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ZHIRINOVSKY - Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky was born on April 25, 1946, in the city of Alma-Ata.
In 1969, he graduated from Moscow State University (Oriental Languages). Between 1973 and 1991, Zhirinovsky held a sequence of jobs. First, he worked for the Soviet Committee for Defense of Peace as a reviewer. Then, while working for Injurcollegia, Zhirinovsky graduated from Moscow State University night school to become a lawyer. Later, he held the position of a prorector (vice-president) at the Higher School of the Trade Union Movement. After that, he became Chief of the Legal Service at "Mir" Publishers.
Zhirinovsky started his political career in 1988, and quickly went on to become a founder of the Liberal Democratic Party. The first Congress of this party took place in March, 1990. The LDP became the second party officially registered in the USSR. (The first one was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that got disbanded by Yeltsin in 1991.) The LDP was eventually transformed into the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). The stunning success of the LDPR in the December 1993 parliamentary elections lifted Zhirinovsky to international fame.
Zhirinovsky's success in the December 1993 parliamentary elections astonished both Russian and Western observers. Polls had discerned a late surge in support for the LDPR, but the scale of Zhirinovsky's victory was staggering. Although it did not gain an absolute majority in any region of the Russian Federation, the LDPR received more votes than any other party in 64 out of 87 regions (the government of Chechnya refused to hold elections, while an "unofficial" boycott in Tatarstan kept turnout well below the 25% required for valid elections).