Artists Nikolay Andreyevich Andreyev (1873 - 1932), sculptor, graphic artist and stage designer Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin (born 1917), sculptor Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985), painter Carl Fabergé (1846 - 1920), jewelery designer Isaak Levitan (1860 - 1900), landscape painter Vera Ignat'evna Mukhina (1889 - 1953), sculptress Alexander O. Nikulin (1878 - 1945), painter Andrei Rublev (circa 1360 - 1430), painter Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865 - 1911), painter Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776 - 1857), painter Ivan Yakovlevich Vishnyakov (1699 - 1761), painter Authors Andrey Bely (1880 - 1934), poet and author Isaak Babel (1894-1940), author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), playwright and author Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870 - 1953), First Russian Nobel Prize Winner Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904), playwright, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881), Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment Ilya Gregoryevich Ehrenburg (1891 - 1947), novelist and WWII war correspondent Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 1852), author, Dead Souls Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812 - 1891), Oblomov Maxim Gorky (1868 - 1936), novelist, My Universities Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), poet, author and painter Nikolai Leskov (1831 - 1895), storyteller, novelist, and journalist Nikolai Ogaryov (1813 - 1877), author Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711 - 1765), linguistic reformer Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977), wrote first in Russian, then in English, author of Lolita Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), refused Nobel Prize, Doctor Zhivago Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, (1799 - 1837), Russian poet Alexander Radishchev (1749-1802), social critic Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, (1826 - 1889), Russian novelist Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (born 1918), Nobel Prize for Literature Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) War and Peace, Anna Karenina Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884 - 1937), author of We Performing Arts Mikhail Baryshnikov (born 1948), ballet dancer Sergei Bondarchuk (1920 - 1994), film director Boris Bruinov (1922 - 1997), actor Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872 - 1929), ballet impresario Sergei Eisenstein (1898 - 1948), film director Nikita Mikhalkov (born 1945), actor, director, producer, writer, and politician Ivan Novikoff (1899 - 2002), ballet master Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev (1938 - 1993), ballet dancer Anna Pavlova (1882 - 1931), ballerina Alexander Lukich Ptushko (1882 - 1931), film director Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky (1868 - 1938), actor Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova (1910 - 1988), ballerina Poets: (who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language) Anna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966), poet Valeri Bryusov (1873 - 1924), poet, novelist, critic Denis Davydov (1784 - 1839), poet Osip Mandelstam, (1891 - 1938), (also spelt Mandelshtam), Russian poet Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930), poet Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837), Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941), Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (born 1933), Russian novelist Inventors: Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (born 1930), physicist Pyotr Kozmitch Frolov (1775 - 1839), mining engineer and inventor Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin (1894 - 1977), aircraft constructor Nikolai Kibalchich (1853 - 1881) Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907 - 1966), rocket engineer and designer, "Father of the space program" Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859 - 1906), Russia's Marconi Alexandr Mikhaylovich Prokhorov (1916 - 2002), physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964, born in Australia Boris L'vovich Rosing (1869 - 1933) Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889 - 1972), helicopter and aircraft designer Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (1895 - 1975), aircraft constructor and designer Leon Theremin (Lev Sergeyevich Termen) (1896 - 1993), inventor of one of the first electronic musical instruments, the Theremin Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, (1857 - 1935), rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautics Andrei Nicolayevich Tupolev, (1888 - 1972), aircraft designer and builder Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1899 - 1982), physicist and electrical engineer Explorers: Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741), explorer of north-western and south-western Alaska Semion Ivanovich Dezhnev (circa 1605 - 1673), explorer of north-eastern Asia Ivan Fedorov, explorer of north-western Alaska Military: Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev (1925 - 1970), cosmonaut Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi (1921 - 1995), cosmonaut Semion Ivanovich Cheliuskin (circa 1700 - after 1760), Polar explorer, lieutenant-captain of the Russian Imperial Navy Lev Mikhailovich Dovator (1903 - 1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Gagarin (1934 - 1968), pilot and the first human cosmonaut Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub (1920 - 1991), WWII fighter pilot , trice Hero of the Soviet Union Sigismund Aleksandrovich Levanevsky (1902 - 1937), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union Anatoly Vasilyevich Liapidevsky 1908 - 1983), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov (1802 - 1855), admiral Isai Ivanovich Panfilov (1893 - 1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin (b.1913), WWII fighter pilot, trice Hero of the Soviet Union Victor Vasilyevich Talalikhin (1918 - 1941), WWII lieutentant and Hero of the Soviet Union Andrey Vlasov (1900 - 1946), Red Army general turned Nazi collaborator and the commander of volunteer Russian forces (ROA,"Russian Liberation Army") of the German army during WWII Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopianov (1899 - 1975), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (1881 - 1969), marshal and politician Pyotr Klimentyevich Voroshilov (1914 - 1984), Red Army leader and commander Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov (1896 - 1974), marshal, chief of general staff of the Red Army and representative of STAVKA, four times Hero of the Soviet Union Musicians/Composers: (many of them of different ethnic background, but who were/are citizens of Russia and/or the Soviet Union) Alexander Porfiriyevich Borodin, (1833 - 1887), Russian composer Feodor Chaliapin (1873 - 1938), (French spelling of Russian first name Shaliapin) - opera singer, bass Cesar Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), Valery Gergiev (born 1953), pianist, conductor Alexander Glazunov (1865?1936), composer Reinhold Moritzovich Gliere (1875 - 1956), composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 - 1857), composer of Russlan and Ludmilla Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov (1891 - 1953), conductor Emil Grygoryevich Gilels (1916 - 1985), pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1903 - 1989), pianist Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904 - 1987) Aram Ilyich Katchaturian (1903 - 1978) Lena Katina (born 1984) and Yulia Volkova (born 1985), members of t.A.T.u Kyril Kondrashin (1914 - 1981), conductor Leonid Kogan (1924 - 1982), violinist Viktoria Mullova (born 1959), violinist Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881), composer of Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition David Oistrakh (1908 - 1974), violinist Igor Davidovich Oistrakh (born 1931), violinist Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953), composer Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943), Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter (1915 - 1997), pianist Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), composer Mstislav Rostropovich (born 1927), cellist and conductor Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1835 - 1881), pianist, conductor and composer Vasily Ilyich Safonov (1852 - 1918), composer and music educator Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1871 - 1915), composer and pianist Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 - 1975), composer Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky, (1882 - 1971), Russian composer Sergey Taneyev (1856 - 1915), composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), composer Grigory Vasilyevich (1915 - 1998), composer Politicians: Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1914 - 1984), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR (November 12, 1982 - February 9, 1984) Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (1888 - 1938), Bolshevik party leader, Soviet statesman Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (1911 - 1985), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR Boris Godunov (1551 - 1605), tsar Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 1931), general secretary of the communist party and president of the USSR, Nobel Prize winner Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1908 - 1989), "Cold War" Foreign Minister of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev, (1894 - 1971), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR and head of state Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, (1870 - 1924), Bolshevik party leader and the first Soviet head of state Vladimir Putin (born 1952), president of Russia Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953), (a pseudonym) - Soviet leader Leon Trotsky (1879 - 1940), (a pseudonym) - Russian Revolution leader Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (born 1931), President of Russia 1991-1999 Philosopherss Mikhail Bakunin (1814 - 1876), anarchist Nicolas Berdyaev (1874- 1948), philosopher of religion and politics Peter Kropotkin (1842 - 1921), anarchist Peter D. Ouspensky (1878 - 1947), author of In Search of the Miraculous and Tertium Organum Royal Family Aleksey I of Russia, "Aleksey Mikhaylovich the Quietest" (1629 - 1676) Alexander I of Russia, "Alexander the Blessed" (1777 - 1825), Russian, Polish ruler Alexander II of Russia, "Alexander the Liberator" (1818 - 1881) Alexander III of Russia, "Alexander the Peacemaker" (1845 - 1894) Alexandra, Tsarina of Russia (1872 - 1918) Alexius Petrovich, (1690 - 1718) Catherine I of Russia, (1683 - 1727) Catherine II of Russia, "Catherine the Great" (1729 - 1796) Elizabeth of Russia, (1709-1761) Ivan III of Russia, "Ivan the Great", (1440-1505) Ivan IV of Russia, "Ivan the Terrible", (1530 - 1584) Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov (1878 - 1918), Grand Duke Nicholas I of Russia, "Nicolas I the Unforgettable" (1825 - 1831) Nicholas II of Russia, "Nicholas II the Bloody" (1868 - 1918) Paul I of Russia (1754 - 1801) Peter I of Russia, "Peter the Great", (1672 - 1725) Peter III of Russia, (1728 - 1762) Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova, (1901 - 1918) Maria Nicolaievna Romanova, (1899 - 1918) Marie Fyodorovna Romanova, (1848 - 1928) Olga Nicolaievna Romanova, (1895 - 1918) Olga Alexandrovna Romanova, (1882 - 1960) Tatiana Nicolaievna Romanova, (1897 - 1918) Scientists and Mathematicans Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev (1821 - 1894), mathematician Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (1904 - 1990), physicist Il'ja Mikhailovich Frank (1908 - 1990), physicist Alexander Naumovich Frumkin (1895 - 1976), electrochemist Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (1927 - 1967), cosmonaut Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903 - 1987), mathematician Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), mathematician Lev Davidovich Landau (1908 - 1968), physicist and mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (1792 - 1856), mathematician Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1857 - 1918), mathematician Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam (1879 - 1944), physicist Andrei Andreevich Markov (1856 - 1922), mathematician Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834 - 1907), chemist, creator of the Periodic Table of Elements Gennadyi I. Nevelskoi (1813 - 1876), captain and navigator Igor Dmitrievich Novikov (born 1935), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936), physician and physiologist Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (1896 - 1986), physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky (1916 - 1985), astronomer and astrophysicist Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski (1842 - 1927), mathematician Vladimir Andreevich Steklov (1863 - 1926) , physicist and mathematician Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm (1895 - 1971), physicist Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914 - 1987), physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist Sports Personalities: Vladimir Beschastnykh, footballer Yelena Davydova (born 1961), Olympic gymnast Sergei Fedorov (born 1969), NHL star Yevgeni Kafelnikov, tennis player Valery Kharlamov (1948 - 1981), Russia's most popular international ice hockey player Andrei Kirilenko (born 1981), NBA star Anna Kournikova (born 1981), Professional tennis player Vladimir Petrov, ice hockey player Marat Safin, tennis player Yelena Shushunova (born 1969), gymnast Vladislav Tretiak (born 1952), ice hockey goalie Alexander Yakushev (born 1947), ice hockey player Lev Yashin (1929 - 1990), world renowned football goalkeeper Other Mikhail Khodorkovsky (born 1963), businessman Grigori Rasputin (1872 - 1919), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker Roman Abramovich (born 1966), businessman, 49th richest person in the Forbes list Garry Kasparov (born 1963), chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov (born 1951), chess grandmaster See also List of Slavs List of people by nationality List of people