Enver Mamedov
Enver Nazim oglu Mammadov (Azerbaijani: Ənvər Məmməd oğlu Məmmədov; born 15 August 1923 in Baku, Azerbaijan), is a former Soviet diplomat and a mass media manager. During his career, spent mostly in Russia and the West, he was primarily known under the Russianized form of his name, Enver Nazimovich Mamedov (Russian: Энвер Назимович Мамедов), or just Enver Mamedov.
Early life
Enver Mammadov's mother's maiden name was Ivanov, and he occasionally used it as his pen name during his media career.[1]
After graduating from high school in Baku, Azerbaijan with the "excellent" grades in all subjects (including the Azerbaijani and German languages),[2] in June 1941, Enver Mammadov joined a fighter pilot school.[3] After Hitler's invasion of the USSR in 1941, Enver asked to be sent to the front line, but was instead sent to be trained as a military translator at a GRU school.[4] After seeing some action first as a Sr. Sergeant, later as a Sr. Lieutenant, at the Soviet Union's Caucasus Front, Mammadov was sent to work with the USSR Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, where he was posted to the Soviet embassy in Italy as the press secretary. According to Mammadov himself, he was probably selected to that position because he spoke Italian, in addition to German, English, and French.[4][5]
After the end of the war, Mammadov participated in the Nuremberg Trials, as one of the handlers of the Soviet prosecutors' star witness, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus.[4]
The nation's publicist
Since ca. 1950, and for the rest of his life, Mammadov was working in Soviet mass media. In 1950–56 he was one of the officials in charge of the Soviet radio broadcasting to the UK, US, and Latin America.[5]
In the late 1950s, Mammadov edited the USSR magazine: a Soviet English-language journal for the US audience – the Soviet counterpart of the Amerika magazine, – and visited the US on a number of public relations missions.[1][5]
Enver Mammadov was appointed the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Radio and Television in 1962, and occupied this post from the late days of Nikita Khrushchev administration and throughout the Leonid Brezhnev era. Together with Alexander Yakovlev, he is credited with the creation in August 1964 of Radio Mayak, a national news and music radio broadcasting channel meant to compete with the Western radio stations broadcasting to Russia.[6] From 1970 to 1985 he was directly in charge of Soviet television, being second in command to the Gosteleradio chief Sergey Lapin.[4][5][7]
At the time of his 85th birthday in 2008, Enver Mammadov still was an adviser to the Director General of RIA Novosti.[1]
Family
Enver Mammadov's son, Georgiy Enver oglu Mammadov, is a Russian diplomat, currently serving as Russia's ambassador in Canada.[5]
References
- 1 2 3 Энвер Мамедов: война и наша Победа – самые значимые для меня события. Сюжет: 85 лет легендарному журналисту Энверу Мамедову (Enver Mammadov: "The war and our Victory are the most important events in life". Topic: 85th birthday of the legendary journalist Enver Mammadov)
- ↑ Mammadov's high school graduation certificate, linked from Museum of Radio and Television, Mammadov's photo gallery. (Russian)
- ↑ An early photo
- 1 2 3 4 "Я не совершал больших подвигов" ("I did no great feats"), interview with Enver Nazimovich Mammadov. "Broadcasting. Телевидение и радиовещание", No. 4, 2005 (Russian)
- 1 2 3 4 5 Museum of Radio and Television (Russian)
- ↑ Летопись "Маяка": Прорыв (The Mayak Chronicles: The Breakthrough) (Russian)
- ↑ Легенды Иновещания. Беседа третья (The stories of Soviet Radio's Foreign Service. Talk no. 3) (Russian)