Afanasiev Yury Nikolaevich: biography, photo, family

Historian Yuri Nikolaevich Afanasyev , whose biography was known to any TV audience during the years of perestroika, became one of the symbols of those years. The doctor of sciences and professor became a people's deputy of the USSR and in the last months of the existence of the socialist system he was marked by numerous bright public speeches.

Youth

Yuri Nikolayevich was born on September 5, 1934 in the Ulyanovsk region. His mother was a village teacher. Father with the beginning of the war went to the front, and after the onset of peace was in the camps. He was in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and was never rehabilitated by the Soviet court.

He received his education in Moscow, having graduated from the Faculty of History at Moscow State University. This circumstance played the most important role in his mature life.

In those years, specialists with higher education were sent to different regions of the country (among them was Afanasiev Yuri Nikolaevich), the young man's biography includes several years of work at the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station, as well as internships in Paris. In the capital of France, he improved his education in the Sorbonne. In the 1970s, few Soviet citizens were fortunate enough to visit Western countries. Afanasyev, Yuri Nikolaevich, was able to personally see the life of European citizens and compare them with the reality of their own country. The Parisian impressions persuaded the historian that the USSR lags behind the capitalist countries in terms of living standards.

Work in the Komsomol

Free life in Europe also opened a new literature for the young specialist, including those written in Russian. As admitted himself Afanasyev, Yuri Nikolayevich, his student years were held under the sign of the condominium program, where many works were banned. A great influence on the worldview of the historian was provided by the books of Anna Akhmatova. If Soviet dissidents had to risk their own safety in order to get hold of samizdat literature, then in the West there were no problems with access to Russian classics.

One of these foreign readers was Afanasiev Yuri Nikolayevich. The biography of this man in the young years did not differ in the rest from the biography of any Komsomol activist. Any discrepancy in the general line of the party was punished by deprivation of the membership card and dismissal. Therefore, in the 70s the historian did not conflict with the system, while enriching his knowledge about the difficult fate of our country in the twentieth century. He was particularly interested in the Great Patriotic War, about which he already wrote a large book in democratic Russia.

Editor of the Communist

Afanasiev reached the peak of his career in the nomenclature ladder in 1983, when he became editor of the historical section of the journal Kommunist. This was a political publication of the CPSU. It was an extremely conservative journal in which there were never even hints of pluralism of opinions.

At the same time, Afanasyev successfully worked in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (at the Institute of World History). Scientific activity allowed him to become a doctor of historical sciences.

Politician

True fame for Yuri Afanasyev came during perestroika. When the media began to publish materials that did not necessarily correspond to the course of the Communist Party, the historian began to publish, sharing with the public his rich materials about the unpleasant pages of the history of the USSR. This made Afanasyev popular first among the intelligentsia, and then among the mass reader.

In the late 80's, the Doctor of Sciences ran for People's Deputies of the USSR. Thanks to his recognizability and charisma, the election on his site Afanasiev Yuri Nikolaevich won with a great advantage. The professor's biography is a vivid example of how a researcher could start a successful political career.

The most famous speech of the historian was a speech delivered in 1989 at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. By this time he, among other things, became also the rector of one of the Moscow institutes. On May 27, the deputy delivered a crushing speech against the political nomenklatura, which hampered the country's reforms and development. Afanasyev called these Communists "an aggressively obedient majority." The phrase became a journalistic cliche and soon successfully migrated to television and newspapers. The congress was attended by Mikhail Gorbachev, who as chairman had to calm down the hall, dumbfounded by a bold statement.

Afanasiev Yuri Nikolayevich - historian and doctor of sciences - remained a people's deputy until 1993. He himself decided to stop political activity and finally concentrate on science. Back in 1990, Yuri Afanasyev left the CPSU, in the ranks of which he had been in since the 50s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union politician for some time participated in the Democratic Congress. He also collaborated with several new movements of the liberal bias. All his activities in those years were aimed at carrying out the reforms necessary for the new country, so that the change in the political system was not marked by mass upheavals. For some time Yuri Afanasiev was considered Yeltsin's main rival in terms of popularity among voters. Nevertheless, the doctor of historical sciences not only did not stick the sticks in the wheels of the first president of the Russian Federation, but soon he did it at all with politics.

His decision coincided with the October events of 1993, when a conflict broke out in Moscow between the executive power and the Congress of People's Deputies.

Scientific activity

Leaving the political Olympus, the historian founded the Russian State Humanitarian University. Afanasyev Yuri Nikolaevich, whose photo can still be found in different buildings of the university, was its rector from 1991 to 2003. After that, for several years he remained president of the educational institution.

Also the historian was engaged in theoretical activity and wrote books. He was engaged in research of France, World War II. His name became known in the international scientific community.

Death

September 14, 2015, Afanasiev Yuri Nikolaevich died. Family and friends of the deceased organized a civil funeral and farewell to a historian in the Sakharov Center. This place today is one of the symbols of perestroika and the dissident movement. Yuri Afanasyev was buried in the Moscow region at the Ostashkovsky cemetery.