The fate of a person is determined by the makings and abilities of a person. Even if the wrong choice is made, sooner or later a person enters the line of life that was originally laid down. Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilievich - statesman, diplomat, journalist and writer, one of those people whose life is striking in its unpredictability and richness.
Cherche la femme
Born, as Vyacheslav Vasilievich himself likes to emphasize, in a simple worker-peasant family on August 24, 1940 in Moscow. Mom was a weaver, and father was a driver. We lived on the 2nd Meshchanskaya. He studied at school mediocre, there weren’t enough stars from the sky, and after graduation he decided to go to the Institute of Steel and Alloys, because his friend’s mother worked there. Subsequently, he could shine a career as an honorary steelworker. But instead of the institute, it turned out to enter the vocational school only on a turner.
After training, he went to work at the factory. After some time, he grew up to a turner of the 5th category, one more step and would have been a master, but … met a girl with whom he fell in love. And she entered the faculty of journalism, well, the young man pulled for his beloved. However, before entering the institute, he went to courses and tutors for a year. And when he became a student at the same institute, he found out that his beloved married safely.
All changes for the better
Vyacheslav Kostikov was a little bit frustrated and even found a wife, Marina Smirnova, at the same institute. He has been living happily with her for 50 years.
While studying in practice in 1964, young people went to Vorkuta, to the local Vorkuta Pravda, and went to the editorial office, where former prisoners worked. Around the city there were more recently operating camps. This made a heavy impression on Kostikov, and he first-hand learned what the era of repression was.
After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University Lomonosov, Vyacheslav Kostikov attends a journalism course at the University of Sheffield in the UK in 1968, and in 1972 will receive an additional diploma in international economics from the Academy of Foreign Trade. The fate of Vyacheslav Vasilyevich turned abruptly! From turners, he got into translators in India, where he went immediately after graduating from Moscow State University. Over the years, he worked as a political observer for the Novosti Press Agency, an information officer at the UNESCO Secretariat in Paris, and then as an editor.
Presidential spokesperson
Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilievich in 1992 is a member of the team of Russian President Boris Yeltsin as a press secretary. In this post, he will work until 1995, until that fateful letter, after which collaboration will not be possible. Remembering that period of his life, Vyacheslav Vasilyevich notes that special spirit that reigned then in the Kremlin. The whole team was like a single family, everyone tried to help each other, they were like-minded president. The special atmosphere of close and trusting relations allowed us to be honest with each other and with the president.
Unlike modern realities, when the president’s relations with the team are built on a formal platform in the form of order-execution, then the assistants were more associates, worked in the name of an idea. But over time, such a situation developed that some decisions and the actual behavior of Boris Yeltsin complicated the already difficult political situation in the country and abroad.
Letter
Relations between the team and the president gradually escalated. The last straw that overflowed the patience was a trip to Berlin on the occasion of the withdrawal of the remnants of Soviet troops and the liquidation of the military base. Boris Yeltsin, intoxicated, reacted very emotionally to this event. In a fit of emotion, he did not behave quite correctly …
Then Yeltsin’s addiction was not a secret to anyone, however, to put it mildly, such behavior of the head of state discouraged many. Therefore, all the media, both Russian and foreign, expressed their opinion on this matter.
The assistants saw what was happening, how the press, the people and the political elites of other countries reacted, and tried to speak frankly with the president, but the conversation did not work out. After some time, it was decided to write a letter to Yeltsin about everything that is happening and express his opinion. The letter was compiled by Vyacheslav Kostikov. The President did not like the letter, and a rupture appeared in the relationship. And soon Kostikov received an offer to leave the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Vatican.
Vatican
Paperwork took about six months, during which time the president’s anger cooled, and he, as before, spoke to his former press secretary in his own way. Contrary to all norms and rules, Boris Nikolayevich organized a farewell party in the Kremlin for Vyacheslav Kostikov, and in a personal conversation suggested that he remain in his former position. But the former ally refused.
He did not stay in the Vatican for long, only one year. I had to resign due to a scandal. In Rome, a book was written entitled "An Affair with the President." Kostikov Vyacheslav Vasilievich described in her his work in the team of Boris Yeltsin. The book was published ahead of the election, when there was a struggle between Gusinsky and Berezovsky, in which journalists also participated. One journalist from NTV interviewed Kostikov, where he talked about the book, but his words were redrawn, some statements were taken out of context, and it turned out that Kostikov wrote something disgusting. Naturally, after that he was fired.
