Biography
Ilya Segalovich knew primarily as a talented programmer, the developer of linguistic computer systems and one of the founders of Yandex. About other sides of his life - an active civil position, charity, the founding of his own rehabilitation center - to his death there were few. When in 48 years old Ilya won the hard disease, numerous facts of his biography were made public, testifying that he was not only talented, but also a generous, heart man.Childhood and youth
Ilya Valentinovich Segalovich was born on September 13, 1964 in Gorky (now - Nizhny Novgorod). Parents and teachers recognized the undoubted mathematical gifting of the boy - he not only studied at the "fives", but also served as a prizes at the All-Union Olympics. After school, Ilya decided to go in the footsteps of the parents who were geophysics by profession, and became a student of an exploration institute in Moscow.
Initially, he planned to go to Moscow State University, but he did not take it. Ilya himself believed that this happened because in the column of the questionnaire "Nationality" he decided to indicate the "Jew", although his mother was Russian. In the higher educational institution, he chose a narrow specialization (computer research of deposits) and wrote for this specialized information systems on Fartran.
Since childhood, SEGALOVICH was friendly with the second founder of Yandex Arkadyv Volzh. They sat at one desk, went to the badminton section together, and after school they tried to create their own programs.
It was Arkady that suggested a friend to write a linguistic-statistical search system with a support for the morphology of the language, which later grew into a full-fledged search engine. Ilya agreed not immediately and first even called it with stupidity, but then, realizing that this is a promising idea, and they are ready to pay for her, supported Volga.
Creation of Yandex
Soon the 3rd participant was joined by friends - a representative of the Academy of Sciences Arkady Borkovsky, also a prominent specialist in the field of computer linguistics. The following task was set as a small team: to develop a system of classification of inventions for the Patent Institute with which you can search by names.
It was an innovative mission - besides the fact that it was necessary to connect linguistics with statistics, the programmers were faced with the need to invent new compression algorithms, since an array of data, among which the search was huge, was huge, and the memory of digital carriers was small.
Having developed the product, Segalovich, Volozh and Borkovsky decided to offer him and other patent organizations as a "boxable" decision, but the novelty was quickly interested in other industries. Friends have invested 15 thousand rubles into advertising in Izvestia, and the result from it turned out to be stunning. According to Ilya's memories, 2 years after the publication, they still continued to receive calls from interested business representatives.
The developer team continued to invest in the product to the product, already making sure of its universal purpose. Friends acquired a digital dictionary from the international company and connected it with a specially developed morphological system. It was later decided to create a similar program to search for biblical texts, and another year - on the academic publications of Griboedov and Pushkin.
In 1993, it became clear that the project has a brilliant future, so it needs a simple and cast name. The Yandex option suggested Ilya - the word consonant with the English Index, and the mixed English-Russian writing brands then was just in fashion.
To create a search engine lacked the last step - creating a bot for indexing Russian-speaking resources, which by that time there were about 5 thousand. Finally, in 1996 he was written. So the largest Russian search engine was born, still holding a leading position in RuNet.
In the future, Ilya participated in the emergence and development of all key services of the company, gradually leaving the development of management. In 2001, in an interview, he said that the last year and a half no longer programs, but only performs the responsibilities of the manager. It was said that it was without joy - Segalovich was much more liked the technical side of the work, and meetings with programmers were like more than with shareholders.
Personal life
In the personal life of Ilya was 2 marriage. He concluded early, just 18 years old, but these relationships lasted long. About his first spouse little is known.
The main role in his life was played by the second wife Maria Eliseeva, the theater artist, with which he met in 1993. For her, this was also not the first serious relationship - she had already managed to be married, give birth to three children and divorce, but for Segalovich it did not become a problem. Daughters Anna, Olga and Alina they raised together, later they had a joint child - Asya.
Friends remember that Ilya, though he was a secured person, referred to wealth indifferently. Until 2001, he drove a Russian car and wore clothes that friends were given, preferring to save on new things. Segalovich did not like the shown attributes of wealth like personal drivers and luxurious houses, although, of course, he was always happy with the opportunity to buy gifts to children.
The founder of Yandex joked, which he considers his second after Yandex, the accomplishment of life is what he introduced the daughters with the world of Harry Potter. In Russian, the book was not yet published, and he brought English from foreign business trips, read them out loud and immediately translated.
Charity and Public Activities
In the charitable work, Ilya "retracted" the wife of Mary, who always showed attention to orphans and organized various assistance projects. It all started with the acquaintance of Segalovich with American clowns from the team of Patcha Adams, visiting hospitals and children's homes in Russia.
Later, together with Maria, they founded a artistic studio for children from boarding schools, brought close acquaintance with pupils and even began to regularly take them to their weekend. Some disciples detained in Segalovich for a long time. Over the 18 years, the existence of the studio in the family has lived to the age of 5 children from the orphanage. This is the official figure, in an interview with Ilya told that in fact there were no less than 10, they simply could not always arrange the necessary paper.
During the work, the organization founded by the spouses, called the "Children of Mary", has already passed the boundaries of the creative studio and became a full-fledged charity foundation, the purpose of which is to involve children in creative interaction: there they studied not only to draw, read, juggle and sing, but also communicate , to help each other.
In addition to work in the Foundation, Ilya willingly responded to the proposals to participate in other charitable projects: he went to Beslan, organized training teachers for boarding schools, visited children's camps and often, putting the clown nose and a wig, went on hospitals himself and entertained small patients in the company of others Friends from the group of Patcha Adams.
Death
In the fall of 2012, the founder of Yandex was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Ilya launched a course of treatment without breaking away from the working cases, and he worked then a full day. At first, the forecasts seemed safe, since the body reacted well to therapy, and the disease did not look launched, but six months later, the doctors also discovered the brain tumor.
Segalovich in serious condition was placed in the London clinic, but there was no chance for recovery. On July 25, 2013, the press service "Yandex" published the news that their leader died. Later it turned out that he was still connected to life support devices, although the doctors stated the death of the brain. A couple of days, friends, close and acquaintances lived with the hope that the verdict is erroneous, but soon it became clear that this is the end.
The 27th of the relatives signed consent to the disconnection of Ilya from supporting systems. The cause of death has become a provoked tumor meningitis.
The body of Ilya was transported to Moscow and buried on the Troekurovsky cemetery. A hundreds of people came to say goodbye to him, including the oppositionist Alexei Navalny, freed to subscribe to the wrong season. At the grave of Segalovich instead of a standard monument with a photo, there is a sculpture in the form of a wrought tree, on the branches of which the birds are sitting, and a transparent ball is installed with another metal sphere inside, symbolizing rebirth.