Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Russian politician (1946–2022)
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (Russian: Владимир Вольфович Жириновский, IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ˈvolʲfəvʲɪtɕ ʐɨrʲɪˈnofskʲɪj], né Eidelstein, Russian: Эйдельштейн; 25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from its creation in 1992 until his death in 2022.
Zhirinovsky served as a deputy chairman of the State Duma from 1993 to 2000 and from 2011 until 2022. He also worked as a delegate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2008. During his lifetime, Zhirinovsky ran in every single Russian presidential election except for the 2004 election.
Zhirinovsky was known for many controversies, as well as staunch advocacy for Russian military action against NATO.
Early life and background
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky was born in Alma-Ata, the capital of the Kazakh SSR (modern-day Almaty, Kazakhstan). His father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, was a Ukrainian Jew from Kostopil in western Ukraine, and his mother, Alexandra Pavlovna (née Makarova), was an ethnic Russian from Mordovia. Zhirinovsky inherited his surname through Andrei Vasilievich Zhirinovsky, Alexandra's first husband. His paternal grandfather was a wealthy industrialist in Kostopil, who owned the largest sawmill in modern Ukraine and was head of the local Jewish community. His grandfather's mill has an income of $32 million a year as of 2015, and over the years Zhirinovsky demanded that successive Ukrainian governments return it to him.
In July 1964, Zhirinovsky moved from Almaty to Moscow, where he began his studies in the Department of Turkish Studies, Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University (MSU), from which he graduated in 1969.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Vladimir Zhirinovsky” as russian politician (1946–2022). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q200015. VIAF identifies the subject as 31969697. The Library of Congress control number is nr92042550. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2022, 1992 and 1993.
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