The complicated biography of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is an example of the unpredictability of life, it is full of ups and downs, dizzying successes and fatal failures. Today, the name of Khodorkovsky is surrounded by a mass of rumors, myths and speculation, so how did his fate develop?
Childhood and family
Khodorkovsky (biography, parents, whom at the beginning of his life were the most ordinary) was born on June 26, 1963 in Moscow, in the family of engineers of the Caliber plant. His father occupied the post of chief technologist for a long time, his mother was an ordinary engineer-technologist. The family was not very wealthy, his father in the past was a homeless child, a Jew by nationality, he worked conscientiously all his life. Mom had noble ancestors, but this was not the subject of discussion in the house. The biography of Khodorkovsky, whose family belonged to the representatives of the technical intelligentsia in the best sense of the word, began very typical of the USSR. The first four years of his life, Michael lived in a communal apartment, then the family moved to a separate one.
Misha was very serious since childhood, he was even nicknamed the “director” in kindergarten, and the nickname “theorist” was firmly attached to him at school. He studied well, demonstrated great abilities in mathematics and chemistry. He studied in a special school, studied chemistry, at home, together with his parents, solved problems in this subject and did various experiments. In addition to studying, Mikhail also practiced karate and sambo, read a lot.
Years of study
Misha Khodorkovsky, whose biography has been associated with chemistry since childhood, in 1980 entered the Institute of Chemical Technology named after Mendeleev. It was not the most brilliant university, it was not difficult to study a gifted young man there. At the same time, he is engaged in public work: he is actively involved in the life of the Komsomol, and leads the construction team. It was he who found work in Siberia, he conducted all the negotiations with the directors of enterprises, and in the summer students earned good money. His fourth-year unit was the best in harvesting. In 1985, Khodorkovsky graduated with honors and had the opportunity to choose a place of distribution. He wanted to work at a closed enterprise in Siberia and enter graduate school, but it did not work out. There are several versions of why the plans did not materialize. They say that the nationality recorded on the father’s passport in Mikhail’s passport is said to be different; another version says that the choice of a graduate was influenced by the speech of the rector, who spoke about the futility of doing science at the present stage.
Later, Mikhail entered the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy as a financier (he graduated in 1988).
First earnings
The work biography of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky began in childhood. While at school, he swept the streets, cut bread in a bakery, worked as an assistant to a carpenter - so the boy managed to earn pocket money and reagents for chemical experiments. While studying at the institute, he also constantly moonlighted as a carpenter in the building society "Etalon". He always had a desire to make money, and he found a way to do it.
Youth work
At the end of the university, the biography of Khodorkovsky, whose nationality was “Jewish” by his father, was a little different than he dreamed of, because he could not get into a secret institute engaged in defense development. Therefore, Mikhail worked for some time as the liberated deputy secretary of the Komsomol university, and then became deputy secretary of the Komsomol district committee. At this time, a wave of commercialization of everything, including public organizations, began, they were given little economic freedom. Khodorkovsky took advantage of this along with Platon Lebedev and Sergei Monakhov. He creates the Youth Initiative Fund, which allows you to profit from youth events. Later, on the basis of this fund, the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth grew. The creation of such a center was dictated by the spirit of the times, Khodorkovsky sensitively listened to the surrounding events and was able to feel the estimated profit in this enterprise. The point was not to support youth projects, but that such centers were allowed to engage in commercial activities for self-sufficiency. And Mikhail developed a vigorous activity: he organized the import and sale of computers, the sale of alcohol, and created a workshop for the production of “boiled” jeans. All this brought considerable profits. But Khodorkovsky was only increasing the scale; he managed to create a system for cashing out the money of other organizations that could not make payments. At this time, he earns his first really big money. He became the "inventor" of many financial schemes, which were later used by numerous followers.
At this time, Khodorkovsky is overgrown with large, useful ties that help him reach a new level.
MENATEP
In 1989, Khodorkovsky and his comrades created a commercial bank, and then an interbank association, in abbreviated form MENATEP. He himself becomes the head of the enterprise, Nevzlin and Golubovich become deputies, Dubov manages subsidiary banks. The bank receives a state license one of the first in the country and begins selling the currency, and then issues its own shares, which are actively advertised on television. The shareholders did not wait for the promised huge dividends. The bank served many large government agencies, which created a gigantic turnover.
During the years of privatization, MENATEP is actively involved in the purchase of property of the country. Through manipulation of collateral auctions, the bank becomes the owner of a 90% stake in the country's second largest oil company - Yukos. From this moment, Khodorkovsky is no longer interested in being a banker; he plunges into a new industry for himself.
Yukos
Khodorkovsky’s biography makes a new turn, he is fond of other business. Oil opens up tremendous opportunities for the implementation of various projects. But before he could turn around, the 1998 crisis struck, which undermined the stability of Khodorkovsky’s bank and “planted a spot” on Yukos, which did not want to pay dividends. Mikhail Borisovich quickly realized that he could even his business, although he had to abandon the bank. After the default, he is engaged in arranging oil production and export, restructuring the company, increasing the transparency of income and expenses, which returns investor confidence. By 2003, Yukos shares doubled in price. The company will also apply various methods of "tax optimization" to increase the profitability of the business. In 2003, Forbes estimated Khodorkovsky’s fortune at $ 8 billion, calling him the richest Russian of the year.
Khodorkovsky has twice made attempts to create a unified campaign for the UKSI (together with Abramovich’s Sibneft). He devised a scheme that would allow him to insure his business and become the richest man in the world, but law enforcement agencies intervened, which destroyed hopes.
Political activity
Khodorkovsky’s biography has always been associated not only with earnings, but also with the social and political sphere. In 1990-91, he and Nevzlin were advisers to Prime Minister Silaev, whom he had known since the time of the Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth. In 1993, Mikhail became chairman of the Investment Fund for the Promotion of TEP. In subsequent years, he is a member of many committees and councils of various levels, up to the government. Since 1999, most of the company's capital has been spent on creating an image and lobbying interests in the government. Khodorkovsky also does charity work - he supports a boarding school for orphans. He finances the election campaign of the Communist Party and Yabloko parties in the districts where large oil fields are located. In 2003, he sponsors four parties at once.
In 2002, Khodorkovsky created the Open Russia Foundation, whose board of directors included D. Rothschild and G. Kissinger. By 2004, the country had more than 50 branches of an organization that was engaged in the modernization of education, conducted the Internet to remote regions, and worked with young people. The fund helped Khodorkovsky popularize his business and his worldview.
Prosecutions and years of imprisonment
In 2003, the biography of Khodorkovsky makes a sharp turn. In February, he confronts Putin on the legitimacy of the sale of Rosneft, this was the last straw, the authorities’s patience was full. The government has long had a lot of questions about the activities of Yukos, they recalled the "tax optimization" and opened a criminal case against Lebedev, and then against Khodorkovsky. He did not want to leave the country, despite all the warnings of his friends, and remained to support the arrested Lebedev, but on October 25, 2003 he was arrested on the way to Irkutsk.
In 2005, the court passed a sentence; Lebedev and Khodorkovsky were each given 8 years, but they did not plead guilty and insisted on the political commitment of the court. While the investigation and the trial were ongoing, a PR campaign was unfolding in the media that accused Khodorkovsky of attempting to carry out an oligarchic coup in the country. In the West and in opposition circles, on the contrary, they said that the case has a political background. The ECHR recognized the accused as “prisoners of conscience”, although it did not confirm the obvious presence of a political component in the case. The property of Yukos was confiscated in return for debts, but it was not possible to seize foreign assets.
In 2006, a new case was launched on oil theft, according to which Khodorkovsky received a term of 14 years, which he had to serve in the Chita region.
In conclusion, Khodorkovsky continued to fight for his rights, he published several articles and statements in the Western press, went on hunger strikes four times, and he was repeatedly sent to the isolation ward for violating the prison regime. At this time, the public did not abandon attempts to defend Khodorkovsky - actions were held, letters, articles were written.
Exemption
Khodorkovsky’s biography, a family whose children became the main reason for seeking release, changed when he nevertheless filed a petition for clemency. At a press conference in 2013, Putin said Khodorkovsky could be pardoned if he asked. The petition, in fact, was a guilty plea, but since Mikhail had a very sick mother, he went for it. And on December 20, 2013 he was released, lawyers hastily arranged Khodorkovsky’s departure for Berlin.
Life on the loose
Khodorkovsky’s biography once again makes a turn, after 10 years of imprisonment, he settles in Switzerland and receives a residence permit. At first, the press worried him a lot. After emigration, a new Mikhail Khodorkovsky appears. Biography, wife, privacy, now, according to him, will be the main thing for him, and he will live out of politics. However, he is unable to resist political statements, after a few months he comments on the situation in Russia, criticizes the government. In March 2014, Khodorkovsky said he was ready to become a mediator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimea. In September 2014, he “restarted” Open Russia, experts regard this as the return of Mikhail Borisovich to politics. Khodorkovsky often acts as an expert on the political situation in Russia in the Western media, he participates in public events. His speech at the festival in Paris in 2014 that he was ready to become the president of Russia and do everything to create a civil society in the country was perceived as a declaration of intent.
