The most argumentative person in the world was Alexei Shamunshumovich, who lived in Leningrad in the former USSR. Over the course of his 46 years, he challenged the details on his Birth Certificate 22 times, going so far as to charge his parents with fraud on 7 occasions.
He only ever worked as a mechanic, despite his supervisor trying unsuccessfully to have him fired 9 times, because he argued so much that he rarely got any work done. He argued so vociferously at every attempt to fire him, that he was never actually fired, although he also argued passionately that his supervisor was wrong to take him back every time.
He was sentenced to death in 1956 when he jumped onto the podium at an official Communist Party rally, in order to insist that Lenin was not in fact the father of Communism, but was an Algerian carrot vendor, insisting, “Anyone who cannot see that I am right is a Menshevik War Criminal!”
Although he had his sentence of Death by Firing Squad commuted at the last moment, he successfully argued that allowing him to live would send out the wrong message, and so was promptly executed.
He only ever worked as a mechanic, despite his supervisor trying unsuccessfully to have him fired 9 times, because he argued so much that he rarely got any work done. He argued so vociferously at every attempt to fire him, that he was never actually fired, although he also argued passionately that his supervisor was wrong to take him back every time.
He was sentenced to death in 1956 when he jumped onto the podium at an official Communist Party rally, in order to insist that Lenin was not in fact the father of Communism, but was an Algerian carrot vendor, insisting, “Anyone who cannot see that I am right is a Menshevik War Criminal!”
Although he had his sentence of Death by Firing Squad commuted at the last moment, he successfully argued that allowing him to live would send out the wrong message, and so was promptly executed.
A photo of Shamunshumovich, aged 25, on show in Moscow as a tribute to 'dissenters everywhere, no matter how pointless.' Photo by rwhgould.
©2009 James Mathurin
