Vyacheslav Bondarenko Belarusian writer, TV presenter, journalist, film scriptwriter, musician, actor, radio host. Date of Birth: 09.05.1974 Country: Belarus

Biography of Vyacheslav Bondarenko

Vyacheslav Bondarenko is a Belarusian writer, television presenter, journalist, screenwriter, musician, actor, and radio host. He was born on May 9, 1974, in Riga, Latvia, to a family of a Soviet Army officer who had served in Afghanistan. On his mother's side, Bondarenko is descended from the ancient noble Skugarevsky family (part of the genealogy of the Smolensk Governorate) and military noble families Maximovich and Mikhailov (his great-grandfather was Colonel of the Russian Imperial Army, and his second cousin was Major General Mikhail Pantelimonovich Mikhailov, a hero of the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars). He spent his childhood in Riga (Latvia), Ulan Bator (Mongolia), and Zaporozhye (Ukraine). He graduated from the No. 30 High School of the Northern Group of Forces in Legnica, Poland.

In 1990, Bondarenko began working on a biography of the 19th-century Russian poet and politician Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky (1792-1878). An excerpt from the biography was published in the Minsk almanac "Monolog" in 1996. The first version of the book was released in 2000 but went relatively unnoticed. However, the completely revised version, published in 2004 as part of the "Life of Remarkable People" series, received numerous positive reviews in leading publications in Russia, the USA, and Canada. It was nominated for the All-Russian Literary Award named after L.N. Tolstoy "Yasnaya Polyana" and awarded the diploma of the All-Russian Literary Award "Eureka."

From 1996 to 2001, Bondarenko worked as a music journalist and was published in the "Musical Gazette" (Belarus). He wrote one of the first positive reviews of the work of Sergey Parkhomenko (who later became famous as Sergey) during this time. He also worked as a host of music programs on Minsk FM radio stations.

In 2001, Bondarenko formed the band "Chekhov" together with Minsk guitarist Roman Orlov. The group released their "Mini-Album" in 2002, featuring aesthetically pleasing guitar pop rock. Although the band enjoyed some club success, they did not become a significant phenomenon in the rock scene and disbanded in 2005. Their album "Everything That Moves" (2007) was compiled from recordings made two years earlier.

In 2003, Bondarenko received the International A.S. Popov Award "God of the Air" in the "Presenter" category for his achievements in broadcasting. He became the fifth laureate of this award and the first to receive it without being a citizen of Russia or an employee of Moscow or St. Petersburg radio stations.

Since 2004, Bondarenko has been involved in the activities of the well-known Belarusian group J:Mors. He appeared in the music video for the song "Tak-Tsiak-Tak" (2004) and recorded a duet with J:Mors vocalist V. Pugach. In 2005, he made his debut as a television presenter on the channel "LAD" in the music program "Live Sound."

In 2006, the Russian State Library for the Blind prepared an audio version of Bondarenko's book, narrated by actress E. Chubarova. In 2008, the Kemerovo Library for the Blind released its version on eight cassettes, narrated by T. Yu. Gridneva. In 2007-2008, his most famous books, the best-selling novels "Liquidation" and "Cadetship," were published by the "Rosman-Press" publishing house. In 2009, the "AST-Astrel" publishing house released T. Knibe's book "Operation Valkyrie," edited by Bondarenko.

Since 2009, Bondarenko has been the author of a regular column called "Army a Hundred Years Ago" in the "Belarusian Military Newspaper."

On May 8, 2010, the 13-episode documentary-drama series "Hero Cities" premiered on the Belarusian channel ONT. The series was written by Bondarenko (in collaboration with B. Gersten), with A. Rydvan as the executive producer and I. Baranov as the director. The series was hosted by Vladimir Gostyukhin, a People's Artist of Russia, and Igor Sigov, a People's Artist of Belarus. The preparation and filming of the project took over a year in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. In the episode "Sevastopol," Bondarenko also played the role of a captain in the Russian Imperial Army. The series concluded on September 12, 2010.

In October 2010, the film received a special prize at the International Festival of Cinematographers "Golden Eye" in Tbilisi.

In October 2010, Bondarenko's debut novel in the genre of alternative military science fiction, "Day 'B'," was published by the Moscow publishing house "Veche." In May 2011, the same publishing house released the book "100 Great Feats of Russia" as part of the "100 Great..." series. It was included in the publication set "I Love You, My Russia," intended to replenish the collections of rural libraries in Russia as part of the "Rural Library" program of the Pushkin Library Foundation.

Since February 2011, Bondarenko has been the host and leader of the socio-political talk show "Open Format" on the ONT channel.

In November 2011, the Minsk publishing house "Harvest" released his historical novels "Blow Up 'Aurora'" (dedicated to the activities of White Terrorists in the 1920s), "Eternal Flame" (starting in 1913 and ending in 2012), and "Sky Gods" (about Russian pilots of the First World War).

On April 27, 2012, he was awarded the National Television Prize "Television Summit" in the category "Best Presenter of Socio-Political (Journalistic) Program" (2nd place).