All-Union beauty contest Miss USSR 89. "Miss USSR" vs "Miss Russia": who is more beautiful? (photo)

Before the Miss USSR contest, held in 1989, there was also the Moscow Beauty contest - Masha Kalinina won there. But this was not the case across the country. It was almost a revolution: older people were indignant, and the peers of the participants believed that they had caught the bird of happiness ...

Yulia Sukhanova has been in New York for over 20 years. And it is encrypted as it can - it took a long time to look for it.

I never considered myself beautiful,” she recalls. - Since childhood, she was more friends with boys - she loved to jump and run. And then my sister found out that girls were being recruited in Gorky Park to participate in the competition ... I remember I didn’t want to go - I even cried. And I prepared for the competition without much hope.

And after the victory, I left for the States, where a modeling agency offered me a job. She started with advertising yogurt and ice cream, then signed contracts with American and Parisian agencies. The first time was very hard. I flew in with pomp as "Miss USSR" - on the same plane with the Yeltsins - it was his first visit to the United States. And it turned out to be in great demand: it seemed that I fell from the moon and they looked at me like an alien creature. Around the house where I settled, the police were on duty around the clock, I was invited non-stop to talk shows, they took me to press conferences. Any gesture, and especially any flaw, was examined under a magnifying glass ... There were many reasons for tears.

Admit it, you went abroad not only for a breathtaking career, but also for the same groom?

I do not agree. Yes, there was a string of fans: Hollywood playboys, Monegasque millionaires, and Persian princes were pestering. I almost married one prince, such love was crazy! But it didn’t happen - I myself broke off contact with him, although we are still friends.

There are participants in beauty contests who are looking for how it would be more profitable to attach themselves. But I'm not interested in a bag of money - the soul, manner, sentimentality are important ... Now I have an Italian boyfriend. I'm in business - I run a company that produces mountain air generators, and among our clients, for example, David Beckham ...

My victory became the starting point of a new life. But if I have a daughter, I definitely won’t let her go to the beauty contest!

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behind the scenes

"Ballerina Maksimova was indignant:" Why are you showing me the sixth breast size here?

About the details of "Miss USSR-89" we asked the producer of the contest - director Yuri Kushnerev. In the late 80s, work on joint projects with foreign film companies began to boil at his studio (the most successful picture was Russia House with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer). Kushnerev began to visit the United States often - he was accepted into the American Film Producers Guild ...

Getting closer to the American film industry, I realized one thing: many famous actresses, if not all, have gone through beauty contests. And I decided - why not hold it in the USSR? I considered the competition as an opportunity to open the way for beautiful girls to cinema.

We did everything on a whim. In the three largest modeling agencies, we were taught how to select candidates, who to weed out. In the qualifying rounds, fools immediately dropped out - I really didn’t want to disgrace myself in front of foreigners.

As for the main sponsor, it was the son of Iraqi political emigrants, Babek Serush. He and I grew up in the same yard - his family lived so poorly that my mother constantly fed little, skinny Serush. And shortly before the competition, he was already a very rich man. And gave 40 thousand dollars.

One day Babek invited me to a restaurant at the World Trade Center. He led me into the banquet hall - sixteen well-dressed men are sitting there. I think some kind of delegation. It was the birthday of one of these people. At that time I was drinking well and, on an emotional upsurge, I said a warm good toast. A conversation began ... And at the end of the holiday, the person sitting in the center of the table (he was the main one) stood up with a glass: "I thank you for coming, and I think I will express the general opinion of all those present: we allow him to hold a beauty contest" . My jaw dropped: I was sitting with the brothers, with hardened bandits!

But then we did not see any attacks from them. The only thing is that once they arrived drunk at the boarding house to the girls to have fun: "Where are the women brought here?" It’s good that the candidates were guarded by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ...

The jury gathered exclusively bohemian. Irina Skobtseva, Muslim Magomayev, Ilya Glazunov, Leonid Yakubovich... Ballet star Ekaterina Maksimova was put at the head of the jury. She was very sensitive to the contestants. Volgograd was represented by the girl Elena Silina - with the sixth breast size. Maksimova was very unhappy with the immense bust: "Why are you showing me boobs here?" Lena flew out one of the first, but her fate was successful. A few years ago in Paris, an interesting young woman threw herself on my neck: "Yuri Sergeevich, do you recognize me? Where are you staying?" - "At the hotel". - "No hotels, let's go to our castle!" It turned out that after the competition she took up the career of a fashion model and met a wealthy Frenchman...

And the winner - 17-year-old schoolgirl Yulia Sukhanova - was taken care of by her uncle, and not her own, but her sister's husband. He offered me a bribe and generally seemed like a rather slippery type. A couple of days before the competition, he asked me for a meeting, at which he said: “I’m giving ten thousand dollars so that Yulia becomes Miss USSR.” I sent him. According to my feelings, he immediately felt that you can earn good money at these competitions He quickly took her to America. Actually, I didn’t like Yulia: she was so silent, with an angular figure ...

"Miss Kinochans" Anna PORTNAYA: "If Yakubovich didn't cheer me up, I would just turn sour"

"Miss Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk" Anna Portnaya liked the audience, according to the results of their voting, she was in second place - before becoming the first "Miss USSR", it was not enough just a little bit. Consoled by the title of "Miss Cinema Chance".

To be honest, I had a decadent mood, - says Anna. - At 12 o'clock in the morning the qualifying competition in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ended, and at nine in the morning I flew to Moscow. And here I am sitting on my suitcases in the luxurious marble lobby of a boarding house near Moscow, and around me a hundred and more overdressed girls click their heels ... I arrived later than all of them. And they seemed to me real beauty queens - I didn’t even know how to make up! Fortunately, Leonid Yakubovich supported me at the competition, without his encouragement I would have simply turned sour.

Someone else ruined my dress the day before the competition, and I had to go on stage in an awkward pantsuit ... The fact that I received the Miss Cinema Chance crown was a surprise. They gave me a TV, but the main promise for "Miss Cinema Chance" is to study in

VGIK - was not completed ...

But then, when I graduated from high school and returned to Moscow, a breakthrough of work formed: shooting in magazines, participating in shows, traveling abroad. There were independence, friends, husband. True, we later divorced him, but a wonderful daughter was born in marriage. She is already graduating from school - preparing to enter the institute and poring over notes for days on end.

Now I work as an image maker, I teach women how to present themselves more advantageously. And I haven't watched beauty contests for a long time. Previously, they had more aristocracy, sophistication, and today's beauties only dream of arranging their female fate better. That's why they look at them like "meat" ...

with Leonardo DiCaprio leading role. Formerly a $50 million-plus broker, convicted of securities fraud, now a motivational speaker. On October 24, at his master class in Moscow, Belfort did not shy away from strong words, speaking to Russian top managers and entrepreneurs, and admitted that thanks to the Russian bride he knew our mysterious soul.

I was engaged to a Russian girl, Yulia Sukhanova, the first Miss USSR. She often said: "Jordan, you are an ordinary Russian man." Probably because I spent money on it. So, in the course of communication with her, I got to know the mysterious Russian soul.

I don't know where I get the ability to help others earn money, but it is there.

There are people who are afraid of public speaking. And I'm afraid of the lack of public speaking.

My mom used to say, "Don't judge people by their cover." But she herself did it, so I do, and in general everything.

I have a son, he is 20 years old. And I tell him: "Son, the most important thing in life and business is to know with whom to f..k, and with whom not to f..k. In other words, who is worth your attention and who is not."

In 1988, 12 people worked for my brokerage company. Their average age was 19 years old, their IQ is about the same as that of Forrest Gump. They lived on the outskirts of New York, didn't go to the Ivy League, their parents weren't rich and never taught them how to make money. And I wanted them to sell shares at $5 to the richest one percent of the US. And these people were supposed to be buying $500,000 to $1 million worth of these cheap stocks. In fact, my Forrest Gumps couldn't close a single deal. And then I thought: "I can sell shares, my partner can too. You have exactly the same product, exactly the same text. So why the fuck can't you sell anything ?!". Then I realized: my boys called, and from the first seconds, by their intonation, the interlocutors understood that these were people not of their circle.

By the way, it's cool to realize that Leonardo DiCaprio played you. Much better than if it was, say, Danny DeVito.

Photo: RIA Novosti. Yulia Sukhanova, Miss USSR - 89

About society

People are getting smarter and smarter these days. Probably because everyone now has smartphones, which means there is the Internet and unlimited access to information. There are no more uneducated clients of the zero years.

Remember: you are a child, your mother takes you to the doctor. First, he asks you in detail, and then he says: take off your pants and bend down. And you bend over. Because in our society it is customary to agree with experts and obey authority.

About achieving success

To be successful, you must visualize your future life. Success starts from the head.

Before you start to embody something, you need to understand what.

Remember: you will not succeed alone. You can't make an army out of one.

About sales

Many people think that sales is when someone sells a product. But in fact, this concept is much broader. A lawyer's speech before a jury, a teacher motivating students to do homework, a manager convincing employees and investors of the correctness of his ideas - all these are also sales.

Even if you are a great salesperson, not everyone can sell. Some people, like transactions, are unclosable.

What is sales really? This is the transfer of emotions to another person.

You only have 4 seconds to make it clear to the client that you won’t go into your pocket for a word, that you have great enthusiasm, that you are an expert in your field. If you can't - that's it, you're dead, you'll never sell anything.

On the impact on people

If you want to convey your confidence to another person, you must have it at the level of "10 out of 10".

If you learn to speak with correct intonation, you will immediately become a better communicator than you were.

Most important words speak to your interlocutor quietly, almost in a whisper - as if you are afraid that someone else will hear you.

Communication is arranged as follows: either you control the situation, or the interlocutor. And you will only succeed if you learn to control the conversation.

How you move when you listen is much more important than how you move when you speak. Let's understand to the interlocutor that you care about him - this is how contact is formed.

God has given us two ears and one mouth - you must listen twice as much as you speak. This increases the value of your words.

A beginner can become an expert only in one case - if he behaves like an expert.

The first all-Union beauty contest "Miss USSR" was held in 1989. The title "Miss USSR 1989" was won by a 17-year-old tenth grader from Moscow Julia Sukhanova. For Yulia, this was not the first beauty contest - in 1988 she was a finalist in the first Soviet beauty contest "Moscow Beauty". Julia did not represent the Soviet Union at international competitions beauty, instead of her, First Vice Miss USSR 1989 Anna Gorbunova from Zelenograd went to Miss World.
Yulia Sukhanova, after winning the Miss USSR, left for the USA and began her career as a fashion model. Now Julia is engaged in business - she heads a company that produces generators of "mountain" air. Concerning family life, then Yulia Sukhanova is not married, she has no children.

Miss USSR 1989. video:

Julia Sukhanova now:

The title "Miss USSR 1990" was won by a 17-year-old student of the Vitebsk Technological Institute Maria Kezha representing Belarus. After the victory in front of Maria, there were two ways - to start a modeling career or get married. Maria chose marriage, left for Germany, but three months later she realized that she was mistaken and left her husband. Then Maria Kezha nevertheless became a model, but a few months later she got into a car accident and had to forget about the modeling career for a while. As a result, Maria found herself in the profession of a designer. After working with fashion houses Lancel, Cristian Lacroix, Minority, Marino Orlandi, Maria Keja eventually founded her own handbag company Masha Keja. Now Maria lives in Paris, married to a Frenchman, the couple has a son, Nikita.

Maria Kezha with a bag of her own production:

On the Internet, you can find a version that, having married before the end of her term as Miss USSR, Maria Kezha violated the terms of the contract, and the title of Miss USSR 1990 was transferred to the girl who took second place - Yulia Lemigova(born June 20, 1972). Lemigova went to the Miss Universe 1991 beauty contest, where she became the Second Vice Miss, which corresponds to the third place.

Since the 2000s, the name of Yulia Lemigova has been constantly appearing in the press (where she is often called the former Miss USSR) because of her affair with the famous lesbian tennis player Martina Navratilova, who is 16 years older than Lemigova. On December 15, 2014, the couple got married.

In fact, Maria Kezha was not deprived of the title "Miss USSR", and Yulia Lemigova did not receive it. Kezha did not enter the Miss Universe contest only due to the fact that on February 1, 1991 (the year the Miss Universe was held) she was not yet 18 years old. As a result, Lemigova went to the competition.

Yulia Lemigova at Miss Universe 1991

Yulia Lemigova (topless) with Martina Navratilova on the beach in July 2014

Yulia Sukhanova, in terms of fame, is much inferior to another Soviet missMaria Kalinina, despite her seemingly much more modest title "Moscow Beauty-88". It's just that the Moscow contest was held a year earlier than the "Miss USSR-89", and it was presented in the Soviet and foreign media as a landmark event - the first beauty contest in the USSR. Not a single magazine or newspaper missed the opportunity to write at least a small note about Kalinina. Something that was no longer observed around the winners of a later time. And yet, in fact, it is Sukhanova who is the first national-level beauty queen in the USSR and Russia, a character national history. Whereas Kalinina is only one of a dozen urban beauties in 1988. Sukhanova joined the ranks of "beauties" in the late 1980s, but the presence of her name among the most notable Russian misses and models of the next decade is also understandable, since her modeling career fell just in the 90s.

Julia Sukhanova was born in Moscow in April 1972. Was youngest child V large family where two more girls and a boy grew up. They lived in the Medvedkovo area. Information about their mother differs greatly: according to the American press in 1989, she was an ordinary Soviet employee, according to a Russian source in the early 90s, she worked as a barmaid in the All-Russian Theater Society. And in the book of memoirs of an American author, with whom Julia lived for several years in a "civil marriage", it is written that her mother held a high position in the field of the humanities. And in her youth she was even more beautiful than her daughter. The children's father died of a heart attack when Julia was 9 years old. Father, according to her, was replaced by her brother-in-law Igor- the husband of one of the sisters, who was 15 years older. Particularly attractive Julia I never considered myself, although the older she got, the more attention was paid to her appearance. When she was only 16, the first real beauty contest was started in Moscow. Herself Julia did not show any interest in "Moscow Beauty-88", did not want to go there, but her sister Ludmila almost by the hand led her to a preview. It was held in the administrative building of Gorky Park and gathered an incredible number of people who wanted to participate. Seeing a giant queue, the sisters turned back, but they were caught up by one of the representatives of the organizing committee, who were cruising along the "tail" so as not to really miss beautiful girls. So Julia out of turn got to the casting and was among the 36 semi-finalists of the "Moscow Beauty-88". The competition aroused unprecedented interest, it was divided into three performances held at the Sports Palace. After the semi-final Sukhanov dropped out of the fight. She was the youngest and far from the worst contender, remembered primarily for her excellent posture. “I was 16 years old, I didn’t even have time to get a passport. Before that, I had never put on makeup, hadn’t done my hair and got on heels for the first time at this competition. The organizers probably liked me with my spontaneity, innocence.” The competition gave her the opportunity to get in touch with the capital's social life, she traveled to Poland with a group of Moscow misses, starred for an advertising booklet for a clothing manufacturer. Therefore, by the next competition of beauties in 1989, when the Miss USSR-89 was announced, Julia came much more motivated for the result. All laureates of the Moscow competition refused to participate in the national competition, participants from Moscow were recruited among the contestants of 1988 who did not get into the "top". Sukhanov without any problems, she went to the final part and, together with 34 other girls, went to the Aksakovo boarding house near Moscow for training. The first all-Union competition was not characterized by strong competition, amazing participants. Most of them were "raw material", few people knew how to pose for photographers, how to move correctly. The composition of the "Moscow Beauty-88" and the next -89, was clearly stronger in all respects. The "Miss USSR" could be won by several girls, noticeable both in appearance and activity in the preliminary stages, and Sukhanov was among them. The physical condition of the applicants was put in order with the help of a new kind of gymnastics - shaping, and the head of the shaping federation, who conducted the classes, noted Julia, as one of the few contestants who seriously worked on improving their forms. In the final, held on May 21, 1989 in the cinema "Russia", Sukhanov confidently, evenly went through all the tours: the conversational part, defile in an evening dress and swimsuit, showed good manners, sociability. She was the sweetest participant, she felt comfortable on stage in front of the auditorium and television cameras. It is not surprising that she was awarded the title of "Miss TV viewers' sympathy", and at the end of the show, the main title of the competition. The girl looked completely stunned, crying. The joy of victory was a little overshadowed by the fact that half of the rivals stopped talking to her. And someone pulled out of her royal diadem the largest stone - aquamarine. This diadem and White dress- everything, that Sukhanova presented for first place, she also received a large TV for the title of viewers' sympathy. She was surprised that some other participants of "Miss USSR-89" were awarded more valuable prizes. A small family celebration on the occasion of the victory was arranged at the apartment of relatives Julia, and since the white dress of the "queen" did not fit in the elevator, the beauty had to be carried in her arms to the 9th floor. At that time she was a student of the 11th grade. Because of the Miss election, she missed a couple of weeks of school, but she hoped that she would have time to study for the final exams and get a certificate with good grades. Mom was more worried about this "Miss USSR" Vera Vladimirovna, and herself Julia she connected her immediate plans not with continuing her education, but with working in the advertising market. The same was thought by the organizers, who expected to receive good dividends from future fees. Sukhanova as a fashion model. Before the final, all participants were offered to sign a contract for three years, according to which, in case of victory, they would work for the Soviet-American company Korona, established by a foreign entrepreneur. Babek Serush and organizer of "Miss USSR" cinematographer Mikhail Kushnerev. Babek Serush- An Iranian, who lived in Moscow for many years, was considered a benefactor of the first all-Union competition. At first, the event was sponsored by an Arab businessman named Mansour, promised to make large investments in the competition, and then "evaporated". The holding of "Miss USSR-89" was in jeopardy, the organizers were saved B.Serush, who gave 40 thousand dollars to rent the concert hall "Russia" and a colorful performance. The text of the agreement stated that the Crown intends to employ beauties in foreign modeling agencies, but the percentage that the girls are required to pay to the company for mediation was not indicated there. The Korona management claimed that they were going to take the standard 30%, but she herself Julia later she said that there was talk of almost 90%. Many participants did not sign the contract. Sukhanov signed, and perhaps due to this she was ahead of both vice-misses in the competition Anna Gorbunova And Ekaterina Meshcheryakova who refused a dubious agreement. True, the organizers did not take into account that Sukhanov was a minor, the contract lacked her mother's signature. Therefore, the contract with Julia considered invalid. She independently contacted an American entrepreneur who wished to start her "promotion" in the West, and was going to go overseas in August 1989. Upon learning of this, M. Kushnerev, "turned on" his connections and disrupted the exit of "Miss USSR-89", who had already received a 45-day tourist visa at the American embassy. She could not leave without the consent of the Soviet side. Kushnerev hoped that Julia there will be no other choice but to agree to the terms of the Crown. At the end of August 1989, an open letter was published in the newspaper "Soviet Russia" Sukhanova and her relative under the heading "Between the 'Crown' and the 'Crown'. The Queen begs for help." Some excerpts from it: “In order to break my will, Kushnerev chose the tactics of blockade and blackmail. For a month and a half, he blocked me from all requests and offers coming in my name, and he constantly told me and my relatives that I did not arouse interest from Western agencies and that I I won’t go anywhere at all if I don’t sign an agreement with him ... Kushnerev continues to blackmail me. Now he says that they will deprive me of the title of Miss USSR and send another girl to the Miss World contest instead of me ... For three months of persecution "I have experienced so many humiliations, disappointments and insults that I'm just surprised that I didn't go crazy. But most of all I feel sorry for my relatives who worry about me and have aged ten years in these three months." Richard Fuze / Richard Fuisz, which Sukhanov signed a 5-year contract in Moscow, was a versatile entrepreneur. The talent agency "Seline" was only a small appendage to its activities (pediatrics, commerce, political career etc.). In the USSR, his partner in the export and sale of computers was a Komsomol functionary Mikhail Khodorkovsky(future oil oligarch). As soon as he helped Julia received in September 1989. the necessary signatures to leave the country and accompanied her to boarding a plane flying to America. R. Fuze decided that Julia it makes no sense to participate in international competitions, her title was the equivalent of the title of "Miss Perestroika", which in those years had no less price in the West than the title of "Miss Universe". The American turned out to be right: in the United States, the first in the history of Miss USSR was enthusiastically met, she was in great demand everywhere. Her American tour was designed for three weeks and took place along the route Washington - New York - Washington - Los Angeles. The program of the stay was very busy, here is what the schedule of one of the days looked like: 8:00 - visit to a New York school as part of a campaign against drug addiction among students, accompanied by Nancy Reagan, wife of the ex-president of the United States; 12:00 - working meeting with photographers in the apartments of the hotel "Royal"; 16:00 - meeting with the singer La Toya Jackson- sister michael jackson; 18:00 - reception at Donald Trump on the deck of his yacht; 22:00 - recording of an interview for the TV program "Good Morning America!" The Soviet beauty was taken to the theatrical premiere of The Threepenny Opera in New York, where she was introduced to the famous singer Sting / Sting. At Julia there was also a meeting with the owner of the title of "Miss America-90" black Debbie Turner / Debbie Turner. She did not know English at all then and communicated with foreigners with the help of an interpreter named Olga. In an interview with American media Julia admitted that the competitive process was not easy and tiring: "The worst part for me was standing in front of the cameras for 10 minutes while everyone was watching you and then running back to change and doing it all over again." Everyone noted that despite her 17 years and busy schedule, the Russian beauty keeps herself with great dignity and tact, maintains an even mood and sense of humor. After her stay in the United States, she was to visit Germany, and after Japan. Whether these trips took place, I do not know. It was planned that at the end of the tour Sukhanov will fly to Moscow, where she wanted to study as an actress, but everything went so well that she went to Moscow Julia has not returned. In 1990, she starred in a television commercial for diet yogurt. Later she became a model for lingerie catalogs. Living in America, she grew from 172 to 176 centimeters. She actively participated in social events, met celebrities such as actor Jack Nicholson who was a guest at her 18th birthday. Photo Julia featured on the cover of the monthly fashion magazine Details in May 1990, in recognition of her celebrity status. It cannot be argued that it american life went smoothly, without problems or problems. Behind the smiles Julia hid a feeling of fear of a foreign country and people, especially at the beginning, when she did not know English. She was unnerved by the constant offers to appear in the nude for Playboy publications. They got requests to remove a mole above the right eyebrow. Sukhanov sued an American-French lingerie company, which, without permission, placed her photo in store windows and in print advertising. In her contract with fuse weaknesses were also revealed, through the court he was ordered to return to the girl the money received by his agency as a commission percentage from her model earnings. After that Julia moved to the Click agency. In 1996, there was a scandalous incident that hit the pages of American newspapers. Christmas Eve Sukhanov together with the Ukrainian figure skating Olympic champion Oksana Baiul sat in the Manhattan bar "Au Bar". The drunken players from the New York football club began to pester the girls, and when they got a "turn from the gate", they made a noisy brawl. In 1997, in another entertainment venue in New York, the Life nightclub, one of the attendants Sukhanov men were stabbed three times by some annoying visitor with a Georgian surname, who was photographing a beauty. After the collapse of the Union, the title "Miss USSR" no longer had any value, and Julia I could only rely on my ability and luck. In the mid-90s, the "drug addict" type of models came into fashion, the demand for Sukhanov with her "classic" appearance has significantly decreased. She even had to become a fashion model to fit clothes - not a very prestigious job for a model. But then things got better, and in 1995 in his career Sukhanova a significant event happened - she got on the cover of the Mexican Vogue magazine.
(see the cover photo at http://vsenashimiss.blogspot.ru/2014/11/blog-post_29.html)
The well-known American agency "Ford" accepted her into their ranks, where she had a top status. Participated in fashion shows as a catwalk model Donna Karan And Ralph Lauren. In Europe, the agency "Karin" dealt with her affairs. Even before the end of the modeling career Julia Sukhanov began to invest the money she earned in a business - she founded a company selling medical and sports equipment. By the early 2000s, she was already quite a wealthy person: she bought an apartment in the most expensive and prestigious area of ​​New York, Manhattan, and owned a country house on the Atlantic coast. Firstafter a 9 year absence appearance Sukhanova in the Motherland took place in 1998, she stayed with relatives in Moscow for about a week. And the arrival noticed by our press Julia in Moscow took place only in the spring of 2006, when she was invited to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Russian edition of the magazine "Ell". She did not want to come to Russia for reasons of personal safety. In 1991, her mother was killed in her own apartment: someone rang the doorbell, the woman opened it and was strangled by an unknown attacker. The crime was not solved. To Moscow for the funeral of his mother Julia did not go, her relatives insisted on this. They were afraid that the murder was not an accident, it was organized by people who would like to deal with it first of all. Julia. In America Sukhanov she arrived, according to her statements, a naive home girl, she never even kissed. In the overseas country, she had many love affairs, which, however, did not end with official marriage and the birth of a child. It is difficult to list them all and build their exact sequence. But as far as one can understand Julia, unlike many novice models from countries former Union, did not cling to every billionaire that came into her field of vision. Among her admirers, suitors and lovers there were no old uncles with fat bellies and double chins. For the first time in the foreign press they wrote about a love story involving Sukhanova in 1992 when she dated Jordan Knight / Jordan Knight- a member of the popular American boy band "New Kids on the Block" in those years. Their "love story" bore signs of publicity, an advertising project for discussion in the tabloid press. Later, she had a rather long romance with a famous fashion model and actor. Michael Bergin /Michael Bergin("Baywatch - Rescuers Malibu"). The most famous man Sukhanova was Jordan Belfort- New York broker of Jewish nationality, scandalously famous in the 90s for his fraudulent transactions in the sale of shares, on which investors lost $ 200 million, and money laundering. This sensational story was made into the film The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) with Leonardo DiCaprio starring. Belfort also published a book of memoirs in which he devoted several chapters to his girlfriend Sukhanova. Their close relationship lasted for about 3 years, they were even engaged. Belfort met the former "Miss USSR" in 1998 at one of the noisy parties in his house, at that time he was already under investigation. This is how he described the first meeting: "Suddenly I noticed her. Tall, fair-haired, she stood out against the background of all this crowd, like a diamond of the purest water, accidentally wormed among rhinestones. She danced… no, she dissolved into the music, swaying on its waves, so harmoniously she moved in rhythm with it. Her blond hair shimmered in the sun like polished gold. A very short white denim skirt, about six inches above the knees, revealed long, tanned, impeccably shaped legs, and a short, light pink T-shirt fitted her magnificent breasts like a second skin, while allowing one to admire the narrow strip of the abdomen with a touching girlish navel ... Julia smiled showing white teeth. Fine, regular features made her face flawless. His blue, slightly slanting eyes gave him something catlike, hinting at the fact that some five hundred years ago, a narrow-eyed and ferocious Tatar warrior raped one of her distant great-grandmothers ... I stealthily looked at her - to tell the truth, I wanted to find in this Miss Perfection, at least some tiny flaw. But unsuccessfully. The girl was perfection itself - especially those long, slender legs, coquettishly thrown one over the other. Perhaps noticing my gaze, she began to do something breathtakingly sexy with her legs - letting her right sandal slide off, she hooked her thumb and began to swing her leg thoughtfully up and down ... " He told about Julia and later, during his visit to Moscow in 2015. - I had an affair with a Russian girl. Most of you are probably familiar with her name. It was Yulia Sukhanova, the first Miss USSR. She often told me: “Jordan, you are an excellent Russian man!” She probably thought so, because I spent a lot of money on her. It seems to me that, communicating with her, I understood the Russian soul. As Yulia explained to me, Russians feel very well when they are being deceived. And it's best to never do that. From Julia Belfort found out that her previous boyfriend for a couple of years was a young Iranian Cyrus Pahlavi / Cyrus Pahlavi- a relative of the deposed Shah of Iran. And before him there was some "Italian sponsor". Maybe it meant Chris Paciello / Chris Paciello- a charming American mafioso, whose girlfriends at different times were Madonna, Naomi Campbell, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Lopez, Daisy Fuentes. The American press mentions a Russian woman among his famous girlfriends. Early 2000s Julia dated the drummer Marilyn Manson. Then there were: an Italian businessman - a supplier of products to American restaurants, a New York ophthalmologist. In the gossip of New York you can find pictures Sukhanova with American men, in particular in the company of a well-known black documentary producer Reynald Leconte. Who they are: business colleagues, friends or someone in a closer status, it is difficult to say. Although in Russia Sukhanov practically did not appear, our press from time to time remembered her and published interviews taken by phone. Back in the mid-90s, she said that she wanted to get married and have children without fail. Why Sukhanov never carried out these plans, is unknown. Maybe she didn't want it that much. mentioned above Jordan Belfort wrote in his memoirs that Sukhanov she treated his children rather coolly - a 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. She was friendly in communication, smiled at them, but never hugged them. From the same book it follows that the first "Miss USSR" was a product of the Soviet system: she was proud of the history and achievements of a great country, she did not like the United States. I read Russian-language literature and unsuccessfully tried to explain to my partner what "velikaya russkaya dusha" is. Belfort described her as a smart girl who plays chess well, but at the same time speaks illiterate English, constantly confusing prepositions. At every opportunity, she switched to Russian, sometimes obscene. With all the ambiguous manifestations of a Russian girlfriend, best quality Sukhanova was her loyalty. When Belfort told her that they would have to move out of his huge house on the coast, and that he was tight with money, Julia reacted to this with understanding, with words of support. In this, she was very different from his wife - an English model (mother of his 2 children), who filed for divorce immediately after her husband had problems with the law and finances. Judging by the photographs, Sukhanov in her 40s, she retained an excellent figure. The face matches her age, and she claims that she has not yet resorted to Botox and plastic surgery.

preparation for "Miss USSR-89"

1989

letter to "Soviet Russia"

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28 years ago the first All-Union Competition beauty. On a national scale, this did not suit. It was almost a revolution: older people were indignant, and the peers of the participants believed that they had caught the bird of happiness ... Komsomolskaya Pravda found the winner of the first Soviet beauty contest Yulia Sukhanova.

She lives in New York. And it is encrypted as it can - it took a long time to look for it.

I never considered myself beautiful,” she recalls. - Since childhood, she was more friends with boys - she loved to jump and run. And then my sister found out that girls were being recruited in Gorky Park to participate in the competition ... I remember I didn’t want to go - I even cried. And I prepared for the competition without much hope.

And after the victory, I left for the States, where a modeling agency offered me a job. She started with advertising yogurt and ice cream, then signed contracts with American and Parisian agencies. The first time was very hard. I flew in with pomp, like “Miss USSR”, - on the same plane with the Yeltsin couple - this was his first visit to the USA. And it turned out to be in great demand: it seemed that I fell from the moon and they looked at me like an alien creature. Around the house where I settled, the police were on duty around the clock, I was invited non-stop to talk shows, they took me to press conferences. Any gesture, and especially any flaw, was examined under a magnifying glass ... There were many reasons for tears.

Admit it, you went abroad not only for a breathtaking career, but also for the same groom?

I do not agree. Yes, there was a string of fans: Hollywood playboys, Monegasque millionaires, and Persian princes were pestering. I almost married one prince, such love was crazy! But it didn’t happen - I myself broke off contact with him, although we are still friends.

There are participants in beauty contests who are looking for how it would be more profitable to attach themselves. But I'm not interested in a bag of money - the soul, manner, sentimentality are important ... Now I have an Italian boyfriend. I'm in business - I run a company that produces "mountain" air generators, and among our clients, for example, David Beckham ...

My victory became the starting point of a new life. But if I have a daughter, I definitely won’t let her go to the beauty contest!

BACKSTAGE

“The ballerina Maksimova was indignant: “Why are you showing me the sixth breast size here”?

We asked the producer of the contest, director Yuri Kushnerev, about the details of Miss USSR-89.

At the end of the 80s, Kushnerev began to see interesting projects at his studio - collaborations with foreign film companies, most of all with American ones. The most successful picture is "Russia House" with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles. It was the first American film to be shot almost entirely in Russia, in what was then Leningrad. Kushnerev began to visit the United States often - he was accepted into the American Film Producers Guild.

And, having got acquainted closer with the American film industry, I realized one thing - many famous actresses, if not all, went through various beauty contests. And I decided - why not do it in Russia, because I considered the competition as an open path for beautiful girls to the cinema.

As soon as the director began to translate a bold idea into reality, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League ran over him with a skating rink. What kind of event is so suspicious - a beauty contest?

They even summoned me to the Central Committee of the party, interrogating me - what am I going to do there? The party organs did not provide us with any help, and, by and large, it was not needed. We did everything on a whim, trying to borrow something from modeling agencies. We turned to these three largest ones - they taught us how to select candidates, who to weed out (they immediately knocked out complete fools in the qualifying rounds - I really didn’t want to disgrace myself in front of foreigners).

Before holding a large-scale Miss USSR contest, the organizers of the event traveled to different cities for two months Soviet Union, where the most pretty girls were selected to participate in the main metropolitan event.

Then there was the issue of sponsorship. With the help of the Confederation of the Union of Cinematographers in Krasnaya Presnya, we created the Korona organization, which financed the project. By the way, at that time everything could be done very cheaply, because the beauty contest was a novelty. The girls who were preparing for the competition were placed in a boarding house near Moscow. And its director, imbued with an interesting idea, rented a boarding house for us completely free of charge.

As for the main sponsor, it was my friend Babek Serush, the son of Iraqi political emigrants. He and I grew up in the same yard - his family lived so poorly that my mother Serusha, a small and skinny boy, constantly fed. In 1948, our children's ties ceased: I entered the cadet school, he moved to another area. Again, we met shortly before the competition - he was no longer just an oligarch, but a very rich man.

Kushnerev told about the competition, that there was nowhere to get money, and he immediately agreed to help with the costs, allocating 40 thousand dollars. They went to rent the State Central Concert Hall "Russia" and the event itself.

The funny thing is that, even after paying this amount, we still owe it. The directorate of Rossiya began to choke me: “When will you repay the debt?

But the most amazing story happened a few weeks before the event. Well, yes, she is directly connected with crime, with brothers ...

Babek, having already taken the competition under his financial wing, he invited me to the restaurant of the Center international trade. We ate something, and a friend asked me to follow him to the banquet hall at this restaurant. He took me there, and there sixteen well-dressed men were sitting at the table. On either side of them are some other people. Now I understand that it was a guard, but then, out of my naivety, I perceived everything on the forehead. I think some business delegation is sitting. We were invited, Babek immediately disappeared somewhere. It was the birthday of one of these people. At that time I drank well, they immediately poured me. And on an emotional rise, I said a warm good toast. The feast continued, they asked me what I was doing. I started a conversation with them. And at the end of the holiday, the person sitting in the center of the table (he was the main one) stood up with a glass: “I thank you for coming, and I think I will express the general opinion of all those present that we allow him to hold a beauty contest. My jaw dropped - who was I sitting with! These were seasoned bandits!

That's it, we didn't see more of the brothers' visits. The only time we almost got hurt by them was when they arrived drunk at the girls' boarding house. They wanted to have fun with them: “Where are the women brought here?”. It's good that the candidates were guarded by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They quickly removed them.

The jury gathered exclusively bohemian - it included the most famous actors of the country, famous directors, artists, writers, journalists from twenty countries of the world. the first in the Union was sung by "foreign" Willy Tokarev. The jury members at the first competition were Irina Skobtseva, Muslim Magomayev, Ilya Glazunov, Leonid Yakubovich. The jury was headed by the world ballet star Ekaterina Maksimova.

She was very sensitive to the contestants. For the first time, we were looking for candidates whose parameters would be close to the cherished “90-60-90”. Actually, it was at our competition throughout the Soviet space that they learned what beauty criteria exist. But we did not conduct the so-called serious casting, we were content with those girls who were presented to us as winners at small-town competitions.

So Volgograd was represented by the girl Elena Silina - with the sixth breast size. Maximova was very pleased with the immense bust of the contestant: “Why are you showing me boobs here?” She, of course, flew out in the top ten, but her fate was successful. A few years ago in Paris, where I was on business, in a restaurant an interesting young woman threw herself on my neck: “Yuri Sergeevich, do you recognize me?” This was the same Lena Silina. Having taken up a career as a fashion model after the competition, she met a wealthy Frenchman. "Where are you staying?" she asked me. "At the hotel". "No hotels, let's go to our castle." I tactfully refused.

The main winner - 17-year-old schoolgirl Yulia Sukhanova - was taken care of by her uncle, and not her own, but her sister's husband.

I'm connected with her too. interesting story. Her uncle offered me a bribe. He seemed like a rather slippery type to me. A couple of days before the competition, he asked me for a meeting, at which he said: “I give ten thousand dollars so that Yulia becomes Miss USSR.” I sent it. According to my feelings, he felt very well that you can earn good money at these competitions. It was he who took her quickly to America, so that one could profit from her glory and beauty.

By the way, the jury previously met with each of the contestants. And, as Kushnerev says, it was Sukhanov who did not particularly like him.

So silent, with an angular figure. Since we first of all “estimated” them for the big screen, we arranged acting competitions for them. They asked to read poems, excerpts from their plays. And Julia did not stand out in any way, in my opinion, there were brighter girls.

Modern competitions are profitable in terms of money. "Miss USSR" did not bring any income to either the participants or the organizers. You could say they failed.

Neither I nor my colleagues received a penny. None of the finalists signed a contract for further participation in the most important competition for officially recognized beauties - Miss World. Three finalists had to sign a contract in order for the representatives of our country to take part in this competition. But no one knew how to draw up this contract. They found some unprofessional lawyers who illiterately drew up a contract with which three girls were not allowed to go to Miss World.

“Miss Kinochans” Anna PORTNAYA: “If Yakubovich didn’t cheer me up, I would just turn sour”

"Miss Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk" Anna Portnaya liked the audience, according to the results of their voting, she was in second place - before becoming the first "Miss USSR", it was not enough just a little bit. She consoled herself with the title of "Miss Cinema Chance".

To be honest, I had a decadent mood, - says Anna. - At 12 o'clock in the morning, the qualifying competition in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ended, and at nine in the morning I flew to Moscow. And here I am sitting on my suitcases in the luxurious marble lobby of a boarding house near Moscow, and around me a hundred and more overdressed girls click their heels ... I arrived later than all of them. And they seemed to me real beauty queens - I didn’t even know how to make up! Fortunately, Leonid Yakubovich supported me at the competition, without his encouragement I would have simply turned sour.

Someone else ruined my dress the day before the competition, and I had to go on stage in an awkward pantsuit ... The fact that I received the Miss Cinema Chance crown was a surprise. They gave me a TV, but the main promise for Miss Kinoshance - studying at VGIK - was not fulfilled ...

But then, when I graduated from high school and returned to Moscow, a breakthrough of work formed: shooting in magazines, participating in shows, traveling abroad. There were independence, friends, husband. True, we later divorced him, but a wonderful daughter was born in marriage. She is already graduating from school - preparing to enter the institute and poring over notes for days on end.

Now I work as an image maker, I teach women how to present themselves more advantageously. And I haven't watched beauty contests for a long time. Previously, they had more aristocracy, sophistication, and today's beauties only dream of arranging their female fate better. That's why they look at them like "meat" ...