The first legal Soviet millionaire, whose 90,000-ruble party dues payment forced the cooperative law to be amended twice
The party organizer wrapped both arms around the stacks of cash, stared with wild eyes, and with a trembling hand wrote in the party card: 'Salary for January 1989: three million rubles.' The average monthly wage at the time was 200 rubles.
The first legal millionaire of the USSR and founder of the Tekhnika cooperative. In January 1989 he paid himself a salary of 3 million rubles, and when his deputy's party dues of 90,000 rubles were broadcast on the programme Vzglyad, a national scandal erupted that forced the government to amend the cooperative law twice. He later served as a People's Deputy and State Duma deputy, becoming an emblematic figure of early Russian capitalism.
Career Timeline
- 1972Graduated from Moscow Mining Institute
- 1984–1986Chief engineer, Moskapstroyproekt
- 1987Founded the Tekhnika cooperative
- 1989First legal Soviet millionaire; Vice-president, Union of United Cooperatives of the USSR
- 1990–1991People's Deputy of the RSFSR
- 1994–1996Deputy, State Duma of the Russian Federation (1st convocation)
- 2003–2017Chairman of the Board, Institute of Innovations