A Russian politician and statesman gained fame for participating in popular television talk shows. Vyacheslav Nikonov is now distinguished by consistent support for an official position on all key issues of international and domestic policy. He is very proud of his famous grandfather - Vyacheslav Molotov.
early years
Vyacheslav Nikonov was born on July 5, 1956 in the Soviet capital, in a family of responsible Soviet scientists. Both parents were doctors of historical sciences. Father, Aleksey Nikonov, after serving in the NKVD bodies taught at MGIMO (had the title of professor), then studied science at IMEMO, worked as an editor of the journal "Communist". Mom, Svetlana Molotova, was the only daughter of high-ranking party and government figures - Vyacheslav Molotov and Polina Zhemchuzhina (at birth: Pearl Solomonovna Karpovskaya). By education, historian.
Vyacheslav received secondary education at a Moscow specialized school for gifted children. Education in an elite educational institution (special school No. 1) provided ample opportunities for continuing education and a future career. From childhood, Vyacheslav Nikonov was distinguished by his prudence and good behavior. School teachers often set him as an example, and he equally easily coped with both the humanities and the natural sciences.
University years
Probably, it was not too difficult for a young man who grew up in a family of two highly qualified historians to decide on a profession. Moreover, in Soviet times, in addition to prestige, the historical faculty of an elite university gave almost a direct ticket to power. In 1973, Vyacheslav Nikonov entered the Moscow State University, where he specialized in the department of modern and recent history. Already at that time, he hoped to make a career in public administration.
During the years of study, he joined the party, which was quite common at the faculty, since teachers of the History of the CPSU were trained here. Nikonov was a convinced and active communist, which his fellow students appreciated, having elected the secretary of the Komsomol committee. In addition to basic subjects, during the years of study he learned English and French at the level of fluency. In 1977, he took part in the third season of the television intellectual game “What? Where? When?”, Which in those years was one of the most popular programs on Soviet television. At the same time, as he himself recalled, he got into the team of experts quite by accident. He remembered the first experience of speaking on television, but he was not interested in developing in this direction.
First management experience
After graduating from university in 1978, a young and promising specialist was left to work in his native department. Over the years of work at Moscow State University, he became one of the leading Soviet Americanists, defending first a candidate and then a doctoral dissertation on the history of the Republican Party of the United States. He gradually advanced up the career ladder, first taking the post of junior, and then senior researcher. In 1988, he was elected secretary of the party committee of his native faculty. The elected post gave a green light to the tops of the Soviet nomenclature.
A year later, Vyacheslav Nikonov worked already in the central apparatus of the Communist Party as an instructor. The young party functionary did a good job of difficult work, and was soon appointed head of the sector of the CPSU Central Committee. Outstanding personal qualities, of course, contributed to the rapid growth in the Soviet hierarchy, but the corresponding origin also played a significant role. In addition, a relatively young secretary general tried to renew party cadres.
In the footsteps of father
With the beginning of perestroika, it was transferred to the apparatus of the President of the Soviet Union, as Vyacheslav Nikonov himself later said, he was part of the Gorbachev team. In the new hierarchy, he continued to quickly move up the career ladder, working as an adviser, then an assistant to the head of the Presidential Administration. In 1991, with the suppression of the putsch, he had to be understood when the vice president of the USSR Gennady Yanayev was arrested.
In 1991, as a person with an impeccable reputation and origin, he was invited to work in the state security organs. Moreover, to the high post of assistant to the Chairman of the KGB of the USSR Bakatin. In the same year, a scandal broke out in fact involving the betrayal of state interests, when the KGB leadership handed over to the United States the location patterns of listening devices in the American embassy. Vyacheslav Nikonov supported such a decision. In those years, he adhered to liberal views, supporting the reform of power structures and, in fact, contributing to the collapse of the country.
For the first time in the Duma
In 1992, he did not work long in the political council of the interregional exchange union. The following year, he was elected to the State Duma for the first time on the list of the Party of Russian Unity and Consent, led by Sergei Shakhrai. In parliament, he dealt with issues of international security and arms control. Grandson of Molotov, Vyacheslav Alekseevich Nikonov, worthily continued his family traditions, entering the elite that runs the country.
In 1995, he investigated the causes of the crisis and de facto independence in the Chechen Republic as deputy chairman of the parliamentary commission. The following year, as deputy chairman of the Coordination Committee, he participated in the election campaign to support presidential candidate Boris Yeltsin.
Currently
All subsequent years in the biography of Vyacheslav Nikonov were a time of further gaining political weight. He was a member of the budget and tax committee; since 2011, he has been the head of the education committee of the State Duma.
Since 2007, he has been working in the leadership of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, which was created to popularize Russian culture and language. Appointed by Russian President Putin V.V. A photo of Vyacheslav Nikonov from various events constantly appears in the leading publications of the country. He is an active participant in political talk shows on Russian television, and since 2018, along with American political analyst Dmitry Simes, has been broadcasting the Big Game on Channel One.
Great ancestor
As an exemplary grandson, Vyacheslav Alekseevich Nikonov is practically the official biographer of his grandfather Vyacheslav Molotov. She always speaks warmly of him, considering him a model of a patriot and statesman. He wrote two books about the life of the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
In 2016, on Victory Day, he walked with a portrait of his grandfather in Nizhny Novgorod in the procession of the Immortal Regiment. As he himself explained, he passed in a column with a portrait of Molotov, because during the war he worked as deputy chairman of the USSR State Defense Committee, and was also a member of the General Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the USSR. For him, this is a very personal holiday. In his childhood, he recalls, Victory Day was always celebrated in the family with his grandfather Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. After all, it was Molotov who announced the start of that terrible war to the country, saying, among other things, on June 22, 1941: "Our cause is just, the enemy will be defeated and the victory will be ours!"
