Lyubomir (Indexovich) Tyan, journ.: the Nizhny Novgorod Sun King — a generous and hospitable businessman who accumulated his initial capital in Nizhny Novgorod. Informal leader of the Nizhny Novgorod Korean diaspora in the capitals of our homeland. From the beginning of the "wild nineties" he was known as the founder of the grain company "Lindek," effectively becoming a monopolist and the bread king of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[1] He then bankrupted the main Nizhny Novgorod enterprises that were part of the holding company and moved to Moscow, where he held advisory positions in various Moscow public associations; by 2015 he had returned to Nizhny Novgorod.[2][1]

He was repeatedly elected as a deputy at all levels, including to the State Duma, representing the United Russia Party.[3] Former Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agricultural Affairs.

Married, has a son and a brother named German.[4]

Hobbies: magic tricks, vocalizing, assisting the Russian Orthodox Church, organizing Korean holidays, raising his son.[1]

Biography

Lyubomir Tyan was born in Uzbekistan on May 25, 1959.[1]

He graduated from the Kazan Engineering and Construction Institute and the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the State University — Higher School of Economics.[1]

After graduating, he worked for three years at the Kostirikhinskiy reinforced concrete products plant (City of Gorky), in positions ranging from foreman to acting director. Following a conflict with the plant's party committee secretary, he was dismissed.[1]

He traded at markets in Gorky.

He worked at a military base in positions ranging from mechanic to chief engineer; he was a leaseholder in the Rostov Region, engaged in vegetable growing; and he headed the company "Soraksan," which dealt in wholesale fruit and vegetable trade.

From 1991, he served as president of the grain company "LINDEK" (Nizhny Novgorod), which initially dealt in grain trading and later moved into bread production.

In March 1998, he was elected a deputy of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, second convocation, from electoral district No. 14;[5] in March 2002, he was elected a deputy of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, third convocation,[6][7] and in April 2002, he was elected deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly's Committee on Agricultural Affairs; he was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Kanavinsky single-member electoral district No. 120 of Nizhny Novgorod Region,[8] and served as a member of the United Russia faction and deputy chairman of the Committee on Agricultural Affairs.

Tyan's Worldview

« Lyubоmir Tyan has been called both the bread king and the first jester of Nizhny Novgorod. His flour-milling empire collapsed — business is fickle. But no one can take a person's sense of humor away. "Now I'm a naked king!" Tyan laughs. Only a strong person can laugh at himself.

Even as a child he had settled on a simple truth for himself: even if you've lost, don't take off the winner's mask. That is what helped Lyubomir Tyan travel the road from circus juggler to deputy of the State Duma.

When people reach certain heights in politics, they usually focus all their attention on political activity itself. But that's not Tyan. What concerns Lyubomir Indekovich is something else entirely — for instance, what more can be done so that Nizhny Novgorod not only bears the name of third capital but truly becomes one. He decided to draw attention to the city and, of course, to himself in a very unusual way. The State Duma deputy took up singing. His discs are now being released in print runs of many thousands.

He honestly admits that he knows his native Korean far worse than Russian or Tatar. And of all cities he loves Kazan most — where he spent his student years — and Nizhny Novgorod, which he considers his home city.

»


Lifestyle

Magazine "BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE", Katerina Zolina 26.02.2007[9]

Lyubomir Tyan's Guest Palace

Finding the home of Lyubomir Tyan, the well-known Nizhny Novgorod businessman and State Duma deputy, is not difficult. Taxi drivers call the place a "dosshouse," because most residents of the mansions in this cottage settlement are not registered at their homes. The settlement's second name is even more self-explanatory: "where Tyan's residence is." The owner himself calls his three-story mansion a guest house. That is understandable — the State Duma deputy rarely visits Nizhny Novgorod at all these days, once a month when he comes to meet with constituents. And even then he dashes into his house for about forty minutes to change clothes and drink tea with beautiful people.

Tea for Every Taste

Walking through Lyubomir Tyan's house in the owner's absence feels like being taken on a private museum tour as a distinguished guest. In the entrance hall with a veranda done in traditional Uzbek style — backgammon sets, carpet-mattresses around a tea table — a soft-spoken house attendant will find a coat hook for you and produce slippers in your size. An old English mastiff escorts you into the formal reception room in Louis XIV style, where it is impossible to fix your attention on any single thing: brocade, gold, curvingly carved chaises longues, a long white table with twelve palace chairs, and a profusion of small vases, floor-standing urns, mantelpiece figurines, and clocks. Before you have had time to take the room in, tea is already set before you with Eastern and European sweets. Help yourselves, dear guests! The attendant, meanwhile, will restore to each room its museum-like freshness and inviolability. Let us begin our tour from the basement.

The Punching-Bag Man and the Crocodile Pool

The entire basement floor of the mansion is given over to taking care of one's body. In the gym there is a ping-pong table, paddles resting on its surface as though someone has just stepped away. In the far corner stands a boxing trainer — a bare-chested rubber male torso with a "granite" face, a muscular handsome fellow intended solely for stress relief. For inspiration, a female silhouette hangs in a painting in the changing room; beyond its door lies everything a proper modern sauna requires: an exotic jungle corner complete with a stuffed caiman, a heated pool, a traditional wooden bathhouse with a small furnace, and a relaxation room with a massage table and a glossy library. If you're going to relax, you might as well do it in style. We surface to the cheerful barking of dogs — the owner has arrived!

Night Club "Sto Tyan"

Five minutes for greetings, and our tour resumes — this time from top to bottom. We follow the owner up a spiral staircase without railings straight to the third floor. The warm attic serves all at once as a study, a billiards room, a costume wardrobe, a cinema, and even an intimate philharmonic hall with a stage, professional sound equipment, and a wealth of musical instruments stacked in the corners. Lyubomir Indekovich calls the attic his night club for distinguished guests and his many relatives.

Owner: In my student years I was given the nickname "much ado about nothing." In any company I was always the ringleader — the one making everyone laugh, keeping spirits high, entertaining the crowd. I love my friends dearly; there are a great many of them, and I love having them all over. My house is as grand as it is precisely because it was built for guests, not for ordinary everyday living. This house is fifteen years old, and I spent half of those years building it. From the start I planned a large house so the whole family could gather here on weekends. The fact is, I grew up in a large family. My mother had nine of us — seven brothers and two sisters. I have brought all my close relatives to Nizhny Novgorod. Today the Tyan family clan is the largest in the city; counting all relatives — husbands, wives, and children.[9]

A hundred Tyans! You can imagine, you cannot get a group like that together in an apartment. But at my place a hundred people fit quite comfortably in the attic. We live communally. And that is the most important tradition of all! While my father was alive he would gather us every week to discuss matters of importance. And now, when we are together, we do not even need to hire entertainers! Every Tyan is a master of some art form. My father, despite his humble origins — half factory worker, half peasant — played the violin, guitar, and mandolin. And he instilled in us children a love of art. I, for instance, am a master of humor…[9]

The guests who gather in Tyan's night club are an eclectic lot — Korean relatives who move in no particular social circles, and people whose names appear on concert posters and in political forecasts. Kobzon, Aziza, Boris Nemtsov — all of them cherished friends in this house. They come, some openly, some incognito, to rest body and soul from the bustle of life. Come evening they assemble in the attic: playing billiards, talking, drinking beer, and listening to solo vocal-and-instrumental performances by the hospitable host. Lyubomir Tyan has a genuine record to show — he has performed on professional stages and has collaborative recordings with well-known artists. But among friends he is more often the comedian.

Owner: Do not forget that at one point I was the only variety artist at the Tatar Philharmonic — a conjurer, an illusionist, and a performer of verbal comedy, all in one. So my principal role, as a true master of the house, is to entertain and delight my guests.[9]

Collections

The atmosphere of the "night club" is carried out in a multinational style. Along the walls hang gold-embroidered robes and enormous woven hats, while niches are filled with all manner of helmets, hard hats, and tropical-style hats from different eras and peoples. The costume collection is the owner's hobby. Lyubomir Indekovich has been collecting headgear for many years. He has Mexican sombreros, Uzbek skullcaps, an English policeman's helmet, a Soviet-era aviator's helmet from Nizhny Novgorod pilots, military headpieces of a Spartan and an ancient Filipino warrior. The last is remarkable: woven from ordinary straw yet able to withstand a blow from a real blade.

Owner: When I had the chance to travel — and I have been to nearly every corner of the world — I decided that, as a memento of each country I visited, I would bring back its national headgear. In my view, nothing defines a person's ethnic identity quite as clearly as a hat. Besides, as a souvenir it is inexpensive and distinctive.[9]

Another of Lyubomir Tyan's collections — weapons — is a purely masculine passion. The gun room holds every type of combat firearm permitted in our country, along with an extensive collection of edged weapons: knives, blades, sabres, yatagans, and a sword-pistol. Tyan himself is not a hunter and insists he could not bring himself to kill even a mouse — though something distinctly hunter-like does flicker in the collector's eyes.

Bugrov. Incomplete Parallels

The walls of the study section of the hall are hung not only with straw hats and fezzes. There are portraits of political leaders, prominent businessmen, and celebrated performers. An antique desk with a green baize top and a chiming clock — objects that, according to Tyan, once belonged to the noted Nizhny Novgorod merchant Bugrov.

Owner: I dug them out, restored them, and preserved them because I once noticed that my fate and that of this great man seemed to run in parallel. You see, Bugrov, like me, was in the grain business, he was also a philanthropist and patron of the arts; he earned the right to supply grain to the entire army from the Tsar, and I have earned similar rights from the President. The only difference between us is that for every girl Bugrov seduced, he would buy her a house. That's the one area where I fall short of him (laughs)... I only have the one house. And I stopped drawing parallels once I had read Bugrov's biography all the way to the end. It turns out he was a very unhappy man — his wives died for no apparent reason, and he himself died alone, without heirs. Now that is truly terrifying! I live alone in this house now too... And that is not right![9]

A pink bedroom for "The Little Prince"

We agree — it is not right! Especially given that the house of this "solitary" owner contains four luxurious bedrooms, each crafted with love and care. When building the house, Lyubomir Tyan planned for a family of two children — a boy and a girl. Hence the first two bedrooms for the children, two more for the parents, and one for himself and his wife. Three of the bedrooms are now guest rooms, standing in full readiness and waiting for visitors. But one — the brightest and most cheerful, a pink one — keeps the heartbeat of the big house alive. This is the owner's bedroom. A vast bed with a bedspread the color of the morning dawn, a wardrobe with carved rosettes, and a dressing table styled to evoke the boudoirs of the Baroque era elicit astonishment and undisguised delight from every woman without exception. The owner of this palace boudoir, however, offers a perfectly logical explanation for how it came to be...

Owner: The bed in my bedroom has to be big... I grew up in a large, poor family. In our house, none of the children ever knew where they would sleep that night. Most often I had to share an iron cot with my younger brother. He slept against the wall and I slept on the edge. When he would kick in the night, I would fall to the floor and wake up in fright. Because of that I was sometimes even afraid to fall asleep... That was when I decided that when I grew up, I would definitely buy myself an enormous bed. It was the dream of a princely life, dreamed by someone who had grown up on the edge of poverty and destitution. Yes, I dreamed of my own palace... And I built it. By myself.[9]

The eclecticism of a citizen of the world

A civil engineer by training, Lyubomir Tyan both designed and decorated his home himself. Palace chandeliers of multicolored crystal, carved furniture, a black marble fireplace, ornamental plaster ceilings, gilding on every projecting detail of the interior, decorative textiles — every element of the house's furnishings down to the smallest detail is an expression of his personal taste. Every item was commissioned from private craftsmen. The furniture was ordered from Spanish and Italian workshops and brought in via the Arab Emirates.

Lyubomir Tyan brought the floor-standing vases and silk from China, the dolls from Spain, and the carnival masks from the Czech Republic. All of these now adorn the rooms of the "Nizhny Novgorod Sun King."

This eclectic palace style reflects the spirit of the owner himself. His name, after all, is LYUBOMIR — "lover of the world." The world has no borders for him. Within this one man, different world cultures, religions, and traditions have converged: by ethnicity he is Korean (Koreans have historically practiced Buddhism), he was born in Uzbekistan, grew up in Kazakhstan, and received his education in Tatarstan (all countries that practice Islam). Yet he lives, as he himself puts it, "in Russian-stan" and speaks only Russian. Vladimir Dal once observed that a person belongs to whichever nationality he speaks, sleeps, works, and thinks in.

Owner: The stylistic wordplay of my house comes from the wordplay of my own person: a Korean face, a Russian soul, a Muslim mentality, and an Asian inner world. All of it is dear to me, I love each part of it separately, and all of it lives with me under one roof. Yes, I may seem unconventional and contradictory to many people. But the world and I have a perfect understanding![9]

A harvest festival of Korean traditions

The festival, organized by the Korean National Autonomy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, was held at the Jupiter concert hall.

In Korean, the festival is called "Chuseok," which translates as "the joy of abundance." Its tradition reaches back to antiquity — people who have gathered the harvest must give thanks to the generous earth, the benevolent sky, and the warm sun that gave life. What is life without a harvest?

The tradition of marking the harvest exists among every people, which is easy to explain by the universal human significance of the occasion. It is no coincidence that our Nizhny Novgorod Chuseok went beyond the bounds of a purely ethnic celebration, for Nizhny Novgorod is home to some 100 nationalities, each with its own history and culture.

The cultural center of the Korean National Autonomy does not merely cooperate with many of them — it has long been friends with them. And what kind of festival is it without friends? Representatives of the Tatar community, the Jewish cultural center "Tsvi Girsh" and the charitable foundation "Khesed Sara," representatives of the Armenian diaspora, and, of course, Russian musical ensembles were all invited to celebrate the harvest together.

In addition, activists from the public self-governance councils of Nizhegorodsky District were welcome guests and participants in the festival.

The lobby of the concert hall hosted an exhibition of autumn gifts — gathered from the forest and grown in their own garden allotments by residents of the Usilovskiy microdistrict. The artfully arranged fruits and vegetables immediately drew the attention of everyone who came to the festival. Exclusive exhibits were prepared for the exhibition by the women's council of Nizhegorodsky District. Unusual sculptures made of rich, delicious dough were baked for the occasion by confectioner-bakers from Bor and Buturlino, while Jewish and Tatar craftswomen offered national sweets to all comers.

The areas around their display stalls were especially crowded: everyone wanted to try baklava, chak-chak, tayglakh, and the traditional treat of the season — an apple with honey (in September, Jews celebrate the New Year, a custom closely linked to the harvest festival). Before the festive concert began, one could listen to a Russian folk song ensemble, explore Korean applied arts, and ask the hosts of the celebration any question. They answered willingly.

For example, many were intrigued by traditional Korean dress. Red was the dominant color of the national costumes at the Chuseok celebration. Each people has its own color symbolism. For Koreans, red is the symbol of life. White is the color of purity of thought, kindness, and honesty.

Larisa Tyan — chairwoman of the Korean Cultural Center — wore a white dress. As the hostess of the evening, she welcomed the guests and received flowers and congratulations.

The highlight of the festival was the concert — for many of the invited guests, it was their first encounter with Asian culture. It should be said, however, that some Nizhny Novgorod residents had already become admirers of traditional Korean musical art: fan dances, Korean drummers, and performances by masters of the national wrestling style.

Nevertheless, those seeing the spectacle for the first time applauded the loudest. A pleasant surprise for many guests was Lyubomir Tyan's solo performance. The highlight of the festive concert was that, in addition to Korean creative ensembles, guests also took part — an Armenian ensemble and a Jewish vocal duo.

The audience gave all the performers a warm reception, sending each one off with applause, which once again confirmed that such shared celebrations are of interest and importance to Nizhny Novgorod residents, regardless of their age or nationality.

Vera Kostrova, Gorod i Gorozhane, No. 38 (1173)

Interesting facts

  • During his studies, Lyubomir Tyan worked as a variety performer, appearing as an illusionist at the Kazan Philharmonic.[9]
  • He is a strong supporter of the Russian Orthodox Church and has accordingly been awarded numerous church orders. Ahead of elections, he invariably releases campaign calendars featuring religious themes.
  • In the mid-2000s, he released a compact disc of his own songs to coincide with an upcoming election. The cover claimed that Lyubomir Tyan was one of the first people in Gorky to begin performing songs with a guitar on the streets.

See also

Sources

  1. Nizhniy seychas — Nataliya Lisitsyna, interview "Lyubomir Tyan: 'I meet with whom I want, not with whom I must!'" with a biographical note, 31.03.2015 (archive)
  2. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — "Arbitration Examines Lyubomir Tyan's Family Ties", on the bankruptcy of the Volodarsky grain-products combine from Tyan's bread holding, 28.06.2007
  3. duma.gov.ru — State Duma — list of deputies of the fourth convocation (2003–2007) (archive)
  4. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — "Former office of Lyubomir Tyan's company in Nizhny Novgorod drops in price by 60 million", on the company Lindek and its managers, 08.09.2026 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region — "Legislative Assembly of the 2nd Convocation (1998–2002)", composition of deputies by electoral districts (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region — "Legislative Assembly of the 3rd Convocation (2002–2006)", composition of deputies by electoral districts (archive)
  7. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — "Final results of the elections of deputies to the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region announced", 01.04.2002 (archive)
  8. indem.ru — INDEM Foundation — "Results of the elections of deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on 7 December 2003", list of those elected in single-member constituencies (archive)
  9. viperson.ru — Katerina Zolina, "Lyubomir Tyan's Gostiny Palace", reprint from the magazine Krasivye lyudi (Beautiful People) dated 26.02.2007, 15.03.2007