ParenNiNo

Overnight in a cabin, stingy food and severe frost. One of the most famous millionaires in Russia, Dmitry Volkov, experienced all the delights of poor life in Nizhny Novgorod. The rich man became the hero of the new show of the Friday TV channel - “Secret Millionaire”.

According to the terms of the show, the reality hero must voluntarily give up his former wealthy life and try to improve his life in the new harsh realities, without a gold card, a personal assistant and status acquaintances. For five days in a row, the millionaire will have to spend the night in shelters, work in factories and beg on the street. The former businessman will only have 1,000 rubles, an old mobile phone and second-hand clothes at his disposal.

Dmitry Volkov - "Secret Millionaire".

A millionaire cannot reveal his real life. For Dmitry Volkov, the creators of the program came up with a legend that he came to Nizhny Novgorod to earn money after his businessman friends ditched him. Before the trip, Dmitry was given two envelopes. They can be opened only in extreme cases. The letters contain information about where you can find work and overnight accommodation.

As soon as Dmitry set foot on Nizhny Novgorod soil, he went to the ruins with printed publications. There he bought newspapers with job offers. Dmitry did not find any suitable offers there.

Then the millionaire went to look for work at large enterprises in the capital of the Volga region. So, he ended up at 5 Monastyrka. As the millionaire said, he will remember this address forever.

The production of thermal insulation is located at this address. Dmitry was hired. He was so happy about this that he didn’t even inquire about his earnings. As a result, in two hours the “secret millionaire” earned 250 rubles.

The first night in Nizhny Novgorod, Dmitry Volkov spent the night in a hostel, and the next night in a “change house”. After dinner, which consisted of a can of saury and cheese, the millionaire suffered from poisoning. Despite this, he continued to participate in the project.

In Nizhny Novgorod, Dmitry Volkov managed to work at the Arsenal Museum of Modern Art, with the artist Artem Filatov, helped Uncle Lesha with housework, and also worked in a nightclub as an assistant bartender.

At the end of the show, Dmitry Volkov distributed gifts and money to the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, whom he met in the capital of the Volga region. Thus, nightclub employees Denis and Vasilisa received $4,700 and a yacht cruise from the millionaire. The millionaire gave the Nizhny Novgorod artist 750 thousand rubles (this money will be used to pay for the rent of the premises).

A businessman eats Druzhba cheese for the first time.

Dmitry Volkov gave half a million rubles to his partner Ekaterina, whom he met at the production of thermal insulation. Uncle Lesha received the most unusual gift from the capital's millionaire. Dmitry Volkov gave the pensioner a photo session with strippers.

The most luxurious gift was received by an employee of the Arsenal and the museum itself. Dmitry Volkov gave the girl a trip to Paris and 2.5 million rubles to the museum.

Dmitry Volkov admitted that it was very difficult to participate in this show, but despite all this, he got a lot of pleasure from the project.

Sometimes it seems to me that I live like a man in a case. And it’s not even that I’m like a hermit crab, or that I don’t communicate with people. It’s just that every single day I communicate with people at work and I’m already very used to it all. This is my personal case. That’s why I wanted to open it, agreeing to participate in this project,” said the millionaire.

On this topic

Send your news to the editor, tell us about the problem or suggest a topic for publication. Send a photo or video of an interesting event by email[email protected] . Our number on WhatsApp and Viber 8-910-390-4040. Read news on social networks

The sailing schooner Rembrandt van Rijn has hosted various companies over its hundred-year history. But world-famous philosophers, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists gathered at it for the first time.

The tall man with a bushy gray beard and a large wooden staff is none other than the American Daniel Dennett, professor of philosophy, Erasmus Prize winner, one of the most influential thinkers of our time.

A rock-singer-like charismatic who never leaves his mobile phone is Australian professor David Chalmers, whose courses on the philosophy of mind are popular with students at the Australian National University and New York University. Famous neurophysiologists Paul and Patricia Churchland, British philosopher Andy Clark, teachers and graduate students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University are also there. On a sailboat they all gathered on business - for the conference “Problems of consciousness and free will in analytical philosophy.”

An unusual event off the coast of Greenland was organized by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Volkov, CEO of SD Ventures, PhD and co-director of the Center for Consciousness Research.

How did a Russian entrepreneur end up in the company of world-famous thinkers?

Small world

Muscovite Dmitry Volkov became interested in philosophy while still at school, but still chose the history department of Moscow State University. Already during his studies he began to engage in business. His inclination towards entrepreneurship manifested itself even earlier - as Volkov recalls with a laugh, he earned his first money at the age of 13, in the late 1980s: “It was a children’s labor exchange. The idea seemed brilliant to us, the business took off, but my friend and I didn’t know then that child labor was prohibited in our country.” Working as a translator from English led the Moscow State University student to projects related to programming and the Internet, and he soon founded his first IT company. And in 2003, together with foreign partners, he created a group of companies called Social Discovery Ventures (SD Ventures), which has more than 50 projects, including Shazam, the site for finding travel companions TripTogether, dating sites (AsianDate, Zang). In Russia, SD Ventrues develops PayOnline projects and the UsabilityLab ergonomics and user behavior research studio. The company's offices are located in Moscow, New York, Chongqing (China), Medellin (Colombia) and Minsk. Therefore, Volkov spends most of his time outside of Russia.

On the SD Ventures website, information about the philosophy conference in Greenland is posted directly below a video tour of the New York office. There is no contradiction - all the group’s projects are aimed, as stated on the website (Volkov himself is reluctant to talk about business), precisely to make the world a better, happier place, to unite people. Modern philosophers solve the same problems.

Discipleship

For Volkov, philosophy is no less serious matter than the development of new projects. At the age of 27, when the business was already established, he decided to get a second higher education and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. He remembers this time as the happiest. “For the first time I started leaving work at 18:00. I didn’t know before that this was possible,” says Dmitry. The group was small, all the students sincerely wanted to learn.

Thanks to his supervisor, Professor Vadim Vasiliev, the student decided to pursue graduate school and defended his PhD thesis on issues of consciousness, free will and the works of Daniel Dennett. Thus began Volkov’s acquaintance with one of the main representatives of modern analytical philosophy.

Before the defense, Volkov decided to meet Dennett personally. Having learned that the philosopher would take part in lectures on a cruise ship in Mexico, the businessman bought tickets for himself and his wife on this cruise.

A Russian entrepreneur and a 70-year-old philosopher became friends. Volkov flew to Dennett’s dacha in a rented helicopter and attended the ceremony for presenting the thinker with the Erasmus Prize in Stockholm. One day they agreed to meet in some secluded place to discuss issues of “mental causation,” as Volkov recalls. Dennett, a former yachtsman, suggests a yacht trip off the coast of Greenland.

As a result, instead of a chamber meeting, it turned out to be a full-fledged philosophical expedition: for a whole week from June 12 to 19, 2014, more than 30 philosophers from all over the world discussed issues of consciousness and will on the schooner Rembrandt van Rijn.

Ship of the Sages

The expedition route ran around Disko Island, located west of Greenland. Every day, discussion sessions were held in the spacious wardroom. The format is as follows: based on predetermined texts, each speaker presented the ideas of another participant, who then took the floor, clarified and argued his position, followed by a general discussion.

The topics discussed on the schooner—free will and consciousness—are exactly what worries Ph.D. Volkov most of all. The questions are abstract, but during the interview Dmitry puts everything into perspective in a few minutes. Natural sciences have shaped the modern understanding of man. It is a living organism, the result of evolution, a physical system. But in such a picture of the world there is no place left for either human consciousness or free will. Subjectivity is left behind - the subjective perception of color and sound, emotions - in a word, all those things that are individual. Philosophers who believe that subjective sensations are an illusion and that ultimately everything comes down to a single principle call themselves illusionists, or monists. Among them is Daniel Dennett, and partly Volkov.

“There is an idea that philosophy is an activity divorced from reality,” the entrepreneur argues, “but in fact, philosophers must know the physiology of the brain in order to talk about consciousness. You need to know how it works. Analytical philosophy is strongly aligned with science.”

All members of the expedition knew each other well: professors often meet each other at conferences and universities. On the schooner Rembrandt, two camps immediately formed - the monists, led by Dennett, and the dualists, who defend the reality of subjective ideas and believe that consciousness cannot be explained by processes in the brain or anything physical. The leader of this camp was David Chalmers.

There were more monists, since Dennett himself invited philosophers, and he was pleased with the choice.

“I have never seen such a high level of discussion as on this boat,” Dennett wrote in response to a question from Forbes. “We all talked and argued about a lot, but there was no arrogance or quarrels, it was an unforgettable meeting of great minds.”

Volkov also notes that all the organizers were pleasantly surprised by how constructive the discussions turned out, despite the diametrically opposed positions. Representatives of both camps communicated emotionally, but extremely respectfully. So, during his speech, Chalmers took sips from an empty bottle out of excitement for an hour. But no one ever got personal.

Disputes were followed by landings on the shore and acquaintance with the Arctic nature. In one of the towns, the travelers were met by an Inuit guide who, as it turned out, was studying philosophy in Copenhagen. As a result, he spent an hour explaining his vision of the world to professors at the best universities, touching on the topic of free will. “Inuit men have free will, but Inuit women cannot have free will,” Volkov quotes the main provisions.

In addition, the harsh and picturesque nature of Greenland sometimes itself put an end to disputes. During the landing in the area of ​​the Smallesund Canal, the banks of which were covered with soft moss, and thousands of seagulls circled near the sheer cliff, Chalmers made a powerful argument: “Just look! How can they say it’s an illusion!” Even the most convinced illusionists did not argue with him.

During the trip, Dennett found an old board somewhere and already in America he carved a whale figure out of it. On one side he wrote Dan, on the other - Dmitry. “It was a great intellectual journey,” Dennett wrote to Volkoff in a letter after his return.

Questions of philosophy

After his Ph.D., Volkov took up the book, which he worked on for a total of six years. And in 2011 he published his work, “Boston Zombie: Dennett and His Theory of Consciousness,” a book-discussion with Daniel Dennett and other modern philosophers. The plans include a doctoral dissertation, which Volkov intends to finish in a year, and another book.

How does a 38-year-old entrepreneur find time for philosophical studies? “This is my second profession,” says Volkov. And he says that the main function of philosophy in his life is “self-preservation.”

“At the age of 25, I began to discover that work, like an octopus, leads to expansion to the end,” says the businessman. — You need to put up a Rublev wall to stop thinking about work. I built it with the help of philosophy.”

The second reason why it is important for an entrepreneur to engage in philosophy is the development of critical thinking. Philosophy teaches you to be selective about information. “This is also very important in business,” Volkov is sure. - You cannot take information or arguments on faith. It is important to critically evaluate statements. And ultimately this leads to a more perfect society, where there is more tolerance and independence.” This is precisely why Volkov is trying to promote philosophy in Russia. In 2006, together with Vadim Vasiliev, they opened the Center for the Study of Consciousness at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. “This is my gratitude to society for free education.”

The third reason is aesthetic pleasure from philosophical reasoning. “I see beauty in intellectual constructs. “You can see it in paintings, in architectural structures, where engineering thought is visible,” the entrepreneur admits. “The combination of technology and art is close to me as an idea both in life and in business.”

Expensive hobby

Colleagues and business partners react to Volkov’s hobby in different ways. Some people find it curious, others view this hobby with irony. Volkov laughingly talks about his friend, the owner of a large travel company, to whom he once gave his book about Dennett. He sincerely thanked: “The ideal sleeping pill, I read two phrases and I fall asleep instantly.” Then Volkov gave him Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” for the New Year. “This will be even stronger,” he laughs.

Most of his friends consider his passion for philosophy to be simply an expensive hobby, the same as flying helicopters (which Volkov also does professionally; he received a license several years ago) and heli-skiing.

“This is really a colossally expensive hobby,” agrees the businessman. - Because I invest the most valuable thing - my time. Working on a doctoral dissertation and books requires personal presence, I cannot delegate it to anyone.”

About 30% of Volkov’s work schedule is spent on philosophical works. All of Volkov’s vacations and weekends are scheduled until the end of the year - they are devoted to his doctoral dissertation.

Volkov co-finances the work of the Center for Consciousness Research and its projects. He paid almost $250,000 for the trip to Greenland alone; flights for all participants and the expedition itself were paid for. Famous philosophers did not take money for participation in the conference, although their fees for public speaking usually amount to thousands of dollars.

Volkov is ready to continue spending money on scientific work. “I want to contribute to the creation of a philosophical community in Russia,” says Volkov. — Communities of philosophers who could work with each other, communicate, study creativity, read books, criticize. This is what the center was created for.” He is sure that the most interesting thing in modern philosophy is the possibility of dialogue in real time, because “you can no longer argue with Plato or Kant.”

In addition, scientific studies allow a businessman to solve the question of the meaning of life. “Comprehension is necessary,” says Volkov. “I don’t want to live my life and not understand what kind of world I was in.”

Participant's name: Volkov Dmitry Borisovich

Age (birthday): 09.07.1976

Moscow city

Job: Co-founder of the venture fund SDVentures and SDV Arts & Science Foundation.

Family: not married, has a daughter

Found an inaccuracy? Let's correct the profile

Read with this article:

Dmitry Volkov was born on July 9, 1976 in Moscow. In 1998 he received a diploma from Moscow State University. Lomonosov, having completed a course at the Faculty of History. He didn’t stop there and entered graduate school at the Institute of International Relations and International Relations, majoring in International Relations.

He received an Executive MBA degree from the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management and has certificates from Harvard Business School and Microsoft Corporation.

In 2008 I was able to defend my Ph.D. In 2017 he defended his doctoral dissertation in philosophy.

Successful career as a businessman

In 1998, together with partners from other countries, he created the Social Discovery Ventures holding company. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Project Management Institute. In 2006, he became a member of the Usability Professional Association.

In 2014 he took an honorary place as a member of the Association of Philosophers of the United States of America. Participated in the Gumball 3000 rally throughout 2014-2015.

He is a representative of his own organization Social Discovery Ventures, a laureate of the SKOLKOVO Trend Award 2015 and was awarded an award for conducting effective negotiations, which was given to him by Professor Moti Kristal.

In 2016, Dmitry Volkov became the founder of the SDV Arts and Science Foundation.

He runs his business quite skillfully. In 2013, he began to try his hand as an investor in blockchain technology in the Russian Federation. He invested $20,000,000 in the developer of PC software for working with the BitFury blockchain, and later $3,000,000 in the 500 Startups and iTechCapital funds.

In 2017, he invested $1,000,000 in the new Target Global ES Fund. In the same year, he became a financier of the private university Harbor Space. Invested a million in the social network for scientists Academia.

Dmitry Volkov is on the board of trustees of the State Tretyakov Gallery Support Fund.

Lifestyle of a creative investor

Dmitry is interested in piloting helicopters and heli-skiing. Volkov can be seen performing stratospheric flights, as well as aerobatic flights, which take place with the help of special sports aircraft and fighters.

The millionaire also plays the piano and has been in a jazz band for a long time.

He is a patron of the arts. He danced as part of the musical troupe on Broadway and played in the film in 1993 called “To Survive.”

In 2015, he organized the first Street Piano Festival in the capital of the Russian Federation, and also held the exhibition “Superconduction: challenge of art&technology” in Riga.

In 2015, he supported the release of albums “Contemporary Art”, dedicated to the work of contemporary artists from Russia. Constantly participates in supporting projects dedicated to the creativity of domestic talents in the field of painting.

In 2016, he supported the transcendental piano festival in Muzeon Park. In 2017, he presented the project at the Burning Man festival “Aliens? - Yes!” together with Andrey Bartenev. These are four alien figures ranging from 4 to 12 meters in height.

This article is often read with:

He is not officially married. It is known that there is a divorce stamp in the passport. He prefers to carefully hide his personal life, but it is reliably known that the businessman has a daughter.

Participation in the show "Secret Millionaire"

He starred in the project “Secret Millionaire” in March 2017. Under the terms of the project, the businessman had to survive in the provinces for 4 days with a thousand rubles in his pocket.

During filming, he provided assistance to the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the NCCA Arsenal. Since May, he became Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Capital of the Volga Region Foundation.

Photo by Dmitry

Dmitry Volkov is a very energetic person: a significant part of the photos on his Instagram are pictures from travels from all over the world, as well as footage from exhibitions and other projects that the millionaire supports.

A worn jacket from a second-hand store, an old push-button telephone and a thousand ruble bill - the famous Moscow millionaire Dmitry Volkov visited Nizhny Novgorod with such meager belongings. Having become a participant in the new reality show “Secret Millionaire” on the “Friday” TV channel, the oligarch experienced all the hardships of Gorky’s “bottom” in his own skin.

In fact, I have been living in a kind of cocoon for a long time,” the Moscow businessman explained his participation in the program. – I protected myself with people with whom I have been working for a long time, and who create a comfortable lifestyle for me. I lost contact with people outside of my circle. Therefore, the offer to live for five days in conditions where this contact is possible is important to me.

According to the terms of the program, Dmitry Volkov had to travel around Nizhny Novgorod incognito. He told all his new acquaintances the same legend: he was a businessman, then his partners cheated him out of money, he went bankrupt and found himself penniless. For five whole days he was forced to do odd jobs and spend the night wherever he had to - and along the way he immediately found five “lucky ones”, whom he later made rich.

Dmitry Volkov arrived in Nizhny Novgorod incognito in this form. Photo: still frame from the “Secret Millionaire” program on the “Friday” TV channel.

“I’ve already been to Nizhny Novgorod once,” the businessman honestly admitted. “I know what Mig planes are made here.” On one of them I flew into the stratosphere. The flight lasted about 40 minutes and cost me 1 million 200 thousand rubles. This time the trip will clearly be completely different.

The story as old as time about the transformation of a prince into a beggar began to sparkle with completely new colors on Nizhny Novgorod soil. Wherever Dmitry wandered all these five days: he worked at a factory for the production of thermal insulation, delivered advertising brochures for Arsenal, had intimate conversations with the aspiring artist Artem Filatov, looked after the elderly eccentric Uncle Lesha and even... swept the bulls behind strippers in a nightclub. During this time, he managed to see Nizhny Novgorod in all its splendor and poverty - from the dirty cabins of guest workers to the sophisticated halls of the Center for Contemporary Art. And in the end I found my heroes!

Various people received support from me,” Dmitry Volkov rejoices. “I believe that I was able to contribute to making their lives more interesting.” For me, this is both a kind of school of survival and a reason to look at myself from the outside. Think. In five to ten years I will remember this adventure with great interest.

Volkov turned out to be so generous that he gave this bartender (on the right) more than 7 million rubles! Photo: still frame from the “Secret Millionaire” program on the “Friday” TV channel.

COUNTER "KP"

In total, Dmitry Volkov gave away over 12 million rubles in Nizhny Novgorod:

277 thousand 300 rubles - to the bartender from the nightclub where he worked as a cleaner

7 million 200 thousand rubles – a seven-day cruise on a yacht for a bartender and nightclub administrator.

750 thousand rubles - to pay for the rent of a workshop for the aspiring artist Artem Filatov

500 thousand rubles - to his partner Ekaterina from the thermal insulation plant

150 thousand – for a photo shoot with strippers for elderly Uncle Lesha

410 thousand rubles - for a trip to Paris and a meeting with the curator of the Pompidou Center for Arsenal employee Anna.

2.5 million rubles – contribution to the trustee fund for the Arsenal Center for Contemporary Art.

HELP "KP"

Dmitry Volkov, 40 years old. Russian entrepreneur, philosopher, philanthropist and contemporary art figure. Creator of the Internet holding company SDVentures, which has offices all over the world. The owner of country houses and apartments in Moscow, a penthouse in Manhattan, a chalet in the French Alps and a huge estate near Riga with an area of ​​550 thousand square meters. Single, has a 9-year-old daughter.