"Izvestia was always supposed to be first..."

Alexander Blokhnin, one of the oldest employees of Izvestia, turns 90 on December 4. He worked in the editorial office for more than 50 years - from 1962 to 1993. He was an editor of the information department, special editor, deputy editor of the illustration department, worked in the publishing house and headed the multi-circulation newspaper Izvestianets. On the eve of the anniversary we talked to our senior colleague about his work in the newspaper, the era and the most vivid events that were reflected in his journalistic career.

From Moscow to Vladivostok

His name was well known to Izvestia readers of several generations - he worked at the newspaper for more than three decades and for about two dozen more at the publishing house of the same name.

Alexander Blokhnin was both an author and a photographer. His photos, taken with a German Linhof, the first professional camera in his collection, were featured on the front page of Izvestia. And his reports and news stories were often the first among the publications that were published at that time in the Soviet Union.

Alexander Blokhnin worked in Izvestia for a total of about 50 years, but he retired from journalism only in the early nineties.

- Those were the times, everyone wanted to attack each other with tanks and shells, it became impossible to live normally," he recalled in a conversation with Izvestia.

According to him, the most vivid page of his journalistic biography was an unusual business trip, which he undertook with another Izvestia journalist Alexander Kraminov.

- It was 1966, the time when all newspapers and magazines began to fight for supremacy in the list of the most published ones, - said Alexander Blokhnin. - And then our editor of the information department came to us one day and said that we should come up with something so that none of our colleagues could outdo us. So we came up with this trip - we decided to drive all over the Soviet Union and write reports from there. We planned to leave in the summer and be on the road for no more than a month, but in the end we barely made it in two and a half.

Alexander Blokhnin and his colleague set off on their All-Union trip in a rented UAZ, with the route of the trip written on its side panels and the Izvestia logo on the windshield. The two journalists traveled through Central Russia, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Siberia, Transbaikalia, and the Far East.

- For the first two days we tried to stay in hotels, but then we realized that it was useless - it was too heavy to carry the equipment, - said Alexander Blokhnin. - So we decided to live in the car, and there were stretchers for the military, on which we slept, and cooked food outside, on a primus.

In an era when no one could even think about cell phones and the Internet, such a large-scale trip of journalists was unique. Based on its results, Alexander Blokhnin and Alexander Kraminov wrote 18 reports about how the huge country lived and about its people engaged in various spheres of production.

- At that time there were colossal construction works in the country, there were many outstanding people who were always testing and discovering something," he explained the purpose of the trip. - For example, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, for the first time, hundred-cube excavators were produced - grandiose machines, against which a man looks like a bug. Or the Karakum Canal, which was built then in the Turkmen SSR. We wrote about all this and took a lot of photos. We sailed from Baikal to Vladivostok on a small barge, because there were no roads there at that time.

Later all these reports and unique black-and-white photos were combined by Alexander Blokhnin in the book "107 days and 10 hours spent two people in an all-terrain vehicle with a short inscription Moscow-Vladivostok". The book was published in 2016 for the 100th anniversary of Izvestia.

About this book, Alexander Blokhnin talks inspirationally, recalls the episodes he has experienced. In the photos published in it, he remained as he was 58 years ago - a young journalist in glasses and a leather jacket, with a camera around his neck and a great interest in life. After our conversation, Alexander Vladimirovich gave this book to the Izvestia editorial office as a souvenir.

Gagarin, Pyryev, Adzhubey ...

In the internal information department of Izvestia, where Alexander Blokhnin worked, according to his memories, in the seventies worked 15 people, and each had his own specialization.

- I got the car industry," said the journalist. - I remember the moment when KamAZ appeared in the USSR for the first time in 1976. Izvestia was the first to report on it, we always had to be the first. I had a task not to miss this event, but to write about it, I had to take permission from the very top - from the Central Committee. It was a whole story, but in the end we got such permission and became the first in the Union to publish a report about the new machine.

Alexander Blokhnin speaks with great enthusiasm about the editor-in-chief Alexei Adzhubey (who headed Izvestia from 1959 to 1964).

- We had such a story with Adjubey: one day I went to his office to coordinate illustrations - the editor-in-chief had issued an order to show him all the pictures," recalls Alexander Blokhnin. - I entered the office and saw Adzhubey sitting at the table, and next to him stands, hanging his head, the head of the Department of Literature and Art Ivashchenko, all pale, upset. He was listening to Adzhubey dictating some text to a stenographer.

It turned out, continued Alexander Blokhnin, that it was a text about the Soviet director Ivan Pyryev, winner of the Stalin Prize. The day before, during the shooting of his new movie, Pyryev, in a fit of directorial rage, had swore profanities at half of his crew. And Alexei Adzhubey, learning about this, decided to write a feuilleton on Ivan Pyryev in the spirit of "How Izvestia" fight against foul language. Ivashchenko did not want to quarrel with Ivan Pyryev, so he was upset. But still put his name under the text.

Alexei Adzhubey, according to Alexander Blokhnin, "was a great man and never strayed from the team.

- We had a cafeteria on the second floor, where we all went to drink coffee, and Adzhubey came there too," says Alexander Blokhnin. - And a ring would immediately form around him, noise and laughter. In these informal journalistic conversations, our new topics emerged.

The jubilee remembers one more person with awe - Yuri Gagarin.

- Once Gagarin visited us at Izvestia, and our photographer showed him a Linhof camera," said Alexander Blokhnin. - It was a rare device at that time, Gagarin was interested in it, began to twirl it in his hands and shoot something. I am very proud that I ended up with this device. I still have it.

From personal Alexander Vladimirovich likes to tell about his three grandchildren, one of whom recently went to serve in the army. He is very sorry that due to his age he can not read books for a long time and has to lead "the usual life of a pensioner".

- But last year I was still in Izvestia at the conference and spoke there! - Alexander Blokhnin noted not without pride.

"Izvestia" heartily congratulates his colleague on his birthday and wishes him all the best. Continue being as genuine as you are, dear Alexander Vladimirovich!