Meet Ms. Russia

 Victoria Lopyreva

When Victoria was a young girl, she lived in Rostov-on-Don, in a big sunny southern multinational city, where one can meet people in Cossacks clothes in the streets and where historically languages and cultures were mixed.
Victoria’s parents were creative people. The mother was a journalist and a model, the father was an artist and had the reputation of a notorious playboy, who says confessedly that he became the happiest father in the world that same night, when Victoria was born. The grandfathers were a mining engineer and a pilot. Her grandmothers were a teacher and a scenery designer. In her family they have always been fond of painting, reading a lot and making up parties.
In other respects Victoria’s young years were practically the same as with her contemporaries: she studied, studied music and languages, liked roller-skating. In the anxious 90-s, while the period of significant changes in the country, it was not very popular to be an intelligent and well-read person. But when she came home and entered the atmosphere of love and warm relationships, she started reading, painting and listening to the music.

Definitely, it was her family where she got the core that helped her to survive in the aggressive world. She grew up and had plenty of offers from the model agencies, but she said “no”. She did not want to be a model and she never thought about such things… Accidentally or not Victoria’s pictures were at the contest “The Don Model” and the contest final was at the same time as she should be at the lesson.
She came to the contest, just on her way to the teacher, wearing a plain summer frock, just for curiosity. And to her own surprise she became a winner.
Then she started studying at Rostov State Economic University, worked as a model, went abroad and took part in various beauty contests, she got the first prize at the contest “Rostov beauty” and finally the main crown of the country — “Miss Russia”.
Many people may think it was enough; she could stop and be proud of her the rest of her life showing the pictures to her grandchildren, but there appeared a strong character. She treated her victory not as a fairy-tale happy end, but as a start.

“I should say that the contests made me better and stronger, — says Victoria. When there are 50-80 very beautiful girls around you and each of them is a real competitor, I try to muster all my strength. The winner is not the most beautiful one, since beauty is something subjective. The beauty needs character, ability to set a goal and achieve it”.
For example, at the contest “Miss Donbass-Open” she had to be nearly a professional dancer, because all the girls were choreographically trained. First, she thought it would be absolutely impossible to compete with them, but then Victoria realized that she wanted to prove herself and the people she would do it. As a result she lost a couple of kilos, was extremely tired, had sore feet and at the same time got the first prize and the People’s Choice Award.
When she won the contest “Miss Russia”, Victoria was tested by a 20-minute live interview with Andrey Maximov. Live program is a subtle thing, because you cannot prepare certain ready answers. And again she won and was acknowledged by the TV spectators — “She is beautiful and intelligent, isn’t she?”

This girl with golden hair and angel’s appearance is a perfectionist. She is sure that if one starts doing something, one needs to do it perfectly and she started again. She manages to do a lot of things; she is really busy all the day.
She works at the office and on TV, participates in charity projects, has plenty of photo sessions and interviews, works at WWF and for the protection of European steppes. When asked about her exotic hobby, she says: “Steppes for me are not exotic, since I grew up in Rostov-on-Don. This area is where a famous Russian writer Chekhov wrote his well-known “Steppe”.
“Do you know that in this very area in a nature reserve there is a herd of wild mustangs?” and then she starts telling about them and while listening to her you realize that you want to leave everything and become a volunteer of the animal protection association…
Another example from her life: Victoria goes to the meeting with one of the “Comedy Club” team as a co-presenter directly from the plane in 30 minutes before the beginning of the show. The young man giving her the script shifted from one foot to the other and said: “Victoria, you know, here in the script there are some jokes about you and blondes. Do you mind if we…?”

She smiles with her incredible smile, squints and starts telling them a couple of jokes about blondes. The organizers say that while such shows her quick wit and ability to improvise were of great help.
Such qualities also helped her while live program of the international beauty contest “Miss Europe”, where they invited Victoria as a co-presenter. For the first time in the history of the contest, being one of the most prestigious in the world, a Russian woman was invited as a co-presenter. The languages of the contest were English and French. The people in all Europe saw the live program.
As a result directly after the contest Victoria was offered by the French television to participate in the shooting of the documentary about Moscow. She already had such experience: she worked with the American “Travel channel” for the same type of project.
In 2005 she headed a national contest “Miss Russia”. These days she excites the audience stating about new projects and her resignation from the post of the general director. “I want to do the things I am really interested in, — she says. I am so busy and practically have no time, so I do not want to waste it”.

Now Victoria Lopyreva is an MBA student. One side of her life is creative and the other one is official and related to management.
“I feel power inside, it pushes me forward — to grow and develop myself — says Victoria. And there is always a space to develop!”

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