Anatoliy Sobchak

Anatoly Sobchak is a well-known democratic reformer and politician of the times of “Perestroika”, one of the authors of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation, the first mayor of St. Petersburg. In the last years of his life, he became a scandalous key figure in Russian politics, accused of corruption, abuse of office and bribery. Under his leadership, many high-ranking officials and diplomats of modern Russia, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, have worked in the St. Petersburg City Hall.

Sobchak Anatoly Aleksandrovich was born on August 10, 1937 in Chita in an ordinary family. His father, Alexander Antonovich, worked as an engineer on the railway, and his mother, Nadezhda Andreevna, was an accountant. Young Sobchak was not the only child in the family, he had three more brothers.

Sobchak's childhood passed in the city of Kokand, located in Uzbekistan. The family moved there due to the transfer of his father to the service. The future politician studied at an ordinary local school with his brothers. He was a talented, attentive, diligent and persistent schoolboy who did not cause trouble for either parents or teachers. After graduating from high school, he entered the Tashkent University at the Faculty of Law, but literally a year later in 1954 he transferred to the Leningrad State University, which most likely became the beginning of his fateful reunion with Peter.

At the university, student Sobchak actively showed his desire and ability to learn, thanks to which he became a Lenin scholar. In 1959, upon graduation from the university, young Anatoly was assigned to work in the Stavropol Bar Association. In 1962, Sobchak returned to Leningrad, graduated from graduate school at Leningrad State University and defended his Ph.D. thesis. 

Then he taught for three years at the special police school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and from 1968 to 1973 he was an assistant professor of the law faculty at the Leningrad State University. In 1985 Anatoly Aleksandrovich headed the Department of Economic Law at the same faculty.

Sobchak's political career began rapidly in 1989, when, after joining the CPSU, he was elected a people's deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Then he headed the subcommittee on economic legislation and law and order and became one of the founders of the Interregional Deputy Group of the USSR Armed Forces. Less than a year later, Anatoly Aleksandrovich became a member of the Leningrad City Council and a month later headed it, and in 1991, following the election results, became the first mayor of Leningrad. After Sobchak came to power, the city on the Neva returned its historical name and again began to be called St. Petersburg.

Most of the young specialists at that time, who are currently high-ranking officials and diplomats in the Kremlin, worked in the St. Petersburg mayor's office under Sobchak. In particular, the confidants of the mayor of St. Petersburg were Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, Rosneft President Igor Sechin and many well-known Russian politicians.

In the very first year after taking office as the mayor of St. Petersburg, Sobchak actively showed himself and won authority among the population. He took an active part in the creation of the Movement for Democratic Reforms, opposed the actions of the State Emergency Committee at the August 1991 coup in Leningrad, organized and called on the population to protest against the actions of the State Committee on Emergencies, which allowed Leningrad to resist the decrees of this department.

However, the authority of the first person in St. Petersburg was not indisputable. His sincere commitment to democracy was closely intertwined with his commitment to authoritarian methods of government, which led to endless conflicts with the local legislature. 

Also, Sobchak has repeatedly become a figurant of high-profile foreign trips and banquets in order to attract investors and humanitarian aid flows to the city. But the "stake on the West" led to the suppression of the St. Petersburg local industry. At the same time, residents of the city condemned the mayor for regular international events on the banks of the Neva and accused him of squandering the city budget.

In 1995, Sobchak's associates persuaded him to run for the presidential elections in Russia in 1996 and become a rival of the ex-head of state Boris Yeltsin. However, Anatoly Alexandrovich completely and categorically rejected the idea. In 1996, he also lost the gubernatorial elections to his deputy Vladimir Yakovlev and left the post of mayor of St. Petersburg.

The career of the politician Sobchak faded as quickly as it began. The first mayor of St. Petersburg became a symbol of a vibrant social group in Russia, which in the early 90s was seeking changes in the country. For one part of society, Anatoly Alexandrovich is associated with the destroyer of a stable and customary world order, while others perceive him as a figure leading the country to freedom through a revolutionary turning point.

In October 1997, Anatoly Sobchak was prosecuted by the General Prosecutor's Office as a witness in a corruption case at the St. Petersburg City Hall. After some time, Sobchak was brought to this criminal case as an accused under the articles "Bribery" and "Abuse of Official Powers". Then the family of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg became loudly discussed in the media and society, and accusations of all mortal sins fell on Sobchak.

Against the background of these events, Anatoly Alexandrovich's health condition seriously deteriorated, and instead of a prison cell, he ended up in cardiology with a heart attack. After a while Sobchak left the city and flew to France for treatment. He lived in Paris until 1999, where he decided to recall his scientific activities. He has lectured at the Sorbonne and other leading universities in France, wrote two books, and published over 30 scientific articles.

In November 1999, the criminal case against Sobchak was dropped for lack of corpus delicti, and he returned to Russia, declaring his intention to re-enter big politics. In early 2000, Sobchak took the position of a confidant of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and headed the Political Council of Democratic Movements and Parties in St. Petersburg.

Sobchak's first marriage took place in his student years. Then he married the first beauty of the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen Nonne Gandzyuk, who gave birth to his eldest daughter Maria. But in 1977 the family idyll faded, the future mayor of St. Petersburg divorced his wife, having lived with her for 21 years.

Sobchak's second wife was Lyudmila Narusova, whom he met as a lawyer and helped in a difficult divorce proceedings with her first husband. Sobchak's second wife became his reliable and real companion in his political career, she always took an active part in her husband's affairs and supported him in all his endeavors. 

At the same time, the wife of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg was engaged in the implementation of her own projects, in particular, she was a representative of the Russian government in the trusteeship of the German Fund "Memory, Responsibility and Future", and also held several responsible positions.

In 1981, the daughter of Ksenia Sobchak was born in the family of a politician, who is currently a Russian TV presenter and a successful journalist. Sobchak's daughter, like Anatoly himself, is a figure of an ambiguous character in society.

On February 20, 2000, Anatoly Sobchak died in the Svetlogorsk hotel while serving as a confidant of the presidential candidate Vladimir Putin. According to official data, Sobchak's death occurred as a result of an acute heart attack.

The sudden death of Anatoly Sobchak was a high-profile incident that entailed large-scale gossip. Rumors about the death of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg appeared and multiplied at lightning speed. Some said that Sobchak was killed because he knew a lot, others put forward a version of alcohol and Viagra poisoning.

In May 2000, the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region opened a criminal case regarding the murder of Sobchak by poisoning. But the examination after the autopsy showed that there was no alcohol or drugs in the politician's body, as a result of which the criminal case on Sobchak's murder was closed on August 4.

Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak was buried on February 24 in St. Petersburg at the Nikolskoye cemetery.

Anatoliy Sobchak 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Anatoliy Sobchak in 2021 ?

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2022

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $ 1.7M in 2022. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $ 996.5K - $ 1.4M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2021

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $1.3M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $857.4K - $1.1M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2020

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $1.7M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $614.2K - $1.7M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2019

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $1.8M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $848.9K - $1.6M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2018

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $2M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $582.3K - $2M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2017

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $1.3M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $537.2K - $1.8M.

Anatoliy Sobchak Net Worth 2016

Anatoliy Sobchak 's revenue is $1M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Anatoliy Sobchak and could vary in the range between $648.3K - $1.9M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Anatoliy Sobchak. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Anatoliy Sobchak makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Anatoliy Sobchak's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.