Igor Kirillov – a man known as the face and voice of the Soviet Union for 30 years – died in Russia at the age of 89.
Kirillov was the main broadcaster and broadcaster of Soviet television.
Through his business diversion, with ease and tranquility, he addressed the first spectators of the sputnik on the air and delivered the Communist Party’s declaration.
He also supported all the important events organized by the Soviet Union: from the Red Square march in Moscow to the Communist Conference. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The good news was prominent in the Soviet press. Every year, in videos of farmers advancing in the fields, Igor Kirillov announced the victory for the corn harvest.
But did he believed?
“For me, the hardest part is believing what I read,” Igor Kirillov told me in an interview in 2011.
“I know in my heart that the character is a half-truth. But as a reader, you have to convince yourself that it’s true. I did it. I did it myself.” We believe we have built communism. Life would be better. But. I do not doubt that I managed to win. If I don’t, I won’t be able to do my job. “
The situation is not always good.
In the 1980s, the Soviet regime entered into the practice of premature death. It was the gloomy Igor Kirillov who informed the nation of his death.
It happened often, of course, inspired by the famous Soviet game: Igor Kirillov walked through the air and black belt and exclaimed: “Guys, you will laugh, but this leader is not. The impossible must be where”.
He trained as an actor. So how did it go on TV?
Acceleration of journalists
“In an interview, I play guitar and sing,” he told me. “Then they told me to read. It was a good night before I remembered the Pravda newspaper. So I read it, right in my head. Then I walked out of the room and the boss stopped me. ” Where are you going? ‘ he said, ‘Where are you going?’ You have a job and in two hours you’ll be on the air. “
Communist propagandists also have other responsibilities. It featured the Soviet series Top of the Pops on Soviet television. He is a little older than Paul McCartney’s Lenin.
In 1985, he made it to a world chart, with a little help from Sting, a Russian musician who started reading his story with Igor Kirillov’s voice.
In the late 1980s, the news changed the world. Journalists replace professional advertisers as readers. The Soviet Union was not the same. Soviet television changed the news every night. Journalists come … and go “dyktory”.
In 1990, during a year of study in Moscow, I interviewed Igor Kirillov about university work. The most famous journalist from the USSR was going through a difficult time.
“I’ve been reading that story for 20 years in a Vremya night story,” he told me. “Now they have decided not to use ‘dictatorship’. There is a negative attitude towards the media right now.”
He believes that reporters are quick messengers.
“Russians don’t like to talk fast. They have their way of communicating: calmly, slowly, carefully.
“If the TV news reaches other ears, our heads will be wasted.”
