Mordashev Sergey Alexandrovich. Alexey Mordashov: iron boy

$21.2 billion

ALEXEY MORDASHOV

Alexey Mordashov

The history of the Mordashov family is rooted in the Volga region. Here, on lands rich in forests, but not very suitable for agriculture, woodworking, "clumsy" craft was born. Entire families were engaged in the manufacture of wooden spoons, dishes, furniture and funny toys. The Mordashov family comes from the ancient Nizhny Novgorod village of Fedoseevo, which was famous for its toy woodworkers.

Each Fedoseev family specialized in its own form of this folk craft. The Mordashovs made horses. The older men carved them out of wood, and the rest of the family primed, painted and sold them in markets and fairs. The current owner of the country's metallurgical giant, the Severstal company, Alexei Mordashov, proudly says that Mordashov's wooden horses are exhibited at the Folk Toy Museum in Sergiev Posad.

The ancestor of the current Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, Ivan Mordashov, more than a hundred years ago, made a miniature spoon workshop in which four pairs of small spoons placed under a gable canopy reproduced all technological processes real production: they sawed, hewn, chopped off and cut out spoons. The figurines were driven by the rotation of the shaft. It was not a shame to give such toys even at the royal court!

Funny wooden figurines were carved by Alexei Mordashov's great-grandfather and his grandfather….

The metallurgical chapter in the history of the family was started by Mordashov's father. He was the only one of the three brothers who did not go to nesting dolls, but graduated from the Gorky Polytechnic Institute with a degree in electrical engineering and moved to Cherepovets in the early 1960s. There, at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, he met Mordashov's future mother, who worked in the equipment department. It was a classic Soviet industrial novel: with awkward smiles at a meeting, secret dates after work, a long period of courtship - and a rapid transition to some kind of very solid and artless family life. The wedding was played right in the hostel, accommodating almost twenty guests in one room. And the next morning, Alexander Mordashov was already on shift.

Alexey was born in Cherepovets on September 26, 1965. In early childhood, he was diagnosed with a serious congenital injury, and, by his own admission, he already knew for sure that he would not be a pilot or an astronaut. However, his abilities and desires very soon coincided. Parents were not zealous in raising their son: they did not have time for this, and the boy did not cause concern. A calm, independent child, Lesha was not afraid to be alone at home when his parents were at work. Noisy games and dangerous boyish amusements aroused no interest in him.

At school, Mordashov, in his own words, was the right boy, classmates unanimously elected him the head of the class. The class teacher so often cited Lesha as an example and urged students to look up to Mordashov that at some point Lesha was jokingly nicknamed Template.

He was not a leader, - his former history teacher recalls Alexei Mordashov. - But the boy was responsible and diligent, tried to be the best in everything, although he had no humanitarian inclinations..

Freed from physical education lessons, Lesha Mordashov could thoughtfully prepare homework or dreamily look out the window. Perhaps as a result of these dreams, Mordashov decided to become an economist. And pushed him to this ... Karl Marx. The creator of Capital did not throw bombs at the king, did not hold a rifle in his hands, did not cross the seas and deserts in search of truth, meanwhile, his ideas had such a powerful impact on the world that little could compare. By the end of school, Mordashov was confidently oriented in the basics of economic theory.

Having received a secondary education, Alexei Mordashov went to enter the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute, believing that it was less theorized than similar Moscow universities, closer to production and practice. Anatoly Chubais studied at the same institute, and then taught. Mordashov still found those times when, in the early 90s, a club of "young reformers" headed by Anatoly Borisovich often met on the top floor of the institute. Mordashov still speaks of Chubais with great student gratitude, recalling that Anatoly Borisovich gave him a lot of knowledge about economic mechanisms, rare at that time, for the first time introduced him to the works of Yegor Gaidar.

The student body became for Mordashov a real breakthrough into another life. He seemed to have wings on his back. There was a feeling of self-confidence, clarity in understanding the world around and one's own life. AT official biography Mordashov, edited by himself, this period of the life of the future oligarch is described as follows: At the institute, Alexei Mordashov was an honors student, a Lenin scholarship holder and a Komsomol leader. The women of the university remember him with warmth and affectionately pronounce his simple Russian surname. He was remembered as courteous, unassuming, pleasant young man- a real man. Aleksey was polite to everyone and spoke in the same tone to both the cleaning lady and the rector of the institute.

These heartfelt memories are not disputed even by Mordashov's first wife, Elena, with whom the most loud scandal in the biography of the oligarch.

Alexei Mordashov met his first love in his second year, right in the corridor of the institute. Lena Mityukova was a touching creature, from which socialist realist artists were just right to paint pictures: a chubby, ruddy, smiling girl radiated optimism and health. Classmates called this cheerful A student with wide-open eyes the Sun. It was the Sun that blinded Lesha Mordashov in the spring of 1985.

Sophomore Mordashov was not embarrassed by the fact that Lena was almost three years older. He spoke to her, colliding at the door of the auditorium, and immediately invited her for a walk. After classes, they went for a walk around spring Leningrad. The bright sun shone. The young gentleman shone with intelligence and erudition. They went to cafes, drank coffee and cakes. It was interesting for her to talk with him and it was pleasant to walk along the spring streets next to such an intelligent and prominent young man. Lena fell in love with Alexei Mordashov, if not at first sight, then from the first meeting. Since that day, girlfriends and dormitory neighbors have only heard from Lena how smart, and handsome, and gallant Lesha is ...

What happened next? Elena Mityukova later commented on her relationship with Alyosha Mordashov at that time: “We met, met and ... met.” Despite her adulthood, Lena showed amazing frivolity. She discovered that she was pregnant only in June, when she went home to Irkutsk. I went to see a gynecologist, and a strict doctor interrogated her: “Does the man know? Did you tell him you were in a position? Not? Need to say. So that later there will be no reproaches - so, they say, got rid of the child, which means that I am not needed. And in general, go and think carefully whether to leave the child or not.

While Lena was thinking, all deadlines had passed. The young man, having learned about the pregnancy of his beloved girl, did not jump with happiness and did not rush to circle with his beloved in his arms. He withdrew into himself and went to think about the situation. Mordashov thought for so long that the institute friends of Lena and Lesha became worried. Before their eyes, a beautiful love story threatened to turn into a rather ugly drama. Hostel friends pestered Lena with endless questions: “Well, how are you doing?” Lena just waved it off: “Guys, don’t bother, everything is fine with us.” A few more months passed, and everyone at the institute already knew that Lena was expecting a baby. Alyosha Mordashov thought. Finally, after the November holidays, he made up his mind and proposed to Lena: "Marry me."

On January 15, 1986, the son of Ilya was born to Alexei and Elena Mordashov. It soon became clear that the boy was seriously ill. The birth of a child forced Mordashov to look at things from a practical point of view. Three of them, with his wife and son, Mordashov lived in the same room in a student hostel. Scholarships, even higher ones, were barely enough to make ends meet. Moving up the scientific ladder within the walls of the institute did not promise either money or any clear prospects. Mordashov has not yet managed to make connections that would allow him to get a good position in Leningrad. In an attempt to somehow earn money, Mordashov got a job as an assistant at the department, wrote for money term papers for students ... But all this did not solve the problems that arose.

Alexei Mordashov did not enter graduate school. He says he didn't do it on purpose. A scientific career did not appeal to him, and life circumstances required decisive and active action, and not sitting in scientific libraries and at the department ... Over time, Mordashov only strengthened in the correctness of his choice. In his opinion, the MBA degree, which he received in England, at Newcastle University, in modern world is valued more than the dubious authority of a Doctor of Economics.

After reflecting on his prospects in St. Petersburg after graduation, Mordashov came to the conclusion that nothing shines for him. He returned to Cherepovets with his wife and young son. The good name and acquaintances of the parents, who devoted their whole lives to the plant, allowed Alexei in August 1988 to become a senior economist in the labor organization bureau of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.

From the general mass of employees, the young specialist stood out in that, when faced with difficulties, he did not get lost, but lane on them like a tank. In 1988, the order from the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy came to the plant: it was necessary to send a specialist with higher education and good knowledge of the German language. There were five of them throughout Severstal. Four refused, explaining that they did not speak German well enough. And Mordashov went, because with his inherent self-confidence he said: "I freely translate with a dictionary." And four years later, at the age of 27, Mordashov became director of economics and finance.

Mordashov's career was almost ruined by one phone call. The then Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy, Serafim Kolpakov, demanded that the director of Severstal, Yuri Lipukhin, immediately remove the young promoter. The reason for this hostility of the minister was that Mordashov beat his son, who also underwent an internship in Austria.

Mordashov recalls this story with a characteristic cheeky laugh: Well, yes, it was. He wanted to relax, and I wanted to study. And he complained to his father.

How this story could have ended for the future owner of Severstal, if not for the intercession of Lipukhin, only God knows. Yuri Lipukhin tried to smooth the situation and, promising to deal with Mordashov, gradually defended his subordinate. Lipukhin attributed what happened to Mordashov's youth. However, subsequently Mordashov repeatedly demonstrated rigidity in relations with people.

In 1992, he nevertheless became director of economics and finance. The appointment was met with mixed reception. Dissatisfied conversations began among the management and workers: Mordashov was already very young, and he had a very mediocre attitude to metallurgy - there was a special distrust of economists in those years among the people. But Lipukhin enjoyed colossal prestige at the plant, and passions soon subsided.

Yuri Lipukhin was already 60 years old at that time. He was not a feeble old man, but he understood that he was tired of leading work. Therefore, he began to search for a person who could be entrusted with the management of the plant. It was a common practice of Soviet directors to prepare a successor for themselves. The active and serious Mordashov was suitable for this role, and Lipukhin wanted to take a closer look at him. Mordashov lived up to Lipukhin's expectations. Being proactive and independent, he was nevertheless a conscientious performer, an obedient student who showed respect for his mentor.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that Lipukhin entrusted Mordashov with the task of privatizing the plant. For the Soviet director, privatization in general was an incomprehensible and frightening phenomenon. Many had the feeling that, before reaching its completion, privatization would end up with all its inspirers and participants being sent to trample on the zone. It is unlikely that Lipukhin wanted to insure himself by entrusting a risky and dangerous line of work to a person who, in case of emergency, could be sacrificed ... Lipukhin's further frivolity simply does not give reason to suspect him of such foresight. Lipukhin simply decided that the educated and quick-witted Mordashov would certainly figure out what to do with this privatization that had fallen from nowhere ... And Mordashov met the mentor's expectations and even surpassed them. Under his leadership, a structure was created that was engaged in buying up vouchers, and then shares from workers.

This is how the Severstal-Invest company appeared, which was aptly nicknamed Severstal-Incest by the people for its too piquant proximity to the plant itself. Twenty-four percent of the shares of this new structure belonged to Severstal, and everything else belonged to Mordashov.

To buy back shares, the plant needed a lot of money. To earn them, Severstal-Invest resorted to the usual tactics for that time - it became an intermediary between the plant and metal buyers. This scheme looked like this. The Cherepovets Iron and Steel Works sold its metal at the lowest price to Severstal-Invest. And she, in turn, resold the metal to Western consumers with a big profit. The resulting profit settled in Severstal-Invest. This money could be used to buy shares from the workers.

It was not difficult to buy shares from the workers. The workers did not attach much value to the "pieces of paper" that suddenly ended up in their hands. And besides, few believed that the plant could survive. Built at the behest of Stalin, Severstal was located thousands of kilometers from the ore and coal deposits needed for metal production. The country was in a fever from economic reforms and inflation... The plant itself was economically entirely dependent on Severstal-Invest. To convince the workers to sell their shares as soon as possible, the company did not pay wages for months. As a result, Mordashov collected 83% of the shares of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.

The successful completion of privatization, carried out under the leadership of Mordashov, coincided with the release of the law on joint-stock companies. This law forbade combining the positions of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors. As a result, Lipukhin offered the successor, who had already earned confidence, to take the place of the director of Severstal.

However, the working class of the plant interpreted such a step of the "experienced" director then in their own way. It was said that Lipukhin decided to wait out the incomprehensible off-season market, assigning Mordashov the trivial role of a zits-chairman.

But Yuri Lipukhin could not even imagine that by that moment the position of the pieces on the chessboard, which he considered his own, had changed. And in the most radical way. While working on the privatization of Severstal, Mordashov acquired some shares for the enterprise, but mostly for himself. By the beginning of 1996, a controlling stake in Severstal was owned by the Severstal-Invest company led by Mordashov. That is, de jure Alexei Mordashov became the owner of the plant. And in response to the offer to become a director, Mordashov brought this new information to the attention of management.

Eyewitnesses retell the circumstances of these events in different ways. They say that Mordashov did not particularly stand on ceremony with the old management of the plant, but directly said: “Now I am the owner. Whoever is not satisfied with this can look for another job. Mordashov perceives such stories in his usual manner - rounding his eyes in surprise and bursting into cheerful laughter: What do you find in this? I didn’t do it illegally, it was approved by the council of the labor collective, so it was not amateur performance.

Indeed, what's wrong with that? On the contrary, we must give Alexey Aleksandrovich his due: he managed to privatize one of the largest metallurgical plants in the country without unnecessary noise, blood and shooting, as was often the case then.

Having changed his position at the plant, Mordashov decided to change his family life. In 1996, he officially divorced his wife. Son Ilya at that time was 10 years old. Exactly how much it took Alexei Mordashov to make his way from a poor student to the owner of one of the most powerful and profitable metallurgical enterprises in Russia. Outwardly, these ten years were not marked by any unexpected events and dangerous turns. But this is only an appearance. Severstal was the center of confrontation between the main forces dividing the market.

At the end of 1992, Vladimir Lisin arrived in Cherepovets, representing at that time the interests of the Trans World Group, which was pursuing a policy of aggressive expansion in the Russian metallurgical industry. Lisin allegedly arrived to discuss a certain project related to Moscow real estate, but his mission was more of an intelligence one. Following him, TWG chief Mikhail Chernoy himself rushed to the plant with proposals to organize trade financing and offshore schemes for Severstal. Lipukhin refused Chernoy, but TWG's attempts to "enter" the plant did not end there. On behalf of TWG, Iskander Makhmudov and Oleg Deripaska visited Severstal at regular intervals. However, they left with nothing. Severstal was saved from power attacks by TWG, one might say, by a happy coincidence. "TWG" at that time led fighting on several fronts - and it was imprudent to open another one.

There were many objects for which there was a struggle, and we simply did not receive due attention, - Mordashov explains the reason that he managed to survive the era of the redistribution of property without shocks. But there is a certain amount of slyness in this explanation. In addition to TWG, other players in the metallurgical market, dubious international businessmen, and local criminal groups showed interest in the plant.

Mordashov somehow managed to avoid clashes with groups interested in controlling the plant. Sometimes, knowing that representatives of one or another large group were calling him to invite him to Moscow for negotiations, he simply did not pick up the phone. This silence could go on for weeks. It was necessary to have strong nerves to withstand such a game of silence. However, in addition to the external circle of interests, there was another, much more significant and subtle - the circle of internal confrontation. The young director of Severstal, in fact, was in a hostile environment and, knowing this very well, played his own game, which was aimed at conquering and strengthening his power and destroying the influence of the old leadership. So the ten-year period of the formation of Mordashov as the owner of the plant was a period of internal rebirth.

I became arrogant, cynical, tougher and more self-confident, - says Mordashov about what happened to him in these "quiet" years. - My morals are deteriorating, no doubt. But, probably, if I had been modest, delicate, I would not have been a director, and Severstal would not have been Severstal.

First comes power, then money, and after them - permissiveness, - Elena Mordashova explained the reasons for the divorce a few years after she broke up with her husband. - The most dangerous thing for a novice businessman is “caisson disease”. This is when it flew up with the cork up, looked around: but everything is possible. And we will - everything! My husband got a company car and personal secretary. Well, immediately - he's young, handsome - the girls began to hang on him. Once there was a celebration at the plant, we came together, but all evening Alyosha frolicked in front of my eyes with a young dancer. It was terribly embarrassing. And then he stopped taking me with him at all.

Once Elena returned home from the dacha and found traces of an outside woman in the apartment. She asked her husband: “Who was it?” - "Secretary Olya." - "What they were doing?" - Drinking tea. There were no jealousy scenes, well, maybe only one.

This is when my husband, right in front of my eyes, began to arrange a date with one woman Elena recalls. - In that situation, the mother-in-law saved the family, she told her son: “If anything, I will choose Lena and Ilya” ...

But that didn't help either.

The husband went through several more novels and loves. I guessed that it was eating him. All the years he let me know that I ruined his life, that I forced him to marry me. In fact, I didn’t drag Alexei behind me like a calf on a leash. We had everything - both love and family ...

Every day Elena woke up with the hope of a miracle that would return love, tenderness and trust to their relationship. Every day for several years, a cruel disappointment awaited her. The husband did not sleep at home. Or attacked his wife with rudeness and reproaches.

Soon Alexey Mordashov moved to live with one of the secretaries of Severstal, ironically, also Elena. And after the divorce, he brought an agreement on the division of property to his ex-wife for signature: a three-room apartment and a “nine” car went into her ownership. Shares, shares and bank accounts remained at the disposal of the spouse. Under the second agreement - about alimony - the ex-wife and son were to receive an amount equal to about six hundred dollars a month, plus another six thousand dollars a year - for medical treatment and recreation. At that time, by the standards of Cherepovets, this was a huge amount. But Elena understood that in comparison with her husband's income, this money was a beggarly and humiliating handout, especially considering the serious illness of her son and the fact that Elena, forced to take care of the child, did not work. When, according to Elena, she tried to challenge some points of the contract, her husband said: “I earned it all ...”

Elena didn't make any noise. After the divorce, she lived quietly in Cherepovets, jealously watching the successes ex-husband. In 2001, through one of the central newspapers, Elena Mordashova delivered an “Open Letter to All Women”. She wrote:

Many years ago I married a student Alyosha Mordashov. A son was born, life was very difficult for us. The child was seriously ill, everything fell on my shoulders - the house, the family, the care of my husband. During the day I nursed my son, and in the evenings I worked as a cleaner. Behind him was the institute, a diploma with honors. Life has set a choice - either a family, or graduate school and a career. Of course, the son's health and the husband's peace of mind were more important. Working as a cleaner, I earned us an apartment.

The whole country read with rapture sad story the ex-wife of an oligarch, abandoned by her husband and left without a livelihood.

... My 15-year-old Ilya recently told me: “I don’t want to be like you. You are kind, you forgive everyone everything. That is why your life is complicated and difficult. And only bastards like my dad achieve success.

After the letter, Elena Mordashova's next step was to go to court demanding the division of property and the recovery of alimony from her ex-husband in the amount of ... $ 20 million. Elena managed not only to draw public attention to her position, but also to achieve the arrest of a large block of shares in one of the leading enterprises in Russia - Severstal.

Elena explained her decision to apply to the court to revise the old alimony agreement as follows: I knocked on the soul of Alexei, but I realized that there was no heart there. My ex-husband does not know the categories of the soul. He is indifferent to the fate of his own son. I thought that a father would wake up in Alexei, but this did not happen. He could not see Ilya for weeks. He was not interested in his son's health. I just felt sorry for my son. And then I decided to protect him.

Soon after the scandal broke out, the details of which spilled out into the press and on television, in narrow circles they started talking about the fact that Alexei Mordashov’s competitors, in particular Iskander Makhmudov and Oleg Deripaska, were behind the open letter and going to court, in particular, they provided financial and legal support to the abandoned wife . However, soon the claims of Elena Mordashova to her ex-husband were rejected in judicial order. In 2002, the chairman of the board of directors of Severstal, Alexei Mordashov, defended his right to pay his son from a previous marriage no more than 10,600 rubles a month. result judgment Mordashov was satisfied and, without any embarrassment, gave very direct and detailed comments. Their essence was that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Mordashov emphasized that he achieved everything he achieved himself, and his wife did not have the right to demand from him even the money that he generously gives her, and even more so - the shares of the enterprise: I will not allow anyone to interfere with production. Shares are not just pieces of paper, they are an opportunity to influence the process on which the lives of thousands of people depend.

After the scandalous judicial trial Mordashov became even more embittered at his wife because she had dragged her son into squabbles with his father. Alexei Mordashov does not see his guilt in what happened. In one of the interviews, the question of a journalist about whether he believes that over time his son will be able to forgive him caused Alexei Mordashov sincere bewilderment. Forgive - do not forgive ... This is not the main thing at all, - answered Mordashov and proceeded to discuss the success of Severstal.

Another person to whom Mordashov "has nothing to apologize for", the former CEO Lipukhin, speaks of Mordashov with a mixture of bitter resentment and ... undisguised respect. You can hate and despise Mordashov as a person, but as a master and manager, he was able to achieve a lot. Severstal is one of the most profitable enterprises in the industry. The former director of Severstal admits this not without pride.

In 2003, Forbes magazine ranked the richest people planet put Alexei Mordashov in 348th place. Listed Russian billionaires he finished in ninth place. Experts have estimated his fortune at $1.2 billion. Over the next four years, Mordashov increased his fortune by more than nine times. In 2007, according to Forbes, Mordashov's fortune totaled $11.2 billion, making him one of the ten richest people in Russia.

Having become the owner of Severstal, Mordashov resolutely set about bringing the plant out of the crisis and reforming its activities. First of all, he brought in Western consultants and began the fight to reduce costs. He sold non-core assets belonging to the plant, such as, for example, a furniture factory, and began reducing the number of employees. Before the arrival of Mordashov, more than fifty thousand people worked at the plant. Mordashov reduced the staff to 37 thousand people.

Obsolete productions were closed without delay. Instead of patching holes, Mordashov began to develop new technological lines for the production of goods that are in great demand on the market. The plant began to produce steel for pipes and galvanized metal for the automotive industry. Starting to cooperate with Western partners, Mordashov increased exports. As a result of such a well-thought-out and adamant policy, the plant quickly began to rise to its feet. Even the crisis that broke out in 1998 played into Mordashov's hands. As a result of the crisis, the dollar rose against the ruble and exports became more profitable.

At the Cherepovets plant, Mordashov created a unique system to stimulate the activity of employees. Each area of ​​the enterprise has a person responsible for reviewing initiatives. For a sensible proposal, the employee is necessarily encouraged. This may be a bonus, or maybe a promotion, an appointment as the head of a working group.

With those who do not work well, Mordashov also acts decisively: It is better to fire immediately, because production does not need such people.. They say that when, during an audit in the purchasing service, several people were caught by the hand, who put part of the amount from the order into their pockets, the general director fired the entire department.

Once Mordashov, along with a number of other Russian businessmen, was invited to America for economic forum. At one of the conferences devoted to cooperation with Russia, the Americans threw out a whole set of negative arguments: they say that they steal in Russia and the like. In protest Russian businessmen started leaving the room. One of them later said:

We are standing outside the doors, suddenly we hear - the hall exploded with laughter. Then we found out why. After listening to the reasoning American businessmen, Mordashov stood up and indignantly declared: “Who steals? Where are they stealing? Are they stealing from us? What kind of nonsense? I cordoned off a warehouse with nickel with barbed wire at my factory, put machine gunners in - and no one steals!

In 2004, the Americans no longer laughed at Alexei Mordashov. In December, Severstal acquired the seventh largest US steelmaker, Rouge Industries Inc., in terms of production. This company was founded by Henry Ford to provide steel for his own car factories. In 2003, the company actually went bankrupt. Mordashov promised the Americans that he would do for the company what he once did for Severstal. Much to the surprise of the Americans, the use of Severstal's experience on their territory made it possible to bring the "pearl in the crown of Henry Ford" out of the crisis and regain the company's lost ground.

Mordashov and his team claim they can make any venture profitable. Over the past few years, he has become the owner of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, the Izhora Pipe Plant in St. Petersburg, joint-stock company"Karelsky Okatysh", Olenegorsk Mining and Processing Plant, etc. Severstal has its own airline, television center, newspapers, and under its control is the radio of the Vologda region.

Not stopping there, Mordashov launched an attack even on the timber industry. Back in 1997, he acquired the Ust-Izhora Plywood Plant. Subsequently, he created a joint production with the Finnish company UPM. Aleksey Mordashov plans to develop sawmill production in Vologda and build a pulp and paper mill.

In 2003 Alexey Mordashov became confidant Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections. Since that time, observers have not ceased to make predictions about the future position of Mordashov in the “political configuration”.

There were rumors that Alexei Mordashov was considered by the federal authorities as a candidate for the post of one of the vice-premiers. Probably, the reason for this was the visit of Valentina Matvienko to Severstal in 2004. She was pleased with what she saw and in one of the interviews she said that there was a potential member of the government in Cherepovets. Such conversations make Mordashov laugh.

At least outwardly, the oligarch Mordashov demonstrates loyalty to Cherepovets, which he is not ready to exchange for anything. Mordashov admits that Moscow suppresses and frightens him, and he could not live here. In an interview, Alexey Mordashov emotionally told how, on one of his rare visits to Moscow, he was amazed at how much Moscow realities do not correspond to life in other cities of Russia. Mordashov was especially struck by the abundance of expensive jewelry stores.

I just don’t understand where it all comes from in a rather poor country, he wondered.

The Vologda billionaire is reputed to be, if not a stingy, then a very economical person. The Yak-40 aircraft, on which the oligarch flies, does not differ in the exclusivity of the interior design and belongs to the Severstal company. Mordashov does not have his own yacht. Even the Swiss watch "Frank Muller", which he prefers, is not something outstanding by the standards of the Russian financial elite: they cost about 30 thousand dollars. In choosing cars, Mordashov also adheres to very modest requirements, preferring mass-produced cars. For a long time Mordashov drove a Volvo. Once, journalists witnessed how, at the capital's airport, Alexei Mordashov very persistently demanded monetary compensation for a buckle torn from the bag of one of the girls who accompanied the businessman on a trip. Mordashov prefers to give inexpensive gifts to foreign business partners, for example, Russian nesting dolls dear to his heart. Mordashov vehemently criticizes the existing gap in Russia between the rich and the poor. But the oligarch's preoccupation with issues of social inequality does not find a response in the hearts of the proletariat. For workers at the American plant that Severstal bought, the Russian oligarch's frugality has resulted in a significant reduction in their "unreasonably high" salaries.

But, being thrifty, Alexei Mordashov tries to live up to the idea of ​​himself as a socially responsible representative big business. Mordashov is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bolshoi Theater, supports sports, and participates in social activities.

Despite the Vologda origin, Mordashov is considered to be a "St. Petersburg team". He is one of the Northwestern oligarchs who showed up in Moscow after Putin's inauguration. Alexei Mordashov was brought closer to Vladimir Putin by his friendship with St. Petersburg oligarch Vladimir Kogan. At one time, Vladimir Kogan claimed a controlling stake in Severstal. However, Kogan did not have enough resources to buy the plant. He limited himself to Severstal Bank - Metallurgical Commercial Bank.

As they say, Kogan got the bank almost for free. You can even say that Mordashov gave it as a gift, leaving himself a purely nominal percentage of the shares. According to experts, in this way Mordashov demonstrated his loyalty to the "Petersburg group". Like it or not, but in the list of "oligarchs of the second wave" who replaced the adventurous figures of the era of wild capitalism, Mordashov occupies a strong position as a state-minded businessman.

Detailed biographies of the builders of oligarchic capitalism in Russia will not be written soon. Historians have yet to work with archives and newspapers of that time in order to answer the exciting question: how and why people who did not have a legal status suddenly became owners of huge enterprises, mines, ports ... These questions will be asked more than once not only ordinary people, journalists, but also the state.

And then, probably, many of the elderly Russian oligarchs startled, waking up at night in his bed. They would pay dearly if everyone forgot about the skeletons in their closets. Or by that time, the current oligarchs will be replaced by those who were brought up on the example of their ruthlessness, composure and uncompromisingness - their own children and the children of those who were thrown overboard the ship of modernity, which in the early 90s headed for capitalism?

In 2004, the first Russian issue of Forbes magazine chose Alexei Mordashov as the main character of the issue. An article was devoted to him under the heading " grip of steel". The magazine restored the story of Alexei Mordashov's entry into business and spoke in detail about all the mechanisms that allowed him to gain control over the metallurgical giant. A week later, the Cherepovets newspaper Rech, financed by Mordashov, reprinted the Forbes material on its pages. But when comparing these two texts, it became clear that the material published in Rech differs markedly from the article in Forbes. The reprinted article has been extensively edited: someone caring hand cut out from the article the most painful moments for Alexei Mordashov regarding the privatization of Severstal and its relationship with the old management of the plant ...

With history, alas, such things do not pass. Although the time to draw conclusions as to whether the ninth wave of Russian capitalism turned out to be evil or good for Russia is still very early. There is too much personal in the assessments of the life and work of Russian billionaires. However, personal every year goes further and further.

Elena Mordashova, ex-wife of the "steel king", lives in Moscow. Today she works in a commercial company and does not want to discuss the fate and actions of her husband. She considers her six-year-old attempt to avenge her ruined life and her abandoned son stupid and naive. She is not going to repeat it. The one who has more money is right, she is sure.

Mordashov's son, Ilya, did not want to take his father's surname and took his mother's surname. Ilya studies at the institute, where he is known not as the exiled heir to the steel empire, but as a laconic and reserved guy. Ilya does not tell anyone about his father, whom he last saw more than seven years ago.

The former general director of Severstal, Yuri Lipukhin, after his "overthrow" from the post of general director of the plant, gave only one long interview. The children and relatives of Lipukhin protect their elderly father from the obsessive attention of the press and those who are trying to use the former head of the plant to attack Mordashov. Most of the time Lipukhin lives in Sochi, reading books and tending the garden.

In a new marriage, Alexei Mordashov had three children ...