Leontiev is a journalist. Analytical program "However" with Mikhail Leontiev

Mikhail Leontiev
Occupation: journalist, publicist, TV presenter
Date of birth: 12 October 1958
Place of birth: Moscow, USSR
Citizenship: USSR → Flag of Russia.svg Russia
Awards and prizes: Order of Friendship - 2006
"TEFI"

(October 12, 1958, Moscow) - Russian TV journalist, publicist, host of the TV show "However" and editor-in-chief of the weekly of the same name, and since October 2007 also the host of the geopolitical analytical program "Big Game". Mikhail Leontyev is a laureate of the "Golden Pen of Russia" prize, a nominee for the TEFI-1997 prize.

was born on October 12, 1958 in Moscow. Father - aircraft design engineer Vladimir Yakovlevich Leontiev, mother - a teacher of statistics at the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanova, co-author of the textbook "Trade Statistics" Mira Moiseevna Leontyeva.

Married (wife Maria). From his first marriage (with the poetess and philologist Natalia Azarova) - son Dmitry, daughter Elena and two grandchildren. From the second marriage - a daughter.

In the preface to the book "The Beatles of Perestroika" he defined his attitude to the profession:
“I consider journalism to be a disgusting profession chosen by flawed people. Journalists are professional amateurs. This is not literature, not art, not science, but a little bit of everything. "

Education Mikhail Leontyev
In 1979 Mikhail Leontiev graduated from the general economic faculty of the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov.
After graduation from the institute Leontiev worked in a research institute, where he tried, in his own words, "to deal with the real Soviet economy."

Work Mikhail Leontyev
After leaving the research institute in 1985, the most colorful period of his biography began. Mikhail Leontiev graduated from vocational school with a degree in cabinetmaker, worked as a handyman in the Literary Museum, guarded Boris Pasternak's dacha in Peredelkino, gave paid history lessons.
In 1987 Mikhail Leontiev began to study sociology. He began to write analytical articles, and after a while he devoted himself entirely to this.

Mikhail Leontiev and Press
Late 1989 Mikhail Leontiev became a correspondent for the policy department of the newspaper "Kommersant", where he went through, by his own admission, "a very useful school."

In 1990, Mikhail Leontyev became head of the economics department of Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

In 1993, when the history of the newspaper "Segodnya" began, Mikhail Leontiev took an active part in its organization. Subsequently, Mikhail Leontyev served as the first deputy editor-in-chief of this publication.

In the period 1999-2000 Mikhail Leontiev- Editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine "FAS".
May 22, 2007 to March 2, 2009 Mikhail Leontiev- Editor-in-chief of the business analytical magazine "Profile". The publisher claims that Leontyev's departure has led to an increase in circulation.

During the same period he collaborated with the Moulin Rouge magazine. Later, answering the question of Ksenia Sobchak regarding the presentation of his credo in this experimental edition, the TV presenter explained:
“I worked at the Rodionov Publishing House, so I had no right to refuse to write to the magazine. "

Since June 10, 2009 Mikhail Leontiev publishes the analytical magazine "However" with ex-journalists of "Profile" and "profile" columnists Yevgeny Dodolev and Alexander Nevzorov.

TV
In April 1997 he came to television - was the head and host of the program "Actually" ("TV Center").
November 1997 to 1998 Mikhail Leontiev- the author of the information and analytical program "The Seventh Day" ("TV Center").

Since February 1999 Mikhail Leontiev works on the ORT channel.
In March 1999 Mikhail Leontiev became the host of the program "However".
November 2001 to December 2002 Mikhail Leontiev worked on the analytical program "Another Time".
May 2003 to January 2004 Mikhail Leontiev worked on the author's program "Puppet Theater with Mikhail Leontyev".

From January 2006 to November 2007 he led the program “Master class with Mikhail Leontyev " on the O2TV channel. An interesting fact. In 2009 he starred in a small role in the film "True Love" by Stas Mareev.

The relationship of Mikhail Leontyev with the Ukrainian authorities
In 2002, for speaking out against Ekaterina Yushchenko (previously she bore the surname Chumachenko, changing it to Yushchenko only in 2005), the Shevchenko District Court of Kiev ordered Leontyev to reimburse 2,500 hryvnia in favor of Ekaterina Yushchenko and refute the false information that he voiced within 30 days. in his program "However" on April 10, 2001. Leontyev refused to comply with the court's decision. ORT host M. Leontyev lost the trial to Viktor Yushchenko's wife, Yekaterina Chumachenko.] 2002.01.30 After the journalist became “persona non grata” in Latvia, he was banned from entering Ukraine (July 14, 2006). Later, the taboo was abolished, and in September 2007 Mikhail, together with his colleague Yevgeny Dodolev (who acted as publisher), launched in Ukraine the Russian-language version of the German weekly Der Spiegel (Der Spiegel-Profile), which became a notable event on the media market of this country. ...

The magazine was launched on the presumption that "the quality of content in Ukraine lags significantly behind Russian requirements," and it was stated that, in concept, it is more of a political weekly, closer to Newsweek rather than to the "Profile" to which the Russian reader is accustomed.
The magazine in Russian was published weekly with a circulation of 30 thousand copies in Kiev, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, while the editorial office was based in Moscow, and a correspondent network was formed in Ukraine. The project was mothballed in May 2008 [, there is an online version of the publication.

Mikhail Leontiev and "The Big Game"
In October 2007, his project "Big Game" was released on Channel One - a series of programs dedicated to the history of the confrontation between Russia and Great Britain for domination in Central Asia in the 19th-20th centuries.

In November 2008, the Astrel-SPb publishing house published a book by Mikhail Leontyev with the same title under the project.

Political predilections
In his own words, he was a "dissident". Mikhail Leontiev calls himself a right-wing conservative.

Mikhail Vladimirovich considers work on television harmful "for physical and mental health." In connection with the global economic crisis, he said that “the only way out of the current crisis is a global war. Who and how will untie it is a purely technical question. I am not going to guess what the reason for this war will be - the complication of relations between Russia and Ukraine / Georgia, the Iranian issue or Pakistan. "

In 2006, presenting Stanislav Zhiznin's book Energy Diplomacy of Russia: Economics, Politics, Practice, Mikhail Leontyev noted:
“Russia is trying to enter the global world using energy as the main argument for us. That is, to use it both in the global economy and in global politics. "

He does not hide his political credo, defends it on the air and in publications. Openly stated it in 2007 in his article for the anthology "Moulin Rouge":

Politics is inseparable from cultural roots. Our culture is based on Christianity with its basic idea of compassion. There is no other world religion where one almighty God would give himself to torment for the sake of people. In its ideal form, Christianity is embodied precisely in Christian culture. It should have been embodied in Christian politics. But it is embodied in culture. Politics is pragmatic. Culture is not. In this sense, the highest form of Christian spiritual culture is the Middle Ages.

What does modern postmodernity, the so-called avant-garde, do? Destroying the idea of compassion. It is good when it is expressed in the form of a grotesque, such a "skit" as, for example, Tarantino does. Bantering about the removal of barriers implies their presence. To some extent, mocking the removal of Christian cultural taboos is humane. And it means recognizing the existence of these very taboos. It is worse when no one sees these taboos. When they are no longer in the minds of the creators. And there are no living people who do not think about anything at all. Then this is the end of culture. And the end of humanity as a population.

Real politics, like culture, can only exist within the framework of a taboo. That is why in all famous novels about politics, the theme "How power destroys a person" is eternal.

Incident in Odessa at a concert on May 6, 2012
The "Victory Song" concert that took place on May 6 in the evening on Levitan Street turned into a scandal. The "culprit" of the celebration, despite the presence on the stage of pop masters Lev Leshchenko and Alexander Marshal, was the Russian TV journalist Mikhail Leontyev. With the naked eye, it was clear that the journalist went on stage "tipsy" and immediately said that the inhabitants of Ukraine "pissed away the country." And in order to return everything to square one, Mikhail Leontyev believes, it is necessary to make the right choice.

"We need to stop betting on goats and pid ... Sov. To change something, we need to vote for the Rodina party," Mikhail Leontyev loudly proclaimed from the stage.

Birthday October 12, 1958

Russian TV journalist, publicist, host of the TV show "However"

Biography

Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontiev was born on October 12, 1958 in Moscow. Father - aircraft design engineer Vladimir Yakovlevich Leontiev, mother - a teacher of statistics at the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanova, co-author of the textbook "Trade Statistics" Mira Moiseevna Leontyeva. Married (wife Maria). From his first marriage (with the poetess and philologist Natalia Azarova) - son Dmitry, daughter Elena and two grandchildren. From the second marriage - a daughter.

In the preface to the book "The Beatles of Perestroika" he defined his attitude to the profession:

Education

In 1979 he graduated from the general economic faculty of the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov.

After graduating from the institute, Leontyev worked at the research institute, where he tried, in his own words, "to deal with the real Soviet economy."

Work

After leaving the research institute in 1985, the most colorful period of his biography began. Mikhail Leontyev graduated from vocational school with a degree in cabinet-maker, worked as a handyman in the Literary Museum, guarded Boris Pasternak's dacha in Peredelkino, and gave paid history lessons.

In 1987, Mikhail Vladimirovich began to study sociology. He began to write analytical articles, and after a while he devoted himself entirely to this.

Press

At the end of 1989, Mikhail Leontyev became a correspondent for the policy department of the Kommersant newspaper, where he went through, by his own admission, “a very useful school”.

In 1990, Mikhail Leontyev became head of the economics department of Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

In 1993, when the history of the newspaper "Segodnya" began, Mikhail Vladimirovich took an active part in its organization. Subsequently, Mikhail Leontyev served as the first deputy editor-in-chief of this publication.

1999-2000 - editor-in-chief of the FAS weekly magazine.

From May 22, 2007 to March 2, 2009 - editor-in-chief of the business analytical magazine "Profile". The publisher claims that Leontyev's departure has led to an increase in circulation.

Since June 10, 2009 he has been publishing the analytical magazine “However” with ex-journalists of “Profile” and “profile” columnists Evgeny Dodolev and Alexander Nevzorov.

TV

In April 1997 he came to television - was the head and host of the program "Actually" ("TV Center").

Since February 1999 he has been working on the ORT channel.

In March 1999 he became the host of the "However" program.

From May 2003 to January 2004 he worked on the author's program "Puppet Theater with Mikhail Leontyev".

From January 2006 to November 2007 he hosted the program “Master class with Mikhail Leontyev” on the O2TV channel.

Relationship with Ukrainian authorities

In 2002, for speaking out against Ekaterina Yushchenko (previously she bore the surname Chumachenko, changing it to Yushchenko only in 2005), the Shevchenko District Court of Kiev ordered Leontyev to reimburse UAH 2,500 in favor of Ekaterina Yushchenko and refute the false information that he voiced within 30 days. in his program "However" on April 10, 2001. Leontyev refused to comply with the court's decision. Chernomyrdin officially stated that Leontyev was a sick journalist, hinting at his psyche. And he is not going to apologize for such people.

He studied at the general economic faculty, from which he graduated in 1979 with a degree in Labor Economics. In his student years, he worked as a security guard in a Moscow planetarium, from where he was fired for a brawl arranged by his friends. After receiving higher education, Leontyev worked at the Institute of Economic Problems in Moscow, where, in his own words, he tried to "deal with the real Soviet economy." In addition to working at the Research Institute, Leontyev moonlighted by tutoring in history and became interested in applied art. In 1985 he graduated from vocational school No. 86 with a degree in cabinet-maker, but did not find a permanent job in his specialty. During this period, Leontyev worked as a laborer in the Literary Museum, guarded the dacha-museum of Boris Pasternak in Peredelkino and continued to engage in tutoring.

In 1987, Leontiev began writing analytical articles on sociological topics. In 1989, at the invitation of a friend, he came to the "Experimental Creative Center" headed by Sergei Kurginyan, which was engaged in political science. At the same time, he worked as a freelance correspondent for the newspaper "Socialist Industry", but his notes were not published in the newspaper. The first journalistic publication of Leontyev appeared without his knowledge in the Riga newspaper Atmoda, after which Leontiev collaborated with it in 1989-1990. In 1989, Leontyev was invited to the policy department of the Kommersant newspaper, even before it began to be published on paper, where he passed, by his own admission, “a very useful school”. In 1990, Leontyev moved to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, where he headed the department of economics. In 1993 he became the first deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly "Business MN". In the same year he co-founded the newspaper Segodnya, which was financed by Leonid Nevzlin, Vladimir Gusinsky and Alexander Smolensky. Leontyev was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper, political columnist and first deputy editor-in-chief. He left Segodnya, disagreeing with the reform that had begun in the publication. L. Nevzlin claims that Leontyev was “kicked out” of the newspaper.

In December 1995, MV Leontyev, as an independent candidate, ran for the State Duma of the II convocation from the 203rd Cheremushkinsky constituency in Moscow, but lost the election to Pavel Medvedev. During the first Chechen war, he was among those who supported the introduction of troops into the territory of Chechnya, declared that he was "a staunch supporter of the military solution of problems in Chechnya." Later, during the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, he called for the bombing of Chechnya.

In 1997, Leontyev became the founder of the magazine Delo, which was funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but did not appear in print. In April of the same year, he began working on television, becoming the head and presenter of the daily program "Actually", aired on the channel "TV Center" (TVC). In 1997-1998, he headed the Service for Social and Political Programs of the TVC and hosted the information and analytical program "The Seventh Day". In parallel, he continued to work in the print press - in 1998 he became the author of the column "Fas!" in the business weekly magazine "Company". In 1997, Leontiev was nominated for the TEFI Prize, and the next year he became a laureate of the Golden Pen Prize.

In February 1999, he resigned from the TVC and, together with the team of the program "Actually", moved to the staff of the Service for Social and Political Programs of ORT, where, in March of the same year, his program "However" began to appear. ... Leontyev explained his departure from TVC by the fact that he does not share "the views of those people who own TV Center." Later Leontyev conducted "However" together with Maxim Sokolov and Alexander Privalov. In the summer of 1999 he became the editor of the satirical "journal of political hunting" "FAS". The project was closed in 2000 for financial reasons. In 2000, at the presidential elections, he announced his support for the acting head of state, Vladimir Putin. In 2001, he became a member of the political council of the Eurasia socio-political movement headed by Alexander Dugin. In 2002 he became a member of the United Russia party.

From November 2001 to December 2002, the analytical program of Leontiev “Another Time” was aired on Channel One, and from May 2003 to January 2004 - the author’s program “Puppet Theater”. In 2005, M. Leontiev was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Main Theme", which was published at that time. From January 2006 to November 2007 he hosted the program “Master class with Mikhail Leontyev” on the O 2 TV channel. In October 2007, Channel One released his project The Big Game - a series of programs dedicated to the history of the confrontation between Russia and Great Britain for domination in Central Asia in the 19th-20th centuries. In November 2008, Leontyev's book of the same title was released.

In May 2007, M. Leontiev was appointed editor-in-chief of the business analytical magazine "Profile". Left Profile in March 2009. The magazine's publisher, Sergei Rodionov, claimed that Leontyev's departure had led to an increase in the publication's circulation. During the same period he collaborated with Moulin Rouge magazine. Later, answering the question of Ksenia Sobchak regarding the presentation of his credo in this edition, the TV presenter explained:

Since June 2009, together with Channel One, he became the founder of the magazine "However", in which, in addition to Leontyev, Yevgeny Dodolev and Alexander Nevzorov and other journalists and columnists who previously worked at Profile are published. In 2009 he starred in a small role in Stas Mareev's film "True Love".

In the preface to the book by E. Dodolev, published in 2011, "The View" - the Beatles of Perestroika, he defined the attitude to the profession:

M. Leontiev is a member of the journalistic "Seraphim Club", taught at the non-state Higher School of Management, which trained the "commissars" of the "Nashi" movement.

On January 8, 2014, the Kommersant newspaper reported that since January 13, Mikhail Leontyev will become an advisor to the president of Rosneft Igor Sechin in the rank of vice president for PR, who will have to oversee the activities of the information and advertising department. Sources of the publication pointed out that there is a long-standing "friendly relationship" between Sechin and Leontyev. At the same time, Mikhail Leontyev will remain the host of the "However" program on Channel One. On January 14, Rosneft issued a press release, according to which Mikhail Leontyev works for the company as a press secretary - director of the information and advertising department with the rank of vice president.

Relationship with Ukrainian authorities

After the journalist became “persona non grata” in Latvia, he was denied entry (July 14, 2006) to Ukraine as well. Later, the ban was lifted, and in September 2007 Mikhail, together with his colleague Yevgeny Dodolev (acting as publisher), launched in Ukraine the Russian-language version of the German weekly Der Spiegel (Der Spiegel-Profile), which became a notable event on the media market of this country. ...

The magazine was launched on the presumption that "The quality of content in Ukraine lags significantly behind Russian requirements", and it was stated that in concept it is more of a political weekly, close more to Newsweek than to the "Profile" to which the Russian reader is accustomed.

The magazine in Russian was published weekly with a circulation of 30 thousand copies in Kiev, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, while the editorial office was based in Moscow, and a correspondent network was formed in Ukraine. The project was suspended in May 2008, there is an online version of the publication.

In August 2014, Ukraine was included in the sanctions list.

Socio-political views

In his own words, he was a "dissident". He calls himself a right-wing conservative.

At the beginning of his publicistic and journalistic career, he adhered to radically liberal views, primarily in the economic sphere, which predetermined his opposition to the communists in the 1996 elections and the government headed by E.M. Primakov in the late 1990s. Criticized leftist ideology: “Pathetic attempts to build communism out of the sandbox are disgusting. And their economic consequences are global. Nobody believes in anything anymore. Nobody at all and nothing at all. Obviously, market reforms in Russia have failed. The market is not good for Russia. Russia is a wretched, terrible country, separate from the entire population of homo sapiens, which can exist only in some kind of marasmic, isolationist - necessarily in a zoo - conditions. All these senseless and insane compromises, all these handouts to socialism and populism, which is extremely expensive for a sick economy - all this must be discarded. The way out is in normal liberal development. " In February 1998, Leontyev became a laureate of the Adam Smith Prize, established by the Gaidar Institute for Economic Problems in Transition "for criticizing liberal politics from the standpoint of liberalism." Leontyev himself called the Gaidar reform shock therapy under anesthesia.

In earlier works, Leontyev also called for abandoning the "imperial burden": "And God forbid trying to restore the empire, to which we are inclined not only by our domestic madmen, but also selfishly interested in all kinds of (like the previous) alliances of the governments of the newly formed states, whom, for all their loudly declared independence, life is not a joy without the usual Russian gratis. If, contrary to common sense, such a reunification can still be carried out without bloodshed (which, of course, is unlikely), then Russia will inevitably perish and cease to exist as an independent cultural and geopolitical organism. And not just for a long time - forever. "

Leontiev also repeatedly spoke out in support of Augusto Pinochet: “He did what Lavr Georgievich Kornilov failed to do in his time. And he did it, in general, very cruelly, I would say, but with the minimum possible losses, with the minimum possible. " Leontyev believes that Pinochet carried out an exemplary economic reform in Chile: “The main thing is that the general created an efficiently working social system, built on a truly liberal principle. The government did not redistribute anything to anyone; it, by providing citizens with equal opportunities, encouraged them to independently solve their problems. The population must work for the country - this is the essence of the Chilean model. "

He outlined his political credo in 2007 in his article for the anthology "Moulin Rouge":

What does modern postmodernity, the so-called avant-garde, do? Destroying the idea of compassion. It is good when it is expressed in the form of a grotesque, such a "skit" as, for example, Tarantino does. Mocking the removal of barriers implies their presence. To some extent, mocking the removal of Christian cultural taboos is humane. And it means recognizing the existence of these very taboos. It is worse when no one sees these taboos. When they are no longer in the minds of the creators. And there are no living people who do not think about anything at all. Then this is the end of culture. And the end of humanity as a population.
Real politics, like culture, can only exist within the framework of a taboo. Therefore, in all famous novels about politics, the theme is eternal “ How power destroys a person».

The incident in Odessa at a concert on May 6, 2012

The "Victory Song" concert that took place on May 6 in the evening on Levitan Street turned into a scandal. The "culprit" of the celebration, despite the presence on the stage of pop masters Lev Leshchenko and Alexander Marshal, was the Russian TV journalist Mikhail Leontyev. With the naked eye, it was clear that the journalist went on stage "tipsy" and immediately said that the inhabitants of Ukraine "pissed away the country." And in order to return everything to square one, Mikhail Leontyev believes, it is necessary to make the right choice.
“We need to stop betting on goats and pid ... owls. To change something, you need to vote for the Rodina party, ”Mikhail Leontyev loudly proclaimed from the stage.

Awards and prizes

Bibliography

However, hello! - M., 2005.
However, goodbye! - M., 2005.
Fortress Russia: Farewell to Liberalism, "Yauza", 2005. - 189 p. (co-authored)
Is Russia threatened by an "orange revolution"? - M., 2005.
Internal enemy: The defeatist "elite" is ruining Russia - M., 2005.
Leontiev M. V., Zhukov D. A. "Independent" Georgia: A Bandit in a Panther's Skin. - M .: Yauza, 2008 .-- 352 p.
Big game: British Empire against Russia and the USSR. - M .: AST, 2008 .-- 319 p.
The ideology of sovereignty. From imitation to authenticity. - M .: Izborsk club, Book world, 2014 .-- 320 pages.

Filmography

A family

He is married for the second time to Maria Kozlovskaya. From his first marriage with the poetess and philologist Natalia Azarova - son Dmitry (works on the O2TV channel), daughter Elena and two grandchildren. From his second marriage, Leontyev has a daughter, Daria (1999).

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An excerpt characterizing Leontiev, Mikhail Vladimirovich

- From whom? Who are you?
“From Major Denisov,” answered Rostov.
- Who are you? an officer?
- Lieutenant, Count Rostov.
- What courage! Serve on command. And you yourself, go, go ... - And he began to put on the uniform given by the valet.
Rostov went out into the vestibule again and noticed that there were already many officers and generals in full dress uniform on the porch, past whom he had to pass.
Cursing his courage, dying at the thought that at any moment he could meet the sovereign and be disgraced in his presence and sent under arrest, fully realizing the indecency of his act and repenting of it, Rostov, lowering his eyes, made his way out of the house, surrounded by a crowd of brilliant retinue when a familiar voice called out to him and someone's hand stopped him.
- You, father, what are you doing here in a tailcoat? - asked his bass voice.
He was a cavalry general, who during this campaign deserved the special favor of the sovereign, the former head of the division in which Rostov served.
Rostov, frightened, began to make excuses, but seeing the general's good-naturedly playful face, stepping to the side, in an agitated voice conveyed the whole matter to him, asking him to intercede for the well-known general Denisov. The general, after listening to Rostov, shook his head gravely.
- Sorry, sorry for the fellow; give me a letter.
As soon as Rostov had time to hand over the letter and tell the whole case of Denisov, rapid steps with spurs rattled down the stairs and the general, moving away from him, moved to the porch. The gentlemen of the sovereign's retinue ran down the stairs and went to the horses. The rider Ene, the same one who was in Austerlitz, let the emperor's horse down, and on the stairs there was a slight creak of steps, which Rostov now recognized. Forgetting the danger of being recognized, Rostov moved with several curious inhabitants to the very porch and again, after two years, he saw the same features he adored, the same face, the same look, the same gait, the same combination of greatness and meekness ... And the feeling of delight and love for the sovereign with the same strength revived in Rostov's soul. The sovereign in the Preobrazhensky uniform, in white leggings and high boots, with a star that Rostov did not know (it was legion d "honneur) [star of the Legion of Honor] went out onto the porch, holding his hat close at hand and putting on a glove. lighting around him with his gaze. To some of the generals he said a few words. He also recognized the former chief of the Rostov division, smiled at him and called him over to him.
The entire retinue retreated, and Rostov saw this general say something to the emperor for a rather long time.
The Emperor said a few words to him and took a step to approach the horse. Again the crowd of the retinue and the crowd of the street in which Rostov was, moved closer to the sovereign. Stopping by the horse and grasping the saddle with his hand, the sovereign turned to the cavalry general and spoke loudly, obviously with a desire for everyone to hear him.
“I cannot, General, and therefore I cannot, because the law is stronger than me,” said the emperor, and put his foot in the stirrup. The general bowed his head respectfully, the emperor sat down and rode at a gallop down the street. Rostov, not remembering himself with delight, ran after him with the crowd.

On the square where the emperor went, stood face to face on the right, a battalion of the Transfigurations, on the left, a battalion of the French guard in bear hats.
While the sovereign was driving up to one flank of the battalions who were on guard, another crowd of horsemen jumped up to the opposite flank, and in front of them Rostov recognized Napoleon. It couldn't be anyone else. He rode at a gallop in a small hat, with an Andreevskaya ribbon over his shoulder, in a blue uniform open over a white camisole, on an unusually thoroughbred Arabian gray horse, on a crimson, gold embroidery, saddlecloth. Having approached Alexander, he raised his hat and with this movement Rostov's cavalry eye could not fail to notice that Napoleon was badly and not firmly on his horse. The battalions shouted: Hurray and Vive l "Empereur! [Long live the Emperor!] Napoleon said something to Alexander. Both emperors dismounted and took each other's hands. Napoleon had an unpleasantly feigned smile on his face. Alexander was saying something to him with an affectionate expression. ...
Rostov did not take his eyes off, despite the trampling of the horses of the French gendarmes who were beating down the crowd, followed every movement of the Emperor Alexander and Bonaparte. As a surprise, he was struck by the fact that Alexander behaved as an equal with Bonaparte, and that Bonaparte was completely free, as if this closeness with the sovereign was natural and familiar to him, as an equal, he treated the Russian Tsar.
Alexander and Napoleon, with a long tail of their retinue, approached the right flank of the Preobrazhensky battalion, right into the crowd that was standing there. The crowd suddenly found itself so close to the emperors that Rostov, who was standing in the front ranks of it, was afraid that they would not recognize him.
- Sire, je vous demande la permission de donner la legion d "honneur au plus brave de vos soldats, [Sovereign, I ask you for permission to give the Order of the Legion of Honor to the bravest of your soldiers,] - said a sharp, precise voice, finishing every letter This was spoken by the small Bonaparte, looking directly into Alexander's eyes from below, Alexander listened attentively to what was said to him, and bowing his head, smiled pleasantly.
- A celui qui s "est le plus vaillament conduit dans cette derieniere guerre, [The one who showed himself bravest during the war,] - added Napoleon, rapping out every syllable, with outrageous calmness and confidence for Rostov, looking around the ranks of Russians stretched out in front of him soldiers, keeping everything on guard and gazing motionlessly into the face of their emperor.
- Votre majeste me permettra t elle de demander l "avis du colonel? [Your Majesty will allow me to ask the colonel's opinion?] - Alexander said and took several hasty steps towards Prince Kozlovsky, the battalion commander. Bonaparte began to take off his white glove, He tore it apart and threw it in. The adjutant hurriedly rushed forward from behind and lifted it up.
- To whom to give? - Emperor Alexander asked Kozlovsky not loudly, in Russian.
- Whom do you command, your majesty? - The Emperor frowned in displeasure and, looking around, said:
- Why, you must answer him.
Kozlovsky looked back at the ranks with a resolute air, and in this glance captured Rostov as well.
"Isn't it me?" thought Rostov.
- Lazarev! The colonel commanded with a frown; and the first soldier in rank, Lazarev, boldly stepped forward.
- Where are you going? Stop here! - whispered voices at Lazarev, who did not know where to go. Lazarev stopped, glancing fearfully at the colonel, and his face trembled, as is the case with soldiers summoned to the front.
Napoleon slightly turned his head back and pulled back his little plump hand, as if wanting to take something. The faces of his retinue, guessing at the same second what was the matter, began to fuss, whispering, passing something to one another, and the page, the same one whom Rostov had seen yesterday at Boris, ran forward and respectfully bent over the outstretched hand and did not make her wait either one second, put the medal on the red ribbon into it. Napoleon closed two fingers without looking. The order found itself between them. Napoleon went up to Lazarev, who, rolling his eyes, stubbornly continued to look only at his sovereign, and looked back at the Emperor Alexander, showing by this that what he was doing now, he was doing for his ally. A small white hand with the order touched the button of the soldier Lazarev. As if Napoleon knew that in order for this soldier to be happy, rewarded and different from everyone else in the world forever, it was only necessary that he, Napoleon's hand, deign to touch the soldier's chest. Napoleon just attached the cross to Lazarev's chest and, putting out his hand, turned to Alexander, as if he knew that the cross should stick to Lazarev's chest. The cross really stuck.
Russian and French obliging hands, instantly picking up the cross, fastened it to the uniform. Lazarev looked gloomily at the little man, with white hands, who had done something over him, and while continuing to keep on guard, he again began to look directly into Alexander's eyes, as if he were asking Alexander: is he still standing, or will he be ordered take a walk now, or maybe something else to do? But he was not ordered to do anything, and he remained in this motionless state for a long time.
The sovereigns sat on horseback and left. The Preobrazhentsi, upsetting the ranks, mixed with the French guards and sat down at the tables prepared for them.
Lazarev sat in a place of honor; he was hugged, congratulated and shook hands with Russian and French officers. Crowds of officers and people came up just to look at Lazarev. The rumble of Russian French dialect and laughter stood in the square around the tables. Two officers with flushed faces, cheerful and happy, walked past Rostov.
- What is the treat, brother? Everything is silver, ”one said. - Have you seen Lazarev?
- Saw.
- Tomorrow, they say, the Transfiguration will suppress them.
- No, Lazarev is so happy! 10 francs for life pension.
- That's a hat, guys! - shouted the Transfiguration, putting on the furry cap of the Frenchman.
- Wonder how good, lovely!
- Have you heard the review? - said the guard officer to another. The day before yesterday it was Napoleon, France, bravoure; [Napoleon, France, courage;] yesterday Alexandre, Russie, grandeur; [Alexander, Russia, greatness;] one day our sovereign gives a response, and another day Napoleon. Tomorrow the Emperor will send George to the bravest of the French Guards. You can't! I must answer in kind.
Boris and his friend Zhilinsky also came to see the Transfiguration banquet. Returning back, Boris noticed Rostov, who was standing at the corner of the house.
- Rostov! Hello; we never met, ”he said to him, and could not resist asking him what had happened to him: Rostov’s face was so strangely gloomy and upset.
"Nothing, nothing," answered Rostov.
- Will you come in?
- Yes, I'll come.
Rostov stood for a long time at the corner, looking at the feasting from afar. A painful work was going on in his mind, which he could not bring to the end. Terrible doubts arose in my soul. Then he remembered Denisov with his changed expression, with his obedience and the whole hospital with these severed arms and legs, with this dirt and diseases. It seemed to him so vividly that he now felt this hospital smell of a dead body that he looked around to understand where this smell could come from. Then he remembered this smug Bonaparte with his white hand, who was now the emperor, whom the emperor Alexander loved and respected. What are the severed arms, legs, and murdered people for? Then he remembered the awarded Lazarev and Denisov, punished and unforgiven. He found himself on such strange thoughts that he was frightened by them.
The smell of the food of the Transfiguration and hunger brought him out of this state: he had to eat something before leaving. He went to the hotel he had seen in the morning. At the hotel he found so many people, officers, just as he had arrived in civilian clothes, that he forcibly got dinner. Two officers of the same division joined him. The conversation naturally turned to peace. The officers, comrades of Rostov, like most of the army, were dissatisfied with the peace concluded after Friedland. They said that if he could still hold out, Napoleon would have disappeared, that he had neither rusks nor charges in his troops. Nikolai ate in silence and drank mostly. He drank one or two bottles of wine. The inner work that had risen in him, not being resolved, still tormented him. He was afraid to indulge in his thoughts and could not keep up with them. Suddenly, at the words of one of the officers that it was insulting to look at the French, Rostov began to shout with an unjustified fervor, and therefore very surprised the officers.
- And how can you tell which would be better! He shouted, his face suddenly bloodshot. - How can you judge the actions of the sovereign, what right do we have to reason ?! We cannot understand either the purpose or the actions of the sovereign!
- Yes, I did not say a word about the sovereign, - the officer justified himself, who could not, except that Rostov was drunk, explain to himself his irascibility.
But Rostov did not listen.
“We are not diplomatic officials, but we are soldiers and nothing else,” he continued. - They tell us to die - so die. And if they are punished, so it means - guilty; it is not for us to judge. If it pleases the emperor to recognize Bonaparte as emperor and conclude an alliance with him, then it must be so. And then, if we began to judge and reason about everything, then nothing sacred will remain that way. That way we will say that there is no God, nothing, - Nikolai shouted, striking the table, very inappropriately, according to the concepts of his interlocutors, but very consistently in the course of his thoughts.
“Our business is to do our duty, to cut ourselves off and not think, that's all,” he concluded.
“And drink,” said one of the officers, who did not want to quarrel.
“Yes, and drink,” Nikolai said. - Hey, you! Another bottle! He shouted.

In 1808, Emperor Alexander went to Erfurt for a new meeting with the Emperor Napoleon, and in the highest Petersburg society there was a lot of talk about the greatness of this solemn meeting.
In 1809, the closeness of the two rulers of the world, as Napoleon and Alexander were called, reached the point that when Napoleon declared war on Austria that year, the Russian corps went abroad to assist its former enemy Bonaparte against the former ally, the Austrian emperor; to the point that in high society they talked about the possibility of a marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of Emperor Alexander. But, in addition to external political considerations, at this time the attention of Russian society was drawn with particular vividness to the internal transformations that were being carried out at that time in all parts of the government.
Meanwhile, the real life of people with their essential interests of health, illness, work, rest, with their interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, went on as always independently and outside of political closeness or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte, and beyond all possible transformations.
Prince Andrey spent two years without a break in the village. All those enterprises by names that Pierre started at himself and did not bring to any result, constantly moving from one case to another, all these enterprises, without showing them to anyone and without noticeable difficulty, were carried out by Prince Andrew.
He had in the highest degree that practical tenacity that Pierre lacked, which, without scope and effort on his part, set things in motion.
One estate of his three hundred souls of peasants was listed as free farmers (this was one of the first examples in Russia), in others corvee was replaced by rent. In Bogucharovo, a learned grandmother was discharged at his expense to help the women in childbirth, and the priest taught peasant and household children to read and write for a salary.
One half of the time Prince Andrew spent in Bald Hills with his father and son, who was still with the nannies; the other half of the time in the Bogucharov monastery, as his father called his village. Despite his indifference to all the external events of the world he showed to Pierre, he diligently followed them, received many books, and to his surprise he noticed when people fresh from Petersburg, from the very whirlpool of life, came to him or to his father, that these people, in the knowledge of everything that is happening in foreign and domestic policy, they lagged far behind him, sitting without a break in the countryside.
In addition to studying names, in addition to general studies of reading a wide variety of books, Prince Andrey was at this time engaged in a critical analysis of our last two unfortunate campaigns and in drawing up a project to change our military regulations and decrees.
In the spring of 1809, Prince Andrey went to the Ryazan estate of his son, whom he was a guardian.
Warmed by the spring sun, he sat in his carriage, looking at the first grass, the first birch leaves and the first puffs of white spring clouds that scattered across the bright blue of the sky. He did not think about anything, but looked around cheerfully and meaninglessly.
We passed the ferry on which he had spoken to Pierre a year ago. We passed a dirty village, threshing floors, greening, a descent, with the remaining snow near the bridge, an ascent along washed-out clay, strips of stubble and greenery in some places with bushes and drove into a birch forest on both sides of the road. It was almost hot in the forest, the wind could not be heard. The birch tree, all sown with green sticky leaves, did not move and from under last year's leaves, lifting them, the first grass and purple flowers crawled out, turning green. Small spruces scattered here and there on the birch grove, with their coarse eternal greenery, unpleasantly reminded of winter. The horses snorted as they drove into the forest and began to fog up better.
Lackey Peter said something to the coachman, the coachman answered in the affirmative. But Peter could see little sympathy from the coachman: he turned on the box to the master.
- Your Excellency, how easy it is! He said, smiling respectfully.
- What!
- Easy, Your Excellency.
"What he says?" thought Prince Andrew. “Yes, it’s true about spring,” he thought, looking around. And then everything is green ... how soon! And birch, bird cherry, and alder are already beginning ... And the oak is not noticeable. Yes, here it is, an oak tree. "
There was an oak tree at the edge of the road. Probably ten times older than the birches that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice the height of each birch. It was a huge oak in two girths with broken off, long visible, bitches and with broken off bark, overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically spread out, gnarled hands and fingers, he stood between the smiling birch trees as an old, angry and contemptuous freak. Only he alone did not want to submit to the charm of spring and did not want to see either spring or the sun.
"Spring, and love, and happiness!" - as if this oak spoke, - “and how you don’t get tired of the same stupid and senseless deception. Everything is the same, and everything is deception! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness. Look, there are crushed dead spruces sitting, always the same, and there I spread my broken, tattered fingers, wherever they grew - from the back, from the sides; as I grew up, I still stand, and I do not believe your hopes and deceptions. "
Prince Andrey glanced back at this oak several times, driving through the forest, as if he was expecting something from it. There were flowers and grass under the oak, but he still, frowning, motionless, ugly and stubbornly, stood in the middle of them.
"Yes, he is right, this oak is right a thousand times, thought Prince Andrew, let others, young people, again succumb to this deception, but we know life - our life is over!" A whole new series of hopeless, but sadly pleasant thoughts in connection with this oak, arose in the soul of Prince Andrew. During this journey, he seemed to have rethought his whole life, and came to the same old reassuring and hopeless conclusion that he did not need to start anything, that he should live out his life without doing evil, without worrying and without wanting anything.

Due to the trusteeship of the Ryazan estate, Prince Andrey had to see the district leader. The leader was Count Ilya Andreich Rostov, and Prince Andrey went to him in mid-May.
It was already a hot period of spring. The forest was already all dressed up, there was dust and it was so hot that, passing by the water, I wanted to swim.
Prince Andrey, gloomy and preoccupied with considerations of what and what he needed to ask the leader about business, drove up the garden alley to the Rostovs' house in Otradnensk. To the right, from behind the trees, he heard a female, cheerful cry, and saw a crowd of girls running to the intersection of his carriage. Closer in front of the others, a black-haired, very thin, oddly thin, black-eyed girl in a yellow chintz dress, tied with a white handkerchief, from under which strands of combed hair stood out, ran up to the carriage. The girl was shouting something, but recognizing the stranger, without looking at him, she ran back with a laugh.
Prince Andrew suddenly felt pain from something. The day was so good, the sun was so bright, everything was so cheerful; and this slender and pretty girl did not know and did not want to know about his existence and was pleased and happy with some sort of her own separate - truly stupid - but cheerful and happy life. “Why is she so happy? what is she thinking! Not about the military charter, not about the structure of the Ryazan quitrent. What is she thinking about? And how is she happy? " Prince Andrew involuntarily asked himself with curiosity.
Count Ilya Andreevich in 1809 lived in Otradnoye in the same way as before, that is, receiving almost the entire province, with hunts, theaters, dinners and musicians. He, like every new guest, was glad to Prince Andrey, and almost forcibly left him to spend the night.
During the boring day, during which Prince Andrey was occupied by the senior hosts and the most honorable of the guests, with whom the house of the old count was full on the occasion of the approaching name day, Bolkonsky, glancing several times at Natasha laughing and having fun between the other young half of the society, kept asking himself: “What is she thinking about? Why is she so happy! "
In the evening, left alone in a new place, he could not sleep for a long time. He read, then put out the candle and lit it again. It was hot in the room with the shutters closed from the inside. He was annoyed with this stupid old man (as he called Rostov), who detained him, assuring him that the necessary papers in the city had not yet been delivered, annoyed with himself for remaining.
Prince Andrey got up and went to the window to open it. As soon as he opened the shutters, the moonlight, as if he had been on the alert at the window for a long time, burst into the room. He opened the window. The night was crisp and still bright. In front of the window was a row of trimmed trees, black on one side and silvery lit on the other. Under the trees was some kind of lush, wet, curly vegetation with silvery leaves and stems in some places. Further behind the ebony trees was some kind of shiny dew roof, to the right a large curly tree, with a bright white trunk and twigs, and above it was an almost full moon in a bright, almost starless spring sky. Prince Andrew leaned against the window and his eyes rested on this sky.
Prince Andrew's room was on the middle floor; they also lived in the rooms above him and did not sleep. He heard a woman's voice from above.
“Just one more time,” said a woman's voice from above, which Prince Andrew now recognized.
- But when are you going to sleep? Answered another voice.
- I will not, I cannot sleep, what can I do! Well, the last time ...
Two female voices began to sing some kind of musical phrase that constituted the end of something.
- Oh, how lovely! Well now sleep, and end.
“You sleep, but I can't,” answered the first voice, approaching the window. She apparently leaned completely out of the window, because she could hear the rustle of her dress and even her breathing. Everything was quiet and petrified, like the moon and its light and shadows. Prince Andrew was also afraid to move, so as not to betray his involuntary presence.
- Sonya! Sonya! The first voice was heard again. - Well, how can you sleep! Look, what a charm! Oh, how lovely! Wake up, Sonya, ”she said almost with tears in her voice. - After all, such a lovely night has never, never happened.

Mikhail Leontyev is a Russian journalist and publicist, a permanent host of the TV program "However". Today he conducts the author's program "Main Theme" on the radio "Komsomolskaya Pravda", holds the position of press secretary and vice-president of the corporation "Rosneft". He is known for his harsh statements towards colleagues, as well as politicians, including other states.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontiev was born into an intelligent family on October 12, 1958. Mira Moiseevna, the mother of the future journalist, worked as a teacher at the Moscow Institute. Plekhanov, father Vladimir Yakovlevich was an aircraft designer. By nationality, the newborn turned out to be half Jewish, half Russian.

Since childhood, Mikhail Leontyev had a passion for literature - the boy read "drunkenly", he especially liked historical stories and novels. At the age of 5, the parents wanted to enroll the child in figure skating, but he refused. In adolescence, the boy passionately argued with his grandmother, proving to her, an inveterate communist, the shortcomings of Soviet policy. In high school, Mikhail secretly from his parents read magazines banned in those years.

Journalist Mikhail Leontyev at the presentation of the book "Time to betray" / Dmitry Rozhkov, Wikipedia

After school, the guy entered the Faculty of Economics of the Plekhanov Institute and successfully defended his diploma in 1979. In his youth, the future journalist had to earn money as a loader.

After university, Mikhail Leontyev got a job at a research institute, trying to be realized in the economy. Patience was enough for several years. In 1985, Mikhail resigned from the Research Institute, from that moment on, life became brighter. The young scientist mastered the carpentry craft, was an ordinary worker at the Literary Institute and a watchman at the dacha. Leontyev also earned his living by tutoring.

Journalism

The biography of Mikhail Vladimirovich is closely related to journalism. In 1987, Leontyev was seriously interested in sociology - Mikhail's first analytical articles were devoted to this topic. After another 2 years, the man devoted himself entirely to journalism. At first he worked as a political correspondent for the Kommersant publication, then headed a department in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Leontiev Mikhail Vladimirovich, born on October 12, 1958, a native of Moscow.

Graduated from the Moscow Institute of National Economy. G.V. Plekhanov.

After graduation, he worked at the Institute of Economic Problems in Moscow, and after leaving it he was a laborer at the Literary Museum and a watchman of the Boris Pasternak Museum in Peredelkino. At the same time he was engaged in tutoring, wrote analytical articles on sociology.

Engaged in journalism since 1989. He was an employee of the policy department of the Kommersant newspaper, the head of the economics department of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, and the first deputy editor-in-chief of the Business MN weekly.

In 1993 he co-founded the newspaper Segodnya, where he was a political observer and first deputy editor-in-chief.

In 1995, he ran for the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from the Cheryomushkinsky constituency in Moscow, where he took second place, but was not elected.

In 1997, Leontyev was invited to television as the host of the program "Actually" on the TV-Center channel. At the same time he headed the Service of Social and Political Programs of the TVC, hosted the informational and analytical program "The Seventh Day" and was the author of the column "Fas!" in the weekly "Company".

In 1999 he switched from TVC to ORT, becoming the host of the program "However". In the period from 2001 to 2003, the program was also conducted by M. Yu. Sokolov and A. N. Privalov.

In addition to "However," Leontyev was the host of the programs "Another Time" (from 2001 to 2002), "Puppet Theater" (from 2003 to 2004) and "Master Class" (from 2006 to 2007). In 2007, on Channel One, a cycle of his programs "Big Game" was released, based on which in 2008 he wrote a book of the same name.

In 2005 he was the editor-in-chief of the Main Topic magazine, from 2007 to 2009 - the Profile magazine, and in 2009 he became a co-founder of the However magazine.

In 2009 he also performed a cameo role in the film "True Love" directed by S. B. Mareev.

In January 2014, he was invited to the position of Press Secretary - Director of the Information and Advertising Department of Rosneft Oil Company in the rank of Vice President.

Leontiev has the Order of Friendship. Winner of the 1998 Golden Pen of Russia prize.

He is married and has three children.

Immediate relatives:

Wife (ex): Azarova Natalia Mikhailovna, Born on September 23, 1956, philologist, head of the Center for the Study of World Poetry at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author of a number of poetry collections and translations.

Wife: Kozlovskaya Maria Vitalievna, 04.03.1969 year of birth, child psychologist.

Daughter: Elena Leontyeva, Born on November 25, 1975, worked in a number of Moscow banks, now a housewife.

A son: Dmitry Leontiev, Born on June 25, 1983, employee of the O2TV youth TV channel.

Daughter: Leontyeva Daria Mikhailovna, Born on 23.11.1999, a student of one of the elite Moscow schools.

Links:

Gusinsky Vladimir Alexandrovich, Born on 06.10.1952, a former media tycoon, currently residing in Spain. Leontyev worked for the newspaper Segodnya, funded by him, but was distinguished by the fact that he did not always fulfill Gusinsky's "wishes" regarding the direction of newspaper articles. In the end, Leontyev was "survived" from Segodnya largely at the suggestion of Gusinsky.

Dodolev Evgeny Yurievich, 11.06.1957 year of birth, journalist. Friend of Leontyev. From 2007 to 2008, we jointly published in Ukraine the Russian-language version of the German weekly Der Spiegel. Dodolev is a regular contributor to the magazine "However".

Dugin Alexander Gelevich, 07.01.1962 year of birth, public figure, leader of the International Eurasian Movement. He actively collaborated with Leontiev in the early 2000s. Leontyev was a member of the political council of the Eurasia movement headed by Dugin, from which he left in 2002 in order to join United Russia.

Kurginyan Sergey Ervandovich, 11/14/1949 year of birth, political scientist, public figure, director. We have known Leontiev since the late 1980s. Despite some ideological differences, they have always maintained and continue to maintain good relations. Leontiev in 2012 was part of the so-called. Anti-Orange Committee headed by Kurginyan.

Nevzlin Leonid Borisovich, Born on September 21, 1959, entrepreneur, currently residing in Israel. At the initiative of Nevzlin, Leontyev co-founded the newspaper "Segodnya". Subsequently, their relationship deteriorated, which was the reason for Leontyev's departure from "Today".

Privalov Alexander Nikolaevich, Born on May 31, 1950, publicist, former general director of ZAO Expert Journal. We have known each other since the 1990s. At the invitation of Leontyev Privalov from 2001 to 2003 was the host of the program "However". Currently, they have diverged in political views and do not actually support the relationship.

Rodionov Sergei Sergeevich, Born on July 29, 1961, owner of the Rodionov Publishing House holding. Leontyev was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Profile", which was part of this holding. Rodionov speaks of Leontiev as "an excellent journalist" and "a lousy manager."

Igor Sechin, Born on 07.09.1960, President of OAO NK Rosneft. According to some reports, he approved and took part in financing a number of Leontiev's projects. Leontyev's invitation to work at Rosneft is Sechin's initiative.

Sokolov Maxim Yurievich, 10.09.1959 year of birth, journalist, columnist for Expert magazine. Together with Leontiev, he worked at Kommersant. In the period from 2001 to 2003 he was the host of the program "However". At present, despite the fact that they have different political views, they have maintained good relations.

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, Born on June 26, 1963, entrepreneur, former owner of the YUKOS oil company. He currently resides in Germany. During his work at TVC, Leontyev contacted Khodorkovsky with a request for help in publishing the magazine. Khodorkovsky agreed to finance the project, which, however, was never implemented.

Food for thought:

Since childhood, Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontyev was distinguished by a tendency to dissidence, which upset his father, Vladimir Yakovlevich, and his mother, Mirra Moiseevna a lot. So, even at the age of five, Misha flatly refused to go to the figure skating section, despite numerous threats and persuasions. When he grew up, he argued hoarsely with his grandmother, an old Bolshevik, telling her that the Soviet system was far from the best political and economic systems known to mankind. In high school, Mikhail first read the then banned magazine "Posev".

If we have already started talking about Leontyev's dissidence, then perhaps the question of his nationality should be raised. Yes, the mother of Mikhail Vladimirovich was Jewish by nationality and Leontyev himself never hid this, since it is absurd to deny the obvious. However, he always called and considered himself Russian, in his passport in the column "nationality" (when such a column existed) was written "Russian", according to religious beliefs he is Orthodox. So Mikhail Vladimirovich never considered himself a Jew, even when it was extremely beneficial for him (for example, during his work in the newspaper Segodnya), despite the fact that in fact he is half of him.

After school, Leontiev entered the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, where his mother taught statistics. He studied not shaky, not shaky, he passed the sessions mainly due to his mother's interference, because of his anti-Soviet views, he was considered "unreliable." He was not expelled from the institute only thanks to the intercession of Mirra Moiseevna, although he was kicked out of the Moscow Planetarium, where he worked as a night watchman, for a drunkenness he had with his friends right during the shift.

Of course, with such a reputation, Mikhail did not have a good distribution. After graduation, he went to work in one of the boring economic research institutes under the Moscow City Executive Committee, however, he did not last long there. In a quiet research institute, a ruffled young specialist who, for some reason, instead of solving crossword puzzles and gossip in the smoking room, tried to deal with the "real Soviet economy" did not come to the courtyard. At the same time, Leontiev began to engage in tutoring, preparing high school students for the university exam in history, the only subject that he really liked and in which he had only A's both at school and at the institute. It is interesting that among his students there was also a certain Masha Kozlovskaya, who would later become his wife.

Mikhail Vladimirovich was quite satisfied with the money he earned from private lessons, so he resigned from his research institute without the slightest remorse. However, in Soviet times, tutoring was not considered an official source of income, so Leontyev had to look for a job for himself, so that, having received an entry in the work book, he would not be a parasite. Being an original person, Mikhail Vladimirovich, twenty-six years old, two children and a higher education, entered the vocational school as a cabinet-maker, and even graduated from it in 1985. After his graduation as a carpenter, however, he did not work, but was listed at first as a handyman in the Literary Museum, and then as a watchman at the former dacha of Boris Pasternak in Peredelkino, which then belonged to the Union of Writers of the USSR. In a word, Leontyev retired to "internal emigration", in which many Soviet intellectuals were at that time.

With the beginning of perestroika, Mikhail Vladimirovich realized that it was time to return from the "internal emigration". Moreover, in 1989 a fateful event took place in his life - he met the head of the Experimental Creative Center, Sergei Kurginyan, an innovative director whose hobby was political analytics. It was Sergei Ervandovich who recommended Leontiev to write articles on the topic of the day. Mikhail Vladimirovich followed the recommendation and became a freelance correspondent for the Socialist Industry newspaper. After a business trip to Vorkuta, where then there was a powerful strike of miners, he wrote an article about the striking miners, at the same time noting that it would be nice to cancel Article 6 of the USSR Constitution, which assigned the CPSU a "leading and guiding role." This article did not appear in the "Socialist Industry", but it was published by the newspaper "Atmoda", the organ of the opposition Popular Front of Latvia. Later Leontyev curtailed cooperation with "reinsurers" from "Socialist Industry", sending his new articles exclusively to "Atmoda".

Soon Mikhail Vladimirovich got "on the notice" of the "guru" of the perestroika press, the editor-in-chief of "Moskovskiye Novosti", Egor Yakovlev, who carefully read "Atmoda". Yakovlev even wanted to invite Leontyev to his "MN" or at least recommend him to Vitaly Korotich in "Ogonyok", but Mikhail Vladimirovich did not have a specialized education, and without him even those publications that were listed as "mouthpieces publicity ". Then Yegor Vladimirovich recommended it to his son Vladimir, who shortly before that left Ogonyok on a "free voyage" and founded the Kommersant newspaper together with Gleb Pavlovsky at the Fact information cooperative. So Leontyev became a correspondent for the policy department of Kommersant, but did not work there for long.

In 1990, Vitaly Tretyakov, deputy editor-in-chief of MN, created Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Mikhail Vladimirovich, about whom he had heard only good things from the father and son of the Yakovlevs, Tretyakov was offered the post of head of the department of economics. In this newspaper Leontyev worked for almost three years, until he was invited to the post of first deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly "Business MN". Then Leonid Nevzlin invited him to become a co-founder of the newspaper "Segodnya", which was conceived as "a fundamentally new media outlet." In addition to Nevzlin, oligarchs Vladimir Gusinsky and Alexander Smolensky agreed to finance the publication.

In "Segodnya" Mikhail Vladimirovich was at first a political observer, and then - the first deputy editor-in-chief. It was in her that he made a name for himself. He even allowed himself to write contrary to the "general line", for example, in his articles to speak approvingly of the actions of the federal troops in Chechnya, which was not accepted in "oligarchic" newspapers. But this was forgiven for a talented journalist. Leontyev even tried, for the first and so far the last time, to run for the State Duma from Moscow's Cheryomushkinsky constituency as an independent candidate, but lost to the representative of Russia's Choice, Pavel Medvedev, who had sat in parliament since 1990. But in 1996, the newspaper underwent a reorganization and the shareholders rushed to get rid of Mikhail Vladimirovich, who was becoming more and more uncomfortable for them, since not only in his articles he went beyond the "limits of what was permitted", but also actively sought to take the post of editor-in-chief of Segodnya.

In 1997, a new stage in Leontiev's biography began, associated with work on television. It was then that the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov created the TV-Center television channel for himself, where such TV masters as Leonid Mlechin, Alexander Shashkov, Sergey Lomakin came to work. Mikhail Vladimirovich with his program "Actually" did not get lost in their company. After some time, he headed the service of social and political programs of this channel. At the same time, he established contacts with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, establishing the magazine Delo with his money, which, however, never came out.

In 1999, Boris Berezovsky changed Leontyev along with the program to ORT. It was at ORT that Mikhail Vladimirovich made his debut with his information and analytical program “However,” which has become his calling card. Very quickly, along with Sergei Dorenko, Leontiev earned the fame of a "television killer". For example, after the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, Mikhail Vladimirovich called directly from the TV screen to bomb Chechnya, for which the General Prosecutor's Office of the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” opened a criminal case against him. But Leontyev did not give a damn about this, since new times were already approaching in the country.

When Vladimir Putin became acting head of state, Mikhail Vladimirovich hastened to announce his unconditional support. From now on, the thought that there was no alternative to Putin, and could not be, ran through all the issues of "However". Since Augusto Pinochet was Leontyev's idol from early youth, Mikhail Vladimirovich immediately discovered the similarity of the President of the Russian Federation with the Chilean dictator in the sense that both "defeated the chimera of communism." At the same time, Leontyev never once doubted the loyalty of Putin's course, and to this day Putin is not an object of criticism for him.

However, for foreign leaders, Mikhail Vladimirovich does not regret critical arrows. In particular, he called Viktor Yushchenko “henpecked” and “the husband of an American spy,” for which he was banned from entering Ukraine during Yushchenko’s presidency. Leontyev called Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin a “nationalist creep”, about Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko he said that he had a “dislocation in his thinking”, and without further ado, he called the head of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili a “degenerate”. Mikhail Vladimirovich did not like the whole states. In his opinion, Ukraine is a "fictitious reality" that "will soon disintegrate", and Latvia is a "poor country". But Leontyev got away with all this, because in “However,” he did not allow the slightest hesitation in supporting the course of the top leadership of the Russian Federation and any of its, even unpopular, decisions.

In addition to "However", his favorite brainchild, Mikhail Vladimirovich generated a number of projects. He published in the newspaper "Vedomosti", hosted the program "Master class with Mikhail Leontyev" on the O2TV channel, was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Main Theme" published in 2005, lectured to activists of the "Nashi" movement on Seliger. Channel One broadcasted his author's programs "Puppet Theater" and "Main Theme", as well as a series of programs "Big Game", dedicated to the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, based on which he wrote a book. But most of all, Leontiev was impressed by the editorial and publishing activities.

Back in 1999, Mikhail Vladimirovich became the editor of the satirical magazine "political hunt" called "FAS". BUT the first pancake came out lumpy: the magazine was closed a year later for financial reasons. Leontyev's next editorial experience was more successful. In 2007, Mikhail Vladimirovich replaced Georgy Bovt as editor-in-chief of the Profile magazine. Having brilliantly carried out the election campaign of "United Russia" in it, Leontyev left the magazine in 2009, and three months later founded the magazine "However" together with Channel One. Funding for the new magazine was promised by the company "Converse Group", and Investbank was ready to open a credit line. The first issue of "However" was released in September 2009. Skeptics doubted that the magazine would be able to survive during the financial crisis, but they were put to shame. “However,” continues to come out to this day.

I wonder what happened to the dissidence of Mikhail Vladimirovich? After all, now all the people who called themselves that in Soviet times are on the other side of the barricades. It seems that everything is in order with Leontyev's dissidence, since in his understanding the term "dissident" meant an anti-Soviet, which Mikhail Vladimirovich was and remains, despite his friendly relations with the godfather of "USSR 2.0" Sergei Kurginyan. Leontyev never liked communists, he actively participated in the information campaign against Gennady Zyuganov in 1996 and refused to support the government of Yevgeny Primakov, which was too "left" in his opinion, with whom Yury Luzhkov, the then actual employer of Mikhail Vladimirovich, established active contacts. Now Leontyev, as a "right-wing conservative," is quite happy with everything. He himself admits that if he "ceases to like the Kremlin's policy," he will become his opponent. In the meantime, apparently, Mikhail Vladimirovich is satisfied with everything in modern Russia.

In life, Leontiev is not far from the image that he creates for himself on the screen. He is the same ruffled, dressed with ostentatious sloppiness, allowing himself unprintable expressions. Mikhail Vladimirovich also loves to kiss the bottle, he was repeatedly caught in a strong drink. Leont'ev himself is calm about this weakness, saying that a person is generally vicious by nature. According to him, it would be much worse if he read sanctimonious moralities from the screen, and then went to a restaurant and got drunk. In addition, he never allowed himself to appear in the studio, not only drunk, but even the next morning after a stormy feast.

Mikhail Vladimirovich got married early, while still a student. But marriage did not calm him down. His wife Natalya Mikhailovna ultimately waved her hand at him. They divorced when their family actually ceased to exist long ago. Now Leontiev is married for the second time. Ironically, his current wife, Maria Vitalievna, was once his student, whom he prepared for university entrance exams. His son Dmitry, who was educated in the United States, followed in his father's footsteps and currently works in television.

Experts assessed the appointment of Mikhail Vladimirovich to a high position in Rosneft differently. Some say that finally his servility towards the authorities was appreciated, others, on the contrary, believe that Leontyev was given a "golden parachute" and will now gradually survive from Channel One. It is difficult to say which of them is right. On the one hand, Mikhail Vladimirovich did a good job in the field of propaganda support for the course of the current leadership of the Russian Federation, on the other hand, being very talented, but still an amateur, not everyone likes him. So time will tell how long we will be watching on television an unshaven man with a sly squint of his eyes, announcing in a hoarse voice: "Hello, however!"