Sobolev Nikolay Yurievich - Russian video blogger and singer: short biography, personal life

Biography

The emergence of new areas of activity and platforms for their implementation was exponentially responded to by the emergence of people who dared to realize themselves on these platforms. This statement is equally acceptable to artists and scientists, athletes and engineers, children and adults, men and women.

Blogger Nikolay Sobolev

The emergence of YouTube video hosting and subsequent development led to the emergence of video blogging, a phenomenon that has become popular in the world. The first to show themselves on the new platform were, of course, American creators, but Runet figures were not long in coming. Today, Nikolai Sobolev can easily be called the brightest example of a successful Russian video blogger.

[edit] Notes

1. Residents of Crimea were not returned money for the failed speech of blogger Sobolev
2. Dislike offline. The blogger's fans did not want to meet him personally
3. Video blogger Nikolai Sobolev reported that he was beaten // MK
4. Valeria Shafirko
   “Sobolev wanted to become the second Babchenko?”: a fake about the beating of a blogger divided his fans into two camps // 360tv.ru

Childhood and youth

The guy was born on June 18, 1993 in Northern Palmyra. Nicholas was initially destined for a happy life, devoid of any serious difficulties and excesses. The boy was born into the family of a private entrepreneur in the real estate business and his wife, an employee of the State Academic Mariinsky Theater.

Even before starting his studies at Lyceum No. 30, Sobolev was enrolled by his parents in the taekwondo section. In 2008, Nikolai transferred to gymnasium No. 56 and changed the martial arts section, starting to study karate-do. However, having received an injury during sparring, the guy said goodbye to martial arts, preferring computer games to them.

Nikolay Sobolev

But the fictional game reality could not hold Sobolev’s attention for long - the guy decided to return to an active lifestyle, so he purchased a subscription to a fitness club. This decision helped the guy decide on his look - before, Nikolai experimented a lot with clothes and hairstyles - and get into shape.

After high school, the guy applied to Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, which he successfully graduated in 2020, becoming a certified manager-economist.

Purposeful and athletic

During one of the training sessions, Nikolai was injured, as a result of which he was forced to leave the sport. Now the young man spent his free time at the computer. But soon, not accustomed to sitting in one place, Sobolev began to visit the gym and began to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Growing up, the future YouTube star began experimenting with his own image and style. This led to the emergence of an army of fans who did not give passage to the fit, handsome guy. Having received his matriculation certificate, Nikolai easily entered the Peter the Great Polytechnic University. In 2015, Sobolev received a diploma as a manager-economist.

Video blogging

However, Sobolev became famous during his student years, when, together with a new university friend, he was inspired by the activities of foreign pranksters and decided to implement a similar Russian-language project, making allowances for the Russian mentality and current realities. The project was named Rakamakafo - in honor of the distorted pronunciation of a line from Boomfunk MC's song “Freestyler”: “Rock the microphone”. Many listeners in the early 2000s pronounced it as “raka makafo.”

Nikolay Sobolev and Guram in the Rakamakafo project

After a successful start in 2013, the guys refined the idea and switched from standard pranks to social experiments that were becoming increasingly popular. The new format brought Sobolev and his partner thousands of subscribers and millions of views in 2014, which made it possible to update equipment to raise the bar of technical quality.

By the time they graduated from the Polytechnic University, the guys had become famous and recognizable, which, on the one hand, was pleasant and beneficial in terms of making new acquaintances, but on the other hand, it complicated further work on the project. Colleagues decided to separate in order to continue to develop their careers solo - so Nikolai became the host of the YouTube Life channel, which a year later was renamed in honor of Sobolev. The creators considered that in this case naming is a beneficial solution from a branding point of view.

The Sobolev project was positioned as coverage of current events in the real world and on the Internet (especially on YouTube): deception of viewers by Channel One, child suicides and death groups on social networks, the battle between Oksimiron and Dizaster, Oleg Tinkov’s war with bloggers, a sex scandal involving Diana Shurygina, the fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, and so on.

The acute social theme further strengthened the guy’s position in the Russian segment of YouTube, and also contributed to Nikolai’s fame. This led to Sobolev’s appearance on the television projects “Let Them Talk,” “Evening Urgant” and “Comedy Club,” as well as in Yuri Dud’s author’s web show “vDud.”

Nikolai Sobolev in the show “Evening Urgant”

By the way, Nikolai also appeared in the projects of his other colleagues in the shop - Sobolev can periodically be seen in the videos of Eldar Dzharakhov, Ruslan Usachev, Ilya Prusikin, Danila Poperechny, Yuri Muzychenko, Alexey Stolyarov and Eric Davidich (Davidovich).

But you cannot achieve such results without making enemies. This explains Nikolai’s conflicts with Yuri Khovansky in 2020 and Lyceum in 2017.

Career

Nikolai Sobolev has been a creative person since childhood. Nature generously rewarded him with a good voice. At first he occasionally sang in cabaret, and at the age of 19 he was already involved in a professional show program and earned good money. He also wrote very good stories from his school days, so later he had problems creating scripts for videos.

In 2010, Nikolay Sobolev registered his first video channel on YouTube. But since the guy didn’t yet have a clear idea of ​​what he wanted to show other people, his first project was a failure. And in 2013, together with Guram Narmania, whom Nikolai met at a party with friends, Sobolev launched the video blog “Rakamakafo”. The main idea of ​​the project is a humorous demonstration of social problems and how ordinary people behave in unexpected situations.

In 2014, after a detailed study of the idea and the purchase of the simplest video equipment, young people began to act and launch a project, from which their career growth began. Videos with practical jokes, social experiments with topics on the brink of a foul, turned out to be attractive to users.

The friends' first social experiment was the "Group Sex" video. Bloggers approached passers-by and recorded their reaction to an intimate proposal. In the following episodes, young people threw a wallet with money to people (return it to the owner or take it for themselves?), checked whether someone would separate two fighting guys or stop a rape, who would be given more money - a person with a Slavic or non-Russian appearance, introduced themselves to a stranger and watched How the false memory system works.

Six months after the opening of the channel, Sobolev and Narmania recorded an experiment that instantly spread around the Russian Internet. The video was divided into two parts, one was filmed in the USA, the other in Russia, well, the essence was the same - the main character of the video simulated a heart attack, and the camera recorded the reactions of passers-by. Alas, the results were not in favor of the Russians.

A year later, the channel already had more than a million subscribers, both vloggers became recognizable, and the young people were included in the list of the 50 most famous media personalities in St. Petersburg. It’s interesting that over the entire history of the channel, Sobolev and Narmania invested a little more than one hundred thousand rubles in it.

In October 2020, on the wave of popularity, Sobolev decided to open his personal channel “YouTube Life”, dedicated to the analysis of conflicts of famous bloggers and their criticism. His videos told, for example, about the relationship between Ivangay and Maryana Ro, the cost of the blogs of Sonya Esman and Maria Wei, the conflict between Dmitry Larin and Yuri Khovansky, and the arrest of Ruslan Sokolovsky. In 2020, the blogger released his book, on the pages of which he shared the secrets of YouTube monetization success.

In 2020, the channel changed its name to “SOBOLEV” and the topic of video stories moved towards discussing scandalous topics and acute social problems of society. Sobolev undertook to demonstrate everything that was interesting to ordinary people.

One of the significant points in the blogger’s career was his participation in 2017 in the talk show “Let Them Talk” with Andrei Malakhov, where the story of the girl Diana Shurygina was discussed. After participating in the program, the number of subscribers to Sobolev’s channel increased by two and a half million in 2.5 months.

Personal life

For a couple of years now, the video blogger has been dating Polina Chistyakova, a student at the Northwestern Institute of Management (05/03/1996). A girl with a model appearance, vaguely similar to Angelina Jolie, such a partner was envied by many.

Nikolay Sobolev and Polina Chistyakova

The couple’s relationship is going well - this is evidenced not only by joint photos on Instagram, but also by their regular appearance together at various media events.

Photo by Nikolay

Kolya constantly pleases fans with new photos on Instagram; the guy demonstrates his personal life and footage from the filming of various projects.

Nikolay Sobolev now

2017 was no less eventful for Nikolai than the previous four. In addition to the clash with Lyceum, Sobolev managed to come into conflict with Alexander Timartsev, known to the world under the nickname Restaurateur.

Also this year, the blogger and two co-authors released the book “YouTube. Way to success". The subtitle stated that this publication would reveal the main secrets: how to get loads of likes and tons of money.

Book by Nikolai Sobolev “YouTube. Way to success"

In addition, in the spring of 2020, Sobolev, together with his YouTube colleagues, participated in a meeting with the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.

Among the latest news with Nikolai’s participation is the new intellectual and entertainment project “Sobolev Bombs,” which is another adaptation of the international format.

Nikolay Sobolev in 2020

In his free time from work and business meetings, the guy likes to lie on the couch with a book or watch a movie. In literature and cinema, he prefers classic works “with character”: books by Theodore Dreiser and Mario Puzo, “Gladiator” and “A Beautiful Mind” with Russell Crowe, as well as “The Shawshank Redemption” by Frank Darabont and “The Departed” by Martin Scorsese.

Personal is taboo

The personal life of a popular blogger is a secret behind seven locks. Sobolev has been dating Polina Chistyakova for several years. The girl is three years younger than Nikolai, and in 2020 she graduated from the Northwestern University of Management. She has a striking model appearance. Some fans of Sobolev compare her with the Hollywood actress and mother of many children, Angelina Jolie.

Judging by the happy photos that Sobolev posts on his Instagram profile, the couple is happy. In his spare time, Nikolai likes to relax in bed while reading an interesting book. Preference is given to world classics: Theodore Dreiser, Mario Puzo. The blogger is also not averse to watching films starring Russell Crowe and films by talented directors Frank Darabont and Martin Scorsese.

Childhood

The biography of Nikolai Sobolev began on July 18, 1993 in St. Petersburg. In an interview, he repeatedly said that his family was wealthy and never experienced material problems. By his own admission, he could not work anywhere at all and live comfortably on his parents’ income. This is not surprising, because his mother is a musician at the Mariinsky Theater, and his father is a businessman who owns a chain of souvenir stores. Nikolai graduated from gymnasium No. 56, where he intensively studied economics and linguistics. His knowledge can be judged by the episodes “YouTubers Answer School Questions,” where he confidently took first place among video bloggers.

At the age of five, little Kolya began practicing martial arts. Having been injured in adolescence, he left training for a while, but at the age of 16 he resumed training and achieved good results. After graduating from school, Nikolai entered the Moscow Polytechnic University, where he studied at the Faculty of Economics and Management. He got good hearing and an excellent voice from his mother. He could have become a singer or fitness trainer, but fate decreed otherwise. In the biography of Nikolai Sobolev there is even a note about performances in cabaret.

Details of personal life

Instagram of Nikolai Sobolev

Nikolai Sobolev’s Instagram is filled with photographs with his beloved girlfriend. Her name is Polina Chistyakova, she is a model. The couple's age difference is three years. The first meeting of Polina and Nikolai took place on the set of the blog “Rakamakafo”. The communication between the young people began with the girl’s desire to take a photo with a celebrity. Soon fans learned about the pranker's new novel.

Last year, the couple announced that they were soon planning to have a lavish wedding in Dubai, but some time later news of their breakup appeared. The personal life of Nikolai Sobolev is now especially under the radar of television cameras; journalists are constantly trying to talk about the reason for the separation. The blogger focused on three main thoughts, for the first time deciding to set the record straight on this issue:

• There were no specific reasons for the separation.
• The new relationship will not be made public.
• Nikolai has the best opinion of his ex-girlfriend.

Interesting Facts

Many people are interested in how much Nikolai Sobolev earns. In one of his videos, he shared information about the income of his colleagues. However, he didn’t say a word about himself, which caused a lot of negativity in the comments of haters. But in an interview with Dudu, Sobolev mentioned that his monthly income is calculated as a figure with six zeros. He has an expensive car that he bought recently. Before that, he owned a Mazda, which Larin noted in his diss and glorified the car no less than its owner.

"YouTube Life"

In the wake of his first popularity in 2020, Nikolai creates his own channel. In it, he details the lives of the most popular people. The heroes of his videos were Ivangay and Maryana Ro, Sasha Spielberg, Dmitry Larin, Yuri Khovansky and other bloggers. The audience liked the content, and Nikolay quickly gathered a decent audience on his channel. However, his presentation of the material and many negative assessments of his colleagues led to a conflict with the critic and innovator Larin. Dmitry did not start a war with Sobolev, as with Khovansky, but simply recorded a video about his new enemy called “Kolya Hater.” The song became an instant hit. Nikolai made a response music video, but it did not arouse much interest among the public. Despite the fact that Larin’s video was negative, it also brought an impressive number of subscribers to the opponent himself.

Rakamakafo

Few people know, but Nikolai created his first YouTube channel back in 2010. But at that time he was a teenager and did not understand quality content. The idea to make a new project came to him already in his student years, after meeting with

Together they come up with the concept of their channel and give it the sonorous name Rakamakafo. The goal of the project is social experiments and practical jokes. In the first six months they shoot quite interesting videos and gain the first hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Spectators watch with interest as the guys set up various situations and involve passing people in them. They staged kidnapping, begging, rape and many other cases. Nikolai Sobolev’s girlfriend, Yana, actively took part in the filming.

"Haipozhor Kolka"

In March 2020, Nikolai was invited to the “Let Them Talk” program as an expert. The topic is quite sensitive - a minor girl was raped by two guys, as a result, one of them received 8 years in prison, and the second escaped punishment. At one time, Nikolai and Guram filmed people’s reactions to violent acts against girls. Therefore, the organizers of the program believed that he would be able to give an objective assessment of the real event. This was the finest hour of video blogger Nikolai Sobolev. He spoke rather harshly towards the victim Diana Shurygina, and then covered this situation in detail on his channel. His appearance on television increased the number of his subscribers by 2.5 times.

Malakhov invited Nikolai to the second issue, dedicated to Diana. They made a real show out of a dramatic situation. Everyone who touched Shurygina’s case got their piece of the pie, but Sobolev immediately grabbed most of it. Accusations of “hypocrisy” and hypocrisy rained down on him from his colleagues. He didn’t have to work on the channel for years to gain at least 500 thousand subscribers. Sobolev gained so much in a few days. He himself did not deny that he became popular thanks to his participation in the program, but did not consider this to be the merit of the high-profile case. He expressed his opinion, and the public supported him in this with their likes.