Logopedic portal / The documents / Alexander Lebedev read online. “A mistake I made is connected with Crimea”: excerpts from Alexander Lebedev’s book “The Hunt for a Banker. About the book "The Hunt for the Banker" Alexander Lebedev

Alexander Lebedev read online. “A mistake I made is connected with Crimea”: excerpts from Alexander Lebedev’s book “The Hunt for a Banker. About the book "The Hunt for the Banker" Alexander Lebedev

26.03.2022

Alexander Lebedev

Hunt for the banker

* * *

Travel notes on the history of modern capitalism, or the Manifesto of working businessmen against the world offshore oligarchy

All characters in this story are fictitious and all resemblances are coincidental.

“The crowd of spectators,” the impudent gaer interrupted Sempleyarov, “as if they didn’t say anything?” But, taking into account your deeply respected desire, Arkady Apollonovich, I, so be it, will expose. But for this, allow me one more tiny number?

- Why, - Arkady Apollonovich answered patronizingly, - but certainly with exposure!

Michael Bulgakov,"Master and Margarita"

What is Third Colonialism?

(instead of prologue)

Money can not buy happiness

All my life I have been occupied with the theme of the relationship of a person with wealth, big money and what can be purchased for them. Once I lived with my parents and brother in an apartment of 30 square meters, for years I darned my only jeans, as a teenager for three weeks I collected seven kopecks for ice cream, and as a student I regularly handed over bottles of cheap alcohol drunk with friends (bought at price of no more than 1.2-1.5 rubles for a "fire extinguisher" with a capacity of 0.8 liters) - and was much happier than in the "zero" years. Even an accidental entry into the Forbes list has changed little. I believe that if a person has several thousand dollars a month to solve everyday issues (what is now fashionable in the West to call a “basic unconditional income”), a further amount of money is practically unable to improve his life in any noticeable way, but to spoil often can. I came to the conclusion that among people who have received a lot of money at their disposal, only those who despise wealth - or at least are indifferent to it - deserve respect.

We sleep for a third of our lives - and in a dream everyone is equal in property. We are no different when taking a shower, for which everyone pays the same water, washing, brushing our teeth and combing our hair. There may be some social stratification in the purchase of cosmetics, but it is not a fact that the use of expensive creams or lipsticks changes something for the better - there are many opposite examples around. Expensive surgeries to change the lips, nose, breasts or butt often make the appearance of plastic surgery victims less attractive. You can't buy a sports uniform - not clothes, but the tone in which your body is located. Efforts on a treadmill, horizontal bar or simulators have no price in terms of money - they are always calculated only by labor, sweat and time.

We spend several hours a day eating. But frankly, the simpler and cheaper the food, the better for health. The ideal menu is buckwheat at the price of 40 rubles per kilogram, cold-pressed linseed oil, vegetables and some fish. For all this pleasure, you will pay 60-70 rubles a day, that is, about a dollar. Any person earns a dollar a day (well, except for the Papuans and Pygmies, who really live from hand to mouth), and the average standard of living of the planet's population is at least several hundred dollars a month.

We dress differently. Of course, a rich kept woman will be able to put on clothes and jewelry worth tens of thousands, but at the same time she will look worse than a girl who has the willpower to dance on a pole for free, do yoga and fitness, run for two hours a day. Unfortunately, it is also impossible to learn a foreign language for money - you need abilities, or at least desire and perseverance. Buying a dissertation is not welcome now even in Russia. On the stage, for money, they can only make a pitiful laughingstock out of you.

Sex, of course, you can buy. However, only unsympathetic maniacs manage to spend "big" money on him - I know many such citizens, their budgets do not exceed several hundred thousand dollars a year. Although this is a lot, it is hardly worth envying such people. Get free...

Nothing in life is given without effort on oneself, and wealth in no way contributes to these efforts. You can write a good book or create a successful business only at the expense of your own abilities and work, which in no way depend on financing - on the contrary, "easy money" often entails losses and failures. The owner of billions physically feels the alienation from his capital. Money warms only a shallow soul. They dry up the heart and do not give a person peace, multiplying the number of problems. You run the risk of acquiring a lot of bad habits - including often paying girls for services. I myself have been guilty of this.

Happy are those who spend millions of dollars on charity in all its manifestations as compensation. My desire to invest in the most difficult projects to implement - agriculture and healthy eating, hotels in the Crimea (not in the Maldives), air travel, affordable housing, etc. - seemed to be caused by a subconscious desire to get rid of the burden of wealth. By the middle of the second decade of the 21st century, they helped me a lot by taking away most of the business - Aeroflot, the banking business, Red Wings and Ilyushin Finance Co. But, surprisingly, it all worked out for me. I started again on my own, and not for money, to try to achieve results in my own life.

So is the life of a billionaire different from the life of an average person, if the latter is in harmony with himself and the world around him? We will not take into account the mythical money in the accounts, which, as we found out, there is nothing to use in terms of personal development. There is one difference, it is in real estate - the average participant in the Forbes list, according to my observations, has at least one business jet, five or six villas and apartments, a yacht, sometimes two. The rest of the money is connected in business. Watching these people up close, you will notice that there is a direct relationship between the impression they make and investments in real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars (rarely anyone exceeds this threshold). The more invested, the less likeable the person. He has an extinct look, a dull look, a bad temper and an unsympathetic appearance. This is the result of attempts to buy what can be acquired only through one's own efforts, will and labor. Much nicer are people who haven't been spoiled by wealth, like the Warren Buffetts who ride taxis in Omaha.

Does a person feel comfortable living in a house of five to seven thousand square meters with 25 bedrooms? Do not know. The reason for the passion for buying expensive real estate lies, obviously, in vanity. The goal is to demonstrate to the outside world their pseudo-superiority, when nothing else can prove this superiority. Many rich people practically do not use the objects they own and dream of getting rid of them. Which, in turn, is not so simple. Humanity is gradually developing in public opinion a kind of universal threshold for personal consumption for people who earn billions of dollars. I hope that soon social networks will ridicule those who follow Philip Green's habits rather than Warren Buffett, and, conversely, honor those who invest in hospitals, libraries, museums and other projects for public use. However, I would like to see public control over spending on charity, because of the approximately 500 billion dollars of annual global spending on charity, at least half ends up in the pockets of fundraisers and "managers" of charitable foundations (the plot for a new book). There are a huge number of such examples in our country and abroad. So, recently, one well-known diva in the field of charity invited her sponsors to her city. Sponsors knew that she had raised at least $100 million over the past 12 years. The result is a couple of playgrounds and a room for 100 meters for sick children. Not so much, right?

With this important for understanding the motives of my actions of retreat, we begin our story. Someday, I hope, the venerable Professor Inozemtsev, one of the best Russian economists, and I will solemnly be awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the "law of the Third Colonialism" (unless, of course, by this time it will not be given for kickbacks). However, the prestige of the Nobel Prize has devalued considerably after it was awarded for no reason to Barack Obama and the European Union, which is falling apart before our eyes.

"Black holes" of the world economy

So, if Adam Smith discovered, and Karl Marx developed the theory of surplus value, in which money, goods and labor appear, then Inozemtsev and I discovered and described the system of “black holes” of the global economy, in which money disappears all over the world at the same time, and then , "washed", appear in a certain closed "circuit". Labor, knowledge and experience have nothing to do with this cycle. In this sense, we may well claim the laurels of Stephen Hawking from the economy.

* * *

Travel notes on the history of modern capitalism, or the Manifesto of working businessmen against the world offshore oligarchy

All characters in this story are fictitious and all resemblances are coincidental.

“The crowd of spectators,” the impudent gaer interrupted Sempleyarov, “as if they didn’t say anything?” But, taking into account your deeply respected desire, Arkady Apollonovich, I, so be it, will expose. But for this, allow me one more tiny number?

- Why, - Arkady Apollonovich answered patronizingly, - but certainly with exposure!

Michael Bulgakov,
"Master and Margarita"

What is Third Colonialism?
(instead of prologue)

Money can not buy happiness

"Black holes" of the world economy

Imagine the economic system as a biological organism, where money is the blood that supplies vitality to various organs. Banks are the circulatory system. Their function is purely technical: the heart pumps blood, the vessels deliver it to its destination. As Adam Smith wrote in his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: “When the people of any country have such confidence in the fortune, honesty, and discretion of any banker that they are sure that he will be able at any moment to pay the demand those of his credit notes that will be presented to him, these tickets acquire the same circulation as gold and silver coins, since there is confidence that such money can be received in exchange for these tickets at any time.

However, in today's world, things are completely different. Let's say you have legal income. Part of it immediately takes the state through taxes. The other you spend on your needs. If any savings remain, you take them to the bank. But if you are able to control the money in your wallet, then you are in the bank - in no way. The Central Bank is theoretically responsible for control, but it can easily fall under the influence of dishonest bankers and their patrons, whose thoughts are very far from not only the public good, but also the banal safety of deposits. After some time, having transformed from rubles, rupees, pesos, dinars and yuan into dollars, they find themselves in a huge dirty pool - the very "circuit" of the world's leading banks and funds in thirty-three sacred offshores, under the protection of lawyers, courts and politicians. They will tell you (if you ask anything at all) that there has been a crisis, bankruptcy, force majeure, etc. In any case, the essence is the same - your money is gone, it ended up in other people's pockets. Every day, the money of millions of people flows into the pocket of a limited circle of people, and no one cares about it.

According to international monitoring organizations, there are now more than 60 trillion dollars in this pool of "dirty money", which is comparable to the planet's annual GDP. And every year another trillion is added there. This amount is many times higher than the income from drug trafficking, prostitution and trafficking in human organs. Meanwhile, there is an uncompromising struggle against these types of crimes, and nothing is heard about the dirty trillion from the "white collars". Strange, right?

The showcase of the international financial oligarchy is banking conglomerates and investment funds such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Swiss, Franklin Templeton, Blackstone, Black Rock, Lone Star, HSBC, Banque von Ernst & Cie, Coutts and others like them. Plus lawyers, auditors, rating agencies and other servants.

One prominent example is Franklin Templeton. This is a "fund of funds", an American financial and investment group that manages almost a trillion dollars in assets. Of these, slightly less than eight billion are government bonds of Ukraine, almost half of the sovereign debt of this country. Franklin Templeton's portfolio ended up in 2013, after the fund's headquarters in San Mateo, California, received an "unofficial" visit from the then First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Serhiy Arbuzov, Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov, and head of the tax service Oleksandr Klimenko. What did they discuss there? It is possible that the placement of corrupt money stolen in Ukraine and laundered in the UAE, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Cyprus, etc., for the purchase of Ukrainian Eurobonds through 200 "grassroots" funds at a 50% discount (the discount was provided by a number of statements by government officials countries about a possible default - this collapsed the quotes of securities). Yanukovych at that moment, even in a nightmare, could not imagine what would happen in six months. He was probably sure that he would soon redeem the securities almost at face value, but already with taxpayers' money or Russian loans (the Russian Federation managed to issue only three billion dollars out of the 16 provided).

According to the prevailing version in America, in 2013 the people of Ukraine went to the Maidan and rebelled against the corrupt regime of Yanukovych, who, being an “agent of the Kremlin”, did not want his country to integrate with the United States and Europe. Let us suppose. And if this same Yanukovych controlled the lion's share of Ukraine's debts through an American fund? Would you believe that the Ukrainian ex-president and people from his entourage, who miraculously "took" 10-15 billion dollars in cash every year from each department, wanted to work for the good of Russia and transferred money here? Naive is that “Ukrainian” writer in the Kremlin who thought that Yanukovych was “a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.” If my version with Franklin Templeton is correct, then Yanukovych laundered the stolen money through him, being an American "son of a bitch." He ran away only because things got completely out of control on the Maidan. Natalia Yaresko, a US citizen and Ukrainian finance minister who worked on Ukraine's debt restructuring in 2015, seems to me to have actually admitted that this is the case. “All this is possible, because these bonds can be bought and sold,” Yaresko said in response to a question from the TSN television channel in connection with my publications. They are sold on the Irish Exchange. I can't know who the beneficial owner is."

At the same time, the “restructuring”, which was lobbied by the creative Mrs. Jaresko, turned out to be beneficial primarily to one side of the negotiations - Franklin Templeton. Despite the postponement of the repayment of the “body” of the debt to 2019, government derivatives were issued under this restructuring, tying the amount of payments to the creditor to the percentage of GDP growth. An absolute innovation in the history of sovereign debt restructuring! That is, the more the Ukrainian economy earns, the more it will have to pay. Having completed her valiant work in favor of creditors, Jaresko resigned. Taking into account the catastrophic fall in Ukraine's GDP in recent years, this "victory", for which Yaresko received a valuable gift from the hands of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov at a government meeting - a painted shell casing - may turn into bondage for the Ukrainian people from Yanukovych and Franklin Templeton ( in the event that both are "in the share"). True, some of the Ukrainian bonds in the accounts of the Yanukovych team in Oschadbank were recently confiscated by the current authorities, but this seems to be only a small part. And it's not a fact that this is not a way to simply not pay $ 1.5 billion of debt - the current Ukrainian authorities will still give odds to the Yanukovychs.

The evolution of robbery

Conspiracy theorists talk about the presence of some kind of oligarchic "government behind the scenes" that controls the global economy, and recall the names of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Our discovery puts this previously unconfirmed assumption on a solid scientific foundation. Is there one clan capable of managing such colossal resources at its own discretion and for its own benefit? With the help of huge money in the world market, financial bubbles are inflated, leading to cataclysms like the collapse of 2008. After all, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was just a trigger, and the driving force behind the crisis was a huge mortgage scam (Subprime Debt) around subprime mortgages that backed securities. The trillions of dollars involved in this operation came from the same "pool" - Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank deprived their clients of billions of dollars.

At the G20 summits, it was officially recognized that the biggest crisis that humanity is experiencing is corruption and the unfair redistribution of wealth. China, perhaps the world's first economy, is making tremendous efforts to stop the flow of wealth from developing countries, which are withdrawn by corrupt elites and deposited in bank accounts in London, Paris and Geneva. The leaders of the Western world verbally support the need for cooperation, but apart from a little verbiage, they do nothing. Why? Having discussed this problem with many of them, most notably with the three British Prime Ministers - Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron - I did not see any interest in the topic. None of my interlocutors had a personal interest in hushing up the issue. Are they incompetent at it? They are not up to it? The attitude is such that, they say, nothing can be done. It seems to them that humanity has more pressing problems: terrorism, nuclear weapons, wars, climate change, the ecological crisis. Politicians are doing them. But to the topic of a trillion dollars a year - hands do not reach? Strange, isn't it?

Undoubtedly, corruption in third world countries, a product of their social structure, is one of the causes of this great problem. If it were not for the plundering of resources by corrupt plutocrats in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, people there would be richer, would not feel disenfranchised, and probably would not be tempted to fall under the influence of extremists. But it is Europe and the United States, having built an entire industry of pumping and laundering money from third world countries, that have created an insidious new form of colonialism, the existence of which is stubbornly ignored by political leaders. The US is using this situation to its advantage.

For six centuries, European countries dominated the less economically developed parts of the planet. This period of history is well described in the book Guns, Germs and Steel by evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize. Europe has surpassed the rest of the world in technology, especially in the military. Through this superiority, the "chosen" white people controlled the natives in the colonies. The Spanish, English and Dutch conquerors were the first to create fleets that could reach lands rich in gold and silver, minerals, silk and spices. And slaves. But the era of the first colonialism, with its domination of brutal force, often fraught with risk to the lives of the colonizers themselves, came to an end in the last century, when the political, military and financial costs of controlling vast territories of Africa or Indochina began to outweigh the value of spoils for Europe. "Decolonization" has become mainstream. By the mid-1970s, the formal political atlas of the world had become multicolored. The problem was that Europe remained dependent on the goods of its once-colonial dominions, especially for minerals.

Therefore, after an organized retreat that lasted until the 60s of the twentieth century, the Western world changed the form of colonialism. From now on, it was built on two main pillars. The first was the penetration of the Third World economy by transnational corporations. They brought with them much-needed investment and technology, but in doing so they dominated the economy and infrastructure of the third world countries, expropriating the financial results of development. The second factor in the expansion was private banks, which began lending to developing countries in the 1970s. Sociologist and philosopher, Field Marshal Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, called this phenomenon “neo-colonialism” in the late 1960s. For ease of understanding, Professor Inozemtsev and I call it "second colonialism."

Not being as bloody as the first, he became more arrogant and cruel. Both the first and second colonialism were centered around material resources and slaves. In the 19th century, up to 40% of European imports and exports came from the major powers and their colonies. This "free trade" brought suffering to the inhabitants of the colonial territories and great wealth to the mother countries. In 1999, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission estimated damage to the Black Continent at $777 trillion. This is certainly an exaggeration, but looking at how Madrid and Lisbon, London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam grew in those years, one can understand that this form of colonialism was extremely profitable. Even with the Paris and London Club debt cancellations at the turn of the millennium, the third world's financial burden was about $2 trillion, and the net interest income on these loans brought the West more than $200 billion a year.

Undoubtedly, this could not have happened without the help of corrupt or incompetent local kings. But it is also obvious that the second colonialism, like its predecessor, was developed and implemented by the Euro-Atlantic civilization, and a new world superpower acted as its patron. It is no coincidence that US banks were threatened with default in the early 1980s, when Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru and other countries became insolvent. Colonialism was a hot topic in the 1980s, spawning many human rights movements, and Hollywood celebrities demanding debt forgiveness and a new, just world order. But despite huge sovereign debts and trade restrictions, many Third World nations eventually began to climb out of extreme poverty. The effect of the technologies transferred to them worked, and their goods were given preferential treatment for export to the markets of the metropolitan countries.

It was then that a new phenomenon appeared, which we called "Third Colonialism". This form of exploitation has a more subtle and insidious mechanism - it is not for nothing that it has not yet been described anywhere, except for rare inarticulate "agitation" and partly Donald Trump's commercials when he ran for US President. In our opinion, the third colonialism is more effective than the previous two. If the first colonialism relied on military force, and the second on the financial power of loans, then the third is based on corrupting the elites, teaching them financial fraud and pumping money into offshore centers that are part of Western economies. At the same time, countries exploited in this way often collect loans. They are unable to even partially bring the quality of life of their population to the standards of the "golden billion", but their elites are desperate to enjoy the benefits of Western-style civilization. Since most of these states still lack democratic institutions and a reliable rule of law, the wealth of their elites is of corrupt origin and may be challenged by existing or future regimes. Very few people in the highest levels of power feel safe and keep money in their homeland. On the contrary, more and more rich people from Africa and Asia are buying property in London, opening offshore companies and secret accounts. This state of affairs is welcomed by the financial services industry of the West - and not surprisingly: it is the cornerstone of the third colonialism.

Thanks to Western banks, lawyers and accountants, corruption, which for many centuries was largely a national problem, has become an international phenomenon - in other words, it has become globalized. It is based on connections between the corrupt elites of poor nations and the international financial centers of the West. It no longer makes sense to create East India companies and send troops to conquer distant lands, as in past centuries - the natives themselves come and bring their wealth.

The scale of what is happening is impressive. Today, even according to the most conservative estimates, the net outflow of funds from third world countries is about a trillion dollars a year, while at the beginning of the millennium it was estimated at less than 200 billion. In other words, corrupt officials and pseudo-entrepreneurs steal from their poor nations about five times more money than their countries pay on loans from international banks. So the third colonialism surpassed the second in its impudence.

However, even the most respected international organizations like the FATF or Transparency International prefer to ignore this phenomenon and do little to nothing to counter it, only making routine speeches about the need for financial transparency. The international network of corruption is the worst by-product of globalization. The key to the fight against global corruption is not to be found in the corrupt countries themselves, but in Britain and Europe in general, which gave rise to this and previous versions of colonialism. It was Europe that created a new financial architecture, thanks to which flows of "dirty" money poured out of poor and poorly managed countries. The West allows corrupt national elites to enrich themselves criminally, deriving benefits for themselves. Under such conditions, one cannot expect that poor states will be able to defeat corruption on their own. It is necessary that the rich West stop encouraging it.

As I said, the international corruption system did not arise by chance: it was created to fix the superiority of the West over the rest of the world. However, by maintaining this global status quo and redistributing the world's resources in its favor, Europe itself is under threat. By encouraging corruption in third world countries, the first world destroys itself. The population in the plundered countries becomes easy prey for extremists and religious fanatics, wars give rise to flows of refugees that swept the Old World and caused a migration crisis. Finally, international networks of corrupt officials have emerged that were unimaginable before, a close alliance of corrupt elites living in both the first and third worlds. Finally, the huge amount of “dirty” money at the disposal of a narrow circle of people increases the threat of it falling into the hands of terrorists.

The third colonialism will sooner or later lead to a global economic collapse and the death of civilization in its current form. Therefore, the international financial oligarchy can be likened to a cancerous tumor that devours humanity. As you know, the tumor itself dies only together with the death of the whole organism. However, money also obeys the law of conservation of energy - it does not disappear anywhere. Every stolen ruble or dollar can be found. You just need to show the will and do global chemotherapy. It will be painful, unpleasant, but otherwise we will not survive. Now, as I write these lines, new sanctions have been applied to Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the development of response measures. There is nothing easier! It is necessary to officially offer (or rather demand) the West to return more than 100 billion dollars stolen from the Russians by criminal bankers and hidden abroad. It is necessary to form a state policy for the return of this money, involving all branches and levels of government in this - from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and Parliament to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state media.

How I came to these conclusions and how these studies influenced my destiny is the subject of the book you are reading.

L.-M., Rainbow. 1925. 16 p. from ill. Circulation 10,000 copies. Price 1 rub. In col. publisher's lithographed cover. 27.6x21 cm. One of the early works of the famous Russian artist - illustrator of children's books V.V. Lebedev.

Lebedev, Vladimir Vasilievich (1891 - 1967, buried at the Theological Cemetery in St. Petersburg) - Russian Soviet painter, graphic artist, recognized master of poster, book and magazine illustration, founder of the Leningrad school of book graphics. People's Artist of the RSFSR, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. Born into a family of mechanics. Graduated from the Petrovsky commercial school. He received his initial art education in the private studio of A. I. Titov (1909) and the battle painting workshop of F. A. Roubaud (1910-1911). In 1912-1914 he studied at the private art school of M. D. Bernstein. In 1918-1921 he taught at the Petrograd state free art and educational workshops. He was a member of the "Union of Youth" (since 1913), "Unification of new trends in art" (in 1922-1923), "Four Arts" (since 1928); took part in their exhibitions. In 1917-1918 he worked as a political cartoonist, collaborated with satirical magazines "Satyricon" and "New Satyricon"; created many political cartoons of the Bolsheviks. He worked as a book graphic artist from 1918 to 1967, the first books with his drawings were published by the Raduga publishing house. In 1919-1920, together with V.I. Kozlinsky, he worked on a series of posters "ROSTA Petrograd Windows" for the Russian Telegraph Agency. Created a new style of propaganda poster, designed to be placed in factories, clubs, shop windows and aboard propaganda ships. In 1924-1933, V. V. Lebedev headed the art editorial office of the children's department of the State Publishing House. Throughout his life he worked as a children's book artist. Work in a publishing house and work on a book did not prevent V. V. Lebedev from realizing himself in painting and creating a number of outstanding paintings. In 1936, articles about Lebedev's work appeared in the press, where his work was given the most derogatory assessment; articles could provoke persecution, the consequences of which for the artist could be the worst; these events greatly influenced the artist and broke him. Critics believe that Lebedev's best works were created by him before this turning point. In 1941-1950, Lebedev lived in Moscow, where he collaborated with TASS Windows. In 1950 he returned to Leningrad. He continued to work in book graphics. Among his post-war books, "Where did the table come from?" are considered the best. (1946) and "Colorful Book" (1947) by S. Ya. Marshak, "Three Bears" by L. N. Tolstoy (1948). In the 1950s and 60s, Lebedev lived in seclusion, saw only a few friends and rarely appeared in public. On Simeonovskaya street in St. Petersburg (since 1923 - Belinsky street), at the house number 11, where Lebedev lived from 1922 to 1967, a memorial plaque is currently placed. Was married three times.

First wife - Sarra Dmitrievna Lebedeva, nee. Darmolatova (1892, St. Petersburg - March 7, 1967, Moscow), famous Soviet sculptor, portrait painter; worked in monumental and memorial sculpture. Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. She met V. V. Lebedev in 1912-1914 at the private art school of M. D. Bernstein. After her divorce from V. V. Lebedev in 1925, she continued to maintain friendly relations with him throughout her life.

The second wife is Nadezhda Sergeevna Nadezhdina (1908, Vilna - 1979, Moscow). Daughter of the writer A. Ya. Brushtein. Ballerina, student of A. Ya. Vaganova; soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre. Famous Soviet choreographer, People's Artist of the USSR, awarded the Order of Lenin. In 1948 she created the dance "Birch", which became a discovery in the stage embodiment of Russian folk dance, which laid the foundation for a new choreographic style. She created the Beryozka ensemble, which has been bearing her name since 2000. N. S. Nadezhdina served as a model for V. V. Lebedev’s graphic series “Dancer” (1927).

In 1940, Lebedev married for the third and last time to Ada Sergeevna Lazo (1919, Vladivostok - 1993, Moscow). Philologist, writer, editor of Detgiz. Daughter of the famous military and political figure S. G. Lazo. She prepared a book about her father: "Lazo S. Diaries and Letters." Vladivostok, 1959.

A significant role in the creation of a children's book in the 1920s belongs to the private publishing house Raduga, headed by the once famous journalist L. M. Klyachko. He attracted the poets K. I. Chukovsky and S. Ya. Marshak, who had not written poems for children before, to the publishing house. With the publishing house "Raduga" collaborated, mainly, artists close to the circle of the "World of Art": S. Chekhonin, N. Kuzmin, Yu. Annenkov, M. Dobuzhinsky, V. Konashevich, B. Kustodiev, E. Kruglikova, M. Tsekhanovsky . It was in the publishing house "Rainbow" that the first "new" book was published - "Elephant Baby" by R. Kipling, translated by K. Chukovsky with illustrations by V. V. Lebedev. This modest book was highly appreciated by N. N. Punin. In 1924, in Petrograd, the Children's Department was created at the Gosizdat publishing house. It was located in the House of the Singer company on Nevsky Prospekt, 28. The children's department was headed by two editors, literary and artistic: S. Ya. Marshak and V. V. Lebedev. Together they set themselves the goal of creating a fundamentally new children's art book. During the years of their work, a new children's book appeared in the publishing house, which has a completely different form and a different purpose than the children's book of the 19th century. In September 1933, on the basis of this department and the children's sector of the Young Guard publishing house, the DETGIZ publishing house (Children's State Publishing House) was created; S. Ya. Marshak and V. V. Lebedev also became its editors. S. Ya. Marshak attracted to cooperation in the new publishing house such writers and poets as Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms, Nikolai Oleinikov, Korney Chukovsky, L. Panteleev, Boris Zhitkov, Evgeny Schwartz, Vitaly Bianki, Elena Danko-Oleksanko, Nikolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Olga Berggolts, Veniamin Kaverin and others. A special merit of writers and artists was also the creation of a new literary genre - "educational" books for children.

A unique feature of the era of the late 1920s and 30s was that many artists of the Russian avant-garde at that time were looking for opportunities to earn money outside their main, pictorial work, and willingly went to the publishing house to work with Lebedev. Without exception, all the remarkable masters of the book were major painters or graphic artists who managed to bring the achievements of their own painting and drawing into the mainstream of book specificity. As an editor and as an artist, Lebedev made a huge contribution to the development of the artistic structure of the children's book, to the compositional and visual techniques and means, and supported a completely new attitude towards the very content of the children's book. The most famous books illustrated by V. Lebedev include, first of all, books written by the poet Samuil Marshak: "The Circus", "Ice Cream", "The Tale of the Silly Mouse", "The Mustachioed Striped", "Colorful Book", "Twelve Months ", "Luggage". The only condition that Lebedev-editor set was that the book should be a single, integral and constructively solved organism. “Now all the artists who are able to work in the book, that is, to create clear and convincing images, are working on the book,” Lebedev argued. Around Lebedev, artists united not just different, but even opposite, sometimes having nothing in common with each other. Lebedev worked, in addition to those who shared his own principles of constructive graphics, as well as artists of the school of P. N. Filonov, artists who studied with K. S. Malevich, artists of "free drawing", grouped around Pyotr Sokolov. In Detgiz, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Samokhvalov, Eduard Budogosky, Genrikh Levin, Nikolai Radlov, Viktor Zamirailo, Lev Yudin, Vladimir Sterligov, Eduard Krimmer, Elena Safonova, Alisa Poret, Tatiana Glebova, Pavel Kondratiev, Konstantin Rudakov, Alexandra Yakobson and Miney Kuks, Sergey Mochalov, Vladimir Tambi, Pavel Basmanov, Yuri Syrnev, Evgenia Evenbakh. Of the artists of the former circle, close to the "World of Art" in its historical evolution, Lebedev collaborated with Vladimir Konashevich and Dmitry Mitrokhin. Lebedev considered Vera Ermolaev, Nikolai Lapshin and Nikolai Tyrsa to be his comrades-in-arms. V. V. Lebedev, already an experienced artist by that time, created his own “Lebedev school” in the twenties and thirties. Young artists began their work in book graphics, including such talented painters as Alexei Pakhomov, Yuri Vasnetsov, talented graphic artists Yevgeny Charushin, Valentin Kurdov, artists Yevgeniya Evenbakh and Tatyana Shishmareva also belonged to his students. As a master, Lebedev brought a lot of his own into the work of his students, sometimes redoing their drawings on his own.

“All these masters, who worked a lot not only in graphics, but also in easel painting, called their creative method “pictorial realism”, meaning by this term the art of referring to the real surrounding reality, drawing their themes and images from it ... based not only on the tradition of critical realism of the 19th century, but widely using the experience and achievements of the entire new and latest artistic culture, both Russian and Western European ... V. Lebedeva, N. A. Tyrsa and N. F. Lapshina in the artistic edition of the children's department of the State Publishing House.

The aesthetics of "graphic realism" was formed not only from a system of artistic techniques. You can also characterize it as a real creative movement, in view of the existing agreed creative principles. It united many artists involved in the process of formation and development of children's books in the Leningrad graphics of the 1920-1930s.

For most of Lebedev's books, his posters for "Windows of GROWTH" were the source and creative impulse. "The artist saw the poster as the art of a large form, laconic artistic language, strict constructiveness and plastic simplicity of pictorial elements, leading to the impression of monumentality." Engraving posters and coloring them by hand, Lebedev started from the traditions of the Russian popular popular print; but at the same time, he immediately rejected any stylization and fake under the popular print. The connection with the lubok remained, but as a "connection of continuity or organic growth." Lebedev's work "melted a new form and an old artistic tradition." The laconic, geometrically generalized drawing found by the artist was also transferred to the children's book, in addition, "he was the first among the artists of the children's book to use type as a means of expression."

Lebedev's books are "one of the peaks of Detgiz", the highest expression of the clarity of artistic thinking, plastic rigor and laconicism, leading to maximum figurative expressiveness. " Evgeny Kovtun

Lebedev's style was successive; he relied on the Suprematist works of K. S. Malevich.

“Malevich played a huge role in the work of Lebedev. Because both Lebedev's "windows" of ROSTA, and, most importantly, Lebedev's book were under the great influence of Malevich. He contributed only his very sharp drawing. Before he saw Malevich's drawings - sketchy things - Lebedev was just a good cartoonist. But he didn’t have any plane ... The font in the book, in fact, is always flat. The idea taken from Malevich that a flat drawing can also be made, Lebedeva forever delighted. He did just that with his first little book, Elephant. In combination with sharp drawing, he did it great ... and Lebedev began work on the book, first at the Raduga publishing house, then at Detgiz. Lebedev made full use of Malevich's technique, his creative invention. From himself, he contributed a subtle color. But without Malevich himself, he could never have done what he did in the book.” Valery Traugot.

In the 1920s and 30s, Lebedev created many easel graphic works that became classics of the Leningrad graphic art of that time. Series on "everyday" topics: "Washerwomen" (1920-1925, gouaches, applications), a series of 23 drawings "Panel of the Revolution" (1922, ink), also called "Street of the Revolution", and the series "NEP" and "New Life" (mid-1920s). A series of drawings in pencil and ink: "Models", "Ballerinas", "Acrobats". Paintings: early period - “Still life with a palette” (1919), “Coffee pot, spoon, mug” (1920), “Saw and board” (1920), “Worker at the anvil” (1920-21), series “Counter-reliefs” (1920-1921), including "Selection of materials: iron, wood, cardboard" (1921). Lebedev's painting in the 1920s was largely determined by his friendship with Ivan Puni, and later by his friendship with N. F. Lapshin and N. A. Tyrsa, who constituted for him the artistic environment necessary for every artist. Lapshin and Tyrsa were fond of French art; also Lebedev was fascinated by Seurat, Picasso, later Renoir and Manet.

Membership card of the trade union of art workers of the USSR Vladimir Lebedev

In the early 1930s, the series "Still Lifes with a Guitar" (1930-1932) were written, including "Red Guitar and Palette" (1930) and "Fruits in a Basket" (1930-31). “Each of these still lifes is a small world, alive with its concreteness, sometimes funny, sometimes lyrical, sometimes with a touch of cheerful irony. A still life with a guitar, lemons and shells can serve as an example of a brilliant work done in organizing a picturesque space. Color and its masonry, and not aerial or linear perspective, builds spatial fluctuations of objects within a very narrow distance, as if squeezed between two parallel planes - a feeling close to a signboard. The material feeling of a thing is carried out here with maximum tension, the laying of color is carried out with great richness and a variety of techniques ”(Vera Anikieva). From the end of the 1920s. and until 1957, the artist created a significant number of female portraits, including: "Portrait of the artist N. S. Nadezhdina" (1927), "Girl with a jug" (1928), "Model with a mandolin" (Malvina Stern; 1927), portrait artist Nina Noskovich (1934, also known as a portrait of Nina Lekarenko). One of Lebedev's most famous paintings, "Woman with a Guitar" (1930), depicts the model Elena (Lyolya) Nikolaeva. In 1933, a series of "ironic" portraits was painted, called "Athletes" or "Girls with Bouquets". Among other works by Lebedev in the 1930s are a portrait of the artist Tatyana Shishmareva (1935), a portrait of the sculptor Sarra Lebedeva (1936), Krasnovoyets (1937), Turkish Fighters (1937), portraits of the writer Susanna Georgievskaya (1937). After the war, Lebedev did not paint much; his later works include the portrait of Ada Sergeevna Lazo (1954) and the portrait of a young girl in a headscarf (1957).

Books illustrated by V.V. Lebedev ("lebedeviana"):

"Christmas tree. Collection of poems, short stories and fairy tales. Compiled by A. Benois and K. Chukovsky. Drawings by Yu. Annenkov, A. Benois, M. Dobuzhinsky, V. Zamirailo, V. Lebedev, I. Puni, A. Radakov, I. Repin, V. Khodasevich, S. Chekhonin and others - Pg .: "Sail" , 1918.

"The Lion and the Bull: An Arabian Tale" / Per. S. S. Kondrushkina. - Pg.: "Lights". 1918.

"New Russian Fairy Tales". "People's Library". Region D. Mitrokhina, ill. V. amirailo and V. Lebedev. - Pg.: State Publishing House, 1919.

Lebedev V.V. "The Adventures of Chuch-lo". - Pg.: "Era". 1921

Kipling R. Baby Elephant. Per. K. Chukovsky. - Pg.: "Era". 1922.

Lebedev V. “Bear. Russian fairy tale". - Pg.: "Thought". 1923.

Lebedev V. “Three goats. Russian fairy tale". - M.: "Thought". 1923

Lebedev V. "The Golden Egg: A Tale". - Pg.: "Thought". 1923

Lebedev V. "The Hare, the Rooster and the Fox: A Tale". - Pg.: "Thought". 1924.

Lebedev V. "Hunting". - M.; L: Rainbow. 1925.

Marshak S. "Poodle". - M.; L .: "Rainbow", 1925, 1927.

Marshak S. "Ice cream". - M.; L: Rainbow. 1925.

Marshak S. "Ice cream". - L.Azbuka. 1925.

Marshak S. "Yesterday and Today". - L .: "Rainbow". 1925

Marshak S. "About a stupid little mouse." - L.; M .: "Rainbow". 1925.

Marshak S. "Circus". - L.; M .: "Rainbow" 1925.

Lebedev V. "ABC". - L.: GIZ. 1925.

Marshak S. "Baggage". - L .: "Rainbow". 1926.

Lebedev V. "Who is stronger." - M.; L.: GIZ. 1927

Marshak S. "How a planer made a planer." - L .: "Rainbow". 1927.

Lebedev V. "On horseback". - M.; L.: GIZ. 1928.

Marshak S. "Happy Hour: Supplement to the magazine" Hedgehog "". - L.: GIZ. 1929.

Kipling R. "Tales". Per. K. Chukovsky. Poems in trans. S. Marshak. Rice. L. Bruni, A. Borisov, E. Krimmer, V. Lebedev, A. Pakhomov. - M.; L.: GIZ, 1929

Marshak S. "Mustache-striped". - M.: GIZ. 1930.

Bergholz O. "Winter - summer - parrot". - M.; L.: GIZ. 1930, 1933.

Marshak S. "Walking on a donkey." - M.; L.: GIZ. 1930.

Orlova N. "Paint and draw." Issue. 1st and 2nd. - L .: OGIZ: "Young Guard". 1932.

"The first of May". - Drawings by a team of artists: Y. Vasnetsov, Y. Mezernitsky, V. Lebedev, V. Ermolaeva, V. Kurdova. - M .: OGIZ: "Young Guard". 1932.

Marshak S. "Mr. Twister". - L.; M .: "Young Guard". 1933.

Marshak S. "That's how absent-minded." - L.: Detgiz. 1934.

Marshak S. "Tales, songs, riddles." - M .: "Academia". 1935.

Marshak S. "Petrushka-Foreigner". - L.: Detgiz. 1935.

Marshak S. "We are military." - M.; L.: Children's publishing house. 1938.

Marshak S. "Tales, songs, riddles." Rice. V. Konashevich, V. Lebedev, A. Pakhomov. - M.; L.: Children's publishing house. 1938.

Lebedev V. "Toys and animals". - Children's publishing house of the Komsomol Central Committee. 1939.

Marshak S. “Why was the cat called a cat? Miller, boy and donkey. - M.; L.: Children's publishing house. 1939.

Marshak S. “Merry day. Poems and fairy tales. Rice. V. Konashevich, V. Kurdov, V. Lebedev, A. Pakhomov, K. Rudakov, G. Shevyakov. - M.; L .: Children's publishing house, 1939.

Marshak S. "Live Letters". - M.; L.: Children's publishing house. 1940.

Marshak S. "English ballads and songs". - M.: "Soviet writer". 1941.

Marshak S. "One, two, three, four." - M.: Children's publishing house. 1941.

"Red Army. Collection of stories, fairy tales, games and poems dedicated to the Red Army. Rice. V. V. Lebedeva and others - M .; L.: Detgiz. 1942.

Korolenko V. G. "Without language". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1942.

Kuprin A. I. "White Poodle". - Kirov: Detgiz. 1942.

Marshak S. "Twelve months: Slavic fairy tale". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1943.

Marshak S. "Pigeons: Tales". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1946.

Marshak S. "Where did the table come from?" - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1946.

Marshak S. Heather Honey: English Ballads, Songs and Lyric Poems. - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1947.

Marshak S. "Colorful book". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1947.

Marshak S. "Poems for children." - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1947.

Marshak S. "Children in a cage." - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1948.

Tolstoy L. N. "Three Bears". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1948.

Marshak S. "Giant". - M.: Detgiz. 1949, 1950.

Mikhalkov S. "Kittens". - M.: Detgiz. 1949.

Marshak S. "All year round". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1949.

Marshak S. "Forest Book". - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1950.

Marshak S. "Rocked Hen and Ten Ducklings". - M.: Detgiz. 1953, 1954.

Mayakovsky V. "Whatever the page is, then an elephant, then a lioness." - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1954.

Marshak S. "What was Petya afraid of?" - M.: Detgiz. 1955.

Marshak S. "The Tale of the Smart Mouse". - M.: Detgiz. 1956, 1959.

Tolstoy L. "Stories for young children." - M.; L.: Detgiz. 1956.

Marshak S. "A Quiet Tale". - M.: Detgiz. 1958, 1961.

Marshak "What horses, hamsters and chickens talked about." - M.: Detgiz. 1962.

Marshak S. "Who will find the ring?: A fairy tale game." - M.: Detgiz. 1962, 1965.

Marshak S. "Circus". - M.: "Children's Literature". 1964.

Marshak S. "Children". - M.: "Children's Literature". 1967.

* * *

Travel notes on the history of modern capitalism, or the Manifesto of working businessmen against the world offshore oligarchy

All characters in this story are fictitious and all resemblances are coincidental.

“The crowd of spectators,” the impudent gaer interrupted Sempleyarov, “as if they didn’t say anything?” But, taking into account your deeply respected desire, Arkady Apollonovich, I, so be it, will expose. But for this, allow me one more tiny number?

- Why, - Arkady Apollonovich answered patronizingly, - but certainly with exposure!

Michael Bulgakov,

"Master and Margarita"

What is Third Colonialism?
(instead of prologue)

Money can not buy happiness

"Black holes" of the world economy

According to businessman Alexander Lebedev, several hundred bankers stole $150 billion from Russian banks that had lost their licenses and then laundered them. Such a criminal scheme is described in the new book of the entrepreneur "The Hunt for the Banker", the presentation of which took place in Moscow.

Alexander Lebedev's book "The Hunt for the Banker"

“This is journalistic literature dedicated to a topic that I have been working on for 12 years,” Lebedev explained. “I worked with bankers who robbed the Russian banking system of $150 billion. They hid this money abroad, laundered it and went there—to Monaco, London, and so on.”

According to him, Russia should raise the issue of returning these funds out of court to the West. The United States uses a similar practice - it helped them recover about $ 330 billion lost due to sanctions violations, as a result of tax evasion and abuse of mortgage bonds.

“What are the Americans doing? Over the past 9 years, they have returned about $330 billion from Western banks, not American ones. The composition of the crimes that the Americans impute, the prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Finance is usually a violation of sanctions, tax evasion, or so-called bad mortgage bonds, as in the case of Deutsche Bank, Lebedev explains. “We have more serious reasons, we can provide evidence to any international or national institution that these $150 billion were stolen from 1,200 banks whose licenses were taken away, and all this was done by several hundred people.”

The businessman told RT what exactly could be done to return the money.

“We have all the wires on hand, how this money was collected in Russia from legal entities and individuals, how it flowed away from here, how it was laundered offshore. We know where these people are, they are not hiding anywhere. You need to contact the Bank for International Settlements, provide all bank transactions from the Central Bank and the DIA (Deposit Insurance Agency. - RT) and all the information about the people who withdrew and laundered money,” the author of the investigation explained.

At the same time, he stressed that the state should not try to restore justice in court. In his opinion, any such process will become a lengthy and hopeless undertaking.

“There is nothing to prove here, there is no judicial topic. People who have left often say that they are victims of the regime. They find lawyers there, pay them big money, use the state machine to get additional protection. But in no case should you let yourself be dragged into the judicial machine. This will stretch over many decades, and it is a very expensive pleasure. These people are ready to pay,” says Lebedev.

Recall that at the end of 2016 it became known that Deutsche Bank would make payments in the amount of $7.2 billion in claims filed by the US Department of Justice. The claims of the American side concerned violations of the bank, which it allegedly committed in the course of trading in mortgage-backed securities.

globallookpress.com
CHROMORANGE / Bilderbox

Most of this money - $ 4.1 billion - was to be used to compensate for losses of customers, $ 3.1 billion was the amount of the fine.

The US Department of Justice announced its intentions to recover about $14 billion from the bank back in September 2016. However, in December, the parties settled out of court for $7.2 billion. Such cases are often settled before the court, as it is often easier for banks to give the required funds than to spend money and time on legal procedures.

“It is necessary that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the prosecutor’s office, the Investigative Committee, the FSB, Russia Today, Russian state channels begin a serious hunt under international law for those people who left, hid, laundered this money,” the businessman explains.

The Western countries themselves annually steal about a trillion dollars in different countries of the world through fraud in banks and corporations, Lebedev notes. Then this money is moved to offshore jurisdictions, they are accepted by banks and funds. According to the entrepreneur, there is a special class of lawyers, auditors and politicians who are accomplices in these criminal schemes.

“A trillion dollars annually in all countries of the world is embezzled by fraud in banks and corporations. There are no such countries in Africa, Latin America and other parts of the globe where ten, twenty, fifty billion dollars are not stolen,” he says.

“All this played a cruel joke with the West - this money greatly decomposed the democratic foundations of the Western political system. This corroded the electoral system, degraded politicians, the media,” explains Lebedev, who owns the British newspapers The Independent and The London Evening Standard.

From 2004 to 2007 Alexander Lebedev was a member of the State Duma. Today he does not intend to return to politics. “I am not going (to hold a public office. — RT). As he was a banker, he remained, ”he told RT.

Meanwhile, in the lower house of parliament, they were already interested in the investigation conducted by the businessman. The head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky read the book by Alexander Lebedev and plans to distribute it among other parliamentarians.

“Reading is easy. I instructed the deputy to one - he read it in half a day, - said Zhirinovsky. - A lot of numbers, statistics. It's not fiction, it's not fiction, it's a beautiful documentary of the life we've lived."

Vladimir Zhirinovsky
RIA News
Vladimir Fedorenko

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science Boris Chernyshov told RT that he was going to raise some of the issues voiced by Lebedev at meetings of the lower house of parliament.

“Many questions will somehow be included in the program statements, program documents of our candidates for the elections, because the analysis of the economy that is presented here is very interesting. Here, the whole ins and outs of the gray economy of Russia is exposed, ”added the deputy.

The presentation of the book "The Hunt for the Banker" was attended not only by politicians and entrepreneurs, but also by representatives of show business - singer Philip Kirkorov, producer Yana Rudkovskaya.

Related materials:

map of site