Zapolev, Mikhail Mikhailovich

Childhood and Youth

Born on November 21, 1946 in the village of Lebyazhye, Yegoryevsky District, Altai Territory, in a family of employees. In 1954 he went to a local school. In 1961 he entered the Rubtsovsky Agricultural College. In addition to studying, he devoted a lot of time to physical education and sports. He was fond of photography and hunting. He played the button accordion and the guitar. In 1964, in Grozny, the college basketball team, which included Zapolev, won the Russian championship among educational institutions. In 1965, he began working as a driver of the Lebyazhye collective farm of the Yegoryevsky district. In 1966 he graduated from the Rubtsovsk College of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture. In addition to studying, he devoted a lot of time to physical education and sports. He was fond of photography and hunting. He played the button accordion and the guitar.

Mikhail Mikhailovich about his young years:

I was not a year old when my father died of frontal wounds, and I, the only child, stayed with my mother. In fact, I was left to my own devices and in our huge village I knew every pebble, and in the forest - every swamp, berry, mushroom place. A relict forest, rare in beauty, adjoined the village (such are found only here, in Altai). Here, at the very edge of the forest, stood our hut. From the earliest years, I cooked food for myself, stroked it myself and did the chores on me: my mother, who worked as a two-rate nurse, did not have enough time to work around the house.

In 1964, as part of a basketball team, the college won the championship of Russia among educational institutions in the city of Grozny. In 1965, he began working as a driver of the Lebyazhye collective farm of the Yegoryevsky district. In 1966 he graduated from the Rubtsovsk College of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture.

According to the memoirs of M. M. Zapolev:

Even at school, he participated in sports, often won prizes. Passion for life was skiing, fishing and hunting. Skiing and fishing were my main childhood companions, and when I got older, my uncle addicted me to hunting. A memorable childhood event - the purchase of the first ski in my life, then I almost went crazy with happiness. Was the ringleader of the village boys, but in good deeds. Once, having just graduated from the seven-year plan, I went to the store and on the doors I saw an announcement about the enrollment of students in the Rubtsovsky Agricultural College. My mother did not object, and I entered this educational institution, since it was located in our Altai Territory, 30 km from my native village.

Higher Education and Career

In 1970 he graduated from Barnaul State Pedagogical Institute .

From an interview with M. M. Zapolev to the publication “Faces” about this period:

At the age of twenty-six, I was made the head of the department of Komsomol organizations of the Altai Komsomol Krai. Immediately after graduating from the pedagogical institute, which my years of work in sport went to study, I went to study at the economic department of the agricultural institute with the prospect of a wider use of my intellectual potential. In addition, despite the fact that I seem to have become an urban man, the craving for the village never passed. While still working in the Komsomol organs, he was always vividly interested in yield problems, and even conducted experiments in his personal garden, which were often successful. For example, twenty-three productive ears were obtained from a single grain of wheat! In my opinion, no one has succeeded before. For many years, this spike stood in my office as a real indicator of the capabilities of our land, with which we must work skillfully. Today in my Siberian garden grow grapes, roses, apricots, cherries.

In 1977 he graduated from Altai Agricultural Institute (correspondence department).

Since 1969, at the Komsomol work - the second, then - the first secretary of the Rubtsovskiy district committee of the Komsomol , head of the department of the Altai regional committee of the Komsomol. In 1977-1989, at the party work - the second, then - the first secretary of the Krutikhinsky district committee of the CPSU .

About his first steps in the political arena Mikhail Mikhailovich says the following:

I was always actively involved in sports, had the first categories in skiing, volleyball, and basketball, so in 1966, at the end of the technical school in the same place, in Rubtsovsk, I was offered to head a sports organization - DSO Urozhay. We began to build stadiums and sports grounds in every force. My activity was noticed in the local party district committee and recommended by the second secretary of the Rubtsovsky district committee of the Komsomol. A year later, I became the first secretary.

Since 1992 - assistant to the deputy of the State Duma of Russia of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Since 1993 - member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party . In 1992 he graduated from the graduate school of the Academy of Management in Moscow, defended his thesis. Candidate of Sociological Sciences .

Mikhail Zapolev recalls this as follows:

Much later, at the age of forty-two, having graduated from the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU and having defended my dissertation, I calculated that I had given half my life to educational institutions. I came to the Academy with formed ideas and ready-made materials, research, so I wrote my dissertation quite easily. Many years later, I was pleased to know that the new generation of graduate students at the installation session was cited as an example my dissertation as meeting the requirements for scientific work.

Since 1997 - Member of the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly.

After the restoration of the regional party organization, he was elected second secretary of the Altai regional committee of the Communist Party .. Since 2006, he was the first secretary of the Altai regional committee of the Communist Party, replaced by Vitaly Safronov .

In 2003, he was elected to the State Duma of the fourth convocation . He joined the Communist Party faction .

In July 2004, he went on a hunger strike in protest against the adoption of laws on the monetization of benefits ^[1] . Mikhail Mikhailovich Zapolev explained his position as follows:

It becomes especially clear in the Duma: the laws adopted depend on those whom we elect. Our life largely depends on this. My task is to adopt only those laws that benefit the state, which means ordinary people, and not those few who, by hook or by crook, have secured a far from comfortable existence. When the Duma adopted in the first reading the ill-fated law on the monetization of benefits (No. 122) and our faction of the Communist Party failed to change the decision of United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party, I went on hunger strike in protest against this law and eighteen days stood the food taboo. I demanded that the law on social development of the village, rural intelligentsia, the law on veterans be left alone, not to reduce, but to increase social benefits to the victims of Chernobyl and the Semipalatinsk test site. It is well known that a deputy receives a lot of money. Sometimes ordinary people are ashamed to name the amount. I give the excess to the needy and to the cause of my party. I pay 77 scholarships to gifted students from low-income families, I pay for the publication of campaign leaflets, I sign the newspapers Pravda and Golos Truda in the library of Altai Territory, etc.

In the 2007 parliamentary elections, he was elected to the State Duma of the fifth convocation . The second number on the Communist Party’s electoral list in the Altai Territory was businessman Aleksey Bagaryakov . In the Altai Territory, the Communist Party received 16.88% of the vote, which gave it the right to one deputy mandate, so only Zapolev passed to the Duma. However, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution in which it recommended “to lay down oneself in order to increase the ideological and political level and to intensify the work of Communist deputies and patriots in the Altai Territory, to strengthen their role in improving the quality of life of the population and the socio-economic development of the subject of the Federation powers of the State Duma deputy and focus on work in the regional legislative assembly. ”

On April 25, 2007, at a meeting of the State Duma, he suggested not honoring the memory of the deceased first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, with a minute of silence, but called for driving an aspen stake into his grave. ^[2]

On December 22, 2007, at the regional party conference of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, candidates for deputies of the Altai regional legislative assembly were determined. Zapolev topped the Communist Party’s election list ^[3] . According to the results of the elections to the regional parliament on March 2, 2008, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation received 238,064 voters, or 19.62%, according to the single regional election list. As a result, the Communist Party received seven mandates ^[4] .

Zapolev obeyed the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, moving to work in the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly. He explained his refusal of a seat in the State Duma by “the interests of a common cause”, noting the importance of financial support for party activities ^[5] . March 26, 2008 Bagaryakov received a mandate by decision of the CEC ^[6] . In the Legislative Assembly of the Territory, Zapolev joined the Communist Party deputy faction, became a member of the Committee on Health and Science.

In 2011, he was elected to the State Duma from the Communist Party again. Joined the committee on international affairs.

1. In 2003, as a member of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science, he spoke at the parliamentary session on education at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Belgium.

2. In 2004 (July) became the first and only parliamentarian in the world to go on a hunger strike in protest against the adoption of laws by parliament.

3. In 2004 (September) he visited Kazakhstan as an observer in the parliamentary elections of that country, where during a press conference he criticized the course and transparency of the electoral process.

4. In 2005, he established personal scholarships for gifted schoolchildren of Altai Krai from low-income families on his salary.

5. In 2006 (May) he visited Ukraine as an observer in the parliamentary elections of that country.

6. In 2006 (July) was included in the encyclopedia “The Best People of Russia” in the nomination “Homelands are Glorious Sons and Daughters” for charity work.

7. In 2007 (April), at a meeting of the State Duma, he called for driving an aspen stake into Yeltsin’s grave, which turned out to be a resonant event spread around the world, including the publication of this statement and its author on the front page of the famous British newspaper The Times .

8. In 2012, he became the best shooter of the State Duma, having won 2 cups: on trap shooting and in the overall standings in two ways.

9. In 2013 (March), according to the rating of the National Monitoring Service, out of 450 deputies of the State Duma, it took 26th place in regional work.

10. In 2013 (May), as a member of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, he addressed the Portuguese Parliament as part of the visit of the Russia-Portugal parliamentary friendship group.

11. In 2013 (June), he published an open letter to the Minister of Education and Science D. Livanov, where he called for changing the exam system and in 2014 the process of implementing his proposals began (benefits for medalists, gradual cancellation of tests and the introduction of the oral part of the exam).

12. In 2013 (October), he spoke at a meeting of the State Duma with a memorandum “Raise the voice of the church in the name of world peace”, where he called for the creation of a “World Commonwealth of Churches” with the aim of peaceful resolution of all international conflicts, and therefore received support from side of the Russian Orthodox Church and the permanent diplomatic representative of the Pope in Russia.

• Biography on the official website of the Altai Territory Administration (inaccessible link)
• Information on the website of the State Duma
• Page on the website of the Communist Party
• Zapolev, Mikhail Mikhailovich (Russian) on Twitter