Vladimir Posner: biography
Vladimir Vladimirovich Posner was born on the 1st of April, 1934. His father is Vladimir Aleksandrovich Posner, a Jewish, emigrated with his parents from the USSR to France in 1922. Here he attended the Russian-French school organized especially for the children of emigrants, and after its termination, he had been working in the European branch of the American media company "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer". The mother of future journalist Géraldine Lutten was a Frenchwoman. Her career was also connected with film production.
The couple called their newborn son Vladimir in honor of the father. They christened the boy on the Catholic ceremony in Notre-Dame de Paris. The TV host considers himself the Frenchman.
When Vladimir was three months old, mother took him away with herself to the USA where she was offered to work at Paramount Pictures Studio as the editing director. Besides that, in the United States there lived her sister and close friends. In 1939 Pozner's father took his family back to Paris. Vladimir Posner Sr. and Géraldine Lutten weren't married officially for a long time and legalized their relations only when their son was five years old.
In a year after their return to Paris Vladimir Posner's family was forced to emigrate to the United States again in connection with the occupation by the German troops of the territory of France. In the USA the younger son, Pavel Posner was born. The post-war period of the American history was marked by sharp deterioration in the relations with the Soviet Union. The beginning of the Cold War provoked anti-Communist moods in the society.
Vladimir Posner's father during this period held a senior position in the department of the Russian cinematography at the military department of the USA.
Being a sincere patriot of the USSR, Vladimir Posner Sr. had begun to cooperate with the foreign intelligence of the Soviet Union, being originally in the status of "spotter" and "trainee". After a while, it became obvious that it wasn't possible to stay in the USA anymore, and in 1948 the family decided to emigrate for the third time. Besides, people from FBI had begun to be interested in the activity of Posner Sr.
In the beginning, they planned to return to France again, but because of the denunciation on the father in which it was reported that he was the Soviet spy and "a subversive element", the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to give him a visa. At that moment Posner Sr. got an offer from the government of the USSR to work for the "Sovexportfilm" company which was located in the Soviet sector of Berlin.
Vladimir Posner got his primary education in New York, at City and Country school, then he continued his education at Stuyvesant High School. Having moved to Germany, Posner at first attended high school for the Soviet children. In a year when the government of the Soviet Union closed up the program, the boy was transferred to the school for children of the German political refugees who had run from Hitler's regime in the USSR. The pupils didn’t get the school-leaving certificates as even without this document they got referrals to the prestigious higher education institutions of the country.
All this time Posner's father was looking for the opportunity to move to Moscow, and this happened in 1952. In the capital, Vladimir Posner entered Moscow State University on the Faculty of Biology and Soil Science on the specialty of "human physiology". Despite high examination point, the young man was refused to be enrolled because of his Jewish origin and "unreliable" biography. Only thanks to the communications of his father he succeeded to enter the MSU.
Having graduated, Vladimir Posner at first earned by the translations of scientific texts. In youth, he was engaged in the translations of the English poetry, with what he attracted the attention of Samuil Marshak who invited young Posner to work at him as a literary secretary. The next two years Vladimir had been working as his assistant, prepared translations of verses for the publication in the Soviet magazines.
Journalism
In autumn of 1961, Vladimir Posner began to work in recently opened "News" Press Agency where he was engaged in the editing of the "USSR" magazine which was distributed abroad, generally, in the territory of the USA. In 1967 he worked on the literary digest "Sputnik".
In 1970 Vladimir Posner began to cooperate with the State Committee of broadcasting of the USSR as the commentator. His programs appeared every day till 1985 and were broadcast in the territory of England and the United States.
The television biography of Vladimir Posner began in the late seventies: he became the frequent guest on the American television. The young man appeared in the "Nightline" program and also, in the talk show of Phil Donahue. The major objective of Posner was to represent the actions and the statements of the Soviet government in the most favorable sense. He spoke out in defense of the main disputed points of the Soviet history, in particular, he justified the entrance of Soviet troops on the territory of Afghanistan.
Together with Phil Donahue in 1985, he held a teleconference in Leningrad – Seattle which was called "Citizens Summit I - Leningrad/Seattle. In a year Vladimir Posner held a teleconference "Citizens Summit II: Women to Women - Leningrad/Boston", and then one more teleconference, this time with the participation of the Soviet and American journalists. These successful projects became Vladimir Posner's debut on the air of his native television, after that he got a position of the political analyst and began to work on the central television.
According to the polls of that time, Vladimir Posner was recognized as the most authoritative journalist of the Soviet television. But, despite his popularity, in 1991 he made the decision to leave the Central television in connection with disagreements with his management.
At the beginning of the 90-s, Vladimir Posner accepted Phil Donahue’s invitation to work in the USA where their joint program had been on till 1996. In parallel, he had been working on his programs in Moscow, for which he took flights each month from the USA to Russia. At the same time two of his autobiographical books "West Close" and "Parting with Illusions" were published in the USA.
From 1994 till 2008 Vladimir Posner occupied a position of the President of the Russian television. In 1997 the TV journalist came back to Moscow again where he lives till today.
His author's program "Posner" which for the first time was on air in autumn of 2008 is considered to be one of the most well-known projects of Vladimir Vladimirovich. The format of the popular project is an interview during which the TV host asks questions to the eminent social and political authorities, the leading representatives of culture, science, and sport.
The subjects of the meetings can be tied to the current situation, and can also be a conversation in a free form. During the interview, the guests are offered to answer not only the questions of the journalists but also the questions which were written down in advance and were asked by casual people at the streets. At the end of each program, Vladimir Posner makes a short conclusion in which he suggests the audience to think once again about the current problems which were highlighted and discussed during the program.
For years of the existence of "Posner", a great number of the famous people had attended the studio, among whom Mikhail Gorbachev, Oleg Tabakov, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Hillary Clinton, Dmitry Medvedev, Sting and many others.
In 2000 Vladimir Posner wrote and published some more books among which "One-Storied America", "Tour de France. A travel across France with Ivan Urgant", "Parting with Illusions" and "Their Italy". In 2014 and 2015 two more autobiographical books by the writer and the TV host were published – "Posner about Posner" and "Opposition".
Vladimir Posner often cooperates with his young colleague Ivan Urgant. Together they have made several documentaries among which the audience has remembered most of all the following - "One-Storied America", "Tour de France", "Their Italy" and "The German Puzzle".
Scandals
The popular TV host, journalist, and writer has not only an impressive army of admirers but a lot of critics as well. The publicist Sergey Smirnov claims that Posner has distorted many historical facts in his program "Times", using manipulative technologies.
Vladimir Posner's words that the adoption of Orthodoxy was "one of the greatest tragedies for Russia" and that "the orthodox church has done enormous harm" to the country caused controversial reaction. These statements were criticized by the protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, and the journalist Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich claims, that Vladimir Posner hates Orthodoxy. Even the Federation of the Jewish communities of Russia criticized Pozner’s position. Nevertheless, on the air of Russian News Service, the journalist and TV host once again confirmed and completed his earlier statements.
At present times Pozner remains one of the most authoritative and popular TV journalists and TV hosts whose opinion is important if not for millions of people, then for many thousands of them. His words about the conflict in Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Federation caused a vigorous response. Vladimir Posner said that "annexation of the Crimea seems to be idiotic", and Vladimir Putin "can become a line in the history textbook which finishes with the words "died in prison".
The journalist also commented quite sharply on the election of Donald Trump as the president. He claims that the person who doesn't have any political experience can't rule such country as the United States. Moreover, Pozner won't be surprised if Trump isn't able to remain in the president's chair during the given term.
Vladimir Vladimirovich's frankness often causes scandals. In 2016 Posner invited the soloist of the "Leningrad" band Sergey Shnurov to his program. According to the TV host, he wanted to understand a secret of success of the eccentric rocker at young people. But two stars didn't find the common language, moreover they didn't like each other. As the consequence, their conflict developed into the verbal arguments in social networks.
Vladimir Posner admitted that he had found the answer to his question: what is the reason for Shnurov's popularity – there is no reason. The scandalous musician hadn't remained in debt too, and reproached the TV host that he had got a false idea of himself as a "God of television".
At the beginning of 2017, there was a new scandal which was again caused by Posner's frankness. He as one of the judges of the ninth season of the TV project "Minute of Fame", not only criticized the performance of the dancer without a leg Evgeny Smirnov but also refused to the contestant in further participation in the project. On his Instagram Vladimir Posner explained that the contestant recoursed to the prohibited method because a disabled person couldn’t compete on the general basis with healthy people, counting on the "bonus" as pity or compassion.
Pozner's colleague from the jury Renata Litvinova agreed with Vladimir Vladimirovich and advised Smirnov to fasten the artificial limb and to stop "taking advantage of this subject". Sergey Yursky and Sergey Svetlakov appeared to be more loyal to Evgeny.
Vladimir Posner at present
In 2016 Vladimir Posner continued to please admirers of his talent with new informative documentary films, has released the following movies "Jewish Happiness" (together with Ivan Urgant) and "Shakespeare. Caution to the Kings".
In 2017 the audience watched the new joint project with Urgant under the title "In Search of Don Quixote" with great pleasure. It is the 8-series movie travel around Spain which premiere was held in January 2017 on Channel One. Vladimir Posner and Ivan Urgant not only traveled around the supposed route of the legendary Hidalgo but also underwent a comic ceremony of the investiture of knighthood and tried to understand who the Spaniards are.
Personal life
The first wife of Vladimir Posner was a Russian philologist and translator Valentina Tchemberdji. Their marriage had lasted for ten years, from 1957 to 1968. In 1960 in their family their daughter Ekaterina Tchemberdji was born, who later became a composer and a pianist. Today Ekaterina lives in Germany.
In 1969 Vladimir Posner married for the second time. Ekaterina Orlova with whom the journalist had founded the "Pozner School" show, became his darling. Ekaterina Mikhailovna was a school director for a long time, but it hadn't saved their marriage. Together they had lived till 2005, they hadn't had any children, and had broken up after 36 years of joint life.
In 2008 the TV host married for the third time. The TV producer Nadezhda Soloviova became his wife. This woman is a founder of the promotion and concert company Sav Entertainment which brought a number of western stage stars to Moscow. Vladimir Posner got acquainted with Nadezhda according to the recommendations of his friends: he decided to make a special program about the fight against AIDS. He needed a skilled producer, and Soloviova was the one he really liked.
The passion which had flashed between Vladimir and Nadezhda forced the woman to leave her husband – the composer Valery Myagkikh. The personal life of Posner with this woman was painted with new colors: Vladimir Vladimirovich claims that he had always had forces and determination to change his life, but not to act as the majority, living together because of a habit until the end of life. The age difference between spouses is 21 years.
Recently Vladimir Posner has made a statement disproving the information which was spread by unfair advertisers. He has told that he has never had diabetes and hasn't cured this disease with the help of Chinese plaster. Moreover, the TV journalist claims that he has never advertised any medicine or other goods.
Filmography
- 2008 — "One-Storied America"
- 2010 — "Tour de France"
- 2012 — "Their Italy"
- 2012 — "The Eyes of God"
- 2013 — "The German Puzzle"
- 2014 — "England in General and particular"
- 2016 — "Jewish Happiness"
- 2016 — "Shakespeare. The Caution to the Kings"
- 2017 — "In search of Don Quixote"
