Igor Yakovenko received a philosophical education, but made a career in journalism and political activity. Igor Aleksandrovich sees the mission of journalism in defending the interests of the country's citizens, and not serving the authorities. Yakovenko's views came into conflict with the trends in the development of Russian official journalism.
From the biography of Igor Alexandrovich Yakovenko
The future journalist was born in the capital of the USSR on March 13, 1951. Igor's childhood was the most common for a Soviet child. He spent most of his free time on the street. As a child, Igor often sculpted from plasticine, played toy soldiers.
Yakovenko received his education at the evening department of the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University. However, he did not start working in his specialty right away. From 1968 to 1970 he worked as a projectionist, then he was a geologist. For several years he worked as a locksmith and even headed a team of locksmiths in the Moscow metro.
Igor Yakovenko's career in politics and journalism
Yakovenko's career changed in the late 70s. From 1979 to 1988 he worked in the propaganda department of the Dzerzhinsky district committee of the CPSU (Moscow). After that, he taught philosophy at the capital's Higher Party School for two years. At the same time, Yakovenko was the editor of one of the departments of the Dialogue magazine, published by the Central Committee of the CPSU.
In 1990, Yakovenko became one of the co-founders of the Monitoring sociological service and the Mister Narod newspaper.
Igor Alexandrovich was one of those who created the Republican Party of the Russian Federation, participated in the founding congress of this public association, was a member of the Working Collegium and the Coordination Council. In 1992, Yakovenko was elected co-chairman of the RPRF.
In 1993, Yakovenko became a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, a member of the Yabloko bloc. In the Duma, he was responsible for information policy.
In 1995 Yakovenko became editor-in-chief of the Rubezhi magazine. In the spring of 1998, the Congress of the Union of Journalists elected Yakovenko the General Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists. In 2008, this position was abolished, so Yakovenko became the secretary of the Union of Journalists.
In 2003, Igor Aleksandrovich took over as head of the publishing house “Kh. G. S. ". Here he was responsible for the publication of the newspaper "Russian Courier", which was in opposition to the Russian government. The newspaper did not justify itself as a commercial project: advertisers were in no hurry to cooperate with a publication whose work was oppositional in its direction.
In February 2012, the Federal Council of the Union of Journalists dismissed Yakovenko from the post of secretary before the deadline. Igor Alexandrovich was accused of not fulfilling the decisions made and using the organization's opportunities to achieve the interests of private firms.
Yakovenko has repeatedly stated that his position is to make journalism independent of the authorities. Many heads of periodicals at that time were strenuously drifting towards cooperation with the official power structures, following their lead.
