Vladimir Yakovlev

Early life and career

Vladimir was born into the family of the famous Soviet journalist Yegor Vladimirovich Yakovlev.

He graduated from the International Division of the School of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Yakovlev was placed on a job in the Newspaper Soviet Russia. He then went on to work in the Magazine Rabotnitsa, the Sobesednik Weekly. Up to 1988 Yakovlev was a correspondent of Ogoniok Magazine.

Since June 15, 1988 Yakovlev was a founder and a president of Fakt informational cooperative society (it was created in cooperation with Gleb Pavlovsky). Originally, the organization was created in the format of an information and reference service in order to “provide its potential readers – members of the booming cooperative movement – with facts: contact details, references, texts of regulatory acts and documents”.

In 1989 at the suggestion of the vice-president of Fakt, the USSR cooperators’ union, Artem Tarasov Yakovlev together with Gleb Pavlovsky started an independent news agency and newspaper Kommersant. The pilot issue of the weekly newspaper was in December 1989.

From 1989 up to 1999 Yakovlev was the owner and editor-in-chief of Kommersant Newspaper, which was the basis of the homonymous publishing house. Since 1992 Yakovlev, being the majority shareholder, took up a post as CEO of Kommersant Joint-Stock Company (up to 1992 Vladimir was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper).

Simultaneously, Yakovlev was engaged in various projects such as Domovoy Magazine, together with V. D. Drannikov, a famous journalist, but none became as famous as Kommersant.

In 1999 the majority of shares of Kommersant publishing house were purchased by Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili through the American Capital Group. Kommersant Newspaper, Dengi, Vlast, Ogoniok, Autopilot, Sekret Firmy, Weekend, Citizen K. Magazines, Kommersant FM Radio station and Kommersant TV Channel were among the assets of the publishing group.