Igor Kirillov: the television man known as the face of the USSR died at 89

Igor Kirillov, the man known as the face and voice of the USSR, died in Russia at the age of 89.

Kirillov was the leading journalist and announcer of Soviet TV.

With his typical delivery – unhurried and calm – he informed the spectators of the first sputnik in space and delivered the Communist Party communiqués.

He also led all major Soviet events: from Moscow’s Red Square parades to Communist congresses. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

When Soviet leaders died, as was often the case, it was Igor Kirillov who commented on their burials in the Kremlin wall.

But in the late 1980s, television news was changing around the world: News readers weren’t professional announcers anymore, they were journalists.

It was the same in the Soviet Union and Igor Kirillov’s face began to disappear from the television screens.

I remember in 1990 he told me that what was happening on the broadcasts was a calamity. The new presenters, he said, were in too much of a rush, adding “Russians don’t like people talking fast.”