Favorite of millions: All about the life of TV’s main face in the 90s, Vlad Listyev

The name of Vladislav Listyev is known to people, even those who are far from journalism as such. In the early 90s, the TV presenter became a real folk hero and the main face of Russian television at that time. Thanks to Vlad, TV shows such as “Field of Miracles”, “look”, “rush hour”, “Guess the Melody” and “Theme” appeared.

27 years ago, on March 1, 1995, Listyev was killed at the entrance to his own house on Novokuznetskaya Street in central Moscow. The murder of one of the most important figures in the history of Russian television was a real tragedy for millions of Russians and provoked a wide reaction. Alas, despite this, the crime remained unsolved – the killer was never found.

Vlad Listyev was born into a family of factory workers and was interested in sports from an early age. Thus, he became the champion of the USSR in athletics in the 1000 meters and planned to connect his life with major sports, preparing for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Nevertheless, in parallel with training, Listyev entered the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, after studying, he worked as a coach. But then journalism began to fascinate the young man more and more, and in 1982, after graduation, Vladislav got a job at the USSR State Television and Radio, forever giving up the career of an athlete.

From the first days of the internship, Listyev showed himself to be a capable and talented worker, so almost immediately he was offered a position as the chief broadcasting editor for foreign countries of the main propaganda editorial board . Five years later, in 1987, he moved to the USSR Central Television and became one of the first hosts of the Vzglyad program, which had just started broadcasting.

The program raised themes of Western culture, socio-political agenda, which became a real breath of fresh air for viewers. Yes, it was all done with an eye on party politics, but it was really daring.

Realizing that he was facing a new reality, Vladislav was inspired and decided to radically change the face of Soviet television and, together with several colleagues, founded VID Television Company.

What does the creepy VID Television Company logo really mean – did you know?

Listyev became the general director of the company, and in the early 90s a new era of national television began. Vladislav’s first outstanding project was the capital show Field of Miracles, which is still going on. Then, on the eve of the collapse of the USSR, a show where with a flick of the wrist you could win a box, a rare product or – even better – a car! Today, the permanent host of the program is Leonid Yakubovich, but the first host was Vlad Listyev himself.

The popularity of “Field of Miracles” guaranteed Listyev a green light for his other ideas. So in 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the talk show “Theme” appeared, then the children’s program “Star Hour”the game show “L Club”the documentary program “Silver Ball” (released until 2010), the talk show “rush hour” (similar to the Larry King show) and others.

In 1993 Listyev was “demand” from the position of general manager of VID Television Company, then he moved to ORT – the future Channel One. The struggle for content has become so powerful that Vladislav has real enemies.

Nevertheless, Listyev continued to pursue a progressive policy in the field of television. For example, one of his most important and daring decisions was the total ban on advertising on the first federal channel – thus he fought the monopoly of advertisers on television.

“Of course, he possessed the main talent of the leader, namely the ability to “breakthrough” screen and sitting next to each individual viewer…Each time he was the host, the program received absolutely enormous popularity…He found the viewer’s key, knew how to interest that viewer, and he did it very professionally,” recalls Vladimir Pozner.

The personal life of Vladislav Listyev cannot be called happy or, as his contemporaries said, successful. He has been married three times.

With his first wife, Elena Esina, Vladislav met before entering college – at a sports camp in 1977. They got married, but the happiness was short-lived: their newborn son died (according to rumors, Elena gave birth prematurely – due to the stress of her husband’s constant betrayals).

The relationship cracked, and Esina, despite her second pregnancy, decided to leave her husband. The daughter, whom she named Valeria, was born after the divorce, and the journalist was not particularly interested in her life.

The second wife, Tatyana Lyalina, Listyev was “data” by the Faculty of Journalism. Alas, the outcome of this relationship turned out to be monstrously similar to the first experience: the son of the spouses was born very painful, suffered from many illnesses and died of the flu at the age of 6.

The tragedy paralyzed Vladislav, and he even tried to commit suicide, and then got seriously drunk. Even the birth of another son did not deter him from the bottle. As a result, Tatyana could not bear it: she took the child and left.

The third and last wife of the journalist was Albina Nazimova, who, as they say, saved her beloved from alcoholism. They got married in 1991 and lived happily ever after Listyev’s death in 1995. The couple had no children – they had no time.

Three husbands and childbirth after 40 years: how the last love of Vladislav Listyev lives

By exposing the ORT monopoly, Vladislav made even more enemies. Threats began to come to him regularly, until they were finally carried out: on March 1, 1995, Listyev was shot dead at the entrance to his house late in the evening while returning from the filming of the Rush Hour show. Vladislav was 38 years old.

The very next day, the ORT television channel broadcast a photo of a journalist with a strong caption “Vladislav Listyev was killed”. Despite wide publicity both in Russia and abroad, the murder of a journalist remains unsolved.

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Photo: A. Glevkin/EAst News, Nikolai Malyshev/TASS, Getty images, Persona Stars