Vladislav Listyev

Listyev was arguably the most popular journalist and TV anchor in Russia (he remains well remembered years after his death), and was a key force in bringing the voice of democracy to Russian television. Listyev first appeared on television as one of the hosts of a progressive and successful show Vzglyad (Glance or Outlook) in the late 1980s. Vzglyad was an outstanding show for that time, after the premiere many people thought it was allowed on TV only by some mistake of censors. The program was ‘like a fresh wind’, it raised the questions that never before were allowed for public discussion, such as Stalin's Great Purge, death penalty, reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The program was watched weekly by as many as 100 million people. The other anchors were Alexander Lyubimov, Alexander Politkovsky, Dmitry Zakharov, Artyom Borovik and Yevgeny Dodolev.

He was also the first host of the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune, which became popular. Following the success of Vzglyad, Listyev and his colleagues founded a TV company VID (Vzglyad i Drugiye—The View and the Others) that would produce programming for the First Channel of Soviet Central Television, the main TV channel in the Soviet Union (later reformed into 1st channel Ostankino and ORT). With VID, Listyev started a number of new TV projects —The Field of Wonders (the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune), Ugadai melodiu ("Guess the melody", the Russian version of Name That Tune), Tema ("The Theme"), and Chas Pik ("The Rush Hour"). In 1995, Listyev moved from VID to ORT, where he was appointed director of the channel. One of Listyev's very first moves as director was to order a temporary stop to all advertising, in effect excluding all unauthorized middlemen out of the lucrative advertising business, and consolidating future ad sales in the hands of the channel.