What Russian TV host Vladimir Molchanov talked about on the air in Latvia 0 24

Only Mitya Remains

"Before..." there was a lot, millions of viewers know about it. But "after"... Vladimir Kirillovich lived in Moscow, but in recent years often visited Israel, hosted programs and creative meetings on a private television channel. It was evident that the television star had physically deteriorated, lost weight, and in the last days lost his voice, but he held on until the end.

Fate dealt harshly: four years ago, his wife, the wonderful journalist and colleague Consuelo Segura, a Spaniard, passed away. Molchanov met her during his studies at the university, and they lived together for 52 years. Consuelo was a co-director of his programs and documentaries.

In 2021, Molchanov underwent a liver transplant due to cancer, and a year later he suffered a heart attack. In 2025, the television star was repeatedly hospitalized due to severe abdominal pain.

Two years ago, his half-sister (from his mother's first marriage), the famous USSR tennis champion Anna Dmitrieva, who is also remembered by millions as a sports commentator on Soviet TV, passed away.

By the way, it was thanks to his older sister that Vladimir Kirillovich became interested in tennis and often came to competitions in Latvia in his youth, where he met his first love - a Jewish girl, from whom he learned many details about the tragedy of the Latvian Holocaust. That meeting was significant and became the basis for many noble deeds of the future television star, about which many were unaware...

In March of this year, his only daughter Anya died of cancer, with whom he was in the same hospital and went to say goodbye when she was already in intensive care.

As a result, only 22-year-old Mitya remains from the large family, who followed in his great father's footsteps and now works at the "Culture" television channel.

The Son of an Artist and Composer

Vladimir Kirillovich was mourned in a church in Moscow, after which cremation followed, and his ashes were buried at Vagankovo Cemetery, next to his mother Marina Pastukhova-Dmitrieva (1917—2001), a People's Artist who worked at the Theatre of the Soviet Army.

His father, Kirill Molchanov, was a legendary composer, the author of the well-known song "There are so many single guys on the streets of Saratov" and many others. In reality, he was a very significant composer - for example, the author of the music for the ballet "Othello," which was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, where Kirill was the director. By the way, he died in the theater box during the performance of his ballet...

It is not surprising that Vladimir was a bright representative of the "golden youth." It is enough to say that the godmother of little Volodya was the widow actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova, the widow of the great Anton Chekhov.

For most of his life, the future television star lived in picturesque Stara Rusa, a village of composers near Moscow, and it was normal for guests like Aram Khachaturian and Tikhon Khrennikov to visit the Molchanovs... Molchanov preserved these memories for life, reconstructing the old family home there twenty years ago...

Everything Came Together

Ahead were studies at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow University, where he chose a rare specialty - the study of the Dutch language. After graduating from university, he became a correspondent for the Press and News Agency in the Netherlands, which Molchanov himself called "the grave of an unknown journalist" - most news was published without a signature.

But even in his youth, Vladimir Kirillovich had two creative successes there - an interview with the future Queen of the Netherlands Beatrix and... with the main prostitute of the Netherlands! And there he began one of the two most important undertakings of his life - hunting for Nazi criminals, finding them, and bringing them to justice. As a result of this, Molchanov published a book in the early 1980s that received professional awards.

Everything came together - perfect upbringing, education, innate aristocratism, and most importantly, the time. The time of perestroika, new trends, when in March 1987 the first program "Before and After Midnight" was launched on the main channel of the USSR. This was a sensation, if only because previously programs ended at eleven in the evening, and here - indeed until and after midnight.

On the air, the gentleman with excellent manners launched a report about the incredible - about Yoko Ono and John Lennon, foreign music videos. And - an interview with the great artist Andrei Mironov, with whom he had been friends since the seventies. Andrei Alexandrovich stayed with young Molchanov in the Netherlands, and at his suggestion bought himself a limousine and furniture.

And then, in 1987, it turned out to be Mironov's last television interview, who died a few months later in hot summer Riga during a tour of the Satire Theater.

Princes, Rockers, and Miners

The content matched the form - in the next five years, it was in "Before and After Midnight" that broadcasts of Orthodox church services first appeared, interviews with the recently released academician Sakharov, recordings of radio interviews with Anna Akhmatova and her banned "Requiem" in the USSR.

Here, the color of the Russian diaspora was featured: princes Nikolai Romanov and Dolgorukov, Count Sheremetev, prose writer and poet Irina Odoevtseva (by the way, born in Riga).

And stars of the first magnitude - the French legend Yves Montand, the full group Scorpions came to the studio. Plus numerous music videos of foreign stars unknown to us!

And one of the most popular reports - Molchanov went with a microphone into the crowd, into a Moscow beer hall. And a drunken miner said something great: "Thank you, Molchanov, for coming to our dump!" The beer hall as a symbol of the entire suffering country!

At the Turning Point of an Era

In 1990, Molchanov simultaneously hosted the main program of the USSR - "Time" and it was he who announced to the whole country about the death of Viktor Tsoi near Jurmala.

In 1991, censorship intensified, but Molchanov managed to get footage of the OMON storming the television center in Vilnius and the deaths of Rigan residents during the storming of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia in January 1991 into "Before and After Midnight."

He left the Communist Party, in July 1991 he shot his first documentary film "Slaughter," about miners (he went down into the mine). And he resigned.

A month later, a coup attempt failed in Moscow, and the communist regime collapsed. Molchanov was in those days in the "White House," where defenders of democratic Russia gathered. An impromptu interview was taken with passionate Yeltsin, with the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who flew in from Paris. And a sensation - the first and last interview with the arrested chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vladimir Kryuchkov, footage of a search in his office and safe!

"Before and After Midnight" continued for a couple more years, and then Molchanov became a host on private television channels, a radio host on "Orpheus" radio. His former television fame faded, but 100% recognition remained almost until the end.

He shot wonderful documentary films - "The Cold of Hot Crimea" (a trip to winter Crimea), "Night. Street. Lantern. Party" (the aristocrat Molchanov went through the basements where rock youths and drug addicts sat).

Latvian Morning with Molchanov

Vladimir Kirillovich often appeared in Latvia. For example, he visited us during the "Days of Russian Television." At a pompous reception at the Russian embassy, he casually smoked his constant "Belomor" with his wife Consuelo, then they walked around Salacgriva...

In the fall of 2004, Molchanov even managed to work at Latvian television. He hosted the morning block of the Russian program "Morning-7" (now it is hard to believe, but there was such a thing). However, Molchanov did not last long in the Latvian airwaves - perhaps because the television star received a phenomenal 2,000 lats a month at that time.

In general, after three months it was decided that the leisurely rhythm of the aristocratic Muscovite did not awaken Latvians in the morning, but rather lulled them. Indeed, "Before and After Midnight" was a completely different matter!

But it was then that a significant event occurred in Molchanov's life - thanks to his acquaintance with Latvian entrepreneur Yevgeny Gomberg. After a reception at the entrepreneur's office, he put the television star in a car and they both went to the former Jewish cemetery in Maskachka, to the site of the tragic Riga ghetto.

As a result, perhaps the best documentary film by Molchanov was born - "Melodies of the Riga Ghetto." After all, this is his theme - investigating Nazi crimes. The film was released in 2006 and is dedicated to the tragedy of the Holocaust on the territory of Latvia.

And behind the scenes remained a charming story. In Jurmala, during the Soviet years, there was a Balzama bar, the name of which hung in large iron letters on the facade. At the beginning of the millennium, the former bar stood in neglect. Gomberg took a hammer and knocked off two Latvian letters - B and M. The initials of Vladimir Molchanov were formed, which still adorn the home of the great television journalist in Stara Rusa.