On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin made his place in history. But not as the imperial overlord he would have loved to become, but as a dictator with the blood of tens of thousands on his hands. The attack on Ukraine marks the sad high point of the Russian head of state’s career so far. It shows how he got there star in this series of photos.
Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in what was then Leningrad. He grew up in modest circumstances. His parents are factory workers. His father Vladimir Putin fought against Nazi Germany in World War II. His mother Maria Putina (née Shelomova) survived the blockade of Leningrad. Volodya is the couple’s third child. But he never gets to know his brothers. They die in infancy.
Like so many working-class families, the young Putin lives with his parents in a communal apartment, a shared apartment for several families who share a kitchen and bathroom. The Putins have 20 square meters to themselves.
The boy quickly realizes that he wants to get out of the misery at Kommunalka. For him, the fastest way to social advancement is the KGB. When the Soviet Union collapses, however, he can only look back on a nondescript career in the secret service. There he earned the nickname “the moth” among his colleagues – because he is so inconspicuous and colorless. His rapid rise only begins when Putin, with the help of his patron and mentor Anatoly Sobchak, ends up on the team of then-President Boris Yeltsin. Within two and a half years he was appointed to increasingly higher posts: from deputy head of the presidential administration to head of the secret service, to prime minister, then to acting president.
Patrons and oligarchs bring Vladimir Putin to power
Then Yeltsin steps aside to hand over power to Putin at the dawn of the new millennium. He is the favorite of the Russian oligarchs. With him at the helm, they believe they and their assets are protected. Above all, it is the billionaires Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich who want to see Putin in power. Media mogul Berezovsky has Putin stylized as a strong man.
“It seemed to me that ideologically he was our man. A man of our generation who basically understands everything and wants to move Russia in the same direction as we do, towards openness and democracy,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky explained years later , a former oligarch. He too was one of Putin’s supporters from the start. “How wrong I was,” he says today.
“He’s a very talented KGB man. If you’re on the left, Putin will be such that you think he’s also left. You like nationalists, Putin will act like you think he’s a nationalist. You like Conservatives, then you will get the impression that he is a conservative. That’s a talent,” Khodorkovsky said. In this way, Putin was able to fool everyone.
Many oligarchs would soon regret their support.