Leonid Parfenov

Leonid Gennadievich Parfenov - Soviet and Russian journalist, writer, TV presenter, historian, director, actor, screenwriter and public figure. Many people know him as the host of the programs "Namedni" and the Internet project "Parthenon".

The biography of Leonid Parfenov contains many interesting facts from his personal life and social activities.

So, before you is a short biography of Parfenov.

Biography of Leonid Parfenov

Leonid Parfenov was born on January 26, 1960 in the Russian city of Cherepovets. He grew up and was raised in a working class family.

Leonid's father, Gennady Parfenov, worked as a chief engineer at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. Mother, Alvina Shmatinina, worked as a teacher.

In addition to Leonid, another boy, Vladimir, was born in the Parfenov family.

Childhood and youth

From early childhood, Parfenov was fond of literature (see interesting facts about literature). He managed to read so many books that communication with his peers did not give him much pleasure.

This was due to the fact that none of the guys could discuss any topic that was interesting for Leonid.

At the same time, the teenager did poorly at school. Exact sciences were given to him with great difficulty.

At the age of 13, Leonid Parfenov wrote voluminous and profound articles in local newspapers. For one of them he was awarded a ticket to the famous children's camp "Artek".

After receiving a school certificate, Parfenov successfully passed the exams at the Leningrad University. Zhdanov to the Department of Journalism.

At the university, Leonid met with Bulgarian students, thanks to whom he had the opportunity to relax outside the Soviet Union. When he first went abroad, he was greatly impressed by the life of foreigners, in a good sense of the word

It was during that period of his biography that Leonid Parfenov doubted that he wanted to live with the existing state of affairs.

TV

At the age of 22, after an internship in the GDR, the journalist Parfenov returned to his hometown. There he continued to write articles and eventually appeared on TV.

In 1986 Leonid was invited to work in Moscow. For two years he worked on the TV show "Peace and Youth". A couple of years later, he began working for the ATV television company.

The very next year, Parfenov was entrusted with leading the famous "Namedni" program, which brought him all-Union fame and recognition.

The presenter has repeatedly allowed himself rather bold statements, for which the channel's management criticized him. As a result, a year later he was dismissed for harsh remarks about the Georgian politician Eduard Shevardnadze.

Soon, Leonid Parfenov was allowed to conduct "Namedni" again. This was due to a change in the political environment.

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, freedom of speech appeared in the country, which allowed journalists to express their opinion without fear and convey it to the public.

After the collapse of the USSR, Parfenov began to cooperate with the VID television company, founded by Vladislav Listyev.

In 1994, a significant event happened in Leonid's professional biography. For the first time he was awarded the prestigious TEFI prize for the program “NTV - New Year's TV” he created.

After that, Leonid Parfenov became the author of such well-known television projects as "Hero of the Day", "Old Songs about the Most Important" and "Russian Empire".

In 2004, the NTV management fired the journalist. For this reason, he started working on Channel One. At this time, the man was engaged in the creation of documentaries.

Many celebrities became heroes of Parfenov's documentary stories, including Lyudmila Zykina, Oleg Efremov, Gennady Khazanov, Vladimir Nabokov and many others.

Later Leonid began to collaborate with the Dozhd channel. In 2010, for his services in the field of television broadcasting, the presenter was awarded the Vlad Listyev Prize.

In addition, Parfenov received dozens of other awards. An interesting fact is that for 15 years of work, he became the owner of the TEFI award 4 times.

At the beginning of 2016, the first film of Leonid Parfenov's documentary project “Russian Jews” was released. Over time, he publicly announced that later it was planned to broadcast programs about representatives of other nationalities who had mixed with the Russian nation.

In 2017, Leonid Parfenov presented a new show "The other day in karaoke". Together with the guests who came to the program, the presenter sang popular songs of past years.

Books

In 2008, Parfyonov won the Best Journalist's Book for the cycle “The other day. Our era. Events, people, phenomena ”.

The next year he was awarded the “Book of the Year” prize.

Later, the audiobook “Literature about me. Leonid Parfenov ". In it, the author answered questions from the writer and literary critic Dmitry Bykov.

Leonid told various details about his family, career, friends and interesting episodes from his personal biography. In collaboration with his wife, Parfenov published a collection of recipes "Eat!"

Personal life

Leonid Parfenov has been married to Elena Chekalova since 1987. His wife is also a journalist. At one time, the woman taught Russian language and literature for foreign students at the Geological Prospecting Institute.

Chekalova worked on Channel One. She hosted the culinary section "There is happiness!" In the program "Morning".

At the end of 2013, Elena was fired from the channel. According to her, the reason for this was the political views of her husband, as well as the support of Alexei Navalny during his running for mayor of Moscow.

In the marriage union, the couple had a son, Ivan, and a daughter, Maria. Throughout their life together, the couple tried not to draw public attention to their family.

Leonid Parfenov today

In 2018, Leonid Parfenov opened his own channel on YouTube, which he decided to call - Parfenon. Today, over 680,000 people have signed up for the Parthenon.

Thanks to the channel, Parfenov has an excellent opportunity to convey his thoughts to viewers without fear of censorship and other restrictions.

In the same 2018, Leonid admitted that he had started work on the documentary film "Russian Georgians".

The journalist has an official Instagram account. Here he periodically uploads photos, and also comments on the situation in the state.