Vladimir Putin had a secret Soviet Union spying career in his youth. That wish was granted in 1975, but Putin did not rest on his laurels. He was hell-bent on reaching the top, and he wasn't going to stop until he did.
For a long time, Putin was the undisputed ruler of Russia. This status was not bestowed upon him without effort. To get where he is now, he has depended on both luck and hard work. Following Putin's rise through the ranks of the Soviet Union and Russia is depicted in this image.
The story begins with a young boy from a disadvantaged neighborhood in Leningrad practicing self-defense, and it ends with him recognizing his purpose after seeing a spy film in the theater. He witnessed the fall of East Germany from a distance as a KGB spy, and he became an expert in power politics under Boris Yeltsin's presidency of Russia in 1991, becoming Yeltsin's successor.
Combat Sports Exempted Putin from Criminal Allegations
On October 7, 1952, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin came into this world. Growing up in a tight flat on the fifth floor in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the youngster with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes lived in poverty with two other families. The 20 square meter apartment was in a terrible state. Rats invaded the stairwell, there was no running water or toilet, and the ceiling leaked. Meanwhile, Putin's parents were physically and emotionally scarred from the long battle against Nazi Germany. Vladimir Putin gained a reputation as a vicious brawler, a misbehaving schoolboy, and someone who frequently picked fights with bigger boys during his childhood amid the war-torn rubble of post-war Leningrad. Despite Putin's doomed trajectory into criminality, his combat prowess ended up being his salvation. He started judo when he was eleven years old and would later say that martial arts were the key that saved him from being a street kid.
Putin Aspired to Be the James Bond of Russia
But when Vladimir Putin was a young man, martial arts weren't his sole interest. He saw the classic Soviet film The Shield and the Sword when he was fifteen years old. Almost single-handedly rescuing his homeland during WWII, Soviet operative Alexandr Belov infiltrates the Nazi SS in this film. It astounded me that a single man's efforts could accomplish what whole armies failed to do. The fate of thousands of people may be decided by a spy," Putin recounted in his autobiography First Person, published in 2000.
"Fifty years ago, Leningrad’s streets taught me a rule: If a fight is inevitable, strike first." Putin, Vladimir
Putin sent an application to the KGB Academy after finishing law school in 1975. While there, he honed his skills in counterintelligence and went on to focus on international espionage.
Putin met Lyudmila, an Aeroflot flight attendant five years his junior, while climbing the ranks of the KGB in the '70s and '80s. They tied the knot in 1983 and had Yekaterina and Mariya as soon as possible.
In 1985, Putin was sent to East German Dresden instead of the espionage hotspot of Berlin, which was his original assignment goal. Not exactly the high-octane spy activity he had imagined—his principal duties, as a translator, included gathering newspaper clippings for the KGB and keeping tabs on the media.
After Putin's career in East Germany came to an abrupt end with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he and his family returned to a Soviet Union on the verge of collapse in 1990. A revolver was stashed beneath my pillow as I slept. Putin later made the comment, "That's how those times were," while reflecting on his experience in the violent early 1990s Leningrad. In Leningrad, Putin's career began to soar. It took him less than ten years to go from being a lowly KGB man to being the head of the biggest country in the world.
Life Story: Vladimir Putin
(Born on October 7, 1952) — 7.1 years old
Loomed in Leningrad, which is now known as St. Petersburg
Length: 1.70 m
Relationship Status: Married to Lyudmila Shkrebneva (1983–2014)
Yeltsin Assists Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in His Ascend to Power
Gaining influential supporters is a common strategy for climbing the political ladder, and Vladimir Putin was masterful at doing just that during his rise to power in Russia. His connection to Anatoly Sobchak, his former legal professor, was important. After Sobchak became the first mayoral candidate for St. Petersburg in 1991, he appointed Putin to serve as his deputy. Putin stepped down as KGB chief after accepting the position. After the 1996 election, Putin was out of a job as Mayor Sobchak was deposed. But Putin had already planned to attack Moscow, the capital of Russia, by that point. With the help of his contacts in St. Petersburg, Putin swiftly rose through the ranks after relocating to the nation's capital in June 1996.
President Boris Yeltsin was battling for his political life behind the Kremlin walls. The Russian economy was in shambles due to hyperinflation, enormous debt, and an unpopular administration.
As one of the few Kremlin officials who remained faithful to Yeltsin and his tight circle, "The Family," Putin was an exception. Vladimir Putin, who was essentially unknown in Yeltsin's administration, was appointed as the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB, previously KGB) and deputy chief of staff in 1998.
Putin became Russia's prime minister after Yeltsin appointed him the next year. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin appointed Putin to the position of acting president of Russia upon his resignation announcement.
Vladimir Putin's Goal: To Make Russia Great Again
After securing slightly more than half of the vote in the March 2000 election, Putin's grip on power in Russia was solidified. His association with media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who utilized his television networks to endorse Putin, also played a role. Putin and Berezovsky's friendship, though, rapidly deteriorated. Once Putin took power, he had Berezovsky and other media magnates sell their empires to the government and then leave the nation. This came after critical coverage of Putin in the media. Putin simultaneously issued an edict to Russia's rich billionaires, telling them to remain out of politics.
Above all else, Putin took over the gas monopoly of the Soviet Union, Gazprom, which now provides almost 40% of Europe's natural gas. Those who desire the Soviet Union's return are mentally deficient, Putin remarked at one point. A heartless person would not miss it. In his relentless quest of a revived Soviet empire, Putin appears to have given up on Ukraine and his heart.
His efforts to use military force to expand Russia's territory are not new. After taking office, one of his first orders was to put an end to the Chechen insurgency and bring peace to the republic in the Caucasus. Russian forces invaded and seized the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 from Georgia, a country that had been a Soviet republic.
The crisis that has now developed into a full-scale invasion of Ukraine began six years ago when Russia seized Crimea. It is not surprising that Russia is taking a tough stance. "The strongest survive," was Vladimir Putin's life credo as he grew up in a tough world. While speaking at a Sochi gathering of the Valdai Discussion Club in October 2015, Putin said:
"Fifty years ago, Leningrad’s streets taught me a rule: If a fight is inevitable, strike first."