Alexey Lushnikov Russian Actor Born in 1966

Early life

Alexey Germanovich Lushnikov was born on 10 June 1966 in Saint Petersburg, which was then called Leningrad. He studied history at Saint Petersburg State University and later took courses at the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy. During the final years of the Soviet Union he became involved in charity work. In 1987 he led an informal youth group that visited care homes for older people in Strelna, and in 1989 he founded and chaired an organisation called Youth for Charity.

Public roles

In February 1991, after the events in Vilnius and Riga, Lushnikov's organisation ran an international campaign called "Million letters to the President of the USSR". In 1990 a group of Leningrad scientists and technicians put him forward as a candidate for the city's legislature. He won, and became the youngest deputy in the history of the Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) parliament. Between 1990 and 1993 he also worked as deputy editor-in-chief of a newspaper, Petersburg's Financial Bulletin, and took part in programmes linked to the United Nations, including work at its public information department in New York.

He holds the presidency of a documentary films foundation and has been described as a state adviser of Saint Petersburg of the third class. He has also been an expert commentator for Russian media on public and political questions and has taught young journalists.

Career

In June 1993 Lushnikov created the reference work Blue Pages of Russia, later renamed the National Encyclopedia of Personalities, and became its editor-in-chief. Its first presentation was held at the United Nations in New York.

He is the author, presenter and producer of more than forty television programmes. On radio, he hosted shows on several stations, among them a live talk programme, Pioneer, on Eldoradio from 1996, later a daily show on Radio Modern in Saint Petersburg from 1998, and an analytical programme on Echo of Moscow in Petersburg.

His best-known television work is the late-night talk show Blue Pages. Night Talk With Alexey Lushnikov, which first aired on TV-6 in Saint Petersburg on 13 September 1999. The first guest was the former mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and the three-hundredth was the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The programme later moved to the channel TNT in November 2000, to Channel 5 after May 2002, and to TV-3 in 2004. Over six and a half years it produced more than two thousand hours of live broadcasting. In July 2003 the programme was removed from the air, and in January 2006 he was told he would no longer present it on TV-3. The ban drew public reaction, and the matter was passed to the Public Chamber of Russia for review. In December 2003 he started another programme, From Morning Slightly Later, on the 36th Nevsky Channel.

In October 2007 he became owner and head of the channel Your Public Television!, known as VOT!, which describes itself as a political channel. He is now president of a media holding called Blue Pages, which brings together print and electronic outlets, and he hosts talk shows on VOT!.

As a filmmaker he directed documentaries, including the four-part essay Vysotsky (2001), Gorbachev (2002), Embassy Church (2005), and in 2008 a series of films titled Pargolovsky Nights, each with a different musician. He also appeared as an actor in five films and television series, sometimes playing himself.

Lushnikov is also a painter. His portrait gallery forms the third part of the Blue Pages project, and he uses acrylic paint, natural and artificial stones, pieces of mirror and computer techniques. His subjects have included Vladimir Vysotsky, Alla Pugacheva and Valentina Matvienko. He has written several books, among them Antiutopia (2011).

Recognition

In 1996 he won a prize in the talk-show category at a festival of regional television companies for Pioneer. In 2002 he received the grand prize and the title of Master of Arts at an international arts festival in Saint Petersburg. In 2003 he was awarded the Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg" and the Tsarskoe Selo Art Award. In 2008 he received honorary diplomas from the Union of Journalists of Russia and from the Saint Petersburg parliament, and in 2009 he became an honorary citizen of the Petrovsky municipal district.