Alexander Vasilyevich Maslyakov (russian: Александр Васильевич Масляков) (born November 24, 1941 in Sverdlovsk,

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

) is a prominent Soviet and Russian television game show host. He is a well known, iconic figure throughout the former USSR, having been on the screen for the greater part of most people's lives. Since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

, the leader and presenter of the TV show «

KVN ''KVN'' (russian: КВН, an abbreviation of , ''Klub Vesyólykh i Nakhódchivykh'' or ''Ka-Ve-En'', "Club of the Funny and Inventive") is a Russian (and formerly Soviet) humour TV show and an international competition where teams (usually comp ...

». In this he compares with personalities such as

Bob Barker Robert William Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American retired television game show host. He is known for hosting CBS's ''The Price Is Right'' from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American televis ...

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...

on American television.

Game shows

Maslyakov has been working in television since 1964. He has hosted numerous game shows in this time, including «Allo, my ishchem talanty» ello, we're looking for talents «Adresa molodykh» ddresses of young ones «Veselye rebyata» un kids the long-running «A nu-ka, devushki» ome on, girls in which young women competed against one another in skills such as cooking, dancing, or milking cows, and its short-lived counterpart for young men, «A nu-ka parni». He was also the first host (1974) of what subsequently became one of Russia's longest-running game shows, « Chto? Gde? Kogda?» hat? Where? When? Maslyakov was the regular host of Soviet coverage of World Festivals of Youth and Students, held in such major world capitals as Sofia, Havana, (East) Berlin, Pyongyang, and Moscow, as well as hosting a number of popular Soviet Eurovision-style lip-synching song competitions over the years.

KVN

Maslyakov is most famous, however, for his involvement in the game show

(Club of the happy and inventive), a game show nearly as long-lived as «Chto? Gde? Kogda?», in which teams of enthusiastic and clever young people (usually university students) compete against one another in a series of improvised and rehearsed comedic and musical skits and witty repartee (and occasionally cutting-edge politically risque satire and social commentary) in front of a live audience and a jury of stars of stage and screen. KVN went on the air in 1961, and Maslyakov became its host in 1964, while still a student himself. He has remained at the helm ever since, and now runs the production company that owns the show itself and all spinoff rights. Maslyakov is currently the president of the International Union of KVN and the host of all the games of the Major League of KVN as well as of the annual KVN festivals in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

and

Jūrmala Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019 ...

Education and awards

Maslyakov graduated in 1966 from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers and in 1968 he completed Higher Courses for Television Workers. He is a Merited Figure of the Arts of the Russian Federation, 1994 laureate of the

Ovation The ovation ( la, ovatio from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, p ...

prize, and a member of the Academy of Russian Television. In 2002 he was awarded the highest honor of the Academy of Russian Television, the

TEFI TEFI (russian: ТЭФИ) is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors (up to 50 nominations in 2008), such as tele ...

For individual contribution to the development of domestic television. In 2006, in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of KVN, the then-president of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

conferred the

Order of Merit for the Fatherland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Grade IV on Maslyakov for a significant contribution to the development of domestic television and many years of creative activity.

References

External links

Official KVN website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maslyakov, Alexander Living people 1941 births Russian television personalities KVN Soviet television presenters Full Cavaliers of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" Russian media executives