Born: 29.08.1974
Current address: Leninsky prospect 95 - 68, Moscow, Russia

Phone: 7.095. 131.3591
E-mail: zassoursky@yahoo.com
Internet site: http://www.oocities.org/zassoursky

Citizenship: Russian Federation

Occupation: Producer, journalist, researcher

Education:
Graduated from Moscow State University, Faculty of Journalism, 1996.
Ph.D. (Kandidat filologicheskikh nauk) in November 1998, Moscow State University, Faculty of Journalism.
Topic of the thesis: SMI Rossii v usloviyakh globalnykh protsessov transformatsii: formirovanie novoi sistemy sredstv informatsii i ikh rol v politicheskoi zhizni strany (Russian Mass Media in Conditions of Global Transformation Processes: The Formation of the New Information System and the Role of the Media in the Political Life).

Professional Career:
1989-1991 Reporter, Parliament Correspondent and Editor at the Studinformo News Agency

Started working while 14 years old. First job at newspaper at 16.

1991-1993 Reporter and Observer for "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" newspaper
1994-1995 Economics Editor for "Nezavisimaya Gazeta"

“Nezavisimaya Gazeta” was the first independent newspaper in the Soviet Union and Russia. Founded with donations from the Moscow intelligentsia, it became one of the most influential publications in the country and remains one of the most cited abroad. In 1995 Boris Berezovsky bought the newspaper. It enjoys a role of political forum for the Russian political elite to this day.

1996 Elections Manager for Boris Nemtsov, Governor of Nizhegorodskaya oblast

The capital of this state, Nizhny Novgorod, is a million-people city at the intersection of two major rivers in the European part of Russia – the Oka and the Volga. This immensely beautiful city went through a revival during the nineties, hosting a new school of architecture. Nizhny Novgorod is the Russian analogue of Frankfurt and Detroit combined. It houses the production facilities of GAZ, a leading Russian car manufacturer and Red Sormovo, a nuclear submarine plant. It is considered the ‘third capital’ of Russia by its inhabitants – and certainly represents one of its deepest pockets.

1996-1997 Coordinator for development at "Obshaya gazeta" weekly newspaper

“Obshaya Gazeta” was published for the first time in the August of 1991. It is one of the two independent weeklies in the country to this day. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper is Jegor Yakovlev, the legendary editor of “Moscow News” weekly during Glasnost and the director of the first “Ostankino” channel in the beginning of nineties.

1997-1998 Political and Media Adviser to Vice-Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov

Rumored as a potential presidential candidate, Boris Nemtsov is currently the leader of the United Right Forces fraction in the Russian parliament.

1999 Head of press-service at the First "Unofficial Moscow" Art festival

Festival became one of the major cultural events of the year due to its emphasis on diversity and new Russian art.

1999 Project manager for the parliamentary elections campaign of the Union of Right Forces
1998-2000 Researcher at Moscow State University
1998-2000 Published scientific and future articles on media, book reviews and essays at the internet magazine "Russian Journal" at www.russ.ru

2000 (Sept.-Dec.)   Lecture tour in the United States of America.

This lecture tour included 9 campuses of the State University of New York, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Kennan Institute, George Washington University and World Bank at Washington, D.C.

2000-2001 Cultures, Communications Center at MSU, Director

 

Projects in arts and culture:

1998 (August)        Started an internet literature project www.litera.ru

Litera.ru was devised as a vehicle for the promotion of publishers and as such it was perhaps the first internet flop in Russia, and the cheapest one by far. However, it was the cultural content and radical manifestos, celebrating the return of text through the internet that made a name for this project. In the original version of the site Max Frei published his “The Ideal Roman” for the first time. Some of the publications are still in demand today. The project is still up and running as a site of literate criticism.

1999 (Aug.-Sept.)  Member of the organizing committee, assistant producer and head of the press service of “Unofficial Moscow” art festival

Festival was organized in a rush, and for this reason the structure operated not quite the way it should. Press service was one of the few administrative departments that were responsible for the event as a whole, hence a lot of administrative activities, on-the-spot problem-solving and trouble-shooting was involved.

1999 (Oct.-Nov.)   Co-produced of a number of concerts and media events in the Right Forces Union Campaign.

The largest and most important by far was the ‘No fear’ concert, staged at one of the largest public places in the center of Moscow, Mayakovskaya Square. Situated on the crossroads of the Garden Ring and Tverskaya Street, the Square hosted the concert of a number of Russian popular bands. According to the state police estimate, 15.000 people attended the show. Aside from numbers this concert was remarkable for the mixture of rock and pop groups with ‘Opus Posth’ classical band (they played Philipp Glass) and a theatrical interlude with balloons and fireworks (accompanied by the music of Michael Nyman).

2000 (Feb.-Mar.)  Director of the art-campaign ‘Boycott the TV’.

This was a spectacular show staged against spectatorship. A number of punk musicians joined the events that received enormous attention in Russian media primarily because some TV-smashing was involved.

1999 – 2000         Founded and developed osvod.org net-art project.

The distinct identity of this project comes from the mixture of political and artistic content. Political content is treated in the artistic tradition of European avant-garde, where the discourse of politics is undermined by the visual language of collage and the contradiction between the simplified images of public personas and the complexity of artistic sensibilities was played out in the open. The project received critical acclaim at the Moscow conference on the internet Pro@Contra in May, 2000.

 

Books:
Zassoursky, Ivan: Mass Media vtoroi respubliki (Mass Media of the Second Republic). Moscow, Izdatelstvo Moskovskogo Universiteta, 1999.

A book on the history of Russian media and politics in the nineties. Sold out. Second edition is coming – in English. Working title: (Re) Constructing Russia: media and politics in the nineties. Under this title the second edition has been published on-line in Russia at http://www.russ.ru/politics/20001114_0.html

 

Prizes and awards:
1994 Special award from "Reform" fund for contribution to social-economic development of Russia as NG economics editor
1996 Gold medal for excellency at the faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University
2000 Awarded the Shuvalov prize for the book "Mass Media of the Second Republic" by Moscow State University

There are only two awards at the MSU – and the Shuvalov prize is one of them. The Shuvalov prize is named after one of the founders and sponsors of MSU, Empress Catherine the Great lover and favorite Ivan Shuvalov. It is given on an annual basis for outstanding scientific achievements.

Publications:
Articles in refereed scientific journals:
Zassoursky, Ivan: Politika, dengi i pressa v sovremennoi Rossii. Svobodnaya mysl 10/1996, 3-18.
Zasurski, Ivan: Uuden Venäjän lehdistön ensimmäiset vuodet.
Tiedotustutkimus 20 (1997):4, 62-76.
Zassoursky, Ivan: Mass-media vtoroi respubliki. Svobodnaya mysl 4/1999, 44-58

Publications in multi-authored scientific works:
Zassoursky, Ivan: Russian Journalism and Open Society: from Utopia to Reality, or from Reality to Utopia. In Zassoursky, Yassen N. & Vartanova, Elena (eds.): Media, Communications and the Open Society. Moscow: Faculty of Journalism & Publisher ICAR 1999, 160266.
Zassoursky, Ivan: The Open Society and the New Urban Culture as presented in Public Communication Process. In Open Society and Media, published by the Amsterdam School of Communication research, 2000.
Zassoursky, Ivan: Russian Media in the Nineties: driving factors of change, actors, strategies and results. In “Transformation and Globalization: Driving actors and factors of post-Soviet change. A study of actors, interests, institutions, and modes of regulation”, Berlin: Freie Universität, Berlin, 2000.

Scientific articles in Internet publications:
Zassoursky, Ivan: Predstavlyayut li rossiiskie SMI ugrozu dlya obshchestva?
O posledstviyakh kontsentratsii i vliyanii politizirovannogo kapitala.
Russkii zhurnal 1998. http://www.russ.ru/journal/media/98-01-01/zasurs.htm
Zassoursky, Ivan: Drovoseki na birzhe. Media-politika i rossiiskie SMI.
Intellectual Capital 2 (1998): 15.
http://www.intellectualcapital.ru/iss2-15/index.htm

In addition to these over 500 articles and publications in newspapers and magazines in Russia and abroad as well as in internet publications.

 

 

Language skills:
Mother language: Russian
Excellent knowledge: English
Reasonable handling: French
Poor performance: Czech