the Nikolskoye cemetery.
Anatoly Sobchak (August 10, 1937, Chita - February 19, 2000, Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region) - Soviet and Russian politician, the first mayor of St. Petersburg.
Anatoly Sobchak
Mayor of St. Petersburg June 12, 1991 - June 16, 1996
Chairman of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies May 23, 1990 - 1991
Citizenship: Russia
Born: August 10, 1937
Chita, East Siberian region, RSFSR, USSR
Death: 19 February 2000
Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region, Russia
Burial place: Nikolskoe cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Party: KPSS (1988-1990), Our Home is Russia (since 1996).
Education: Leningrad State University. A. A. Zhdanova
Academic degree: Doctor of Law
Paternal grandfather - Anton Semyonovich Sobchak - Pole, grandmother - Anna Ivanovna - Czech; by mother - Russian grandfather, Ukrainian grandmother. Father, Alexander Antonovich Sobchak, worked as a railway engineer, mother, Nadezhda Andreevna Litvinova, is an accountant by profession.
He spent his childhood in Uzbekistan (Kokand, Tashkent). In 1956 he entered the law faculty of the Leningrad State University.
Since 1959, after graduating from university, Anatoly Sobchak By assignment, he worked as a lawyer in the Stavropol Regional Bar Association, then as the head of legal advice in the Stavropol Territory.
In 1962 Anatoly Sobchak returned to Leningrad. Graduated from the postgraduate study of the Leningrad State University. 1965 to 1968 Anatoly Sobchak taught at the Leningrad special school militia of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1968-1973 years Anatoly Sobchak - Associate Professor of the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry. From 1973 to 1981 - Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Leningrad State University, from 1982 Anatoly Sobchak - Doctor of Law and Professor of the same faculty, where since 1985 he held the position of Head of the Department of Economic Law. Prof. A.I. Lukyanov, who at one time was a member of the Higher Attestation Commission, recalled that he was instructed to give a review of his candidate dissertation Sobchak: "There were so many references to Lenin and other bosses that we at the Higher Attestation Commission decided to return the dissertation to the author so that he could rewrite it."
Political activities of Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Sobchak - Member of the CPSU since 1988, left the CPSU in 1990.
In 1989, according to the book of N.K.Svanidze, a young graduate student, future president of Russia, D.A.Medvedev and several of his comrades were his confidants, pasted posters and campaigned for Sobchak before the elections of the USSR people's deputies. Anatoly Sobchakalso supervised D. A. Medvedev's Ph.D. thesis. In an interview with Dmitry Medvedev to the Russia-1 TV channel, he confirms that he personally pasted photos of Sobchak, a candidate for People's Deputies of the USSR, on the streets of Leningrad. Later, Sobchak invited him to work at the Leningrad City Council. In 1990, the then little-known assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University, Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st KGB Directorate V.V.Putin, joined Sobchak's team.
In 1989 Anatoly Sobchak elected People's Deputy of the USSR. At the first congress he became a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was the chairman of the subcommittee of the USSR Armed Forces on economic legislation of the Committee on legislation, legality and law and order. In June 1989 he became a member of the Interregional Deputy Group.
He was a member of the commission to investigate the Tbilisi events in April 1989. He claimed that during the dispersal of the rally by the forces of the Soviet army, sapper blades... Later he became an honorary citizen of the city of Tbilisi and Georgia.
In April 1990 he was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council. On May 23, 1990, he was elected chairman of the Leningrad City Council.
In 2003, St. Petersburg historian and public figure I. Ivanov in the journal "Vestnik ROVS", published by the Russian General Military Union, argued that, contrary to the firmly rooted opinion, for a long time A. A. Sobchak opposed the return of Leningrad's historical name - St. Petersburg and actively advocated the preservation of the name "Leningrad". This is also confirmed by the former deputy of the Leningrad City Council Marina Salie. According to the same I.B. Ivanov, only before the mayoral elections on June 12, Sobchak began to change his position and nevertheless supported the movement for St. Petersburg, seeing how enormously popular it had won in the city and hoping to get the votes of the participants in this popular movement ...
The position of the chairman of the Leningrad City Council assumed the chairman's dependence on the opinion of the council. Sobchak as chairman of the Leningrad City Council at any second could be removed by the same deputies. Therefore, the deputies were persuaded to introduce the post of mayor in Leningrad, as in Moscow. The decision to introduce the post was taken by a margin of one vote.
June 12, 1991 Anatoly Sobchak elected mayor of Leningrad in elections held simultaneously with the presidential elections in Russia. At the same time, a referendum made a decision to return the name of St. Petersburg to Leningrad.
In July 1991 Anatoly Sobchak was one of the founders of the Movement for Democratic Reforms.
Anatoly Sobchak actively opposed the actions of the Emergency Committee in August 1991 and actually led the resistance to the putschists in Leningrad (according to Marina Salye, he supported the Emergency Committee). Already in the morning of August 19, at Boris Yeltsin's dacha in Arkhangelsk, A. A. Sobchak participated in the drafting of the appeal "To the citizens of Russia" and the decree "On the illegality of the actions of the State Emergency Committee" signed by Boris N. Yeltsin, then on the same day he arrived to Leningrad, held negotiations with General V.N. Samsonov, who kept the latter from taking active steps in support of the State Emergency Committee, spoke at an emergency session of the Leningrad City Council, and then on Leningrad television, with a statement about the illegality of the actions of the State Emergency Committee and an appeal to the townspeople to come to the rally on August 20 at the Palace square, which brought together hundreds of thousands of protesters. Thanks to these measures, the decrees of the State Emergency Committee on the territory of Leningrad did not work. The deputy of the Leningrad City Council Galina Spitsa expressed doubt that it was Sobchak who stopped the tanks that were marching on the city during the putsch of the State Emergency Committee:
I do not believe in such coincidences: he allegedly agreed that the tanks would be deployed at the very moment when we, the deputies of the Leningrad City Council, met with the leaders of the military equipment column and talked to them.
Sobchak's position as the "first person" of the city was by no means indisputable. A sincere commitment to democracy combined with a craving for authoritarian methods of leadership, which led to endless conflicts with the local legislature. Sobchak's constant trips abroad and banquets with his participation (because of which the mayor was so often bullied by the press) were intended to attract investors and new flows of humanitarian aid. However, the "stake on the West" led to the fact that St. Petersburg's industry itself was in the "corral". Numerous international events on the banks of the Neva did not delight the townspeople and incurred accusations against the mayor of squandering city funds.
In 1992, Marina Salie acted as the permanent representative of the St. Petersburg City Council to the Supreme Soviet of Russia and was the head of the deputy group on the implementation of quotas for raw materials and supplies for barter food supplies to the city in January-February 1992 by the Committee for External Relations under the Mayor of St. Petersburg held under the leadership of the Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of the City Hall of St. Petersburg Vladimir Putin.
According to the results of the investigation, then the city budget was damaged by more than $ 100 million. The deputy group of the City Council of St. Petersburg demanded the dismissal of Putin from his post and the initiation of a criminal case. The final report of the group headed by Marina Salie was approved and supported by the decision of the Small Council of the Petrograd Soviet, headed by Alexander Belyaev. Marina Salye also asked for assistance from the head of the control department of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Yuri Boldyrev, who became interested in the materials, but was soon fired. The mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, refused to fulfill the recommendations of the Petrosovet commission. All cases were stopped, and for a long time they were not remembered.
Anatoly Sobchak actively participated in the process of creating the new Constitution of Russia. By decision of the political council of the Russian Movement for Democratic Reforms, he directed the writing of one of its alternative options, which he presented together with S.S.Alekseev in 1992. His daughter K. A. Sobchak and some politicians (V. L. Sheinis, V. I. Matvienko) called him one of the main authors of the draft of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation.
In October 1993 Anatoly Sobchak headed the federal list of candidates for the State Duma from the Russian Movement for Democratic Reforms. In the elections on December 12, 1993, the bloc did not receive the number of votes necessary to enter the State Duma. Anton Antonov-Ovseenko in his review of the book "The Beatles of Perestroika" noted:
Anatoly Aleksandrovich complained about his press secretary Muravyova, who was subordinate and received a salary from him as a governor, but at all corners and scolded him.
Since 1994 Anatoly Sobchak was the chairman of the government of St. Petersburg.
A. A. Sobchak repeatedly made statements that St. Petersburg should not be an industrial center, but the cultural capital of Russia, a city-museum. In October 1992, in the status of mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak appeals to the Society for the Revival of the Delphic Games expressing his full support for the noble idea. Following the establishment of the International Delphic Council in December 1994, the First Delphic Congress was held in St. Petersburg from March 25 to March 31, 1996 with the active support of the City Government and the Mayor personally, at which the Delphic Charter was adopted following the example of Olympic Charter.
Sergei Stankevich convinced Sobchak run for the presidency of Russia in the 1996 elections, but "closer to December 1995, he (Sobchak) finally abandoned this idea, which he reported quite categorically ... they had a personal conversation with Yeltsin on this topic, during which Sobchak realized: Yeltsin will run for a second term, no matter what. " Because of this, Stankevich argues, "in early 1996, an unprecedented persecution of those forces was unleashed against Sobchak in terms of scale and cost."
As I recalled sobchak's daughter Ksenia:
“In December 1995, a campaign to discredit Sobchak began, which continued almost until the death of the Pope. The formal reason for the persecution was the distribution of apartments in a renovated building in the center of St. Petersburg. This story is detailed in his book A Dozen Knives in the Back. Former Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov, as well as Korzhakov, Soskovets, Barsukov, Kulikov, took the most active part in the persecution of his father. It was the struggle of the Moscow Yeltsin team with Peter and specifically with my father, in whose person they saw one of the presidential contenders ... they said that after Yeltsin's departure Sobchak was one of the clear favorites for the presidency.
In February 1996, Anatoly Sobchak joined the St. Petersburg branch of the movement "Our Home - Russia". On June 16, 1996, he lost the election of the governor of St. Petersburg to his deputy Vladimir Yakovlev. Officially, the head of Sobchak's campaign headquarters was V.V. Putin, although in fact the election campaign was led by different people.
The criminal case of Anatoly Sobchak
October 3, 1997 Anatoly Sobchak was brought in by the General Prosecutor's Office as a witness in the case of corruption in the authorities of St. Petersburg.
In 1997 he was accused of abusing the post of mayor of St. Petersburg. On November 7, 1997 he flew to France for treatment at an American hospital in Paris. On September 13, 1998, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against Anatoly Sobchak under the articles "Bribe" and "Abuse of Official Powers". He lived in Paris until July 12, 1999. He lectured at the Sorbonne and other French universities. On November 10, 1999, the criminal case against Sobchak was dropped for lack of corpus delicti.
On December 21, 1999, he lost the elections to the State Duma to Yabloko's candidate Pyotr Shelishch and announced that he had made a decision to participate in the election of the governor of St. Petersburg.
On February 14, 2000, he was appointed a confidant of the presidential candidate Russian Federation V.V. Putin and headed the Political Consultative Council of Democratic Parties and Movements of St. Petersburg. He died during a trip to the Kaliningrad region, undertaken as part of the election campaign.
Death of Anatoly Sobchak
He died on the night of February 19-20, 2000 at the Rus hotel in Svetlogorsk (Kaliningrad region), as a result, as reported in the official report, of acute heart failure. Immediately there were rumors about the murder due to the fact that Sobchak "knew too much", and versions of alcohol poisoning and the effects of Viagra. As a result, on May 6, the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region opened a criminal case on the fact of murder (poisoning). However, an autopsy in St. Petersburg stated the absence of both alcohol and poisoning. On August 4, the Kaliningrad prosecutor's office closed the case.
Family of Anatoly Sobchak
Father - Alexander Antonovich Sobchak, worked as a railway engineer
Mother - Nadezhda Andreevna Litvinova, worked as an accountant
The first wife is Nonna Gandzyuk.
Daughter - Maria Sobchak (born 1965) - lawyer
Grandson - Gleb Sobchak (born 1983) - graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University, lawyer
Second wife (since 1980) - Lyudmila Narusova
Daughter - Ksenia Sobchak (born 1981) - TV presenter.
"Today I am the head of the state, and therefore I cannot allow myself to speak harshly, but I will tell you my opinion in a generalized form. I believe that this is not just death, I believe that this is death. And this, of course, is the result of persecution." , - Vladimir Putin said that day.
Anatoly Sobchak was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita. His father, Alexander Antonovich, worked as a railway engineer, and his mother, Nadezhda Andreevna Litvinova, served as an accountant. Anatoly was one of their four sons. When he was two years old, the family moved to Uzbekistan, where he graduated from high school (more)
After school, Anatoly Sobchak entered the law faculty of Tashkent University, and the next year, in 1954, he transferred to Leningrad State University, became a Lenin scholar.
In his student years, he married for the first time - to Nonna Gandzyuk, a student of the philological faculty of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute. From this marriage was born daughter Maria, who also became a lawyer and now works as a lawyer, specializing in criminal law. The son of Maria, grandson of Anatoly Alexandrovich, Gleb - student of the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University (more)
After graduating from the university, Anatoly Sobchak worked for three years in the Stavropol Regional Bar Association - first as a lawyer in the city of Nevinnomyssk, and then as the head of legal advice (more)
In 1962 he returned to Leningrad. 1962-1965 - Postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University, PhD thesis defense. From 1965 to 1968, Sobchak teaches at the Leningrad Special Police School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 1968 to 1973 - Associate Professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Anatoly Sobchak is the author of over 200 books and articles on economics and law. He published his first book, "Legal Problems of Cost Accounting in the Industry of the USSR," in 1971. From 1973 to 1981 - associate professor, since 1982 - professor of the law faculty 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 (more)
In 1980, Sobchak married a second time. Wife - Lyudmila Narusova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian History at the Academy of Culture, daughter Ksenia - a student at MGIMO (more)
In 1989, at the first democratic elections, Anatoly Sobchak was elected People's Deputy of the USSR from the 47th Vasileostrovsky District of Leningrad. At the first congress, he became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the Committee on Legislation and Law Enforcement. Anatoly Sobchak was the chairman of the parliamentary commission to investigate the tragic events of April 9, 1989 in Tbilisi, when many demonstrators were killed or wounded during the dispersal of a rally by troops. Anatoly Sobchak became one of the founders of the Interregional Deputy Group, formed from the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in June 1989.
In April 1990, he was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies, on May 23, 1990 - Chairman of the Leningrad City Council. According to the results of the first national elections of the head of the city on June 12, 1991, he became the mayor of St. Petersburg.
He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council under the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev, a member of the Presidential Council under the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin. Anatoly Sobchak chaired the Constitutional Meeting that drafted a democratic constitution for the new Russia.
Under the first democratically elected mayor of Leningrad, on September 8, 1991, the city was returned to its historical name - St. Petersburg.
Mayor Sobchak has managed to create a strong, professional team of young, educated and talented managers, most of whom now occupy leading government posts in Moscow. His main achievements are in creating an attractive image of a European city, attracting investment to St. Petersburg, and establishing the status of the cultural capital of Russia. On his initiative, economic forums began to be held in the city; in 1994, the Goodwill Games and major international cultural festivals were successfully held. For the first time, the official transfer of church buildings to the denominations represented in St. Petersburg began.
Anatoly Sobchak, as the mayor of the city, carried out moderate reforms, defended the financial independence of the city, fought against attempts by criminals to infiltrate the city's economy.
In early 1996, on the eve of the election of the head of the city, a campaign to discredit the mayor began, carried out through the media by the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the special services. An unprecedented smear campaign in the press and election rigging gave his opponent a 1.2% lead. However, even after the election defeat, Sobchak remained an iconic democratic figure enjoying great prestige. The persecution continued, the number of ordered publications grew, including intruding personal life.
On October 3, 1997, investigators of the prosecutor's office, despite Sobchak's statement about his illness, tried to take him by force for interrogation as a witness in the case of corruption in the St. Petersburg authorities. Only the insistence of his wife to call " ambulance", Which determined a heart attack, forced the investigators to abandon their intentions. Sobchak was in the cardiac intensive care unit 122 of the medical unit for about a month - as it turned out, with a third heart attack. Then he was transferred to the clinic of the Military Medical Academy, to the chief cardiac surgeon of the city, Colonel-General Yu.L. Shevchenko. During the entire period of his treatment, the doctors were under serious pressure and direct threats were made against them. Therefore, for a quiet continuation of the treatment, Anatoly Sobchak was taken by his wife to France on November 7, 1997. In Paris, he underwent a course of treatment and then taught at the university, worked in the archives on books.
“I don’t wish my enemies to endure what I and my loved ones had to experience over the past four years,” Anatoly Sobchak writes in his latest political book A Dozen Knives in the Back. “From a man with an impeccable reputation, I instantly turned into a corrupt official, slandered and persecuted, accused of all mortal sins. "
Despite the fact that friends advised not to return, Anatoly Sobchak returned to St. Petersburg on July 12, 1999. By this time, Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov was removed from office, Yuri Shutov, one of the most active perpetrators of the slanderous campaign launched against Sobchak, was arrested on suspicion of organizing a gang of murderers. In October 1999, Sobchak received an official notification from the Prosecutor General's Office to discontinue the criminal case. None of the "accusations" circulated by the press have been confirmed. Lawsuits were won in courts for the protection of honor and dignity in connection with defamatory publications. But the press was in no hurry to apologize, and the previously published lies did their dirty deed. In December 1999, Sobchak ran for the State Duma in the 211st Central District, in the face of strong opposition from the city authorities and in the absence of support from the leaders of the right forces. As in the 1996 elections, he lacked 1.2% to win, which this time turned out to be fatal.
At the beginning of 2000, Anatoly Sobchak became a confidant of the presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, and in this capacity left for Kaliningrad on February 15.
The first mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, died suddenly on the night of February 20, 2000 in the city of Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region. On February 24, thousands of people came to the Tauride Palace to say goodbye to Anatoly Alexandrovich. And although the farewell was extended for several hours, not everyone was able to get into the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace. “It turns out that he was needed, it turns out, we loved him. His life was unfairly difficult lately,” Daniil Granin said at the civil funeral service.
"Today I am the head of the state, and therefore I cannot allow myself to speak harshly, but I will tell you my opinion in a generalized form. I believe that this is not just death, I believe that this is death. And this, of course, is the result of persecution." , - said Vladimir Putin that day.
Anatoly Sobchak was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
BIOGRAPHY
Anatoly Sobchak was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita. His father, Alexander Antonovich, worked as a railway engineer, and his mother, Nadezhda Andreevna Litvinova, served as an accountant. Anatoly was one of their four sons. When he was two years old, the family moved to Uzbekistan, where he graduated from high school.
After school, Anatoly Sobchak entered the law faculty of Tashkent University, and the next year, in 1954, he transferred to Leningrad State University, became a Lenin scholar.
In his student years, he married for the first time - to Nonna Gandzyuk, a student of the philological faculty of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute. From this marriage was born daughter Maria, who also became a lawyer and now works as a lawyer, specializing in criminal law. The son of Maria, grandson of Anatoly Alexandrovich, Gleb - student of the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University (more)
After graduating from the university, Anatoly Sobchak worked for three years in the Stavropol Regional Bar Association - first as a lawyer in the city of Nevinnomyssk, and then as the head of legal advice (more)
In 1962 he returned to Leningrad. 1962-1965 - Postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University, PhD thesis defense. From 1965 to 1968, Sobchak teaches at the Leningrad Special Police School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 1968 to 1973 - Associate Professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Anatoly Sobchak is the author of over 200 books and articles on economics and law. In 1971 he published his first book, Legal Problems of Cost Accounting in Industry of the USSR. From 1973 to 1981 - associate professor, since 1982 - professor of the law faculty 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 1980, Sobchak married a second time. Wife - Lyudmila Narusova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian History at the Academy of Culture, daughter Ksenia - a student at MGIMO (more)
In 1989, at the first democratic elections, Anatoly Sobchak was elected People's Deputy of the USSR from the 47th Vasileostrovsky District of Leningrad. At the first congress, he became a member of the Supreme Council, the Committee on Legislation and Law Enforcement. Anatoly Sobchak was the chairman of the parliamentary commission to investigate the tragic events of April 9, 1989 in Tbilisi, when many demonstrators were killed or wounded during the dispersal of a rally by troops. Anatoly Sobchak became one of the founders of the Interregional Deputy Group, formed from the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in June 1989.
In April 1990, he was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies, on May 23, 1990 - Chairman of the Leningrad City Council. According to the results of the first national elections of the head of the city on June 12, 1991, he became the mayor of St. Petersburg.
He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council under the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev, a member of the Presidential Council under the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin. Anatoly Sobchak chaired the Constitutional Meeting that drafted a democratic constitution for the new Russia.
Under the first democratically elected mayor of Leningrad, on September 8, 1991, the city was returned to its historical name - St. Petersburg.
Mayor Sobchak has managed to create a strong, professional team of young, educated and talented managers, most of whom now occupy leading government posts in Moscow. His main achievements are in creating an attractive image of a European city, attracting investment to St. Petersburg, and establishing the status of the cultural capital of Russia. On his initiative, economic forums began to be held in the city; in 1994, the Goodwill Games and major international cultural festivals were successfully held. For the first time, the official transfer of church buildings to the denominations represented in St. Petersburg began.
Anatoly Sobchak, as the mayor of the city, carried out moderate reforms, defended the financial independence of the city, fought against attempts by criminals to infiltrate the city's economy.
In early 1996, on the eve of the election of the head of the city, a campaign to discredit the mayor began, carried out through the media by the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the special services. An unprecedented smear campaign in the press and electoral fraud gave his opponent a 1.2% lead. However, even after the election defeat, Sobchak remained an iconic democratic figure enjoying great prestige. The persecution continued, the number of custom-made publications increased, including intruding into personal life.
On October 3, 1997, investigators of the prosecutor's office, despite Sobchak's statement about his illness, tried to take him by force for interrogation as a witness in the case of corruption in the St. Petersburg authorities. Only the insistence of his wife to call an ambulance, which determined the heart attack, forced the investigators to abandon their intentions. Sobchak was in the cardiac intensive care unit 122 of the medical unit for about a month - as it turned out, with a third heart attack. Then he was transferred to the clinic of the Military Medical Academy, to the chief cardiac surgeon of the city, Colonel-General Yu.L. Shevchenko. During the entire period of his treatment, the doctors were under serious pressure and direct threats were made against them. Therefore, on November 7, 1997, Anatoly Sobchak was taken to France by his wife for a quiet continuation of treatment. In Paris, he underwent a course of treatment and then taught at the university, worked in the archives on books.
“I don’t wish my enemies to endure what I and my family and I have experienced over the past four years,” Anatoly Sobchak writes in his latest political book A Dozen Knives in the Back. slandered and persecuted, accused of all mortal sins. "
Despite the fact that friends advised not to return, Anatoly Sobchak returned to St. Petersburg on July 12, 1999. By this time, Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov was removed from office, Yuri Shutov, one of the most active perpetrators of the slanderous campaign launched against Sobchak, was arrested on suspicion of organizing a gang of murderers. In October 1999, Sobchak received an official notification from the Prosecutor General's Office to discontinue the criminal case. None of the "accusations" circulated by the press have been confirmed. Lawsuits were won in courts for the protection of honor and dignity in connection with defamatory publications. But the press was in no hurry to apologize, and the previously published lies did their dirty deed. In December 1999, Sobchak ran for the State Duma in the 211st Central District, in the face of strong opposition from the city authorities and in the absence of support from the leaders of the right forces. As in the 1996 elections, he lacked 1.2% to win, which this time turned out to be fatal.
In early 2000, Anatoly Sobchak became a confidant of the candidate for the presidency of Russia V.V. Putin, and in this capacity left for Kaliningrad on February 15.
The first mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, died suddenly on the night of February 20, 2000 in the city of Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region. On February 24, thousands of people came to the Tauride Palace to say goodbye to Anatoly Alexandrovich. And although the farewell was extended for several hours, not everyone was able to get into the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace. “It turns out that he was needed, it turns out, we loved him. His life was unfairly difficult lately,” Daniil Granin said at the civil funeral service.
"Today I am the head of the state, and therefore I cannot allow myself to speak harshly, but I will tell you my opinion in a generalized form. I believe that this is not just death, I believe that this is death. And this, of course, is the result of persecution." , - said Vladimir Putin that day.
Anatoly Sobchak was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Anatoly Sobchak was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita, like many children born in the country of the Soviets, he absorbed a bunch of nationalities. The paternal grandfather was a Pole, the grandmother was Czech; maternal grandfather is Russian, grandmother is Ukrainian. In addition to Anatoly, the family had three more children. His father worked as an engineer on the railway, his mother worked as an accountant.
Despite this diversity, Sobchak always considered himself Russian - “for me, being Russian means thinking and speaking Russian, being proud of my country and its contribution to the world heritage, and ashamed of the Chechen war, Chernobyl, abandoned collective farm fields and the poverty of the people, whose country possesses innumerable natural resources. Remember the victims of Stalinist repressions and interethnic conflicts. But above all, it's about faith! Faith in peace, democracy and prosperity in Russia, which we must leave to our children and grandchildren.
Anatoly was one of four sons. When he was only two years old, the whole family moved to Uzbekistan. In 1941, Sobchak's father went to the front, and all the burdens of maintaining the family and raising children fell on the shoulders of his mother. This poverty and half-starved existence had a great influence on the young Sobchak.
“When I was little, the rarest and most precious thing was food. I had many friends, good parents and pets, but I never had enough food. I still remember this constant feeling of hunger. Our only salvation was our goat, as we could not afford to keep a cow. My brothers and I went out every day to collect grass. Once someone hit our goat with a stick - it got sick and died. You know, I have never cried so much in my life as I did that day, ”Anatoly Aleksandrovich recalled.
He went through the lean years and continued his studies, gaining authority and popularity among his peers. Even when he was a child, for his qualities peers gave him the nicknames "professor" and "judge", because he had a broad outlook and was fair in resolving disputes.During wartime, Leningrad University professors, actors and writers were evacuated to Uzbekistan. of them turned out to be Sobchak's neighbors.Stories about Leningrad and university life impressed the boy so much that he decided that he must go to Leningrad State University.
Student time
After graduating from high school, Sobchak entered the law faculty of Tashkent University. He studied there for one year, and then received a transfer to the Leningrad State University... He loved to study and was very quickly awarded a Lenin scholarship. At the same time, he married Nonna Gandzyuk, who also came to Leningrad to study. The young couple was very poor, but what was lacking in food or material goods was compensated by the abundant cultural life of Leningrad, which Sobchak fell in love with as his hometown. After a while, Sobchak and his wife had a daughter, Maria, who later followed in her father's footsteps and became a lawyer. However, the marriage was unsuccessful and ended in divorce in 1977.
After Sobchak University, he was assigned to work as a lawyer in the Stavropol Territory. Sobchak worked there for three years, and three years later, in 1962, he returned to Leningrad to defend his Ph.D. thesis and continue his work as a lawyer and teacher.
In 1973 he presented his doctoral dissertation, in which he put forward the ideas of the liberalization of the socialist economy and closer links between the state economy and the private market. His ideas were considered rather risky, and his thesis was rejected. Sobchak later learned that he was blacklisted by the university due to his support of his former professor, who was fired after his daughter emigrated to Israel. Sobchak decided to postpone defending his doctorate. When he felt that the situation had changed, he wrote another dissertation, successfully defended it in Moscow and became a Doctor of Law in 1982.
In his alma mater, Sobchak founded and headed the first department of economic law in the USSR. He worked there until 1989 - the time he went into politics. Sobchak's knowledge, wisdom and manner of teaching made him very popular among students, and even when he later became mayor of St. Petersburg, he continued to lecture at the university.
Companion Lyudmila Narusova
In 1975, Sobchak met with Lyudmila Narusova, who was destined to become his second wife.
“I was divorced, and my husband did not want to give up the apartment my parents paid for. It was a difficult situation and someone recommended a lawyer who taught at the university. I was told that he was involved in difficult cases and has an unconventional mindset. I went to university to meet him and ended up having to wait for him for a very long time. Then I saw how, after the lecture, young pretty students gathered around him, asking him questions and trying to flirt with him, and I thought that he would not help me. At the time, I had no idea that he also experienced a divorce and knew firsthand about it.
We went to a cafe to discuss my situation. I was so upset that I started telling him everything about myself and my life, and I cried all the time. He listened to me and decided that he needed to talk to my husband. He had the gift of persuasion, and as a result, my husband backed down.
To thank the lawyer for his help, I bought him a bouquet of chrysanthemums and prepared three hundred rubles in an envelope. It was the money-monthly salary of the assistant professor. He took the flowers and returned the money, saying - you are so pale. Why don't you go to the market and buy yourself some fruit. I was very offended by this. Three months later we met at a party and he didn't even remember me. And that was even worse. I did my best to make sure he never forgets me again! We started dating, but we had a pretty big age gap between us - he was thirty-nine and I was only twenty-five. We met for 5 years, and he seemed in no hurry to propose. However, in 1980 we finally got married and a year later our daughter Ksenia, ”recalls Lyudmila Borisovna.
It is unlikely that the happy father guessed that a few decades later, his daughter would surpass him in popularity and even become a presidential candidate. However, when he took her out of the hospital, all he dreamed of was living long enough to celebrate her eighteen and had no idea that he would die, just a couple of months after Ksenia Anatolyevna celebrated her 18th birthday.
This was the second marriage, and the late Sobchak adored his wife and admitted that he owed her his life. She became more than just a wife; she was his companion, fighting for her husband's cause and even for his very existence. He later wrote that during his severe persecution, her loyalty, courage and support won her great respect even from his enemies. Living and working so close to Sobchak, Lyudmila also joined politics, being elected to the State Duma for St. Petersburg in 1995.
From university life to politics
Meanwhile, Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union, as a result of the total reform of the country - perestroika, which marked the beginning of the democratization of power. In 1989, Sobchak was elected People's Deputy of the USSR in the first democratic elections in the country.
A talented lawyer and professor, he was also talented in politics. He was appointed head of the parliamentary investigation into the shooting of peaceful demonstrators in Tbilisi in 1989 - his report exposed the gross misconduct of the Interior Ministry and KGB officers towards people. His direct questions during the cross-examination of then Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov regarding the orders and actions of all government officials were broadcast throughout the country, which was unheard of just a few years ago.
Mayor of St. Petersburg
In 1990, Sobchak was elected chairman of the Leningrad City Council. The following year, in the general election of the head of the city, he was elected the first mayor of Leningrad. On the same day, a referendum was held to return Leningrad to its historical name St. Petersburg.
Sobchak quickly assembled a strong team of young professionals who were also talented managers. Most of the people on his team now make up the political elite of Russia. One of his assistants was former student Dmitry Medvedev, and the post of vice-mayor Vladimir Putin. Sobchak sincerely loved St. Petersburg, sought to improve its image throughout the world and return it to the status of the cultural capital of Russia.
Meanwhile, the coup carried out by supporters of the Communist Party in August 1991 gave Sobchak the opportunity to go down in history. While Boris Yeltsin, Russia's President, rallied and coordinated the opposition in Moscow, Sobchak did the same in St. Petersburg. He bravely confronted the security forces and persuaded them not to send the army into the city.
The coup failed, the Soviet Union disintegrated in late 1991, and Sobchak became Russia's second most popular political leader after Yeltsin. His legal education and experience allowed him to practically write the new Constitution of post-Soviet Russia. However, Sobchak was arguably too soft a politician to use his immediate popularity after the coup to move to a higher level of politics. Instead, he fell into the trap of local politics in St. Petersburg and began to lose popularity after failing to curb organized crime in the city. Allegations of corruption and financial impropriety soon began to appear in the press.
From the peak of popularity to criminal prosecution
In early 1996, Sobchak's competitors launched a full campaign to discredit him - it was organized by his assistant Vladimir Yakovlev. Scandals involving Sobchak and his team appeared in the press - they were accused of inept management of city resources, which led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. Sobchak was accused of illegal privatization of property in the prestigious districts of St. Petersburg. Some felt that Sobchak and his popularity were too uncomfortable for Boris Yeltsin, whose second term would be in jeopardy if Sobchak rose to run.
“I would not even want my enemies to experience what my family and I have experienced over the past four years. From a man with an unblemished reputation, I instantly turned into a corrupt official, I was persecuted and accused of all mortal sins, "Anatoly Sobchak wrote later in his book" A Dozen Knives in the Back ".
He lost the elections by just over 1%, but the persecution did not stop. Sobchak already had two heart attacks, and he felt very bad. In 1997, prosecutors tried to forcibly bring him in for questioning - he was supposed to be a witness in a corruption case. His wife insisted that Sobchak was too sick to be interrogated, but the investigators did not believe her and tried to take him away by force. She called an ambulance, and the doctors diagnosed Anatoly Alexandrovich with a third heart attack.
After the hospital, in November 1997 Anatoly and his wife left for France. He lived in Paris for 2 years, underwent medical treatment, taught at the Sorbonne and worked with the archives.
Recovery
Sobchak returned to St. Petersburg in July 1999. His most ardent pursuers were either fired or arrested on criminal charges. In October 1999, Sobchak received an official notification from the Prosecutor General's Office to close the criminal case against him. All accusations published by the press were found to be unfounded. Sobchak regained his honor by winning cases against those who published libelous material about him.
In December 1999, Sobchak ran for the State Duma. However, the decisive role was played by the lack of support, and fierce competition with the city authorities - Sobchak lost, losing only 1.2%.
On December 31, 1999, Boris Yeltsin resigns, Vladimir Putin, a former protégé of Sobchak, was appointed acting president before the March elections. In turn, Putin appointed Sobchak as his confidant in Kaliningrad, where he went on February 15.
Death and legacy
Five days later, on February 20, 2000, Sobchak was found dead. Immediately, the press voiced the opinions of Sobchak's wife and relatives that it was a murder, but an autopsy established that the cause of death was acute heart failure.
Rumors of a murder appeared immediately, but the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region opened a criminal case on the fact of murder (poisoning) only in May. An autopsy performed in St. Petersburg showed the absence of both alcohol and poisoning. In August, prosecutors dropped the case. Although Anatoly's brother Alexander Alexandrovich is still sure that his brother was killed.
Sobchak was a member of a generation that was pursuing a political stage in both Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Having gained massive popularity during perestroika, he became one of the ideologues and political leader of capitalist reforms. In a sense, Sobchak's death, which coincided with the end of Yeltsin's presidency, closed the romantic period of Russia's democratization.
