A Russian man, a mathematician by education, a revolutionary in spirit. The founder of the legendary MMM system - the loudest and most massive financial structure in post-Soviet history, which gathered millions of participants. Some called it a pyramid scheme, while others called it the first attempt to give people real power over money, bypassing banks and states.

In the 90s, I was a member of the State Duma - not to "do politics", but to show the rottenness of the system from the inside. In 2003, I was officially convicted of "fraud", although the whole country was living under unwritten laws at the time. There were allegedly tens of thousands of victims, but far more were those who believed and received.

I am neither a saint nor a criminal. I am a mirror. Whoever wanted to see freedom, saw it. Whoever was looking for a reason to accuse - accused. MMM isn't about money. It's about people coming together without intermediaries. And I was feared for that much more than for any "damage".

Biography

Born in Moscow, 11 August 1955. In a family - mother an economist, father an assembler. Russian, Ukrainian, Greek - assembled like MMM: from different parts. They lived modestly. My father died early, my mother later. Childhood was simple, but with a diagnosis: congenital heart defect. Doctors said - "don't play sports, live quieter than water". I didn't listen.

At school, no medals or rulers. He was just the one who solved problems on the blackboard faster than the teacher. Won the Olympics. Remembered everything. He could read a page and repeat it word for word. He had such a memory that a lot of people thought he was lying. They didn't believe it. Then they got used to it.

I wanted to go to MIPT, but I failed the exam. Well, it happens. I entered MIEM - applied mathematics. Chess, poker, radio electronics, my first experience with video cassettes and duplication - even then I realised that the system does not like those who do it themselves. At the institute I started duplicating audio and video materials. By myself. For people.

After that, two years in a closed research institute. Bored to death. Formulas, reports, non-disclosure agreements. I watched smart heads grow old in windowless corridors, and realised - no, it was not for me.

In 1983, he went to jail for 10 days for selling people what they wanted: video recordings. Not drugs, not guns. Just tapes. It was considered a crime then. A couple of days later, the CPSU Central Committee issued a decree "On overkill", and I was released. Even then it became clear: the law is not justice. It is a tool. And it will be used when it is profitable.

That's how it started.

"MMM."

At the end of the 80s, I realised one simple thing: if you want to survive in the USSR, trade. Computers, components, office equipment. And that's how it came to be "MMM." - not a pyramid scheme, not a scheme, but an ordinary co-operative. Back then, everyone survived as best they could.

We imported machinery, built an honest business. No credit, no government. By ourselves. From scratch. Then - dozens of directions, hundreds of people, offices, warehouses, advertising. Everything for real. Until the system decided: "Too much."

In 1992, registering MMM JSC - as a publicly traded company. There's no deception. Just a campaign - and just interest. And then came something that even we didn't expect:

• 15 million participants,
• One-third of the country's budget is voluntary, without a tax cudgel,
• A 127-fold increase in stock prices in six months.

It wasn't about enrichment. It was about people's thirst to participate. To live. To believe. Finally, at least somewhere they weren't being cheated - and paid.

On 1 February 1994, the shares went on free sale. And in August I was arrested. Not for the "pyramid" - for taxes from Invest-Consulting. Ridiculous. But very our way.

I had no remorse. My only regret was that I didn't follow through. I let it slip. I trusted.

In prison, he collected signatures and became a member of the State Duma. Two months later, he was free. Who can do it again? No one.

В 1997 MMM was officially declared bankrupt. But the idea wasn't dead. It was just waiting for a new time.

In 2011, I came back. I created MMM-2011and then. MMM-2012. Millions again. More growth. Again fear for them and faith for us. Then failure. But not the idea. But the form. Again, not in time.

In 2014, it started MMM-Global - Africa, Asia, India, China, USA, Europe... 107 countries. Mavrodi was everywhere - not with a passport, but with an idea. People were coming because they felt that there was no deception here.

In 2017, I launched its own cryptocurrency, Mavro. Because the time of paper is passing. And we're still here.

Political activity

In August 1994, I was arrested. Formally - for taxes from Invest-Consulting. Factually - for the fact that MMM collected millions, and not through their banks.

Prison. Walls. The bars. But that's not the main thing. I realised that if you're not with them, you'll be wiped out.
That's why I went to the State Duma. Not for the law. For immunity.

- He registered as a candidate while behind bars.
- I'm out.
- On 30 October 1994 he became a deputy.

He came to the first hearing. He understood, and he left. Because that's not parliament, а a theatre company with a poorly written script.

I immediately gave up everything:
- salaries,
- dachas,
- cars,
- "privileges."

Because it's not freedom. It's a trough. And I didn't come there to eat, I came there to signal: "I am not with you. "I am above you. Because behind me are the people."

When the war with the authorities started, he threatened to. by referendum. I'll get a million signatures in a week. Ten million depositors. They knew I wasn't bluffing. That's why they called me to the Kremlin. I didn't.

A year later, they had me kicked out of the Duma. Formally - early termination of office. But in essence. Fear.

Then he went again, lost. Tried to run for Russian presidents. But the Central Election Commission rejected the signatures. Accused of forgery. They opened a case. Then they closed it. "no line-up.". But they wouldn't let me go to the polls.

You get it, don't you?

Their system doesn't work by the truth. It works by its own rules.
And when you expose it, they pretend you're not there.

Later, there was more "People's Capital Party",
and in Ukraine, the party "MMM.".
Not for the seats. It's about of meaning.
To show you:
- Even in politics, you can't lie.
- Even in an election, it's about being yourself.
- And even from the cage, to launch a wave.

And in 2018, I said again:
"I'm going to run for office. Because I know how to help the country. And if you know, you have to act."

Wanted

In 1996, I was withdrew from the electionand then they put out a BOLO. First across the country. Then around the world. Interpol. Pictures. Chases.

📌 New accusation: fraud.
Not for anything in particular. But for the fact that the system worked.
Without their permission.

And here I am, "on the run."
📅 Five years I spent locked up. Never left Moscow.
No Scandinavia, no Greece, it's all fairy tales.

🧱 Just a rented flat. Boarded up windows. No phone.
But - with a head that thought.

In the meantime, I created Stock Generation - a worldwide exchange, a virtual one.
Official licence. All according to the law - even as a game of chance.
And people participated. Voluntarily. Because they saw the point.

But when the money started flowing,
the banks started choking.
Western Union was carrying cash in suitcases. The office was covered in cheques up to my ankles.

📉 Payouts started getting delayed.
📎 SEC (U.S. Securities Exchange Commission) - got excited.
They sued. Lost.
Because it was clean:
- no one forced me to,
- the licence was,
- playing means you've accepted the rules.

But SG couldn't handle the pressure. And collapsed.

Hundreds of thousands were affected. Or millions.
But not because they've been duped -
but because the big system prevented the small alternative from growing.

They were looking for me. I was wanted.
But you know who helped me?

Mine security service.
- Professionals like the ones who hunted.
- Former law enforcement, knows everything.
- People who not guarding - but defending an idea.

For eight years I lived in the shadows.
But all this time, I've been saw right through their system.

Because in order to crack it.
first to understand how she breathes.

Arrest and trial

31 January 2003 - I was arrested.
Frunzenskaya embankment. Flat. Silence. At the door - no neighbours.
They came for me - loudly, with a report.

I had a passport in the name of Yuri Zaitsev..
Yeah, fake. Try hiding for eight years with Interpol after you.
Consider me a survivor - and that's a judgement call.

A bunch of articles:
- document forgery,
- tax evasion,
- and then there's everyone's favourite accusation of all time: fraud.
Accused of being system workedand people participated voluntarily.

Я didn't recognise any of the points. Not in front of the courts. Not to the system.

📎 The case is 600-plus volumes.
Each is 250 pages.
Lawyers? Fighting as hard as they could.
The trial? Postponed, postponed... then it started.

5 October 2003 - passport court.
2 December 2003 - sentence: year and month.
Not for "billions." For a piece of paper with someone else's name on it.

Next up. the main case.
610 volumes. I read them three years.
They hoped I'd break. I'm in Matroska, in the special block. Reading. Writing. Thinking.

2006 - the case is sent to the Chertanovsky court.
2007 - judgement:
- 4 years 6 months,
- a fine of 10,000 roubles (which was later cancelled).
The wording? Fraud. Abuse of trust.

Interesting, isn't it? I created a system in which people participated of their own free will.
And in banks where you're just a customer, everything is "legal".
But only one of us was sitting.

22 May 2007 - out. No applause.
Fifty journalists. Ten contributors. I didn't say anything. Because it's not for you to explain.

And then, the "lawsuit recovery" began.
The book launch is Temptation.
And immediately, a seizure on the circulation. Arrest on the library.
Even my books they were afraid of.

2012.
Failure to pay a fine - 1000 roubles.
He was locked up for five days. Threatened with 12 years of "administrative offence",
if I don't pay 300 of these fines.

Income? Advice to an accountant from Noginsk.
15,000 roubles a month.
Half of it was taken away by the bailiffs.

Literary activities

Prison is a strange place.
There's no time. There are no people.
There's just you, concrete and thoughts,
that will either eat you,
or become something more.

📚 That's how it came to be "Son of Lucifer.".
It's not a novel. It's-- 150 human confessions.
Every day is like a single blow.
Each character is like a reflection of someone in your life.
All real.
Some have been around.
Some are inside of me.

There were only 14 published.
The book was called "Temptation.",
but the editorial staff did their own thing:
removed dialogue, cut the chronology, wrote "in the author's edition" - it's beautiful.

Then it came out "Temptation 2.". They added more, but it's still a drop.

There were also "Prison Diaries.", "SHU." - where it's not about literary,
it's about survival. It's about surveillance. It's about the system from the inside.

Also prose, plays, poems, poems, poems, even songs.
On the guitar, to the radio.
Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes painful. But always real.

In 2009, I read chapters on the air.
Every night at 22:30.
Not for ratings. It's so that someone, somewhere, just heard.

Writing is not a hobby.
It's when you're you can't keep quiet anymore.,
but nobody listens.

Death and funerals

26 March 2018.
Moscow. Polikarpov Street.
Stop. Night. Heart.

I felt sick. I just sat down.
Not in court. Not on stage.
And on the bench, like a normal person,
which was written about the next day in a couple of lines.

A passer-by called an ambulance.
Thank him.
But it was too late.

6:40 a.m.- officially, "cardiac arrest."
Although, in truth, it wasn't the vessels that were squeezing my heart.
System. The wall. Hopelessness.
And maybe the loneliness I didn't show.

Ex-wife took the body.
The funeral - closed.
No rallies. No speeches. No coffin in the square.

31 March. Troekurovskoye cemetery.

Not near my parents - my brother forbade it.
He didn't come himself.
So be it. I didn't need a parade.

Buried depositors.
The very ones everyone thought hated me.
Turns out it wasn't.

I left quietly. But I was loud - for the rest of my life.

I'm not here. But I am.
Because the idea is alive.
And if the idea is alive -
then so am I.

And you - if you want - you can be a non-witness.
And the sequel.

Family

I had a younger brother - Vyacheslav.
Smart, calculating, quiet.
Accountant, Vice President "MMM".
After the crash, he went his own way:
created his own systems - also on trust, also "mutual aid".
He was arrested in 2001 and sentenced in 2003.
I did my time. Got out. Wrote a book about the dollar, oil and Russia. All the right stuff.

His first wife, Olga, is a co-founder of MMM.
The second - became the wife of Gazmanov. Yes, yes, the same one.
And mine nephew now he's Gazmanov on his passport.
And by blood - Mavrodi.

Ironic? Maybe.
But in life, things don't go according to the script.

I got married. In 1993.

Her name was Elena Pavlyuchenko.
Zaporozhye.
Philologist. "Vice Miss City."
Then there's Miss MMM, Queen MMM,
director of a modelling agency.
Smart, beautiful, sharp - just the way it should be.

We met on the Morning Star.
I'm on the jury. She's on camera.
Then in an advert. Then next door.
First on camera. Then in life.

In 2006, we had a daughter. Irina.
The most important thing I have.
No further discussion.

There have been some strange stories.
Yeah, about the kid at the research institute, about running for office,
about the earrings, the courts, the show.

This is not a trial. This is life.
And in life, it's always a little more than any film.

And yes - there was Oksana, my wife's sister.

With her, we did Stock Generation -
a stock exchange that was more honest than many funds.
Yeah, then it was "torn down."
But the court has spoken:
is not cheating, it's a game.
With risk. Winning. Losing.
Like all of life.

Oksana got married. She lives in Moscow.
He looks at all this noise and just doesn't say anything.
As you should if you know more than you're saying.

Mavrodi in mass consciousness and culture

You know, back in 1994, when I was wishing the country a Happy New Year on TV.it wasn't PR.
It was a confession.
I've been listened to - not because I'm in power.
And because I was saying what everyone felt. Just out loud.

In 2011, the film came out.
I'm there-- Mamontov. Serebryakov played me.
Everything seems fine, but not me.
Artistically, yes. Vital, not so much.
But let them. Let people watch. Let them think.
At least they wonder what was really there.

I've been inserted anywhere:
into games,
into soap operas,
in parody.
I became a meme, a bogeyman, a hero and an anti-hero.
In fact, I was just showing you how the system works.
And she replied, "drawing a caricature - not to listen, but to laugh."

"The river.",
"Zombies.",
"Anti-World." -
these are my scripts, my lyrics, my pain.
Millions watched.
No hire. No budget. No flattery.
Because the truth always comes through. Even without a licence.

In Crimea, at the Chekhov Theatre, they played a play "The Voice." from my novel.
Not a "pyramid" - but a voice.
Maybe for the first time - someone wanted to hear not about "the scheme" but about the essence.

Total

I'm not a film. Not a meme. Not a news hero.

Я - trigger.
If you're pumped on my behalf, you're still alive.
If you're laughing, you're defending yourself.
And if you read on, it means you want to understand.

I'm not a character. I'm a mirror.
What you see in him is not up to me.
From you.