Boris Nemtsov (Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov, BEN) (born 9 October 1959 - killed 27 February 2015) — a Nizhny Novgorod politician of federal scale who came out of Sochi, the first democratic Governor) of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
He consistently held to the course of democratic reforms. He was shot in the back by terrorists in the city of Moscow while walking near the Kremlin.
Candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, author of more than 60 scientific papers and several inventions. Initiator of naming the heads of Russian regions governors (thus he became the first governor in Russia. Initiator of the Presidential programme for the training of managerial personnel.
Awarded several Russian state decorations (among them the medal of the Order «For Merit to the Fatherland»), the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise and the Order of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Autobiography
- 9 October 1959 Born in the city of Sochi, Krasnodar Krai.
- 1966 - 1976 Studied at School No. 11 in the Prioksky district of The City of Gorky.
- 1976 - 1981 Gorky Lobachevsky University, faculty of radiophysics, specialisation in radiophysics.
- 1989 Not allowed to take part in the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
- 1990 - 1993 Elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR, member of the legislation committee of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
- August 1991 - April 1994 Appointed Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Nizhny Novgorod Region.
- November 1991 Appointed governor (head of the administration) of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
- 1993 Elected a member of the Federation Council (the upper chamber) of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
- December 1995 Elected governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and ex officio joined the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
- 17 March 1997 Appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation.
- March 1997 Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
- April 1997 Simultaneously appointed Minister of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation (holding the post of minister until November 1997) and deputy chairman of the commission on operational matters of the Government of the Russian Federation.
- March 1998 Dismissed by decree of the President of the Russian Federation together with the Government of the Russian Federation headed by V.S. Chernomyrdin.
- April 1998 Appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation headed by S.V. Kiriyenko.
- 24 August 1998 Resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation.
- 22 September 1998 Appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council for Local Self-Government under the President of the Russian Federation (on a voluntary basis).
- December 1998 Founding and registration of the all-Russian political public movement Young Russia; elected chairman of the movement's federal political council (in the spring of 1999 the movement joined the Right Cause coalition, and later the Union of Right Forces electoral bloc).
- April 1999 - December 1999 Took an active part in the You Are Right campaign of the Union of Right Forces electoral bloc and, together with I. Khakamada, toured the whole of Russia with it.
- 19 December 1999 Elected deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from the 117th Avtozavodsky electoral district.
- 1 March 2000 Elected Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the SPS faction.
- March 2000 Elected head of the Union of Right Forces faction of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
- May 2001 Elected Chairman of the Federal Political Council of the Union of Right Forces political party.
- 1 February 2004 - 25 December 2005 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Neftyanoy concern
- 15 February 2004 Elected to the council of "Committee 2008 : FREE CHOICE".
- 9 February 2005 - 9 October 2006 - Adviser to President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko
Nemtsov and the Nizhegorodets bank
In 1994 the Bank of New York transferred 2 million dollars to the Nizhegorodets bank in the Nizhny Novgorod region; the operation was handled by the American banker of Russian origin Natalya Gurfinkel-Kagalovskaya. The transfer was declared to have been made in error, yet the Nizhegorodets bank, which was in a state of bankruptcy, made use of this money and paid off its creditors with it. The US Embassy in Russia turned to Nemtsov, who, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, instructed the director of the large Nizhny Novgorod state enterprise "Nizhpoligraf" to take out a loan of 3.5 million dollars at a branch of Inkombank against the security of its new administrative building, which, being federal property, was not subject to privatisation. However, thanks to the actions of Anatoly Chubais, then head of the State Property Committee, the deal was carried out.
Out of the loan received, according to the investigation, 2 million dollars was transferred to the Bank of New York. However, the loan was not repaid, and the mortgaged building became the property of Inkombank. At the beginning of 1998 a criminal case was opened over the unlawful alienation of federal property, and investigators questioned Nemtsov. In 1997 Nemtsov's former adviser with a criminal past, Klimentyev, stated at a new trial that Nemtsov had first asked him personally to pay the Bank of New York the debt of 2 million dollars. But since Klimentyev had no free money, Nemtsov turned to Nizhpoligraf.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote in 2003 that the value of the mortgaged building exceeded the collateral value tenfold and that "Boris Nemtsov's scam may cost the state 30-40 million dollars".
Nemtsov and Klimentyev
According to the business publication Kommersant, Nemtsov's election campaign for the Federation Council was financed by Klimentyev, whom Nemtsov had known since the 1980s. Klimentyev spent 100 million roubles on Nemtsov and another candidate.
Klimentyev then entered Nemtsov's closest circle, becoming his adviser. As Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote, "Klimentyev was not only for a long time a friend and adviser of Governor Boris Nemtsov, but was in fact the chief Nizhny Novgorod businessman, who largely determined Nemtsov's economic policy".
On 20 January 1994 the Ministry of Finance of Russia and the Navashino shipbuilding plant Oka, at that time in state ownership, concluded a loan agreement for 30 million dollars. Part of the loan, amounting to 18 million dollars, was transferred to the plant for designated expenses, and the administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region became the guarantor of repayment. In the summer of 1994, in the course of privatisation, Klimentyev bought a 30 per cent stake in the Oka plant, and in January 1995 he joined the plant's board of directors. The regional administration did not monitor the spending of the loan allocated to the plant, and part of the funds was spent for purposes other than those designated.
At the beginning of 1995, on the initiative of Boris Nemtsov, the Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case against Andrei Klimentyev, and Boris Nemtsov appeared as a witness for the prosecution in court. Klimentyev and the plant's director Kislyakov were found guilty of misappropriating $2 million 462 thousand, but the verdict was then overturned by the Supreme Court, which fully acquitted the businessmen. In 1998 Klimentyev was tried again in this case, found guilty, and sentenced to six years of imprisonment. In the opinion of Vladimir Semago, who headed a State Duma commission, it was in fact Nemtsov himself who was to blame for the embezzlement.
Klimentyev in turn accused Boris Nemtsov of taking and extorting bribes, and also stated that the criminal case was Nemtsov's revenge. Thus, according to Klimentyev, Nemtsov asked him to pay the American Bank of New York the debt of 2 million dollars for the Nizhegorodets bank, counting on receiving 400 thousand dollars from the transfer. In addition, as Klimentyev stated, Nemtsov wanted to receive 800 thousand dollars for helping the plant obtain the loan. Nemtsov himself called Klimentyev's accusations slander.
As Alexander Prudnik, senior research fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote, Klimentyev's arrest "may be considered the first experiment in Russia in introducing penitentiary technologies into political and electoral reality".
Nemtsov and Brevnov
From 1992 the young businessman Boris Brevnov, whom Nemtsov later described as "a talented man", began working as Nemtsov's adviser on economic matters.
In March 1992 Yegor Gaidar signed a government order allowing Nemtsov to set up a conversion fund. The money transferred to this fund went into the account of the Nizhny Novgorod Bankers' House, a commercial bank created with state funds. In the same year Brevnov, with Nemtsov's permission, became chairman of the bank's board. In 1997 Brevnov was elected chairman of its board of directors. The bank founded a subsidiary, the limited liability company Region, whose owner became Brevnov. According to Vladimir Semago, head of a State Duma working commission, considerable sums were transferred to the Region company. The bank featured in the case of the embezzlement of the state loan to the Navashino shipbuilding plant Oka. As Moisey Gelman, editor-in-chief of the newspaper «Промышленные ведомости», wrote, "the manipulations of budget money by Nemtsov and Brevnov also led, among other things, to the collapse of the Navashino shipbuilding plant itself, and consequently to unemployment in that town".
In 1992 Nemtsov, by his own account, introduced Brevnov to the US citizen Gretchen Wilson, an employee of the International Finance Corporation. In 1997 Brevnov and Wilson married. As Novaya Gazeta wrote, Wilson, with Nemtsov's help, "privatised the largest Balakhna paper mill for just seven million dollars (the real price of this unique mill exceeds that figure by tens of times). Everything possible was sucked out of the mill, and afterwards it was ruined, with unbearable conditions created for the workers". The Balakhna mill was bought for 7 million dollars by the American bank CS First Boston (whose Moscow branch was headed by Boris Jordan). Andrei Klimentyev, formerly Nemtsov's adviser, said that the mill's annual turnover amounted to 250 million dollars, and that the bank CS First Boston later organised Nemtsov's trips to Davos in Switzerland. In his book "Confessions of a Rebel" Nemtsov called Wilson "a very shrewd woman" who "did a great deal for the Nizhny Novgorod region".
Later, when Nemtsov moved to work in the Russian government, Brevnov, under his patronage, became chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia.
Experts' opinions
|
Valery Yevlampiev, director general of the department of foreign economic relations and resources:
- Speaking seriously, Boris Nemtsov did a very great deal for the Nizhny Novgorod region. First of all, he governed here for seven years. That is a very long period, during which the political system and economic relations in Russia were changing. For a leader, seven years is a very long time. I believe that any team develops over the course of four years, and after that degradation begins. |
|
|
|
Sergei Borisov, president of the Nizhny Novgorod Research Foundation, in his study "The Current Political Regime in the Nizhny Novgorod Region: Its Formation in the 1990s" calls one of the "most natural consequences of the authoritarianisation of the political regime" the formation around Nemtsov by the end of 1993 of an "informal alliance of individual representatives of the most influential, elite-generating corporations": the executive and legislative branches of power, the local security services, entrepreneurs and heads of the mass media.
Borisov noted the following features characteristic of a regime of regional authoritarianism:
As Borisov wrote, "in the very set of the listed features of a regime of regional authoritarianism the Nizhny Novgorod region was no exception". In Borisov's opinion, a liberal-populist version of such a regime was realised in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Alternative poles of political influence outside the ruling hierarchy were not suppressed by the administration of Governor Nemtsov, yet their possible strengthening was kept under close watch and was restricted, as Sergei Borisov wrote, by the most varied means. The activity of the representative bodies of power was likewise pushed by the governor's administration away from the epicentre of the political process. At the same time, as Borisov writes, political opposition was not perceived by the governor as something necessarily hostile, and was surrounded by "an atmosphere of a certain tolerance". The governor's political competitors were pushed to the periphery of public life not by means of bureaucratic pressure, but by the methods of public politics. Candidate of Historical Sciences Nikolai Raspopov wrote that "'the regime of B. Nemtsov' was characterised by many experts as close to authoritarian". Alexander Prudnik, a member of the staff of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote that the events after January 1994 in the history of the Nizhny Novgorod region "represent a technology of the intuitive working out of new elements of managed democracy". In Prudnik's opinion, Nemtsov "blocked the way to the desired future for many talented residents of Nizhny Novgorod — both a new generation of politicians and a new generation of entrepreneurs". A collection of scholarly papers of the Moscow Public Science Foundation stated that "Nemtsov's style of political leadership can be characterised as intuitive, improvisational and moderately authoritarian". |
|
|
|
The expert, academic, political and media communities of Nizhny Novgorod and the region took part in another business breakfast devoted to the project "City Brand. The New Nizhny". The Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of Solidarnost was represented by two co-chairs of the regional political council: Konstantin Borisovich Baranovsky and Svetlana Sumina.
As the discussion showed, the name and personality of Boris Nemtsov are named as an important part of the city's brand not only by experts and political analysts, but also by ordinary residents of Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, in the minds of ordinary townspeople Boris Nemtsov holds one of the leading places. Experts associate with him not only the slogans "The Capital of Reforms", ""Pocket of Russia"", "Russian Detroit (Nizhny Novgorod)", "Kazan — Russia's third capital", but also the real positive dynamics of the development of the city and the region, including in the difficult conditions of the early nineties. "Much of Nemtsov's legacy still works for the region today. True, something has been lost, and something has been taken over without any mention of its author. For instance, the programme to encourage the people of Nizhny Novgorod to buy cars made by the Gorky automobile plant, including state orders, was first proposed by Nemtsov. He was ridiculed. And now it is one of GAZ's hopes of climbing out of its pre-bankruptcy state. And across the country as a whole the federal centre has proposed stimulating purchases of cars produced in Russia," comments Konstantin Baranovsky. The Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of Solidarnost will go on taking part in the project "City Brand. The New Nizhny", not least because this is a private civic initiative aimed at developing civil society and consolidating potential for the benefit of the residents of Nizhny Novgorod. |
|
Nemtsov and the Nizhny Novgorod metro
Supporters of "strong rule" often tell the story of how, because of a picket organised by Nemtsov, construction of the Metro in Nizhny Novgorod stopped in the late 1980s. They seem to pay no attention to the fact that construction was brought to an end by objective factors, such as the transfer of construction machinery to deal with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the general pre-perestroika shortage of resources.
During Nemtsov's governorship two metro stations were opened - "Kanavinskaya" and "Burnakovskaya".
Why Nemtsov supported Putin
|
|
B. NEMTSOV - I believe that of all the candidates who intend to take part in the election, Putin is the worthiest man.
A. VENEDIKTOV - So you agree. B. NEMTSOV - Yes, on this question. First of all, Putin is a responsible man. Secondly, he is not afraid to take decisions that are difficult for him, because decisions about the unity of Russia, about restoring order in the Caucasus, about fighting terrorism - these are responsible decisions. He will have to answer for them if, God forbid, something happens. And something may happen - you know what bombings are going on now. But he is not afraid of that. Third: he is a young man, he is 47. He is healthy. Fourth: in my view he is an honest man, and we need an honest man as president. That is why I support Putin. |
|
Anecdotes
These texts – imitations of Kharms's experiments – are believed to have been written by Vadim Demidov of the Nizhny Novgorod rock band "Khronop"; the "Nemtsov" series was written at the end of October 1994, when Nemtsov was governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region. The author intended no connection with real persons.
1. Nemtsov reads Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and mutters impatiently: " Come on, Fedya, don't drag it out, get on with it!.."
2. Nemtsov loved to play the piano. With heavy little hands on the black and white bones. Plink-plonk /that's on the right/ and tap-tappity /that's on the left. First with the left hand – good, then with the right – even more pleasant. Then only with the right, while the left holds up his weary eyes, trembling. A little later the right goes even harder, and the left simply rests on the black polish. And the apotheosis: both right and left in the third position, eyes closed, forehead damp, silence. You can hear the secretary typing.
3. The barge haulers, it used to happen, would drag a barge to Nizhny and then pay a call on Nemtsov. He would seat them at a white tablecloth and set out clear vodka for them with pure Russian zakuska. Good for the haulers, fine and fair. And they would strike up "Dubinushka" and swear thickly. So thick the stick would stick in the air and not fall... And in the morning they would take up the tow-rope, cross themselves quietly and lick their lips: " A good fellow he is, our governor, may he live long..."
4. Such a painting. Winter. Nemtsov in a fur coat. The mayor in a fur coat. The head of the regional traffic police in a thick fur coat. Gorky in a fur coat, but unbuttoned. They stand at the edge of the escarpment, looking at the frozen Volga. Sincerely admiring it. No wonder – this winter is an important one. And beyond that, a cherished dream. To pass themselves off as snow, white and fluffy. So as to get past all those hulking security men, those boorish bodyguards. And a kick in the backside for every fur coat! A couple of times at least!
5. Nemtsov sits in the Kremlin. The setting is like Lenin's study. White covers on the leather armchairs, an Ilyich lightbulb, the Appassionata tinkling unobtrusively from a black radio. And suddenly a crowd of Russian lads in mink hats and with youthful napes comes bursting in. And it seems there ought to be a climax, an uproar, a play of shadows, maybe even a fight... But no such luck. Beethoven again, all decorous and proper. A barely noticeable nod from Nemtsov /the chin up some 10-12 centimetres and a springy recoil/ and the synchronised closing of the sad eyes of the Russian lads /only the mink hats slipping down over their brows/. And no torn covers, no black streaks on the ceiling from lit matches tossed upwards, no tobacco cough. If you had been there, you would not even have woken up.
6. Nemtsov patrols the Kremlin. Beneath him a black horse named "Chernobyl". Above him an autumn sky awaiting its hangover. Look – Lastov and Bludyshev come galloping towards him on horseback. Then Nemtsov took out the gift of the Tula gunsmiths and – a volley at the cowboys. First Lastov fell, and Bludyshev was snuffed out right after by a second shot. a) Nemtsov raised the hot barrel to his lips, blew away the grey smoke and said sternly: " What's the matter, lads, can't you live in peace!.." b) Nemtsov squinted like Clint Eastwood and forced out: " What's the matter, lads, can't you live in peace!.." c) Finishing off the wounded with his rifle butt, Nemtsov uttered: " What's the matter, lads, can't you live in peace!.."
7. A New Year tree in the Kremlin. The tree, dressed up to the nines, delights the little ones dressed up to the nines. Father Frost and the Snow Maiden hand out presents, rations and bread cards to the children. Suddenly – out of nowhere – in bursts Nemtsov, the spitting image of Schwarzenegger. Square jaw, an "MX" rifle in muscular hands, an unquenched fire in his eyes. The children scatter, but it is no use. Nemtsov took the presents away and broke them, tore the bread cards to shreds before their parents' eyes and even spanked the children's bottoms. The children's teeth chatter with fear, and every one of them thinks: " I wonder what he will do with the Snow Maiden after this?" What uncultured children we have...
8. Nemtsov was voted into the 100 best... Then into the 30 best. Then into the 5 best. Then into the 50 worst. Then into the 10 most inveterate scoundrels. Then back into the 5 best. And what of Nemtsov himself? For three days now he has been off somewhere amusing himself with the Snow Maiden. For spring is not far off, she might melt, and he is no walker in the wet...
9. Nemtsov patrols the Kremlin. Beneath him "Chernobyl" puffs, above him a pale sun shines. Nothing, as they say, foretells anything. Look – Margaret Thatcher comes striding towards him in a miniskirt. Even the horse broke into a cold sweat, but Nemtsov did not turn a hair. He calmly shifted the reins to his left hand and reached for the gift of the Tula gunsmiths...
10. Nemtsov patrols the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Nature is like Lenin's study, only instead of the Appassionata the sparrows are chirping. Nemtsov is on horseback, the horse is called "Chernobyl", a fine horse. Look – Michael Jackson comes tripping past. Thin as a stick, but he sings like Caruso. Nemtsov was simply dumbfounded with happiness. He got out his hands and applauded the American Negro. And so the two of them froze: one clapping his hands, the other singing like Caruso. And it would all have ended sadly, had the horse "Chernobyl" not suddenly (all by himself!) got out the gift of the Tula gunsmiths...
11. Nemtsov is watching television. And there Lastov and Bludyshev are showing off, entertaining the public every which way. Nemtsov took out you-know-whose gift and fired at the obscenely twitching screen of the device. It – without a second thought – smashed to smithereens. On top of that a short circuit happened all over the city. Nemtsov sits in the dark waiting for the backup generator to come on. Lastov and Bludyshev sit in the dark striking matches to get the programme going again. Margaret Thatcher sits in the dark in a miniskirt dreaming of foggy Albion. And only the black Michael Jackson goes on singing like Caruso. Black, dirty, disgusting...
12. Nemtsov loved his horse named "Chernobyl" very much. Sometimes he would take the cover off one armchair in his office and seat the horse in it, like his very best friend. The horse loved Nemtsov too, and with answering courtesy would invite Nemtsov to his stable, give him choice oats, harness the governor in the tsar's tack with silver trim and every time try to bring his master together with his favourite mare. Nemtsov would have liked to oblige the horse, but he could not simply couple with a mare – after all, he was a governor, not a pimply youth. So he kept beating about the bush, saying neither yes nor no.
And then, out of the blue, came the Indian summer. And a pal came back from the front. Wounded, shell-shocked, but alive, the devil. Well, word led to word, they got high, they raised hell, this way and that... The yellow leaves whirl – you cannot look at them without tears. Underfoot it rustles – not a song but a hit! And with a hangover it is quite another matter – "Chernobyl" to the slaughter, the mare into sausage, the sausage down the gullet, the ends into the water and off to take a leak!
13. /the favourite/. Nemtsov sits in his Kremlin office. Suddenly the door opens and in comes a black old woman with a black staff. Not only did she come in, she also asks in a black voice: " Nemtsov, do you know that you are a yellow Negro?". Nemtsov lost the power of speech at the black old woman's insolence. And the old woman will not let up: " You are no governor, you are a yellow Negro". Nemtsov whipped out his right fist and dealt the black old woman a hard clout. And the old woman, as if nothing had happened: " Now you just take a look over here, Nemtsov..." And she stuck out her left earlobe.
Nemtsov looked and froze: a yellow banana. And he said: " Have they gone completely out of their minds over there, coming straight into my office... Couldn't they have used a safe house?" The old woman replies: " We'll be quick about it, like in childhood, in a whisper and almost without a smell..." Nemtsov: " How can there be no smell?.. Have they really thought that up? Craftsmen!" The old woman: " Craftsmen, blast them..." And straight away, with one sweep, off with the peel. As if it had never been
14. Sakharov), Solzhenitsyn and Nemtsov sit reminiscing about the dissident past. One flashes his spectacles, another shakes his lousy beard, and Nemtsov is worse still, so worked up that any moment now he will strangle both old men. Sakharov, no fool, pulled a hydrogen bomb out from under his coat, Alexander Isayevich got a camp knife out of his boot, and only Nemtsov seemed to be out of it. He sits there calculating the situation. Run to the left – you get a bomb in the eye from the physicist, to the right – you catch a knife under the rib from the living classic. Nemtsov fell to thinking about which of them to sacrifice himself to.
And suddenly a breathless Elena Bonner runs in and lands Nemtsov such a blow in the solar plexus that the newspaper "Iskra" popped out of the Nizhny Novgorod governor's eye, the 916 issue, a rare impression. Solzhenitsyn picked up the "Iskra" and turned to Sakharov: " Andryukha, have you read it? Sharp stuff!" And he stuffed it back into Nemtsov's eye. " That way it's safer!" – was all the author of "The Gulag Archipelago" said in parting.
15. Nemtsov, as everyone knows, was raising two granddaughters, Anechka and Martochka. If you had looked into their horoscopes, you would have seen that Anechka at 18 sniffed LBR and did not live to see the Great Economic Leap, while Martochka (Marta Abramovna), on the contrary, became an important staffer at a big research institute and perhaps that is why she lived to a venerable age. And yet it would seem everything was shared out equally: a French tutor, the Smolny Institute, Tampax tampons and two ascorbic acid tablets at bedtime.
16. Nemtsov had a cherished dream — to become president of all Rus. In Yeltsin's place, that is. And then the barge haulers turned up. That, however, is no crime at all yet. But as ill luck would have it, the leader of the barge haulers was Yeltsin himself. Enough to drive you out of your mind, right? And Yeltsin says to Nemtsov:” So, my dove, after my place, are you? And me onto the scrapheap?” Nemtsov briskly whistled up his secretary — some tea, come on... Yeltsin took the cup of tea and hurled it straight into Nemtsov's eye. And the tea was hot, strong. The kind that in the old days you could only see in special rations. Excellent tea, with the Indian elephant on a yellow background. From the Ryazan tea-packing factory. About tea like that my grandfather used to say:” That's no tea, that's a pre-reform constitution!” Grandfather, true, leaned rather more toward the moonshine side, and what sort of tea is there in a village — crap, honest to God!
17. And here is another sketch from Nemtsov's childhood. Now and then he would get up to mischief in class, and his parents would be summoned to the headmaster through the school diary. The poor things would be dressed down to a fare-thee-well in the headmaster's office over their good-for-nothing offspring, while Nemtsov himself stood in the corridor with downcast eyes, thinking about the cosmonaut Volkov, who at that very time out in space had got into some sort of mess from a lack of O2. And the cosmonaut Volkov, at the moment when it had already sunk in that with the oxygen it was curtains, there was nothing to breathe and his nose could be thrown away as useless, suddenly thought that he was dying not only for the greatness of the Soviet science of the Great state, but also for that idler whose parents had been summoned to the school headmaster, and with this vile thought he finally died.
18. And one more story from Nemtsov's childhood. Nemtsov was always a curly-haired and slender adolescent. That is why he always walked at the head of the pathfinders' detachment and shouted at the top of his voice: “Our motto!“ — to which the detachment answered him loudly and merrily: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!” (Natashka, the link leader, tried especially hard.) But that is not all. Three years later Natashka was killed at the military game “Zarnitsa”. By then Nemtsov was already climbing through the window of the disgraced academician Sakharov, where he assembled homemade bombs, successfully splitting the atoms of unfortunate hydrogen. Sakharov, already having a fair amount of explosives on hand, would also have liked to take part in that ill-starred “Zarnitsa”, but was detained in good time on the stairwell landing by the operatives on duty.
A few years later that same Sakharov, from the rostrum of the Kremlin congress, treacherously informed on Nemtsov, to which the deputies responded with frenzied applause, through which shouts of “Bravo” and even “Glory to the hero” could clearly be heard. Nemtsov thought they were shouting for him; Sakharov also took these exclamations as his due. Then out of nowhere — Natashka's ghost from behind the wings. It came in and pronounced: “Murder is foul in itself, but this is fouler than all and most inhuman of all...” And so on, in Lozinsky's translation. One pregnant woman deputy nearly had a miscarriage, to say nothing of the deputies' mandates...
19. Nemtsov sits playing the piano. Now Rachmaninov, now Liszt. Suddenly Solzhenitsyn runs in with the Nobel Prize converted into rubles. His beard is dishevelled, his hair is tangled, in his eyes there are wicked little devils. He caught his breath and started tearing up banknotes right and left. He tears for an hour, tears for a second, tears for ten hours straight. Nemtsov has already run Stravinsky through his head, and the Beatles' “Yesterday”, and has even managed a nap, and Isaich keeps tearing up the Nobel money, and it still does not run out. Sakharov dropped in, Yelena Bonner dropped in in furs, and Isaich keeps tearing the money. Nemtsov sits there, drained, and thinks:” When on earth will it run out?“ And at that point it ran out...
20. Nemtsov and Solzhenitsyn are sitting hobnobbing. Solzhenitsyn says:” Here you are, Nemtsov, a worthless little man, and I, a Nobel laureate, am sitting with you as an equal.” Nemtsov scowled. And Solzhenitsyn goes on:” At your age I had already fought in the war, done time in prison, written heaps of prose, and you, Nemtsov, still call for your mummy when you need to go to the loo!” Nemtsov keeps silent, scowling. And Solzhenitsyn is at it again:” No, this is unbearable, I have a house in America, and here I am sitting with you in the back of beyond.” Nemtsov could not stand it:” Then don't sit here.” And the other:” You'll be telling me who to sit with next!” At that Nemtsov jumped up, offended, and went off to patrol the Kremlin — there, at least, he is always in the saddle...
21. Once Nemtsov is asleep and has a dream. He dreams that he is a wild flower. He stands in an open field and sways from side to side in the wind, and anyone can pick him. Now a little girl comes up to the flower. She looked at it attentively, bent down and broke its fragile neck. At this Nemtsov woke up in a cold sweat. He got up from the bed, washed, had breakfast and set off for the Kremlin in his official car. And for some reason the driver takes him not to the Kremlin but into an open field, in the middle of which stands the girl from the dream, whispering ominously:” One, two, three, four...” Nemtsov asks her:” What are you counting?” The girl answers:” I am counting how many years you have left before death...
You shouldn't have interrupted me, but it's too late now...” Nemtsov to her:” And if I hadn't interrupted you, would I have lived forever?” The girl:” Of course. But you stopped me at the number four.” Nemtsov:” And why do you have power over my life?” The girl:” You gave it to me yourself!” Nemtsov:” I'll kill you!” The girl:” You will kill me in four years...” And Nemtsov noticed that he and the girl were alone in the open field — the driver and the car had vanished. Nemtsov wanted to cry out and again woke up in a cold sweat. He got dressed again and went off in the official car to a tavern. Girls like that, though, knock the taste for state service clean out of you...
22. Maxim Gorky is walking along Sverdlovka (B. Pokrovka). Coming toward him — Nemtsov with Russian lads. Their eyes are blazing, their sabres drawn. Maxim sees that things look bad and takes to his heels. Nemtsov with the Russian lads after him. Maxim Gorky ran as far as the house where Pushkin) lived and complains:” Friend, Alexander Sergeyich, save yourself, our governor has gone completely out of hand. I barely got away from him.” The first poet of Rus answers him:” It ill befits me, a nobleman, to fear a goy. I used to kick open the door to the tsar's rooms. Benckendorff stood on tiptoe at attention before me.” And Gorky says to him caustically:” Then why did you chicken out of going with the Decembrists in '25?” “I was hung over, I overslept,“ Pushkin found his way out. Suddenly Yelena Bonner walks into the room in furs. And there the writers' conversation ended — a woman's body should not go to waste!
23. Nemtsov is making his patrol round of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Lo and behold, Michael Jackson is in the middle of the lawn picking flowers and weaving wreaths. Nemtsov got down off “Chernobyl” and started picking flowers too. Suddenly — out of nowhere — academician Sakharov himself. And with him his newest Teflon bomb with remote control. The academician holds the bomb by his fingertips and shouts: “Come on, disperse, or I'll give you a Pompeii and a Hiroshima right here!” But they did not believe the academician, they go on weaving their wreaths and could not care less. And Sakharov does not throw words to the wind — he up and pressed the red button. Bang-crash!!! Splatter in all directions. Of the flower-pickers and wreath-weavers not a trace was left. Only Sakharov stands bloodied in the middle of the Kremlin singing an ode to the simple physical formula E=mc2. And you can also hear Solzhenitsyn, his eyes cast down, combing American lice out of his beard. And grunting a bit as well.
24. /my very favourite/. The chief of an African tribe came to Nemtsov on an official visit. A ring in his nose, 5 rings in his ear, bracelets on his arm from wrist to elbow. And nothing but a loincloth on top of that. Nemtsov comes out to him with a gift from the Tula gunsmiths and takes aim at his guest with the help of the laser sight. The African, naturally, takes out of his loincloth a little tube with a poisoned dart and prepares to deliver a return volley. Nemtsov sees that the matter may take a serious turn. He smiled at the white-toothed fellow and threw the Tula gift on the floor.
The African also hid his tube and threw himself on Nemtsov's neck to kiss him. Nemtsov — nothing else for it — also kisses the African gently, but mostly spits and pulls faces. And the African nuzzles up more and more. He has already thrown off his loincloth. And Nemtsov meanwhile ran into the corner of the room and wrote the figure 1 on the wall in chalk. The African simply started running with juice. He ran up and added a two next to the one. But there is no turning Nemtsov back now. With a sharp movement he seized the chalk and set his own three alongside. The African did not remain in debt, the four was his.
Nemtsov feels the initiative slipping right out of his hands, and drew a five, wetting the chalk with saliva. At this the African fairly leapt into the air. A six — and no two ways about it! The figure 7 was traced out by Nemtsov's trembling fingers, crooked and huge as a building crane. At that the African was seriously carried away — two little rings joined together — half the wall. And with his tongue along what was written. In my opinion, Nemtsov too was little by little getting carried away after all, and he traced a nine on his chest in his own blood. The African finished. Say what you will, Russian diplomacy has very fine traditions!
25. Nemtsov sits reading “Sivka-Burka”. He got to the place where Ivan takes part in the contest for the title of the tsar's daughter's bridegroom. /Let me remind you: in the tale Ivan and Sivka-Burka had to jump up to the window of the tsarevna's chambers and take the precious ring off her little finger, and Ivan managed it with room to spare, for which he got half the kingdom./ Nemtsov whistled up “Chernobyl” and decided to try his luck as well. He put Yelena Bonner in the Dmitrievskaya Tower and made her stick the hand with the wedding ring through the little dormer window. “Well, and did he manage it?” — you will ask. Calm yourselves, the finger with Yelena Bonner's wedding ring lies to this day in the safe of the Nizhny Novgorod regional administration. That, of course, is not half a kingdom, but it is something too...
Death
Shot dead by terrorists at about half past eleven at night on 27 February 2015.
Buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
Interesting facts
- During the 1991 Russian presidential election Boris Nemtsov was First President Yeltsin's authorized representative for Nizhny Novgorod Region.