Gengy Reznik Advocate Date of Birth: 11.05.1938 Country: Russia

Biography of Henry Reznik

Henry Reznik worked as an investigator in the Investigative Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR for five years before completing his postgraduate studies at the All-Union Institute of the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR. He was born on May 11, 1938, in Leningrad, into a family of musicians. His father, Mark Izrailevich Reznik (1905-1969), worked as the rector of the Saratov Conservatory and the head of the cultural department of the Saratov Regional Committee of the Communist Party, as well as the director of the music school in the Zavodskoy district of Saratov. His mother, Mirra Grigorievna Rafalovich (born in 1910), taught piano at the Saratov Conservatory. His wife, Larisa Yulianovna Lvova, worked as a lawyer. Their son, Andrei Genrievich Lvov (born in 1967), became an Orthodox priest. They have grandchildren named Savva, Varvara, Serafima, Ekaterina, and Sofia. Reznik's parents instilled in him a love for classical music, and he now frequently attends concerts at the Moscow Conservatory and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. He also has a large collection of classical and jazz music in his phonoteque. Despite his natural talents, Reznik did not pursue a career as a musician. He believes that the war hindered his early musical education, as he vividly remembers the bombings in Saratov, where his family relocated before the start of the Great Patriotic War due to his father's appointment as the rector of the Saratov Conservatory. He also recalls accompanying his mother on concert tours to military units. After the war... "I asked my mom why they didn't teach me music," Reznik recalls. "She said I was restless and hard to sit down with an instrument, and the living conditions were not conducive to learning. We lived in a communal apartment with several people, including evacuees from Leningrad and Ukraine. There was my grandmother, aunt, and my father's brother and sister with their two children." Then, as Reznik puts it, his "agility" came into play, determining his life's path. At the age of 11, Reznik began regular sports training. At 15, he became the champion of the Russian Federation in high jump among junior athletes. At 16, he played for adult teams in Saratov in volleyball and basketball. In 1955, Reznik competed in the All-Union Spartakiad of Schoolchildren as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic basketball team, and in 1956, as part of the volleyball team.
Legal Education and Career

Reznik developed an interest in journalism during this time. However, he was unable to enter the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University after graduating from school in 1956. He fell short by one point on the entrance exams and spent a year at the Institute of Physical Education, where he also took exams as a backup plan. His volleyball career did not go as planned either. He joined the MAI masters team, but he found himself on the bench and rarely got to play. Reznik admits, "I was offended, thinking that I was being sidelined. After all, I could jump high and hit the ball hard, but the 'old guys' were stronger (they were 22-23 years old)." In 1957, Reznik and several ambitious peers who were also stuck on the bench in Moscow's teams decided to leave Moscow and create their own team in one of the union republics. They chose Tashkent. However, Reznik once again failed to combine sports and studying journalism. The specialization for journalists at the Central Asian State University was only available to local Uzbek nationals, so Reznik decided to enroll in the law faculty. He thought, "If I have a literary talent, I will write anyway." In Tashkent, their volleyball team failed to achieve their goal of reaching the finals of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in 1959. Reznik was then invited to Almaty. He played a key role in the creation of the Almaty "Dorozhnik" volleyball team, which later became the champion of the Soviet Union after he left. Reznik also became the champion and record holder of Kazakhstan in high jump. "At one competition, I even competed against the great Valery Brumel - we both aimed for the same height of 2 meters. The difference was small - he started from that height, and I ended there," Reznik jokingly recalls.
Reznik graduated from the Law Faculty of the Kazakh State University in 1962. By this time, he had developed a serious interest in jurisprudence. His thesis on "Legal Presumptions" was recognized at the all-union student competition, and he received a recommendation for admission to the postgraduate program. However, his passion for sports remained strong. Being only 24 years old and still physically fit, Reznik continued to play for the university volleyball team, which was improving with each game. He postponed his return to Russia and started working as an investigator in the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan. The new minister, a big fan of volleyball, agreed to Reznik's proposal to hire university graduates who were also volleyball players. The Kazakh "Dynamo" volleyball team gained national attention, only losing to the Moscow teams, and achieved prominent positions in the 2nd group of the USSR Championship. Reznik successfully balanced his sporting career with his work as an investigator. He considers this period of his life a great success: "I was immediately assigned to the republican investigative department. There, the most experienced and qualified investigators worked, who had previously worked for many years in cities and districts. In contrast, I had no prior experience in investigative work! But paradoxically, that was my luck. Unlike other graduates who were assigned to lower-level investigative departments and spent a long time 'marinating' there, I found myself next to the investigation aces and could learn from them every day. I am particularly grateful to the highly professional Viktor Kopeliovich and Yuri Mal'tsev, who became my teachers." In just four years, Henry Reznik went from being a regular investigator to a special investigator handling important criminal cases.
In 1966, Reznik entered full-time postgraduate studies at the All-Union Institute for the Study of the Causes and Development of Measures to Prevent Crime of the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR. Three years later, he completed his studies and defended his dissertation, continuing to work as a researcher at the same institute. In the mid-1960s to early 1970s, the All-Union Institute for the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR was considered a center of scientific thought in the field of criminal law disciplines. Distinguished scientists worked there, such as Igor Ivanovich Kirnets, Vladimir Nikolaevich Kudryavtsev, Boris Sergeevich Nikiforov, Ilya Davydovich Perl, Alexei Adolfovich Gertsenzon, Vera Isaakovna Kaminskaya, Alexei Aleksandrovich Eisman, Alexander Ruvimovich Ratinov, Genrikh Mikhailovich Minkovsky, Inga Borisovna Mikhaylovskaya, and Alexander Maksimovich Yakovlev. It is worth noting that the institute was famous not only for its scientific seminars but also for its legendary "cabbage parties." During his time at the institute, Reznik worked there until 1987. During this period, he prepared the monograph "Internal Conviction in Evaluating Evidence" (1977), wrote books such as "Right to Defense" (1976), "When Responsibility Strikes" (1979), and "Constitutional Right to Defense" (1980), and conducted several criminological studies on crime. From 1982 to 1985, Reznik headed the research laboratory of the All-Union Institute for the Improvement of Justice Workers (now the Legal Academy of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation), where he conducted studies on the state of justice in the country and the legal attitudes of judges. During this time, he published articles on criminal procedure, criminal law, and criminological sciences.
Reznik combined his work as a researcher with teaching. He delivered lectures and conducted classes on criminology, criminal law, and criminal procedure in educational institutions such as the Institute for the Improvement of Investigators, the Institute for the Advanced Training of Prosecutors, the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the Law Academy, and others.
In 1985, Reznik became a lawyer in the Moscow City Bar Association and served as the head of the Research Institute of Advocacy from 1989 to 1991. Over the years of his legal practice, Henry Reznik has participated in numerous high-profile cases. He defended the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, N. Khudayberdiev, the prosecutor of the Ochamchira District of Abkhazia, V. Gurdzhua, and the head of the President's Security Service of the USSR, General Y. Pliokhanov (in the case of the State Emergency Committee). His clients also included politicians and public figures such as V. Novodvorskaya, A. Pronozin, V. Poegli, A. Babitsky, O. Kitova, environmentalists A. Nikitin and G. Pasko, writer V. Sorokin, prominent entrepreneurs V. Ryashentsev (in the case of the "ANT" concern), V. Gusinsky, and B. Berezovsky. In civil cases, he represented the interests of Russian President B. Yeltsin, politicians and statesmen E. Gaidar, A. Chubais, and A. Shokhin, writer A. Sinyavsky, cultural figures R. Rozhdestvensky, Y. Temirkanov, N. Petrov, and L. Chizhik. Becoming a lawyer did not stop Reznik from continuing his scientific and teaching activities. Currently, he heads the Department of Advocacy at the Law University of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Reznik also has a special place in his professional life for his journalism. In 1987, the newspaper "Moskovskaya Pravda" published his articles "Time to Dispel Myths" and "From Myths to Truth," dedicated to the need for a radical restructuring of the Russian legal system. Since then, his sharp analytical articles and interviews have been regularly published in leading periodicals.
Henry Reznik is the President of the Moscow Bar Association, Vice-President of the Federal Advocates' Union of Russia, Vice-President of the International Union (Commonwealth) of Lawyers, and Director of the Research Institute of Advocacy. He is a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a member of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, a member of the Presidium of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, and a member of the Council for the Improvement of Justice under the President of Russia. He is an Honored Lawyer of Russia, a Candidate of Legal Sciences, an associate professor, and has been awarded the Gold Medal named after F.N. Plevako (1998) for his high professional skill and contribution to the development of the Russian advocacy, as well as the Honorary Badge "Public Recognition" (2000) for his active human rights activities and contribution to the development of independent advocacy.
He has a passion for sports, music, theater, and poetry.
Henry Reznik currently resides in Moscow.