One of the most prominent TV presenters and satirists of post-Soviet Russia is Viktor Shenderovich, whose biography is an example of a successful career as a representative of the Russian intelligentsia. Over the years, he managed to be a theater actor, and a critic, and a columnist. Recently, Viktor Shenderovich has focused on political activity, being one of the key figures in the Russian liberal opposition.
early years
On August 15, 1958, Viktor Shenderovich was born in the capital of the USSR. The family of the future journalist has deep Jewish roots. His father worked as an engineer, and his mother was a teacher. The worldview of the future opposition was greatly influenced by the fact that his grandfather Yevsey Samuilovich was twice repressed for political reasons. Victor's parents were typical representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia. Father was published in major magazines Crocodile and Literary Newspaper.
As a student of grade 10, Viktor Shenderovich was noticed by Konstantin Raikin and got to study at the theater school of Oleg Tabakov. This fact determined the fate of the teenager. In 1975, he entered directing and after 5 years successfully defended a diploma from the Moscow Institute of Culture and Arts.
After training, Victor goes through military service in the army. Later he said that it was the service that gave him many stories that he embodied in his satirical works. Until 1990, Shenderovich worked at GITIS, where he not only taught stage skills, but also set his own paintings. So, in 1988, based on the satirical story of Victor, Gennady Khazanov made his speech. However, the peak of the director’s career came in the 1990s.
The first years of "Puppet"
Being familiar with the sought-after playwright Grigory Gorin, Viktor Shenderovich was invited in 1994 to write a script for a new show called “Dolls”. As conceived by the creators, the urgent problems of the new Russian society were to be ridiculed in the program, and the main characters of the plots were figures of politicians created from papier-mâché.
"Dolls" quickly became one of the most popular shows in Russian television. Issues written according to the script of Shenderovich were so sharp and topical that the NTV channel was constantly attacked by offended critics. So, in 1995, the prosecutor general Ilyushenko initiated a lawsuit against the company’s leadership for the “On the Bottom” stage, presented in the next issue of the show. In it, with the light hand of Shenderovich, the poverty of society was exposed, and politicians were represented in the image of homeless people. The management of NTV held a press conference on this subject. The role of the defender of the television program went to Viktor Shenderovich. From that moment on, he began to be perceived by Russian society as the creator of the most popular television program. A year later, the lawsuit against NTV was closed for lack of corpus delicti.
Peak career
In 1996, the “Dolls” project was awarded the TEFI Prize in the nomination “The Best Satirical Show”. Today, many people recall this project as one of the most successful in the history of domestic television.
In parallel with the main work, Shenderovich begins to try himself as a TV presenter. He launches the projects "Total" and "Free Cheese", which quickly fell in love with the domestic audience for relevance and sharpness of opinion.
The year 2000 became a turning point in Victor's career. After Vladimir Putin came to power, the Dolls showed a video in which the new President was shown in a derogatory light. According to experts, Putin did not forgive such an attitude, and a year later one of the most successful television projects of our time was closed, and the leadership of the NTV television company completely changed.
Politics
After the closure of Kukol, Viktor Shenderovich concentrated on working as the director of TV-6, however, a year later, the Ministry of Press demanded a number of censorship restrictions and closed the broadcast of “Total”. Shenderovich refused to obey, then the license was revoked from the TV channel. Victor begins to cooperate with Radio Liberty and the foreign television channel RTVi.
Shenderovich took the interest of public authorities as a personal insult to Putin. This is probably why he hit the opposition. Since 2004, he has been a member of the 2008 Committee, headed by Garry Kasparov.
In 2005, Viktor Shenderovich tried to join the State Duma as a representative of the liberal opposition. He ran for the University District of Moscow, but won about 20% of the vote. After failure, he goes into street politics, takes an active part in mass rallies, and comes out with solitary pickets. His name is line 7 under the manifesto “Putin must leave.” Today, the journalist is one of the key figures in the non-systemic opposition.
