08.02.2012 - 15:09

Everyone knows that we cannot live without humor. On television, this truth has been realized for a long time, and every year there are more and more programs and series in this direction. Unfortunately, quantity does not always translate into quality, but there is a program that has been holding its own for many years and pleases us with not just funny, but really witty and intelligent jokes. It will not be difficult to guess what kind of transfer it is. Of course, this is KVN!

The beginning of time

This game has existed for many years and is so popular that the International KVN Day, which, at the suggestion of the club's president Alexander Maslyakov, has been celebrated since 2001, does not need official approval. November 8 was chosen as the date of the holiday - the day when in 1961 the first game of the Cheerful and Resourceful Club took place.

The club did not arise from scratch: four years before the first game, a program appeared that became the prototype of today's KVN. In 1957, the program “An Evening of Merry Questions” was aired, created in the image of the Czech quiz “Guess, guess, fortune teller”.

The first script for it was written by Mikhail Yakovlev and Andrey Donatov. There were no teams at that time - in the studio, and in live, asked questions, and the audience answered, and the wittier, the better. It was the first program where the audience participated on a par with the professionals. The success was stunning.

In the first edition, Nikita Bogoslovsky and Margarita Lifanova became the hosts, and already from the second part, Albert Axelrod and Mark Rozovsky, who were still students at that time, took their place. The audience was called to the stage using various tricks, for example, the presenter launched a parachute into the hall and the lucky one who caught him was on stage.

The transfer assumed funny pranks, which resulted in a winner. On the first transfer, the task was given to bring the seventh volume of Jack London, a ficus in a pot and a turtle to the studio. Not everyone has such a set at home, so there were few winners (twenty people for three prepared gifts), but in third gear there was a more serious misfire ...

Following the folk wisdom “Prepare a cart in winter, and a sleigh in summer”, it was decided to invite the audience to come to the studio in a sheepskin coat and felt boots. But in our area it is too easy even in the summer, so to complicate the task, it was also necessary to find the issue of the newspaper dated December 31 of the previous year. But it was about this “restrictive” task on the air that they forgot ...

At first, everyone had fun: the most agile spectators in winter clothes began to burst into the studio, people in fur coats and felt boots hurried through the streets on a warm September day in all types of transport and on foot to the Moscow State University building. But soon the crush at the entrance reached catastrophic proportions and it was no laughing matter: the people who broke into the studio turned into an uncontrollable crowd, the scenery flew down, the broadcast had to be interrupted ... The screensaver "Break for technical reasons" appeared on thousands of television screens.

In fact, in case of disruption of the live broadcast, a backup feature film was prepared, but here one behind-the-scenes circumstance was formed. The young man in charge of the film asked the program director Ksenia Marinina for a date and took with him the keys to the safe where the backup films were stored. So it was impossible to air the prepared film. Of course, there was a scandal, of course, the program was closed, but fortunately, the break "for technical reasons" lasted only four years.

Mind Football

The new program, edited by Elena Galperina, who proposed at her own risk to revive the spirit of the “Evening of Merry Questions”, was called KVN, which, in addition to the well-known transcript, was also the brand of the KVN-49 TV. At first, the transfer was conducted by Svetlana Zhiltsova and Albert Axelrod, who was eventually replaced by Alexander Maslyakov. Soon he turned into the only presenter who has been and remains the face of the program for many years.

Two teams were invited to the first game, which took place on November 8, 1961 - InYaz and MISI. Each team had 11 people and 2 substitutes. The participants went on stage to the football march. At first, KVN was a quiz, where, without preparation, it was necessary to answer a number of special questions, preferably correctly, but also with humor. Most of the program was impromptu, only the topic of the homework was known in advance, which also did not appear immediately. Gradually, the set of competitions expanded, more and more jokes appeared, quickly becoming popular.

The creators of the program recall various episodes with pleasure, for example, a fan contest when they had to dance in support of their team. And from one team there is a wonderful dancer, and their rivals have no one to put up. Suddenly, a red-haired guy comes on stage and, without any sense of rhythm, begins to dance. It was already funny in itself, but when the presenter asked: “Where did you study?”, the redhead answered “I am a nugget”, the audience could not straighten up with laughter.

The popularity of the program grew, and with it the popularity of educational institutions, whose teams took part in KVN, grew. And this opinion was supported not only by students, but also by the teaching staff. After the victory of the Fiztekh team, Kapitsa Sr. said: “You know, we have a lot of good things at the institute, but the most important thing is that we won KVN, we became KVN champions!”

A word about censorship

Of course, the jokes, of which there were more and more in the program, could not remain neutral. The teams were increasingly ironic about Soviet reality and ideology. And these jokes were the most popular. Therefore, after a while, the program began to go on television in recordings: “incorrect” jokes were cut out, censorship increased, and then the KGB became interested in the program.

The texts began to be carefully reviewed, the captains were called to the authorities, it was impossible to go on stage with a beard - a mockery of Lenin or Marx, about the Jews - it was impossible, with a burr speech - it was impossible ...

There were ill-wishers in the team itself: the head of central television, Sergei Lapin, had long wanted to close KVN. But for two years he did not close, but in every possible way discredited the program itself and its participants. Contests, according to Gusman, took on the character of “who will spit further” and “who will grunt louder”, and then a wave of rumors swept about KVN workers who send diamonds to Israel. Soon the transfer was closed again.

But the spirit of KVN penetrated deeply. Before closing, the programs were played in almost every university, in every school, almost by yard teams. Such popular love is not easily destroyed even by the most skillful methods. Increasingly, as a member of the Supreme Council, voters began to ask Lapin questions about the fate of his favorite program.

3-4 years after the closure, Bella Sergeeva, the former director of the program, received an offer to start airing KVN again. Sergeyeva replied to this proposal: “I will agree only if they return Gyulbekyan, give me Maslyakov and Zhiltsova, but I can’t do without them.” “Lapin asks very much,” Yury Zamyslov persuaded Bella, but the director was inexorable: “Yes, even if she gets on her knees.” Lapin did not kneel, composition creative team not restored, and therefore the question of the revival of KVN was postponed for many years.

With the beginning of perestroika, it became possible to restart the transmission. Under the old sign, it was planned to create a new program in which everything should be in a new way. However, the "cool" innovations did not last past the third season. Only the new song of the Club “Again in our hall...”, written by V.Ya.

Starting all over again was not so easy: traditions were interrupted, and in the mid-80s no one knew how to play KVN. But the new teams that applied for participation had a great desire, a great sense of humor and a willingness to work. The first game of the updated KVN between the teams of the Moscow and Voronezh Civil Engineering Institutes went on the air on May 25, 1986 and since then continues to delight with new jokes and helps us live.

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The first humorous programs on Soviet television began to appear already in the 1950s. The prototype of KVN-a was the program "Evening of funny questions", organized by journalist Sergei Muratov on the model of the Czech program "Guess, guess, fortuneteller". TV viewers in the fight for prizes had to answer the questions of the presenters with humor - one might say this was the first "interactive" in the domestic "zomboyaschik". The transmission was broadcast live (again, an unheard-of thing for those years), but its age was not long: everything broke down in an unexpected way. On the third program, which was broadcast in the summer, a prize was promised to everyone who came to the studio in a fur coat, hat and felt boots and with a newspaper for December 31 of last year. But the host of the program, composer Nikita Bogoslovsky, out of absent-mindedness, forgot to mention the newspaper, and therefore crowds of people came to the studio and burst into the studio, crushing the policemen on duty at the entrance. The broadcast of this "assault" was immediately stopped, and the transmission was covered by a closed decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU itself.

Only four years later, the creator of the "Evening of Funny Questions" Sergei Muratov managed to achieve publication new program- the same KVN in the format of a competition between two student teams. The first host of KVN was Albert Axelrod, who later became both a resuscitator and a theater and television director. In 1964, together with Muratov, he left the program and since then Alexander Maslyakov has become the host, in those years he was a student at MIIT.

Of course, even in the “thaw” 1960s, it was impossible to joke about either the first persons of the party and the state, or about the communist ideology, but you can completely do without irony over certain manifestations of Soviet reality - for example, the same eternal shortage and unobtrusive service are all it didn’t work out anyway, and therefore the censorship press on KVN only intensified from year to year. From some point on, the programs began to be broadcast not live, but on recordings, and jokes that were dubious from an ideological point of view were cut out. Students were even forced to shave so that having a beard would not create unnecessary allusions to Karl Marx or Fidel Castro. But even in its castrated form, the program continued to irritate the then head of Soviet television, the well-known reactionary Sergei Lapin and the all-powerful KGB. In the end, in 1971, KVN was simply closed for 15 years - until 1986, when the winds of change again blew over the country.

My others, do any of you remember what a real KVN is? Remember at least how the abbreviation stands for? That's right, the "club of the cheerful and resourceful" ...

Initially - it is resourceful. Competitions of student teams honing their sense of humor, as they would say now, online. On the stage of student houses of culture and live on television.

By the way, the abbreviation is something from television. The names of televisions at the dawn of the television era were given, like aircraft (ILYUSHIN-62, TUPOLEV-154), by the names of the constructors. The first TV in the USSR, KVN-49, was created in 1949 by the Leningrad designers Kenigson, Varshavsky, Nikolaevsky. The people were honored to decipher the name as follows: bought, turned on, does not work. Which is not surprising: it was no longer collected in the city of Petra, but in the homeland of the guardsmen - in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda.

Some of my friends still remember this thing (it was produced before 1962). In any case, when I first brought Andrey Bilzho to the Petrovich club and she saw a KVN-49 TV there (with an attached glycerin lens to enlarge the screen), the poetess remembered that in her childhood she also had one at home.

So, the student KVN just appeared when KVN-49 stood in every (or far from every - they went to visit "on TV"!) House. Student KVN appeared in 1961. There was no pre-recording of student meetings. VCRs, even studio ones, remained a luxury. KVN was a bright spectacle of live broadcast, filled with impromptu, lively words and sparkling humor. However, such a type of competition as " homework' was also present.

I don’t know if satirists wrote specifically for KVN or students pulled out quotes, but Grigory Gorin’s famous phrase “piano in the bushes” went to the people precisely from the stage of the Television Theater on Zhuravlev Square (“Ostankino” was not yet in sight). By the way, the Television Theater is the former House of Culture MELZ (Moscow Electric Lamp Plant, at the Elektrozavodskoy station, of course). If I'm not mistaken, the phrase about " piano in the bushes" sounded in the homework of the Gorky KVN team, from the final of the 1965/66 season.

With the sunset of the Khrushchev thaw, the sunset of the KVN era began. Satire and freethinking were already out of favor. Programs began to be pre-recorded, then shredded, and such elements of the competition as “team greetings”, “homework” began to undergo strict preliminary censorship.

The era of stagnation began, in which KVN no longer fit. The last (before the funeral of KVN) was the final of 1971/72. Somehow it happened that a team of Odessa Jews who had not yet left (which was not surprising) and a team of Bashkirs (which was very surprising) made it to the final that year. Therefore, the result of the final was predetermined - the Odessa team (the team of the Odessa Institute of National Economy) defeated the Ufa team (the team of the Bashkir University) with a devastating score ...

In 1972, KVN was officially closed throughout the country by a special closed resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU. I remember that the father of my classmate in journalism at Moscow State University, Oska Galperin, who was in charge of a regional journalistic organization and read not only the Pravda newspaper, spoke to me in the fall of 1972 like this:

Today in "Pravda" between the lines finally buried KVN!

KVN died long and painfully, in convulsions, resurrecting only once a year, on April 1st. It was on this day that the participants of the last final held their “Humorina”: the Odessa “Humorina” and the one in which students from Ufa universities competed, fragments of the Ufa team ...

Does the current show business called KVN have anything to do with the competition of student teams of the sixties? Perhaps nothing connects, except perhaps Maslyakov ... True, from the former long years in a lethargic dream of the Odessa team (the pupated “Humorina”), then a team of Odessa gentlemen hatched, but where are the gentlemen now and where is KVN?

____________________________

Music: "On the appointed day, at the appointed hour, we are glad to see you again..."

On AMiK, I did not find information anywhere about which teams were the champions of that very first television KVN, covered up by a closed decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1972. Having climbed through my archives, I post this information here. The seasons were then held according to the “autumn-spring” system, in fact, in the same way as the school year goes.

KVN Champions:

1961/1962 - Moscow Civil Engineering Institute (MISI)

1962/1963 - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)

1963/1964 - Moscow Mining Institute (MGI)

1964/1965 - KVN team in Fryazino (Moscow region)

1965/1966 - KVN team in Gorky

1966/1967 - KVN teams of Odessa and the Moscow Medical Institute

1967/1968 - KVN team in Baku

1968/1969 - Riga Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers (RCAIGA)

1969/1970 - KVN team in Baku

1970/1971 - Belarusian Polytechnic Institute (BPI)

1971/1972 - Odessa Institute of National Economy (OINH)

I would be very grateful to everyone who will tell me which KVN teams played in these 11 finals.

KVN is one of the oldest programs on Russian television. Since the first release on November 8, 1961, 55 years have passed, in total, KVN has been on the air for 41 years. If it were not for the forced break (the program was closed in 1972, and the show resumed only in 1986), KVN would have outstripped the Travelers Club program, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest program on domestic TV.

Fragments of the final of one of the first seasons of 1964/65:

For the first seven years of its existence, KVN aired live and assumed direct communication with the public, which was rare on Central Television.

KVN very quickly grew from a simple youth program into a real "club of interests." Today there are more than 80 official leagues united in the International KVN Union, more than 200 teams compete in them, and more than five million people visit the games annually. In total, there are thousands of student and school teams in Russia and abroad.

One of the symbols of KVN is the host Alexander Maslyakov. Meanwhile, he got into the program by chance. After one of the founders and the first host of KVN Albert Axelrod left the project, a competition was held for the vacant place - each team nominated its own candidate.

Bella Sergeeva Director of Central TelevisionThey wanted to take Sasha Zatselyapin in place of Axelrod. It was the captain of the Fiztekh. But it was inconvenient to take it just like that, and we decided to arrange a competition: let each of the 12 teams nominate their own candidate. And there was also Pasha Kantor, the captain of MIIT. And here comes Pasha and some little boy with him. Pasha: “Bella Isidorovna, you know, I can’t. Well, what kind of host I am, take it - Sasha Maslyakov, he is so good, he is talented. I looked, Lord, the hairs are sticking out, the little eyes are running around, such a nondescript, dull, looking around. And the transfer begins, everyone leads their own competition. Well, first, Zatselyapin. Then a second leader. Horror! “Well, everything,” I say. “We are dead.” Then Sasha. “Well, you don’t have to look. I'd rather go somewhere for a walk." And suddenly, he put on such a dignified air, combed his hair and was so lively. Svetka (Svetlana Zhiltsova. - ed.), my shadowed. He helped her in some way. That is, this is really a gift from God (from the book of Mikhail Shchedrinsky "We are starting KVN").

1963, Alexander Maslyakov and Svetlana Zhiltsova start KVN:

Who become KVN workers

The creative personnel of most channels of domestic, and not only television, are largely made up of former KVN workers. They become successful screenwriters (Vitaly Kolomiets, Leonid Kuprido, Andrey Rozhkov), producers (Semyon Slepakov, Sangadzhi Tarbaev), TV presenters (Leonid Yakubovich, Mikhail Marfin, Tatyana Lazareva, Garik Martirosyan, Dmitry Khrustalev) and actors (Dmitry Brekotkin, Natalya Gromushkina, Vladimir Zelensky, Natalia Medvedeva). Basically, they somehow continue to work in the humorous genre. However, there is famous people, in which it is not always possible to recognize former KVNshchikov.

Alexander Filippenko, theater and film actor, People's Artist of Russia

KVN MIPT team, champions of the 1962/63 season

“I enjoyed participating in KVN. It was there that Alik Akselrod, the first host and creator of KVN, saw me, and invited me to the studio "Our House" - it was the famous theater studio at Moscow State University. Khazanov, Farada, Filippov, Slavkin and many now famous people started there. I continued to study at MIPT, but every evening I went to rehearsals and performances. It defined my later life. After the closing of the studio, Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov invited me to his theater. I became an actor of that "great" Taganka and at the same time entered the correspondence department of the Shchukin school ”(from an interview with the city portal of Los Angeles).

Boris Burda, connoisseur of “What? Where? When?", participant in the show "Own game", journalist, writer

KVN team of the Odessa Institute of National Economy, champions in 1972

“Our KVN was the most daring broadcast of the era of lack of freedom, and the revived one was the most cowardly broadcast of the glasnost era. When the KVNs of the late 60s were on, the streets were empty, and after each performance of Odessa citizens, Demichev (Minister of Culture of the USSR in 1974-86 - ed.) called our regional committee and reprimanded for something, in his opinion, inappropriate. We were never told why. And in the KVNs of the 80s they even cut out what Pravda had already printed. The funny thing is that this was done by its editors, my colleagues in KVN of the 60s, who also suffer from censorship and curse it, like me. When at the very first KVN they cut out the question: "What will happen if the superstructure collapses onto the basis?" and the answer: “The stratum will suffer the most,” I realized that I made the right decision not to return to KVN ”(from an interview with Chisto Odessa Site”).

Timur Weinstein, producer (produced, in particular, the television series "Soldiers", "Happy Together"), general producer and founder of the WeiTMedia group of companies (TV series Pepel, Motherland, One to One show), Deputy General Director - General Producer of the NTV television company

KVN team "Guys from Baku", champions in 1992

“KVN led me astray. I graduated from a medical university, a psychiatrist by profession. But then he went into creativity, which influenced my entire future path. Now KVN helps me to have a constant vitality and, probably, to react with irony to everything that happens around ”(in an interview with the Vzglyad newspaper).

Pelageya, singer, Mentor in the TV project "Voice"

KVN NSU team (participated in the games of the 1997 season, becoming the youngest KVN girl at that time), champion in 1988, 1991 and 1993

“I was living in Novosibirsk then. KVN workers saw a singing girl on TV, called and invited. It was just the first season of their game. I took part in a music competition, went to Jurmala. I was then nine years old, and began new life- we were offered to move to Moscow, write an album and so on. In general, a carefree childhood, when you could do whatever you want, ended, and the next season the team played without me. Of course, it was all interesting! They are adults, they are all so talented, their energy is over the top! And they loved me very much there, I was like the daughter of a regiment. From there heap interesting people came out: Tanya Lazareva, Alexander Pushnoy, Garik Martirosyan ... Now, 10-11 years later, when I communicate with them, I plunge into childhood just like in my childhood ”(in an interview with Novye Izvestia).

Vyacheslav Murugov, CEO of CTC Media media holding

BSU KVN team, champions in 1999 and 2001

“He served in Brest in the Belarusian army with the rank of lieutenant, then he met Valentin Karpushevich (at that moment the captain of the Belarusian State University team. - ed.), who lived and still lives in Brest. Actually, we met at some wild booze, I woke up in the KVN team, where he brought me and recommended me. Before the eyes of the team, I then came up with a joke about the fact that "when Belarus bows to Russia, Poland is offended ...". They asked if this joke could be taken to the team? I asked: which one? It was at this moment that I learned about the existence of the BSU team. I learned about KVN a day earlier ... Actually, my career as an author began with this joke.<…>I did not set myself the goal of reaching the heights on television, but it happened. KVN just became a catalyst that opened my Creative skills”(from the questionnaire on the website of the International Union of KVN).

How was the birthday of KVN celebrated on the First

For several years in a row, KVN workers celebrated their main holiday as part of the Moscow Mayor's Cup, the winners of which automatically entered the final of the Major League. In 2013, six teams participated in the celebratory game.

The legendary Club of Cheerful and Resourceful is 50 years old

Today, KVN is played almost all over the world. The TV game, which originated on Soviet television exactly fifty years ago, has become one of the most popular and beloved among viewers. Even a fourteen-year forced break did not affect the popularity of KVN. They played a simple and fun quiz even when it was strictly forbidden by the leadership Soviet Union, and its creators were considered persona non grata.

Not many people remember that the legendary KVN was born thanks to an equally popular TV project - Evening of Merry Questions (VVV). At least they have the same "parents" - Albert Axelrod, Mikhail Yakovlev and Sergei Muratov. It was Muratov who came up with the idea to establish a youth editorial office on Soviet television, and then make a fun TV quiz show. For four years, the KVN script was written by the famous trio of authors. Then, one by one, they left the project, but continued to patronize it all their lives. “KVN is like a disease,” admits Sergey Muratov.

“Doctor Albert Axelrod and engineer Mikhail Yakovlev became my like-minded people”

- Officially, KVN celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, although in fact its history began four years earlier ...

— Do you mean the VVV project? There was such a thing ... In Moscow in 1957, a world festival youth and students. Shortly before that, I spoke at the Komsomol meeting of Central Television. I was an active young man. He said that it was strange: a festival of youth and students will be held in Moscow, and our television does not even have a youth edition. And so I, so to speak, was appointed to create it for the initiative myself. In the beginning there was no editorial room, no studio, no table. I remember talking with the authors on the windowsills, in the buffet.

- Then after all, Ostankino did not exist yet?

- Certainly! Everything happened at Shabolovka, 53. I published a monthly magazine called "Festivalny". Interesting advanced students from many universities in Moscow gathered there. But besides that, something else had to be done. And I found like-minded people - Albert Axelrod, Mikhail Yakovlev.

- And none of them had anything to do with journalism.

- None! Axelrod was a novice doctor, and Misha was an engineer at an electric lamp factory. But both had an amazing sense of humor and an amazing style. It was they who became co-authors of my first program called VVV, where I was the editor. Everyone wondered what the name was. Very simply, we said, an evening of merry questions. The next edition of the program was called VVVV - the second Evening of funny questions. The success was absolutely phenomenal! Of course, we went live. Spectators sat in the hall and answered the questions of the presenters. Humor was especially welcome. The last issue of the program was released in September, after the festival of youth and students.

- Was associated with this funny story. Tell me.

“It seems funny now, but then we weren’t laughing. The host of the VVV was the well-known composer Nikita Bogoslovsky. I don’t know for what reason, but Nikita made a mistake when announcing one of the competitions. The prize was promised to those who come to the studio in a fur coat, hat and felt boots. But Nikita forgot to add that you must have a newspaper for December 31 of last year with you. Actually, this condition was supposed to betray the joke of the assignment, but Nikita forgot about the newspaper. Can you imagine, on the day of shooting, it was almost impossible to get into the building of Moscow State University, where VVV was filmed. Crowds of people stood in felt boots and fur coats. They swept away the police guards (Moscow State University was considered a secure facility), and complete chaos began! True, I was not in Moscow at that time. The guys told everything in detail over the phone. As a result, the broadcast was stopped, but they decided not to replace the transmission with anything. So until the end of the evening on the TV screens there was a screen saver: a break for technical reasons. This was the last issue of VVV.

“Today there is no interest club, only a commercial project remains”

- There was even a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU regarding your project.

- It was published after perestroika. Everything that happened on the third broadcast is very funny. They said that we glorified the bourgeois way of life, asking stupid questions, for example, how does a cat get down from a tree - head up or down? Unfortunately, after this decision, our youth editorial office was closed, and I quit television along with 30 employees. The statement was written with the wording “of my own free will” ... But four years later, in 1961, I received a call from television again. During this time, there was no program that would become as popular as BBB. Editor Elena Galperina suggested: “Shouldn't we make the same program as BBB was? I say: "Don't forget how all this can end." Her: “I take full responsibility.” It was a completely different matter...

I immediately called Alec and Misha. A month later, we submitted a script for a new program. Only the day before they realized that she had no name. They began to think. At that time, the most common TV in the USSR was KVN-49. We creatively began to decipher this abbreviation. And so it happened: the Club of Cheerful and Resourceful. The name turned out to be very successful, gaining crazy popularity. KVN went on the air every month. For the first time, live people appeared on our television, program participants who did not read from a piece of paper.

- Was it difficult to write KVN scripts?

- What are you, it was the most wonderful time! Probably due to the fact that the three of us loved to meet each other. We chose who we would sit next time with, gathered in the evening and used to sit up with a cup of tea until the morning. They themselves laughed like crazy, sometimes even ran into the discontent of their neighbors.

- Who was the first host of KVN?

- Leaders are constantly changing. At first we wanted it to be a couple, then we began to invite one actor at a time. I remember that even Natalya Fateeva was the host of KVN. About six months after the first broadcast, Alec Axelrod became the host, and it was the right choice. Albert is a brilliant improviser! In addition, he was one of the authors of the script. Then Svetlana Zhiltsova joined him. For a year and a half they have been constantly leading KVN. It must be admitted that there was no program more popular in the USSR in the 60s. The names of the team captains immediately became known to everyone.

Why did you leave the project anyway?

- Axelrod's departure was to blame. It began to seem strange to the management that a man with the surname Axelrod is so popular with the audience. He was offered to leave the role of host and just write KVN scripts. Alec was terribly offended by this and left. Misha and I also wrote resignations as a protest. After us, scripts were written by others, and we only helped the teams with whom we became friends. However, in those years, writing KVN scripts was not such a difficult thing. Everything was going according to plan. There was a system (warm-up, battle of captains), the rest was just strung on it.

- Have you ever regretted leaving KVN?

“Honestly, if it wasn’t for Axelrod’s act, we probably would never have done this. Later, they even turned to the copyright protection bureau: they say, recognize us as the authors of the project with all the ensuing financial issues. They sympathized with us, but no more ... And over time, KVN began to bear little resemblance to what we created. After all, initially it was a club - we often met with team captains at some apartment or in a restaurant, discussed games. It was just a hobby club. And today there is no club, there is a commercial project from which money is extracted, a commercial-trade transfer. That's why I don't want to watch it.

“Players were forbidden to go on stage with a beard - it was believed that this was a mockery of Karl Marx”

- But it was you who tried to save KVN when the leadership of Central Television closed the program.

- It happened when the Central Television was headed by Sergey Lapin. KVN obviously annoyed him. Censorship was tightened, the KGB began to deal with the program. It got to the point that the players were forbidden to go on stage with a beard - it was considered a mockery of Karl Marx. Complete nonsense! And this despite the fact that the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev was very fond of KVN. But Lapin was able to put the squeeze on him too. In the end, the transfer was closed. Then a joke appeared: how is television different from a madhouse? The fact that there is a healthy leadership in the lunatic asylum... There was no KVN for fourteen years. It resumed only in 1986. By the way, we again came there with Alec and Misha, having received the status of a “parents' committee”. But we failed to revive the former mood of the club.

*Alexander Maslyakov first played in one of the KVN teams, and then he was offered to become the host - partner of Svetlana Zhiltsova

- Now KVN is associated primarily with its host - Alexander Maslyakov.

- Sasha was first a member of one of the teams. When the management asked Axelrod to “leave”, they began to intensively look for who would become the new leader. Maslyakov turned out to be a rather capable young man. Many today generally believe that he came up with KVN. But Sasha had nothing to do with it! Maslyakov made KVN a family business. November 12 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of KVN, I was also invited, but I'm unlikely to go. To be honest, I don't like watching this show today. If only because our main condition was that the transmission should be unpredictable! And now, if I'm going to watch it, I know what's going to happen next. The more predictability in the program, the less KVN in it.

Did the program make you a rich man?

- Are you kidding? By no means! If I lived in the West, having become the author of such a project, I would have become rich a long time ago. In Russia, everything is different. Alas ... KVN did not bring us any money. Only pleasant (and not so) experiences. Because you can “get sick” with KVN all your life ...

How old is KVN? For the first time, the idea of ​​creating a humorous television program with the participation of viewers arose more than half a century ago. In 1957, the TV show "An Evening of Funny Questions" was released - at that time no one imagined that the new entertainment program would be a success and develop into something more.

"An Evening of Funny Questions" won the attention of viewers from the first issue. The unusual format of the TV show aroused interest, especially since the show was broadcast live.

At that time, Nikita Bogoslovsky and Margarita Lifanova, well-known cultural figures, were chosen as the hosts. Unfortunately, "A Night of Fun Questions" had to be canceled after its third issue. The reason was the host's mistake - the program management decided to give a prize to a person who will come to the next program in winter clothes, despite the fact that the release falls on the summer period. One of the main conditions for receiving the prize was the presence of a New Year's newspaper for the past year with the guest. Unfortunately, the hosts forgot to mention this detail, and the new episode of Fun Questions Night ended in riots, which led to the program being cancelled.

The first leading KVN

Albert Axelrod

Four years after the closing of the Evening of Funny Questions, it became clear that viewers lacked a humorous program of this format. As a result, the creators of "Evening" again decided to release a television program, which they designated as the "Club of the cheerful and resourceful." Thus, wondering how old KVN is, it is worth starting to count from this date.

The first host of KVN - Albert Axelrod - stayed in his post for a relatively short time. He left the program three years after it began. Together with him, the founder of the humorous show, Sergei Muratov, and the screenwriter of the programs, Mikhail Yakovlev, left the project.

A few decades later, Albert Axelrod, as the person who led the first KVN, was invited as a jury member during the Major League. However, we can say that after his departure from the post of host, a new era begins for the Club.

New era of KVN - presenter Alexander Maslyakov

Albert Axelrod was replaced by people who rightfully bear the title of "the first leading KVN", because with them the game gained general fame and popularity. Alexander Maslyakov, a simple student of the Moscow state university means of communication, as well as the famous Soviet announcer Svetlana Zhiltsova.

Alexander Maslyakov and Svetlana Zhiltsova

During their work as hosts, the Club spread its influence not only on television, but also in institutes, schools, various organizations - analogs of a smaller-scale game were played everywhere.

Like today, the jokes of that time were not limited by strict limits and could touch upon politics, the ideology of Soviet society, as well as simple reality. Naturally, many leaders did not like this, so the first restrictions were imposed on the transmission - the live broadcast was replaced with a recording from which all inappropriate, according to the censors, jokes were cut out. Over time, censorship became tougher, and as a result, in 1971, KVN was closed.

But, despite this, the idea of ​​a television show was not forgotten and was revived a little later.

New era of KVN

Alexander Maslyakov

It took 15 years for Club of cheerful and resourceful"reappeared on the screens of viewers, and the host of KVN Alexander Maslyakov again took his post. Since there was a big break in his work, many people have doubts about the answer to the question of what year Maslyakov has been leading KVN. Naturally, it is simply impossible to give a definite answer. If we take into account the beginning of the work of a well-known presenter, then it will be 1964. However, in the form in which the Club of the cheerful and resourceful pleases the audience now, the television program began to appear in 1986. It was at this time that Alexander Maslyakov began to significantly influence the organization of the competition, bringing his own individual style.

It is not enough to say that the revival of KVN "under the leadership" of Maslyakov was simply successful. It is to this period that all famous KVN teams. The level of distribution of the game has reached an unprecedented scale. Teams were created not only throughout Russia, but also abroad. The Western European League was founded, the teams of Israel and the USA were assembled. were held international competitions in which the CIS countries, Germany, America and Israel participated.

Against the backdrop of this overwhelming success, Maslyakov founded creative association AMiK, which produces the TV show, as well as projects related to it. Despite the new status, the famous presenter did not leave his post.

Dynasty Maslyakovs and KVN

Alexander Maslyakov - junior

Quite a lot of time has passed since Alexander Maslyakov connected his life with the Cheerful and Resourceful Club in 1964. With the release of the next anniversary edition of the program, viewers began to wonder how many years Maslyakov has been leading KVN. It turns out that 53 years have passed since the first appearance on the screens of Alexander Vasilyevich as a presenter, and 31 years have passed since the revival of the popular program. However, the Club is still associated with the Maslyakov family, and the work of Alexander Vasilyevich is continued by his descendants.

In 1980, a famous presenter had a son, who was named Alexander, like his father. Since 2000, he replaced his father as the leader of the First League, and already in 2003 led the Premier League. Unfortunately, many critics noted that he does not “fit” as well into the format of the program as his father, so Alexander Vasilyevich continues to act as a host at the main games of the season, and his son is engaged in the affairs of TTO AMiK LLC as a general director .

Children's KVN

Taisiya Maslyakova

The new trend of the Cheerful and Resourceful Club in 2017 will spread to children, because a new show "Children's KVN" will be released on the screens of viewers. Naturally, all the best traditions of the main format of the program will be preserved in it, and Taisiya Maslyakova, the granddaughter of Alexander Vasilyevich, will become one of the presenters. A well-known participant in the program and, in combination, a dancer Alexei Korolev will help her.

The Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful took over the screens of viewers more than 50 years ago, but still has not lost its popularity and is expanding its sphere of influence. Not so long ago, everyone knew the name of the host of KVN, because Alexander Vasilyevich Maslyakov did not leave his “post” for decades. However, with the advent of the 21st century, the answer to this question is not so unambiguous, because now there are already three leaders from the Maslyakov dynasty, whose activities are inextricably linked with the Club.