The first legal millionaire of the USSR: the life and death of Artem Tarasov. Soviet millionaires (8 photos) Were there official millionaires in the USSR

The citizens of the Soviet Union lived with faith in the idea of universal equality. Nevertheless, in the USSR there were very rich people who managed to make a decent fortune. This is not about the party elite and not about the underground. In the USSR, there were completely legal millionaires who earned decent fees with their work and talent.

Vladimir Vysotsky

Vladimir Vysotsky is not just an artist. This is an entire era. A talented actor and singer with an inimitable deep voice is remembered and loved to this day. At one time, he was his own and dear to every Soviet citizen. The connoisseur of the Russian soul was loved both at home and far beyond its borders. And this love was expressed, including in decent fees.

Most of all, Vysotsky earned during foreign tours. There is information that he brought 45 thousand dollars from a tour of America. The artist earned a lot in the USSR. But the concert organizers concealed the real number of tickets sold, underestimating the amount of profit for reporting purposes.

Vladimir Vysotsky was not prone to hoarding and easily parted with money. He spent most of his fees on expensive clothes and cars. And his personal "fleet" was GAZ-21, VAZ-2101, two "Mercedes". There were also Renault and BMW, which the artist later sold because of the fabulously expensive service. Vysotsky treated his cars very carelessly, drove carelessly, and therefore often got into an accident.

Mikhail Sholokhov

The author of the immortal "Quiet Flows the Don" Mikhail Sholokhov gained dizzying fame during his lifetime. In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, for which he received not only honors, but also a prize of 150,000 Swedish kronor (about 225,000 rubles at that time). He was also awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree with a reward of 100 thousand rubles. "Virgin Soil Upturned" was awarded the Lenin Prize and a relatively small reward of 7.5 thousand rubles. For the publication of his works in different languages, Sholokhov received decent fees.

But, as a convinced communist, Mikhail Sholokhov did not become a millionaire in the usual sense of the word. He spent his fortune not on himself, but on good deeds. So, the Nobel and Lenin Prizes went to the construction of schools, and the Stalin Prize went to the State Defense Fund. The writer left a little for himself and lived a very modest life.

Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov is a Soviet chess player who for 10 years (from 1975 to 1985) held the title of world champion in this intellectual sport. Answering questions from journalists, Karpov admitted that thanks to the income from winnings in international tournaments, he was able to become a legal Soviet millionaire. The sums were measured in tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars - fantastic sums.

In addition to international tournaments, Anatoly Karpov actively participated in local competitions. The prize funds were not so solid, but even they differed significantly from the salary of the average Soviet citizen.

Garry Kasparov

At one time, Garry Kasparov reached incredible heights in chess. In Soviet times, the chess player preferred not to talk about his earnings. Nevertheless, considering how many awards and prize money he received for winning domestic and world tournaments, one can guess that he made a decent fortune during his career. By the way, in 2009 Kasparov bought luxury real estate in New York. The purchase cost him more than $3 million.

By the way, Garry Kasparov has not been living in his homeland for quite a long time. The fact is that in Russia the popularity of the game has fallen significantly, and therefore chess players can no longer boast worthy fees and bonuses. But abroad in this sport you can still make decent money.

Ludmila Zykina

A talented singer and a real workaholic, Lyudmila Zykina earned a millionth fortune absolutely deservedly. She actively toured the USSR and around the world. Her unique voice was heard in 62 countries of the world, and the records were sold in frenzied circulations, which reached 6 million copies.

Lyudmila Zykina spent the earned money mainly on jewelry. Her real passion was diamonds. She not only collected items, but often wore them to concerts and social events.

In 2009, the outstanding singer died, and after a while a real scandal erupted in the press related to the struggle for a multi-million dollar inheritance. Valuables belonging to Zykina disappeared, and a criminal case was initiated over their disappearance. And in 2012, the singer's jewelry collection "surfaced" at one of the auctions, where it was sold for 31 million rubles.

Natalia Durova

Natalya Durova is a world famous trainer belonging to the famous circus dynasty. In Soviet times, the artist managed to make a multi-million dollar fortune, which she, as a true woman, preferred to spend on jewelry. In her collection there were real artifacts like the blue diamonds of Catherine the Great and the ring of the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova. Natalia not only collected, but wore her jewelry with pleasure.

After the death of the legendary trainer, a serious struggle began for her inheritance. As a result, the state of the artist went to Elizaveta Solovieva, the illegitimate daughter of Mikhail Bolduman (son of Natalia Durova).

Yuri Antonov

Yuri Antonov is considered the first millionaire of the Soviet stage. And the artist never hid it. According to official data alone, he received about 15 thousand rubles a month (with an average salary in the country of 150-200 rubles). For the concert, he received about 50 thousand rubles. The most decent amounts were royalties for copyrights, because Antonov's songs at one time sounded literally from everywhere. It is worth noting that Yuri Antonov is not just a legal Soviet millionaire, but also an honest taxpayer who regularly accounted for all the funds received.

Sergei Mikhalkov

Sergey Mikhalkov is a very talented writer, playwright and journalist. For his achievements in these areas, he was awarded three Stalin Prizes and one Lenin Prize. As a writer, he received very little. So, for the text of the anthem of the USSR, he was awarded only 500 rubles. The main source of Mikhalkov's income was circulation payments. Collections with his works were actively published and republished both at home and far beyond its borders.

Lidia Ruslanova

Lidia Ruslanova is a famous singer who was dearly loved by the Soviet people. As a child, she begged, and then became one of the richest women in the country. The artist with a piercing voice and a white-toothed smile was called the "Victory Singer". She actively toured before, during and after the Second World War. She spent the money she earned not only on herself, but also donated to the purchase of military equipment.

Like most famous women, Lidia Ruslanova had a passion for jewelry. She began collecting her collection in 1930. But after the end of the war, she was subjected to repression. The titles, property (real estate, cars, antiques, art objects, diamonds and other precious stones, about 700 thousand rubles, expensive clothes and shoes) were taken away from the people's artist, and she herself was sentenced to 10 years in labor camps.

After Stalin's death, the singer was released, but no one returned her titles or property.

Artem Tarasov

Artem Tarasov is the first legal Soviet millionaire who did not belong to the cohort of cultural and sports figures. His name thundered throughout the Union when in 1989 he managed to earn 3 million rubles. And that's just the salary for January. Tarasov worked in the Tekhnika cooperative, which was engaged in the repair of imported household appliances.

The myth of global income equality in the Soviet Union has long been debunked. As elsewhere, there were ordinary citizens in the country, whose income was limited by rates and salaries, but there were very rich people. We are not talking about underground guild workers or those who were called plunderers of socialist property. Surprisingly, the leaders of the party and government were not the legal millionaires.

Scientists-inventors received very decent fees for their discoveries, real legends were made about the income of nuclear physicists, some titled athletes could compete with them. But the largest number of legal Soviet millionaires was in the field of culture and art.

Lidia Ruslanova

As a child, Agafya Leykina happened to beg, later she ended up in an orphanage, changing her last name, because the children of peasants were not taken there. Stunning vocal data allowed Lidia Ruslanova not only to conquer Moscow, but also to become the highest paid singer in the Soviet Union. Hunger and poverty have long been forgotten, and jewelry and antiques have become the real passion of the people's favorite.

A simple village girl very quickly learned to understand all these riches, she could determine whether the original of the picture was in front of her or her, albeit a good one, but a copy. She was not shy about wearing her diamonds even to concerts in the Kremlin. During the Great Patriotic War, she not only gave concerts at the forefront, but also invested in the purchase of armored vehicles for the front.

In 1948, the singer was arrested along with her fourth husband, General Vladimir Kryukov. All material assets were confiscated from the married couple: apartments, dachas, cars, antique furniture, paintings by famous artists. But most of all, the singer regretted the 208 diamonds seized in the house of her housekeeper, as well as sapphires, emeralds, and pearls. Lidia Ruslanova was released only in 1953, after the death of Stalin.

Sergei Mikhalkov

Authors' fees in the Soviet Union could not be called excessively high. For example, for the text of the Anthem of the Soviet Union, Sergei Mikhalkov received only 500 rubles and a good food ration. However, the income of the authors also consisted of circulation payments. And Sergei Mikhalkov published very actively, not only in the USSR, but also abroad. Surprisingly, copyright in a country of developed socialism was strictly observed.

Yuri Antonov

He was called the first Soviet millionaire from show business. Yuri Antonov made no secret of the fact that his royalties were very high. Officially, the singer and composer received about 15 thousand rubles a month. And this is with an average salary in the country of just over 100 rubles.

For a concert, the singer received only about 50 rubles, but the fees for each performance of a song written by him were already added up on a savings book in a very decent amount.

Natalia Durova

The famous trainer was famous for her love of jewelry and antiques, devoting no less time and effort to her collection than working with animals. It is no secret that Natalya Durova owned the unique blue diamonds of Catherine the Great and the ring of the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova, who was in the family of a famous family.

For decades, the Durovs were able not to lose, but to increase their wealth. Natalya Durova wore her diamonds with pleasure and was proud of her antique collection. After her death, serious disputes broke out over the inheritance, and as a result, the illegitimate daughter of the son of the trainer Mikhail Bolduman, Elizaveta Solovyova, became the heiress.

Ludmila Zykina

A talented singer owes her well-being entirely to her talent and unimaginable ability to work. She toured not only in the Soviet Union. The singer visited with her concerts in 62 countries of the world. The circulation of records with songs of one of the favorite singers of the Soviet era amounted to more than 6 million copies.

After the departure of Lyudmila Zykina, they started talking about her passion for diamonds and antiques, although her relatives and friends claim that she was never a money-grubber and thoughtless collector of jewelry. She always wore her jewelry.

After the death of Lyudmila Zykina, a serious struggle broke out for her inheritance, a criminal case was even initiated about the disappearance of valuables belonging to the singer. The jewelry collection of the famous performer was sold at auction in 2012 for more than 31 million rubles.

Anatoly Karpov

Mikhail Sholokhov. / Photo: www.m-a-sholohov.ru

The Soviet writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, winner of the Stalin and Lenin Prizes received far more than one million from foreign translations of his books. At the same time, he donated the Nobel and Lenin Prizes to the construction of schools in the Rostov Region, while he gave the Stalin Prize to the Defense Fund.

It is not necessary to shine with your own talents to become a millionaire. Sometimes it's enough to be. Some cats were initially lucky enough to be born under a lucky star and settle with rich owners, and some, on the contrary, helped their owners significantly increase their capital. So who are they - cats that literally bathe in money?

In the USSR, people did not attach as much importance to money as they do today. One could live on a small wage without denying oneself anything. Especially if there were acquaintances, for example, in the field of trade. As Raikin said: “You come to me, I got a shortage through the store manager, through the store manager, through the merchandiser, through the back porch!” Nevertheless, in the country of developed socialism there were really rich people. Even millionaires.

The whole country knew one official millionaire - this is Sergey Mikhalkov, - says the famous film director Alexander Stefanovich. - I was lucky to write several scripts with him. After the war, film directors and other artists had their fees cut. But writers (Mikhalkov and, say, another Soviet millionaire, the “red” Count Alexei Tolstoy) ensured that this did not apply to screenwriters. And circulation in Soviet times were huge.

There was even a bike that Mikhalkov had so much money that he had an “open” account in the bank - that is, he could take any amount without restrictions. Once I asked: is it true? Mikhalkov said - nonsense. But once, walking with him around St. Petersburg, I jokingly asked, pointing to a four-story Art Nouveau mansion: “Sergey Vladimirovich, can you buy it?” He glanced at the building and, with a characteristic stutter, replied seriously, “P-perhaps I can. But I won't!"

Deficit on the table in the USSR was the main sign of prosperity

precious baby

People of art, who did not irritate the Soviet authorities, lived really at ease. Nevertheless, not everyone managed to accumulate a million. For example, Stefanovich himself received a six-figure fee for a film shot in France, already at the end of the USSR, during a period of inflation. The most popular satirist Mikhail Zadornov also failed to do this.

In Soviet times, I had about 800 thousand rubles in my account, ”he admitted to Express Gazeta. - But since there was no point in saving then, I rented and spent all the time.

How Mikhail Nikolaevich looked into the water! By 1990, 369 billion rubles, still far from wooden, lay on the accounts of citizens, which irrevocably “burned out” after the Yeltsinoids seized power.

Anyone who had 50 thousand rubles in the seventies was already considered a rich man, - the writer Mikhail Veller recalls those times. - One of the few categories of official Soviet millionaires were songwriters. When Vladimir Voinovich, who was not yet a dissident, composed the poems “Let's have a smoke before the start, guys,” in which, however, vile prudes replaced “light” with “sing”, he secured years of prosperity for himself. Now the old, forgotten, mendicant poet Alexei Olgin, the author of poems for Maya Kristalinskaya's hit "Top-top, the baby is stomping," received eight to ten thousand a month. What could he spend it on? The choice is small. I bought a Volga, had a three-room apartment in the center, vacationed in Pitsunda, Gagra, Sochi, giving fantastic tips, and wore the most expensive sheepskin coat.

Vladimir Semyonovich with prospector TUMANOV

Georgian moneybag

And there were also currency millionaires in the USSR!

Once Georgy Pavlov, Brezhnev's manager, purchased foreign furniture for the patron's residence for as much as a million dollars. But the Secretary General did not appreciate the zeal. “What am I to you, Arab sheikh?!” - Leonid Ilyich was indignant. And he demanded to place an order with domestic producers, - Stefanovich shared his story. - Pavlov was charged, but the question arose - what to do with the furniture purchased for the people's currency? At one of the meetings of the Politburo, Eduard Shevardnadze took the floor: “I have a person in mind. Sculptor, laureate of the Lenin Prize, young guy Zurab Tsereteli. His relative, the architect Posokhin, builds Soviet embassies all over the world, and Tsereteli designs them. He has been living abroad for years, taking private orders and may well solve our problem.”

Tsereteli was summoned to the Central Committee of the CPSU. “Zurab Konstantinovich,” they told him, “there is a party task. We know that you have a mansion in Georgia, where you plan to create your own museum. You must purchase furnishings for it from us. For a million American dollars!” Tsereteli smiled: “Actually, I am non-partisan. But, of course, I will fulfill the request of such a respected organization.” Officially, the dollar then cost 60 kopecks. But on the black market it sold one to four. By the way, Tsereteli was not even 30 at that time.

Owner of Gorky Street

Far 1976. Alla Pugacheva, whose song "Harlekino" was already heard by the whole country, was returning by train from a tour from Odessa with her husband Alexander Stefanovich. There was a gentle knock on the door.

A typical middle-aged Odessa citizen very politely said that he did not want to be imposed, but since the dining car will open only in two hours, he invites you to have a bite to eat in the next compartment, Stefanovich recalls. - We, having taken a bottle of cognac, went to visit. And there everything is littered to the ceiling with boxes! Instead of the traditional road chicken, the owner began to throw scarce balyks, kilogram cans of caviar and other delicacies onto the table. It turned out that the man is the director of the legendary Privoz, and “people gave him boxes on the road.” Under cognac, Alla told a pleasant interlocutor that she received only 8 rubles for a concert. He goggled his eyes: “Frankness for frankness. I earn several million times more.”

He was on his way to his son's 18th birthday, whom he hired at MGIMO, "despite our nationality." As a gift, he carried a kilogram gold medal, on which the inscription “Monya, 18 years old” shone.

And he wasn't the only trading millionaire knocking on our door. Once, in the absence of Alla, a bell rang in the apartment at 37 Gorky Street. A respectable man with a box stood on the threshold. Strangers were not allowed in the entrance, our neighbors were the famous ballerina Semenyaka, the director Mark Zakharov lived downstairs.

A stranger - you can immediately see a decent person. He introduced himself as a great admirer of Pugacheva and brought a gift - a spectacular floor lamp in the form of a ball. I asked what his name was. "Sokolov," he answered simply. "What are you doing?" - I ask. The guest looked at me as if I were crazy: "I am the owner of Gorky Street." It was the legendary director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, a front-line soldier, who was subsequently shot.

Let's add on our own: even the executioner who executed the sentence sincerely regretted the death of this man. Although the state accused him of causing damage of three million rubles.

By selling paintings in the apartment of Ilya Ehrenburg, it was possible to build another Tverskaya street on which he lived.

Buy the head of the KGB

Weller has a book "Legends of Nevsky Prospekt". It bred the Leningrad Jew Fima Blyayshits, the founder of the Soviet fartsovka:

“Maids and porters in hotels, prostitutes, taxi drivers and guides, policemen - all made up the base of Fimin's pyramid. The clothes exchanged with foreign tourists were handed over to the commission, and the money flowed like water. However, Fima far-sightedly invested most of it in business and, in a fit of pride, thought of taking on the content of the head of the Leningrad department of the KGB.

According to Weller, the legendary Fima is a real person who was shot in 1970. And at its core, the book is true. But Mikhail Iosifovich emphasizes that Blaishitz is an exception:

Usually they didn’t rise like that on farce. There were no underground millionaires in Leningrad. They lived in the Caucasus or Central Asia. Asia - registry and trade. In the Caucasus - guilds. And these are already real super-rich people who, for example, could afford a white Mercedes. It's like buying a rover now.

In the Slavic republics, underground merchants were forced to behave more modestly. We drove a maximum of "Volga". But somewhere you have to invest innumerable earnings! It came to curiosities. In the late 60s, they arrested the Simferopol owner of an underground clothing factory, whom everyone called Uncle Zero or Tsekhovik. Among other things, they seized from him ... the front door of the car, made of gold. It never opened, allegedly due to a breakdown.

Although the king of Moscow currency traders Yan Rokotov dined every day at the Aragvi restaurant, he lived in a communal apartment with his aunt, walked in the same shabby suit, in which he appeared in court. Valuables worth $1.5 million were confiscated from him.

The author of the illustrations of the "Wizard ..." provided for himself for life

A masterpiece in the toilet of Ehrenburg

Refined people invested in paintings and antiques. Like, for example, the director of a car service on Varshavskoe Shosse, who showed Stefanovich his unique collection.

But the most amazing private art gallery, which the Hermitage would envy, I saw not at the shop worker, speculator or merchant, but in the apartment of the legendary writer Ilya Ehrenburg, who lived opposite the Moscow City Council, the film director admits. - All the walls were hung with originals of Chagall, Modigliani, Chaim Satin, Picasso, Kandinsky - these were his friends. He even had a toilet like a museum. Above the toilet and on the door hung the work of the artist Fernand Léger. He did not get a place, poor fellow, among the artists of the first row ... Now a meter-long painting by Léger costs an average of 10 million euros.

Director of the Eliseevsky grocery store Yuri SOKOLOV...

Instead of an epilogue

To mention all the Soviet underground magnates, you need to write a book. This is the guild worker Shah Shaverman, who set up a sewing workshop ... in a psychiatric dispensary, where he was the director. And Kharkiv "Uncle Borya", who flooded the country with his products: from shorts and galoshes to fake crystal chandeliers. And the Azerbaijani Teymur Akhmedov, who was shot on the personal orders of Aliyev. Among them, of course, there were dishonest businessmen - deceivers, informers, scammers. But there were also many hard-working smart people who were simply unlucky to be born 30-40 years later.

... the little daughter did not refuse anything

"Golden" Mists

Amazingly, private enterprise officially existed in the USSR. After the Great Patriotic War, the country's economy lay in ruins. The authorities turned a blind eye to the emergence of a class of small handicraftsmen who sewed clothes and produced various household trifles. In the late 50s, there were 150 thousand artels in the Union. But not everyone wanted to swim shallowly. The fate of the legendary Vadim Tumanov is proof of this.

A sailor, a young boxer of the Pacific Fleet team, ended up in camps under the "political 58th article" - for his love for Yesenin. He served eight years, tried to escape several times. How he survived, only God knows. The film "Lucky" with Vladimir Epifantsev in the title role based on the book "Black Candle" by Vladimir Vysotsky and Leonid Manchinsky is about Tumanov.

After his release, he organized a dozen and a half of the largest prospecting artels in the Union, prototypes of future cooperatives that mined 500 tons of gold for the country. His people received salaries more than the members of the Politburo - an average of two thousand rubles!

Here is how the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote about him:

“Our legal Soviet millionaire waved to the porter through the glass of the door with a lilac quarter. When a gap appeared in the door, Tumanov immediately put a quarter-piece in the gap, and it disappeared, as in the hand of a fakir. The doorman was short, majestically slightly reminiscent of Napoleon.<…>Suddenly something happened to his face: it crawled simultaneously in several different directions.

Tumanov? Vadim Ivanovich?

Captain Ponomarev? Ivan Arsentievich?

It turned out that the Kolyma legend met her former overseer. The meeting, oddly enough, turned out to be cordial.

DROPPED

* Superstars of the level of Raymond Pauls or Yuri Antonov earned about 12 - 15 thousand rubles a month only on copyright. And yet they were getting paid. The creator of "The roof of his house" in the early 80s carried cash not in a wallet, but in a suitcase.

* Mikhail Sholokhov "dripped" legal millions both from publications in the USSR and from translations.

* Playwright Anatoly Baryanov received 920,700 rubles in interest for the public performance of the play “On the Other Side” written by him in 1949.

* The artist Leonid Vladimirsky, having made the famous illustrations for the fairy tale "The Wizard of the Emerald City", did not draw anything else - it was enough for a lifetime!

* The great chess player Anatoly Karpov says without embarrassment: “Was I a legal Soviet millionaire? Yes".

One of the pioneer cooperators of the times of perestroika in the USSR, businessman Artem Tarasov, died last Saturday, July 22.

Tarasov is considered the first Soviet legal millionaire: it was he who officially received a salary of 3 million rubles in 1989, which then caused a real sensation. Later, Tarasov never became an oligarch - although he could not have “sat down” - although everything went to this, he survived emigration and ruin, tried to return to politics and died alone from pneumonia at the age of 67.

(Total 11 photos)

Artem Tarasov was born in Moscow on July 4, 1950 in the family of photojournalist Mikhail Artemovich Tarasov and Doctor of Biology Lyudmila Viktorovna Alekseeva. On the paternal side, A.M. Tarasov comes from the Armenian merchant family Tarasov.

After school, Tarasov graduated from the Moscow Mining Institute (1972) and received a Ph.D. in technical sciences (1982). In the 1960s, he participated in the KVN team of the Mining Institute.

Tarasov became famous as the first legal Soviet millionaire in the late 80s. In the country then there was devastation, in stores - an acute shortage. People hardly pulled from payday to payday with an average salary of 130 rubles. And in 1989, Artem Tarasov, in the Vzglyad program, said that he and his deputy received 3 million rubles in salaries for January. Only the tax on childlessness from this amount amounted to 180 thousand rubles, and the deputy who was in the CPSU gave 90 thousand in the form of party contributions.

This was just two years after the registration of the Tekhnika cooperative, of which Tarasov was the director. The cooperative was engaged in the repair of foreign household appliances. After some time, employees of the Main Computing Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences began to transfer the rights to their software products to the Tekhnika cooperative and through it sold them to branches of the State Committee for Computer Engineering. Revenue for the first month of work, according to Tarasov's memoirs, amounted to about a million rubles.

This is what the products of the cooperative looked like in the late 80s. Then, according to Tarasov, the enterprise was involved in 27 areas of activity: construction, training, innovation, trade, and so on. As of January 1989, Technika's account had 79 million rubles, which is 100 million dollars in dollar terms.

The legendary performance of the millionaire Tarasov in the Vzglyad program caused a shock in Soviet society and an extraordinary resonance throughout the country. A whole series of inspections of the Tarasov cooperative began, which they tried to bring under the article “Theft on an especially large scale” (in the USSR it was punishable by execution). After 9 months of inspections, the company was closed, and all accounts were arrested. Although the case did not reach the court, because the inspectors did not find any crime.

Tarasov was called an enemy of Gorbachev. The first and last president of the USSR spoke out sharply after that broadcast of the Vzglyad program: “Our country is rich in talented people. One of them bought computers cheaply and sold them for big money! This cannot be in the USSR.” Tarasov irritated him and interfered with his harsh statements, especially since he later became a people's deputy and received immunity.

However, after the businessman spread the word in February 1991 that Gorbachev was preparing to transfer the Kuril Islands to Japan for $200 billion, his conflict with the authorities forced him to leave the USSR for London: Tarasov believed that immigration in March 1991 saved him life, because, as he believed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had already ordered his killer for 12 thousand rubles.

Tarasov returned to Moscow in 1993, when directly from London he participated in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation and won in the Central District of Moscow, becoming a deputy. In 1996, Tarasov even put forward his candidacy for participation in the presidential elections in Russia, but the Central Election Commission did not register him.

Tarasov later recalled: “When I arrived in Russia after emigrating, I saw another country. Gangster. Where my friends were killed. These are politicians, and journalists, and businessmen. I had a nostalgic breakdown. And from this terrible country, after two years of being a deputy, I drove back to England. I realized: there is nothing to catch here.

At the end of 1996, he again went to London and lived there until 2003. There he lost his millions, getting involved in the scam of a Lebanese named Abdel Nasif, and then spent a lot of money on litigation with him.

Tarasov again returned to permanent residence in Russia in 2003. Twice participated in the elections for the governor of St. Petersburg (2000) and the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (2002), but was not successful.

Tarasov had a plan to fight corruption in Russia. Among other things, he proposed abolishing taxes.

In recent years, Tarasov led a kind of reclusive life. Only a couple of years ago he tried to return to public life through the political door. From the Yabloko party, he tried his hand at the elections to the State Duma. As Tarasov himself admitted in an interview, he lived modestly in a small apartment on the Arbat, as they say, “on a salary,” plus the money set aside in the years of former luxury in the American pension fund came in handy.

The house where Artem Tarasov died at the end of July 2017.

In recent years, the businessman lived alone in an apartment and only once a week a housekeeper came to him. The corpse of a millionaire was discovered by his friend on Saturday evening, July 22, when he brought him medicine.

By the way, the millionaire did not like to go to the doctors, because he did not trust medicine. He told everyone that he knew his body better than doctors. Therefore, he made his own diagnoses, and searched the Internet for the medicines to be taken. Investigators of the UK ordered a check, but according to the first conclusions of doctors, the death is not of a criminal nature.