Vladimir Putin, stopped socialising when he was 11-years-old and set himself a serious goal, according to one of his former teachers.
The Russian president, who has started a brutal war with neighbouring Ukraine, was born into a working-class Saint Petersburg family and has admitted that he was regularly in trouble as a youngster.
During an interview which appeared in his book, ‘ First Person ‘, released in 2000, Vera Gurevich, a former teacher of Putin's described how he “abruptly changed” when he was 11-years-old.
In the book she revealed that: “[Putin] himself changed very abruptly in the sixth grade. It was obvious he had set himself a goal. “More likely he had understood that he had to achieve something in his life.” Prior to this a fellow teacher told Vera that she regarded Putin as “sneaky and disorganised” but Gurevich said she immediately spotted that he would “make something of himself.” In the book, Putin said he enjoyed school “as long as he managed to be the unspoken leader,” meaning he didn’t try to command people and remained “independent.”But he realised that he needed to improve his social status - and began playing sports, alongside trying harder in his classes.
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