My life is wasted, to be honest.

I didn't have piggy banks when I was a child. And there was no money. We lived modestly. An ordinary, unremarkable family of engineers.

When I was a child, I had fish - barbs and swordtails. An aquarium is very pleasant, it has a calming effect. Although I am always calm.

In 1994, when MMM had almost a third of the country's budget, I did not purchase anything. I wasn't interested. I lived in this same apartment. Then it looked like this: three rooms, filled from floor to ceiling with bookshelves, and in the middle of each room there was a huge aquarium of four sections, and nothing else. Only a bed and a table. When they came for me, they were shocked - the detainee was walking around the apartment in a tracksuit, and in the apartment there were only aquariums, two cats, a parrot and many, many books.

I liked to wear a tracksuit at home and to the Kremlin too.

I tried on principle not to contact the authorities. My problems began from the moment when I was called to the Kremlin for an extended government meeting dedicated to MMM, but I did not come.

When they came at MMM for the first time from the tax office, I didn’t stand on ceremony with them. I understood that permission had been given to shoot. And I said: “I’m calling a referendum and raising the question of no confidence in the government.” And the referendum is the supreme body. I collect a million signatures in a week - and I don’t care about everyone. The president, the government - everyone. Today we live in a totalitarian state - then, by law, anyone could call a referendum on any issue. And now only questions about landscaping in the courtyard can be put up for referendum.

I probably could have become president then, but I didn’t want to. I'm a home person, I was lazy. The investigators understood everything and told me: “Sergei Panteleevich, what difference does it make, whether the Kremlin or the Sailor, it’s all the same.”

Prison is a different temperature regime. You went to prison - and everything around you began to flow. What seemed so strong - love, friendship - everything melted. All the people you count on will run away at that very second. And those from whom you do not expect it will help you. For example, my friend, the head of a martial arts school, was helped by a student. The one he didn't notice at all.

I have often been betrayed. Not because people are bad, but because they are just people.

I do not have friends. I had one friend, but he died. It was a long time ago, after college. We were fishing in Karelia. On the last morning I went fishing. I’ve never gone on the last day, but now I wanted to. I left and got lost. And suddenly it began to rain and snow. I found a hut and sat in it for two weeks - I didn’t eat anything, I only drank water. And my friend and another friend of ours - they sailed on a motorboat and drowned in a storm. We weren’t afraid of storms back then, so if I hadn’t gotten lost, I would have drowned with them. They say it was impossible to swim out.

According to sociological research, there is a fact: by the age of 40 a person has no friends left. I told this to many people, and everyone is surprised at first, and then you ask: okay, do you have friends? They begin to think: damn, alas. There is no “why” here. That's just how people are.

The incubation period for wives of prisoners is 3 years. One thief in law told me how this happens to a woman. A woman is a frivolous creature. She doesn't take it all seriously at first. It seems to her that this is some kind of joke, that her husband will soon be released. And she begins to pretend to be the wife of a Decembrist. But time passes, and the situation does not improve, financial problems begin. And after three years - even if a woman really loves - she realizes that time has passed, that love is over, and - the worst thing - this love has turned into hatred.

When I went to prison, I was sure that I would not get out. And then no one will wait for me for 20 years. All people are alive, physiology. So I just went ahead and filed for divorce and confronted my wife with a fait accompli. And then I wrote to the head of the pre-trial detention center that I refused to meet with my wife.

I remember being arrested. The doorbell rings and I see a man in a T-shirt standing there. He says your water is leaking. I didn’t open the door - I went to destroy all the data on the computer. It's not that simple. As a professional computer scientist, I know. They opened the door with an autogenous gun for four hours. By that time, my computer was absolutely clean. Then they found a fake passport on me. They tossed me up. I say: “Listen, I could have eaten it during this time.” They always plant something just to be sure - drugs, passports. So it’s more accurate, or something.

I remember this: you drive into Matrosskaya Tishina, the iron gates are terrifying. You drive into a septic tank where the car is inspected. Then you go left, there is another gate, another checkpoint, they search again. And behind the inner gate there is another prison - 99/1. Nobody knows anything about her at all. There are only two federal special prisons - 99/1 and 99/2. But “fraction 2” - which is in Lefortovo - is for every little thing. I was in 99/1 - this is a small prison for VIPs. Khodorkovsky was kept there. But Lebedeva - no, he’s not grown up. True, they also keep maniacs and killers there. The special block is a special prison. There is no isolation in a regular prison. Everything you want, you can get for money. The cops will even bring you drugs. And on the special block there is complete insulation. It's quite comfortable there, but after a year people go crazy there. And I stayed there for four years.

I don’t like that Khodorkovsky decided to play a political martyr. I have never stooped to this, I have never said that I am political. He sat and did not complain.

I was the winner of all physical Olympiads. In the finals of one Olympiad, I solved the following problem: why does a person drown in a swamp? What is the physical nature of this phenomenon? The solution is this: a swamp is not a liquid, but suspended small particles; the pressure in a swamp is not distributed evenly, not like in water. Therefore, Archimedes' law does not work there, according to which a buoyant force acts on a body immersed in a liquid. And as a result, any attempts to swim accelerate the dive. Therefore, if you find yourself in a swamp, you should not swim. We must sit quietly and wait. It’s the same in life: if you’ve already gotten caught, then any attempts to swim speed up the dive. At that Olympiad, by the way, I was the only one who solved this problem and won.

I remember that at school I sometimes taught mathematics instead of a teacher.

My parents have nothing to do with physics and mathematics, and I myself was tired of everything even in my first year. I came there one day and saw a notice hanging: “Shame on the truants! Ivanov - 5 hours, Sidorov - 6 hours, Mavrodi - 980 hours.”

In my first year, I won the institute Olympiad in physics. At the lecture, the teacher says: “Comrades! For the first time in the history of the institute, a freshman became the winner of the all-institute Olympiad! So let's take a look at it." And I'm not at the lecture. He says: “Okay.” The next time he calls, I’m gone again, the third time, no. My comrades say to me: “Maybe you’ll come or something.” And I say: “Come on!”

At the institute I became interested in sambo. I didn’t lose a single fight and therefore quickly became a candidate for master of sports. Therefore, it is quite difficult to beat me.

In prison I found a common language with everyone, although I am an unsociable person. I don’t like communication, but everyone tells me that I’m charming. Well, I'm a scammer. Fraudsters are supposed to be charming.

The commander of an assault battalion in Afghanistan sat with me. A real killer: he shot both women and children. He enters the village - his sneakers are white, his clothes are clean; comes out all red with blood. So he told me that he had never seen a more cruel person in his life than me.

People now react to me very positively, no aggression. Only once did some madam in diamonds get out of a Mercedes and shout at me: “Cheater.”

I sat with a variety of murderers and maniacs, but this cannot be said about them by their appearance and behavior. None of them scream at night, nightmares do not torment anyone. They sleep like babies. I sat with the killer Lesha Soldier. There were 30 corpses on it. Superkiller. In life, he is a cheerful, cheerful person, very handsome. For 30 corpses he was given 23 years. Not enough, probably. He was an extremely careful person - he took weapons only with gloves, and often changed his appearance. And this is how he got caught: they ordered someone for him, he mined the car, and he sat down to watch from cover. Children ran up to the car and began to play. He came out and drove them away. And the children remembered it and then told everything to their parents.

In prison you don’t feel disgust towards these people. It doesn't work there. I owe it to one of the maniacs that I began to write poetry. I've never written poetry. Everyone writes poetry when they are young, but I didn’t. And then my cellmate once asked me to write a poem for his wife. This was one of the Khovrinsky maniacs: there was such a couple - the two of them drove a car, and when they saw a woman walking, one came out, took out a bat and hit her on the head, and the second robbed her. He's big and confident. And so he asked me: “Seryozha, write some good poem to my wife.” I say: “I don’t write poetry.” “And you,” he says, “remember something about love.” I remembered and remembered and finally remembered Gumilyov, about Lake Chad. I started writing and realized that I couldn’t remember two lines. Well, in the end I composed them myself. And he liked these two lines the most.

I'm not romantic. Love songs are usually written by cold people.

In prison I started keeping a diary. Then I ended up in a special unit, and I was forbidden to lead it. It is impossible, they say, to reveal internal prison secrets. And then I took up fiction.

MMM tickets were printed in the same factories as dollars. There are, it seems, five of them in the world - which have special certification. These factories eventually refused to accept orders from the American government for printing dollars because I paid more.

It was my idea to place my portrait on MMM tickets. It was a very precise move: when people see a portrait, it psychologically gives them confidence that the person will not run away.

The situation is idiotic: investors recognize me everywhere. I keep waiting for them to forget me, but they don’t forget me. Once I went fishing in some wilderness. And suddenly some old man drives past in a car. He looked at me and was so amazed that he then made another circle around me. I said: “Let’s get the hell out of here, now the whole village will gather.”

I hid from court for eight years. I remember thinking: “The smartest thing to do would be to hide in Moscow.” And I began to live in an apartment on the next street. Where else can you live? Sometimes I left the house to go fishing. Some newspaper wrote that I was caught, and I had a wig. But this is a complete lie. I've never worn a wig.

I hate buying clothes. In my opinion, no man likes this - shopping for clothes. And whoever loves is no longer a man.

In recent Russian history, I like, oddly enough, Yeltsin. The only politician who allowed himself to be criticized.

In 1994, when everything was heading towards my arrest, I rented a 6-room luxury apartment. Conspiratorial, so to speak. And I went there. But I felt uncomfortable there. I like to have my house slippers next to me. So I sat there and decided to turn on the TV. And there they ask Chernomyrdin what will happen to MMM. Nothing will happen, he says, this is a private company, let them deal with their investors themselves; we won't interfere. I thought: “Why am I sitting here then, I’ll go home.” The next day I was arrested.

When you are charged, by law you must familiarize yourself with the materials of the case. My file contained 650 huge volumes. Even if you read it a day, it takes two years. I began to read obediently, but the court said that I was delaying the process. I say: “I’m not delaying anything, I read day and night.” Then they decided that I should read five volumes a day. I say: “It’s just a comedy, you’d better say that there’s no need to read it at all.”

You can always take copies of all volumes of the criminal case with you. But I only took those volumes with lists of investors.

When I started writing myself, I stopped liking almost everyone. I once liked Bulgakov, for example. I used to read a lot in general - more than I should have.

You should never regret anything - what happened was what happened.

When everything is available, you don’t want anything. There, at the top, there is nothing - there is a vacuum. But to understand this, you need to get there. I climbed down and found out.

I don't have a dream. Because everything I want, I always get.

The only thing I love is fishing. For this, I can even go to the North Pole and sit there without clothes, if I have to.

I like to fish with spinning rods. I love fast fishing, although my catches are modest. When a hobby is taken to the level of professionalism, it is no longer a hobby. It's a routine.

With my lifestyle, it is necessary to exercise on a simulator. Necessary means necessary. And in prison I liked to do abdominal exercises. You lie down on the bunk and reach behind your head with the tips of your toes. Five thousand times without rest, daily. Very, you know, useful. Only for a long time. It turns out to be approximately two hours.

I had eight hunger strikes in the special unit. One was dry for eight days. A person can survive without water for five to six days. And I was starving in the summer, the heat made everything even worse. During a normal fast, you slowly lose strength, but during a dry fast, everything happens unexpectedly. But I was lucky, I didn’t die. I was still married then, and my wife, through a lawyer, threw a tantrum, which saved me. It is impossible to perform feats with women - they hang like a weight.

When you are on a hunger strike, you lose a kilogram a day, clearly. If you want to lose weight, exercise and don’t eat for two or three days and you’ll lose two or three kilograms.

I have a strict daily routine. I sleep twice for four hours: from 6 to 10 in the morning and from 6 to 10 in the evening. I supported this regime even in prison, although it is difficult there when you are sitting with harsh people. This is very annoying for everyone: after all, since I went to bed, I have to be quiet and not yell. This is regarded as a very serious whim.

I have very few events in my life right now. But I'm glad. Ideally, you should sit and look at the wall, like Buddhist monks. But I haven't gotten to that point yet.

I live in my parents' apartment. We moved here to Komsomolsky Prospekt when I graduated from school. Before that, I lived in a house opposite the Novodevichy Convent. The funny thing is that in prison I had a cellmate - a candidate of science, an entomologist, a specialist in butterflies, who lived in my former house opposite Novodevichy, and his child goes to the same school where I went. Coincidence. And he was imprisoned for theft. No wonder: butterflies are butterflies - money is money. There is no need to be confused. Do you think people who deal with butterflies can't steal?

The neighbors, of course, know who I am; I’ve lived in this apartment for a thousand years. Dima Malikov lives with me on the site. Oleg Yankovsky lived on the third floor, we greeted him.

It's good to be free - better than to be in prison.

I was once diagnosed with liver cancer. And my mother, a senior engineer, and my father, an installer, both died of cancer. Basically, in the hospital they tell me: “You have liver cancer.” I say: “How long should I live?” Six months, they say. And a month later it turned out that this was a mistake - I have some kind of peculiarity in my body, very similar to cancer, but it is not cancer. In general, I lived with a diagnosis of liver cancer for a month, and none of my friends noticed anything. Nobody.

My specialty was artificial intelligence. But no, there is no such thing as artificial intelligence, don’t worry.

As a child, I had a phenomenal memory; if someone read any passage out loud, I could repeat it word for word. And then I had 12 concussions. I was very active as a child, constantly falling and hitting my head. My memory worsened after that. But she didn't disappear. It just went from phenomenal to good. Well, thank God.

I have not tried to prove the Poincaré conjecture. And if I had proven it and given me the money that Perelman refused, the bailiffs would have taken it away from me right away. They would also accuse me of not paying taxes on them, and I would be imprisoned again.

In prison, when we were taken for walks, they always turned on the Dacha radio for us. This is even worse than Russian Radio, but you can’t turn it off. That's what I don't want to experience again.

I try to celebrate New Year alone, but it doesn’t always work out.

Life always gives you the wrong thing.

Lying is not good.

Rules of life of Sergei Mavrodi