Vladimir Zhirinovskiy.

At age 18, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy entered the Institute of Oriental Languages at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1964. Born on April 25, 1946 in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR now Almaty, Kazakhstan, he specialized in Turkish Language and Literature. From 1965 to 1967, he also attended the University of Marxism-Leninism’s Faculty of International Relations. As a fourth-year student, he interned as a translator at the Iskenderun Iron and Steel Works in Turkey. After graduation, he served as a conscript officer in the political department of the Transcaucasian Military District headquarters in Tbilisi from 1970 to 1972. From 1972 to 1977, he studied law part-time at Moscow State University.

Zhirinovskiy’s political debut came in May 1988 at the founding congress of the Democratic Union. He soon founded the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia LDPR and became its chairman. He ran for president in 1991 7.81%, 1996 5.78%, 2000 2.7%, 2008 9.35%, 2012 6.22%, and 2018 5.65%, making him the only person to participate in six Russian presidential elections. He also appeared in the 1962 film Fuse as a bureaucrat, and later in Evening Urgant 2012, Tripping with Zhirinovsky 1995, and Moscow 1996, Vote or Lose! 2021.

Zhirinovskiy was married to Galina Lebedeva, and they had one son, Igor Lebedev, who later became a politician. He was a native Russian speaker and held Russian citizenship. He lived primarily in Moscow.

Vladimir Zhirinovskiy founded the LDPR, which became a permanent fixture in Russian politics. He was the only person to run for president in six elections from 1991 to 2018, influencing the political landscape. His provocative style included repeatedly suggesting that certain countries should be nuked by Russia. After his death from a lengthy illness in April 2022, his body was laid out in the Moscow Union House, where Vladimir Putin paid respects during a farewell ceremony on April 8, 2022. He remains a controversial but enduring figure in Russian politics.