A person with triple citizenship. What we don’t know about Posner, who turned 85 on April 1

Personality Image Occupation: journalist, TV presenter Date of birth: April 1, 1934 Place of birth: Paris, France Country: , USA, France Website: pozneronline.ru Twitter: @vladimirpozner Facebook: pozneronline

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Guest Vladimir Pozner. 101 questions for an adult. Issue dated November 14, 2020

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Vladimir Pozner about the incident in Georgia. Posner. Fragment of the release dated 04/05/2021

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Posner in 1979 discusses Soviet dissidents

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner

- famous Soviet, American and Russian journalist and TV presenter.

[edit] Biography

Born on April 1, 1934 in Paris in the family of an emigrant and a French woman. Posner's father was a patriot of the Soviet Union; in 1952 the Posners moved to the USSR.

Graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. After graduating from university, he devoted his life to journalism.

During the Brezhnev era, he was the mouthpiece of Soviet propaganda, so Alexey Navalny once recalled that Posner justified the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan to a Western audience.

In the 1980s, he gained fame thanks to the USSR-USA teleconferences. From 1991 to 1996 he hosted the program “Pozner & Donahue” on CNBC. Since 1997, he has lived in Moscow again, hosting a number of television programs (“We”, “Times”).

Since 2008, he has been the host of the author’s television show “Posner”.

In 2015, together with Ivan Urgant, he shot an eight-part documentary film about a trip to Israel, “Jewish Happiness,” which was shown on Channel One in early 2021.

Parents and childhood of Vladimir Pozner

We are accustomed to the fact that Vladimir Vladimirovich is exclusively our compatriot, but he was born in France in 1934.

His father, Vladimir Pozner Sr., was a Soviet immigrant, and his mother, Geraldine Lutten, was a native Frenchwoman. Almost immediately after the birth of the baby, Geraldine left for the USA, where she had relatives, and waited there for the child’s father for 5 years.

Vladimir Pozner's family was associated with cinematography. All these years spent in the USA, the little boy's mother worked at a film company. In 1939, Vladimir Pozner Sr. came to the family. It was then that an official marriage was concluded between Posner Jr.’s father and mother. His younger brother Pavel was born there.

The biography of Vladimir Pozner is impressive in the number of moves. In 1939, the family of filmmakers returned to France, where they spent only a year. The war forced the Pozners to return to the United States, where the boys' father received a good position in a film company.

According to some reports, the father of the family worked for USSR intelligence. Of course, there is no confirmation of these facts, but it was precisely because of the close attention of the security services that the family again had to leave their place of residence.

In 1948, Posner Sr. received a Soviet passport, and for 4 years the whole family settled in East Berlin. The year 1952 was marked by the arrival of the Posner family in the Soviet Union.

[edit]On the Internet

It has an official website pozneronline.ru, where Posner’s articles, interviews with him and videos of his author’s program “Pozner” are published.

Has accounts on Facebook (pozneronline) and Twitter (@vladimirpozner). The Twitter page is verified, has over 194 thousand subscribers, Posner himself follows 12 pages, including the pages of Donald Trump, Edward Snowden, Anton Nosik and Anatoly Shariy. On Facebook, Posner has over 482 thousand subscribers.

Posner’s name is associated with the spread of the State Duma meme, when in his television program he criticized the response to the “Magnitsky Act” adopted by the State Duma and prohibiting US citizens from adopting Russian children.

[edit] Incidents

He was a member of the jury of the television program “Minute of Fame,” where in 2021 he found himself at the epicenter of scandals with a girl who sang Zemfira’s song “Live in Your Head[1]” and with a one-legged dancer who lost his leg in an accident[2].

In October 2021, he invited Sergei Shnurov to his TV show; later, at the end of October, this resulted in a protracted conflict between Shnurov and Pozner, Pozner stated that the interview was a failure, the parties continued to exchange barbs and mutual accusations. In August 2021, in the wake of the hype surrounding the rap battle between Gnoyny and Oksimiron, Shnurov challenged Posner to a rap battle, to which Posner refused[3].

In 2021, he was included in the list of top 100 Russophobes according to Tsargrad-TV (at No. 68)[4] for the statement:

The current guardians of the so-called purity of morals, those who shout with indignation about insulting the feelings of Christian believers, Muslims, etc., are no different from the fanatical members of ISIS, who, to the outrage of the whole world, destroyed and are destroying unique ancient monuments, because they, these monuments insult their religious faith. These are barbarians, no more and no less.

In April 2021, he stated that Donald Trump as president is a disaster for the United States, since he does not understand anything at all about international politics, and Twitter, where Trump publishes his statements, is not a means of diplomatic communication.[5]

In February 2021, Posner, in an interview with the Seraphim YouTube channel, commented on his statements about the allegedly “negative impact” of Orthodoxy on the development of Russia. He believes that the current state of affairs is due “to religion, and not to anything else.” The Russian Orthodox Church condemned the threats against Pozner and noted that his position is not subject to consideration by law enforcement agencies.[6]

In April 2021, he wrote that in his opinion, Pushkin is not a Russian writer.[7] The recording caused a stir in online media.[8]

Career in adolescence and early adulthood

Hard work is the key to Posner’s success. Even in his student years, the biography of Vladimir Pozner was supplemented with his first merits. Thanks to his perfect knowledge of English, young Vladimir could earn extra money by doing translations. In addition, he became interested in translating poetry, and this attracted the attention of Marshak to him. In the early 60s of the last century, Posner became the poet's literary secretary.

So, thanks to a successful acquaintance and his own talent, Posner got the opportunity to print some of his creations.

However, he soon lost interest in this matter and ended up working for the Novosti press agency (APN). Vladimir worked here for 9 years. This place of service was very prestigious, but aroused little interest among the future TV presenter and journalist. Vladimir himself considered this work pure propaganda.

In the 70th year of the last century, Posner went to work on the Television Committee. Here he begins his career as a daily radio announcer. This period of life was also associated with excellent knowledge of languages: English, French and German. In one of his interviews, Posner notes that it was precisely this talent of his that the Soviet government needed. It was rather used for foreign relations.

For his work as an announcer at the Olympic Games, Posner received a state award, after which he became a member of the ruling party.

[edit] Opinions

I know that many people are tired of this old bald Jew in a box (well, yes: his mother is French, his father is a communist). People are asking the question: “Who are you with, Citizen Posner?” So to speak, “for Putin” or “against Russia”? I think I can illuminate the issue from an unexpected side: from the West. The fact that Posner is not for GDP is clear to many, so why is he so vaguely against it? Why doesn’t he pillory the bloody regime, so that, etc. Posner, by and large, is not lying - he lied. Neither CNN, nor NBC, nor Fox would even allow him the freedom that the “bloody regime” allows, which he tactfully reports from time to time, but the intelligent audience prefers not to notice.[9]

A person with triple citizenship. What we don’t know about Posner, who turned 85 on April 1

Today Vladimir Pozner turns 85 years old. A correspondent for the Minsk-Novosti agency collected little-known facts about one of the most famous journalists and TV presenters and supplemented them with statements from Pozner himself.

Posner's father is a Jew (an emigrant from Russia), his mother is French. He considers himself French.

Since childhood, I knew three languages ​​- Russian, French and English.

Posner has triple citizenship - Russia, France and the USA.

He was baptized according to the Catholic rite at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but, judging by public statements, he does not believe in God.

Vladimir with his father and younger brother | Photo: 24smi.org

In 1940, after the Nazi occupation, the family fled from France to the United States, and in 1952 they moved to the USSR, as the father was accused of collaborating with Soviet intelligence.

According to Posner, the first attempt to enroll in the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University ended in a fiasco due to Jewish origin and a “dubious” biography, but the second attempt was successful thanks to his father’s connections.

After university, he didn’t work for a day in his specialty, having decided that science was not for him. Later he called this act one of the fundamental decisions in his life.

Journalist in his youth | Photo: 24smi.org

In the early 1960s, he worked as a literary secretary for the poet Samuil Marshak for about two years.

The Leningrad-Boston teleconference on the topic “Women talking to women” owed an instant flash of fame. It was then, in 1986, that the now famous remark of one of the participants in the teleconference from the Soviet side was heard: “There is no sex in the USSR.” In the same year, Posner became a laureate of the USSR Union of Journalists Prize.

In the 1980s, V. Posner held several Soviet-American television conferences | Photo: m24.ru

At an advanced age, he tried himself as a restaurateur and, together with his brother Pavel, opened the French restaurant “Geraldine” in Moscow, named after their mother.

In 1993, Posner was diagnosed with cancer. After consulting with specialists from six countries and receiving completely different recommendations, he listened to American doctors: he had surgery to remove the tumor and, without chemotherapy, defeated the disease.

I chose daily jogging and regular, three times a week, games of tennis as a mandatory set of physical activities to keep myself in good shape.

He considers it normal to smoke one cigar after a good dinner (he gave up cigarettes after age 50); He drinks wine, mostly red, every day.

Since childhood, he loves soups and dumplings. When I was young, I ate 300 dumplings in one sitting as a bet. Favorite main dish is fried chicken and green salad. Can't stand fish.

For many years I was a fan of the Russian football club Torpedo, but, having lost hope that the former three-time champion of the USSR and the first winner of the Russian Cup in modern history (1993) could get out of the crisis, I stopped rooting for him.

Considers Paris to be his hometown. By his own admission, he knows it like the back of his hand and feels most comfortable there.

Was married three times. For the first time, while studying at the Faculty of Biology, I proposed to a student at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. They lived with their second wife for 37 years, but at the age of 74 he left her for 58-year-old Nadezhda Solovyova. They have been together for 11 years.

Vladimir Pozner with his third wife Nadezhda

Pozner about himself and not only

“The first of April is called differently in different countries. In America they call it April Fool's Day. I believe that it was very correct that I was born on this day. In Russian fairy tales, Ivan the Fool is the smartest!”

“The fact that I lived to be 85 was mainly due to my genes. Well, the way my mother raised me. While I lived with her, I ate only healthy food. I always went to bed at the same time and always early - until I was almost 17, I had to be in bed no later than 10 pm. I went in for sports - my dad already followed this. That is, I lived an extremely healthy life.”

“I didn’t set out to be a journalist. I didn’t intend to and didn’t study at any journalism departments - it happened by accident. But it so happened that I found myself in this profession, which I love very much, and it is precisely because I love it that I continue to work.”

“You cannot teach a person to be a journalist, because it is a way of life, it is a certain internal state. A person must understand why, in fact, he is doing this.”

“It’s one thing to change your mind, so to speak, following the general line of the party, and another thing to actually change what you believe in through very difficult experiences. I was a very believer in the Soviet system.”

“I’m afraid of three things in life: sharks, that one of my loved ones will become seriously ill, and going crazy.”

“Whether a person should be guided by reason or feelings, I cannot say. I myself, perhaps, have always been guided by feelings and intuition. I don’t know how to make strictly logical decisions or calculate everything. Maybe it’s unreasonable, but that’s how I live.”

“Unfortunately, we believe that any program that requires some kind of reflection should be shown after midnight. Like, ordinary viewers are stupid, and the main thing is to entertain them. This is fundamentally wrong."

“I am a biologist by training, a human physiologist, and it is quite obvious to me that there is nothing after death.”

“I’m not against rich people. I am against the idea of ​​poor people.”

“We are people of extremes. Even in space we can be the first on earth. For us, weakness can be strength. Even in the heat we get chills on our skin. We lose as beautifully as we win.”

“Jazz is music for connoisseurs, I would even say, for the elite.”

“Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin, without the second there is no first. But a slave, by definition, is irresponsible; the owner is responsible for him. The freest person is the most responsible. He is responsible for what he does and what he says."

“The myth that a Russian can drink a lot of vodka is a good myth. And the fact that all Russian alcoholics is already bad.”

“The more risks you take, the more alive you are.”

“I don’t understand how you can live without humor, and when it’s bad, it’s the only thing that saves you.”

“Everything is reversible except time itself.”

[edit] Notes

1. Scandal at the “Minute of Fame”: Litvinova was offended by Zemfira and had fun with an eight-year-old girl
2. Evgeny Smirnov commented on the statements of Posner and Litvinova
3. Shnurov and Posner fought for almost a year over a boring interview. It came to a challenge to a battle
4. https://ru.wikinews.org/wiki/Tsargrad_TV:_Top-100_Russophobes_2016
5. https://news.mail.ru/society/33166037/
6. https://ria.ru/20210225/pozner-1599000203.html
7. https://pozneronline.ru/2021/04/32542/
8. https://news.mail.ru/society/45997540/
9. https://civil-engineer.livejournal.com/663944.html

School years

Vladimir graduated from City and Country elementary school in New York. He then studied at Stuyvesant High School. This was followed by forced emigration to Berlin.

At first, Posner went to a high school in Germany, which was opened for Soviet children. After the Union curtailed the educational program, the boy began attending an institution for the children of Germans who emigrated as a result of the Hitler regime. Graduates of this school, instead of matriculation certificates, were immediately given directions to elite universities in Germany.

In 1952, the Pozner family finally managed to move to Moscow. Here Vladimir becomes a student at Moscow State University, choosing “human physiology” at the biology and soil department. Initially, the applicant was unable to enter the university because of his Jewish roots, although his exam score gave him every chance. Enrollment at Moscow State University occurred thanks to Posner Sr.’s connections.

In the photo Vladimir Pozner in his youth and now

Having received a diploma from Moscow State University, the guy earned his first money from scientific translations. In his youth, he became the literary secretary of Samuil Marshak, who appreciated his skill in translating English poetic works. For two years, Posner held the position of assistant to the poet, translating poems for publication in USSR magazines.

[edit] Links

• https://pozneronline.ru/ - Pozner’s official website
• @vladimirpozner - Twitter account
• pozneronline - Facebook account

Personal life

Nadezhda Solovyova and Vladimir Pozner
Vladimir Pozner has long acquired the status of a living classic, his biography and personal life have been studied in detail, photos of his wives and children have been analyzed and sorted, and, nevertheless, some facts are not so well known to the general public.

Vladimir Pozner first married in 1957 to the writer and translator Valentina Chemberdzhi. This marriage lasted ten years, and gave birth to a daughter, Catherine, who later became a composer and now lives in Germany.

However, not everyone knows that the separation of the spouses was very painful, and it almost ended with Valentina’s suicide.

Posner’s second wife in 1969 was Ekaterina Orlova, his colleague at Sputnik magazine. At first, the new family experienced everyday difficulties and huddled in rented apartments for eight years. Later, everything got better for them, they even started a joint business - “School of Television Excellence.” However, they did not have any common children, and Posner only had an adopted son, Pyotr Orlov.

The marriage lasted thirty-seven years and, nevertheless, also broke up.

In 2008, while preparing a program about AIDS for broadcast, Posner met Nadezhda Solovyova, a producer who started with Alla Pugacheva, the head of the concert. Passion flared up instantly, and Posner left his second wife, and Solovyova left her husband.

In the personal life of Vladimir Pozner there are difficult pages related to his fight against cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 1993 in the USA. Posner was helped to overcome his first despair by the advice and support of his friend Phil Donahue and his wife.

Fortunately, the disease was detected at an early stage, and timely surgery was successful.

Posner feels how modern man is increasingly degrading

Now almost all people have a phone, computer, tablet or navigator. It is no longer possible to imagine life without modern technology. Vladimir Pozner is sure that the age of technology contributes to the dullness of people.

— Man, it seems to me, does not change at all in essence - just read the ancient Greeks to be convinced of this. But there are certain changes,” says the TV presenter on pozneronline.ru.

The speed and ease of obtaining information have made a person more and more dependent on new technology, GPS in cars has led to the fact that a person has forgotten how to use a map, without Google he does not understand how to get answers to questions, his knowledge is more and more superficial.

In a word, there is some degradation of humanity. We don’t know more, despite the availability of information, we are no smarter, we have learned to type with two thumbs at incredible speed, but have forgotten how to write.

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