On February 7, an envelope with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 100th Birth Anniversary of Valentin Zorin, a political columnist and a writer, was put into postal circulation

Valentin Zorin (1925-2016) was a Soviet and Russian political commentator, a television presenter, a journalist, and a political observer for Central Television and All-Union Radio. He was a Doctor of Historical Sciences (1963), an Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR (1973), and a Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1976). Since 2014, he was a political observer of the Russia Today International News Agency.

Valentin Zorin was born on February 9, 1925, in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1948. In 1962, he defended his thesis on Monopolies and the main directions of US domestic policy (Domestic policy of the Republican government in 1952-1960). In 1948-1955, he was a columnist in the International Department of the All-Union Radio of the All-Union Committee on Radiofication and Radio Broadcasting. Over several decades from 1953, he was the host of the weekly author's program for American radio listeners How it looks from Moscow. In 1955, he was appointed deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Last News information program of All-Union Radio. In the quality of a special correspondent, he gave publicity to overseas official trips of Soviet leaders. In 1965, he became the first political observer of the Central Television and All-Union Radio of the USSR.

Valentin Zorin was one of the founders of the Institute of USA and Canada of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1967-1995). Since 1967, he headed the Department of Internal Policy, and later on, he was the Chief Research Associate of the Institute.

Zorin worked in the genres of television political commentary and reportage. In 1967, he participated as an adviser in the negotiations between the head of the Soviet government A. Kosygin and US President L. Johnson in Glassboro. He became the initiator of such new genres for Soviet television as the publicist film and television “round table”. V. Zorin's program Studio 9 (1974-1988) was the first in the USSR informational and analytical program on issues of international politics with the participation of invited guests. TV programs Today in the World and International Panorama, which he hosted in 1970-1980, invariably enjoyed wide popularity among viewers. From 1989 to 1991, he hosted the Undiplomatic Conversations program in which he met with top officials of Western countries

In the capacity of a special correspondent, he reported on oversees visits of the leaders of the USSR and the Russian Federation L. Brezhnev, M. Gorbachev, and B. Yeltsin. He acted as an expert during meetings of the first President of the USSR M. Gorbachev with leading politicians and businesspersons of the USA. As a member of the Soviet delegation, he participated in three sessions of the UN General Assembly. V. Zorin interviewed Soviet and Western leaders and international political figures. Since 1997, he was First Deputy Chairman of the Federation for Peace and Concord, headed the Board of Directors of Prometheus-AST TV and Radio Company (Satellite Television Association). Since 2000, he was a political observer for the Russian State Radio Broadcasting Company Voice of Russia, and since 2014, for the Russia Today International News Agency.

Zorin is the author of 32 full-length television films, including those from the series America in the 70s and Uncrowned Kings of America. He has published 15 monographs and books, such as Monopolies and the Politics of Washington, Uncrowned Kings of America, Rulers without Masks, The Unknown about the Known and others.

The envelope and the commemorative stamp provide portraits of Valentin Zorin.

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced a special cancel for Moscow.


Design Artist: I. Ulyanovsky.
Quantity: 500 thousand envelopes.

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