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List of Russians
This is a list of people associated with Imperial Russia , the Soviet Union , and Russia of today. For a long time Russia has been a multinational country, and many people of different nationalities contributed to its culture, to its glory, and to its sorrow. They may be ethnic Georgians (like Stalin ), Jews (like Trotsky ), Poles (like Vaslav Nijinsky ), Tatars (like Rudolf Nureyev ), Ukrainians (like Nikolai Gogol ), Germans (like Catherine the Great )... Sometimes we don't know their exact ancestry. Sometimes their formal nationality was written down at random or for political or other reasons. They may have emigrated or immigrated , and thus may appear in other "Lists of...", but nevertheless their names are linked to the words "Russia", "Russian", whether with pride, with shame, or with pain.
Art
Architects
Artists
Nikolay Andreyev (1873 -1932 ), sculptor, graphic artist and stage designer
Mikhail Anikushin (1917 ), sculptor
Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva (1858 -1884 , painter
Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin , painter,
Marc Chagall (1887 -1985 ), painter
Pavel Chistyakov (1832 -1919 ), painter, Russian teacher
Dionisy , medieval icon-painter
Aleksandra Ekster (1882 -1949 ), painter, one of the founders of Art Deco
Peter Carl Fabergé (1846 -1920 ), jewellery designer
Wassily Kandinsky (1866 -1944 ), abstract painter
Alexander V. Kuprin (1880 -1960 ), painter
Isaac Levitan (1860 -1900 ), landscape painter
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi , (1837 -1887 ), painter and the art critic
Kazimir Malevich (1878 -1935 ), suprematist painter, Black square
Vera Mukhina (1889 -1953 ), sculptress
Alexander Nikulin (1878 -1945 ), painter
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878 -1939 ), painter
Vasily Polenov (1844 -1927 ), landscape painter
Serge Poliakoff (1900 -1969 ), painter
Liubov Popova (1889 -1924 ), cubist , abstract painter
Ilya Repin (1844 -1930 ), painter
Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891 -1956 ), designer, constructivist painter
Nicholas Roerich (1874 -1947 ), painter
Andrei Rublev (circa 1360 -1430 ), medieval icon-painter
Valentin Serov (1865 -1911 ), painter
Vladimir Tatlin (1885 - 1953 ), painter and architect.
Vasily Tropinin (1776 -1857 ), painter
Ivan Vishnyakov (1699 -1761 ), painter
Apollinary Vasnetsov (1856 -1933 ), painter
Viktor Vasnetsov (1848 -1926 ), painter
Main article:List of Russian authors See also Russian literature
A-O
Alexander Borodin (1833 -1887 ), composer
Fyodor Chaliapin (1873 -1938 ), opera singer, bass
Cesar Cui (1835 -1918 )
Valery Gergiev (1953 ), pianist, conductor
Emil Gilels (1916 -1985 ), pianist
Alexander Glazunov (1865 -1936 ), composer
Reinhold Gliere (1875 -1956 ), composer
Mikhail Glinka (1804 -1857 ), composer of Russlan and Ludmilla
Nikolai Golovanov (1891 -1953 ), conductor
Vladimir Horowitz (1903 -1989 ), pianist
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904 -1987 )
Aram Katchaturian (1903 -1978 )
Lena Katina (b. 1984 ), singer
Yulia Volkova (b. 1985 ), singer
Tikhon Khrennikov (b. 1913 ), composer
Kyril Kondrashin (1914 -1981 ), conductor
Leonid Kogan (1924 -1982 ), violinist
Nikolai Medtner (1880 -1951 ), composer, pianist
Viktoria Mullova (1959 ), violinist
Modest Mussorgsky (1839 -1881 ), composer of Boris Godunov Pictures at an Exhibition
David Oistrakh (1908 -1974 ), violinist
Igor Oistrakh (b. 1931 ), violinist
P-Z
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 -1953 ), composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 -1943 )
Sviatoslav Richter (1915 -1997 ), pianist
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 -1908 ), composer
Mstislav Rostropovich (b. 1927 ), cellist and conductor
Anton Rubinstein , pianist, composer
Nikolai Rubinstein (1835 -1881 ), pianist, conductor and composer
Vasily Ilyich Safonov (1852 -1918 ), composer and music educator
Alfred Schnittke (1934 -1998 ), composer
Alexander Scriabin (1871 -1915 ), composer and pianist
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 -1975 ), composer
Igor Stravinsky (1882 -1971 ), composer
Sergey Taneyev (1856 -1915 ), composer
Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 -1893 ), composer
Grigory Vasilyevich (1915 -1998 ), composer
Arcadi Volodos , pianist
Vyacheslav Mescherin (-1995 ), Synthesizer music composer, audio engineer
Performing Arts
Mikhail Baryshnikov (b. 1948 ), ballet dancer
Sergei Bodrov , filmmaker
Sergei Bodrov Jr. , actor
Sergei Bondarchuk (1920 -1994 ), film director
Boris Bruinov (1922 -1997 ), actor
Sergei Diaghilev (1872 -1929 ), ballet impresario
Sergei Eisenstein (1898 -1948 ), film director
Michel Fokine (1880 -1942 ), choreographer, dancer
Lila Kedrova (1918 -2000 ), actress
Nikita Mikhalkov (b. 1945 ), filmmaker and politician
Solomon Mikhoels , Soviet-Yiddish actor
Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky (1890 -1950 ), ballet dancer, choreographer
Ivan Novikoff (1899 -2002 ), ballet master
Rudolf Nureyev (1938 -1993 ), ballet dancer
Lubov Orlova (1902 -1975 ), actress
Anna Pavlova (1882 -1931 ), ballerina
Alexander Ptushko (1900 -1973 ), animation & film director
Konstantin Stanislavsky (1868 -1938 ), actor
Natalie Wood (1938 -1981 ), actress
Galina Ulanova (1910 -1988 ), ballerina
(who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language , see List of Russian language poets )
A-N
P-Z
A-S
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (1930 ), physicist
Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (1922 - 2001 ), laser inventor, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964 , together with Alexandr Prokhorov
Vasily Degtyarev (1880 -1947 ), weapons designer
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
Ivan Petrovich Kulibin (1735 -1818 ), mechanic
Semyon Lavochkin (1900 -1960 ), aircraft designer
Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin (1847 - 1923 ), electrical engineer and inventor
Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan (1905 -1970 ), aircraft designer
Alexander Popov (1859 -1906 ), Russia's Marconi , an inventor of Radio
Alexandr Prokhorov (1916 -2002 ), physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964 , born in Queensland , Australia
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863 -1944 ), father of colour photography
Boris Rosing (1869 -1933 )
Igor Sikorsky (1889 -1972 ), helicopter and aircraft designer
Pavel Sukhoi (1895 -1975 ), aircraft constructor and designer
T-Z
Mikhail Bakunin (1814 -1876 ), anarchist
Nicolas Berdyaev (1874 - 1948 ), philosopher of religion and politics
Georges Florovsky (1893]] -1979 , theologian and philosopher
Alexander Herzen , father of Russian socialism
Nikolay Karamzin , father of Russian conservatism
Mikhail Katkov (1818 -1887 ), reactionary journalist
Peter Kropotkin (1842 -1921 ), anarchist
Wassily Leontief , economist , Nobel Prize winner
Alexei Losev (1893 -1988 ), philosopher
Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (1908 -1981 ), archeologist, historian, and ethnographer
Peter Ouspensky (1878 -1947 ), author of In Search of the Miraculous Tertium Organum
Yevgeny Polivanov (1891 -1938 ), linguist and orientalist
Serge Poltoratzky (1803 -1884 ), literary scholar and opponent of serfdom
Yevgeny Tarle (1874 –1955 ), historian of Western Europe
Vasily Tatishchev (1686 –1750 ), first Russian historian
Pavel Gavrilovich Vingradov (1854 -1925 ), history of English laws
A-K
Alexei Abrikosov , physicist , Nobel Prize recipient
Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov , mathematician
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov Nobel Prize winner
Boris Belousov , chemist / biophysicist
Pafnuti Chebyshev (1821 -1894 ), mathematician
Pavel Cherenkov (1904 -1990 ), physicist, Nobel Prize
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Fadeev , mathematician
Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko (1945 -), mathematician, chronologist
Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (1908 -1990 ), physicist, Nobel Prize winner
Alexander Frumkin (1895 -1976 ), electrochemist
Vitaly Ginzburg , physicist , Nobel Prize recipient
Abram Ioffe (1880 -1960 ), physicist
Pyotr Kafarov (1817 -1878 ), sinologist
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa , physicist, discoverer of superfluidity , Nobel Prize in physics
Nikolai Kardashev (b. 1932 ), astrophysicist
Julii Khariton (1904 -1996 ), physicist
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903 -1987 ), mathematician
Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850 -1891 ), mathematician
Igor Kurchatov (1903 -1960 ), atomic bomb physicist
L-P
Lev Landau (1908 -1968 ), physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize in physics
Mikhail Lavrentyev (1900 -1980 ), physicist and mathematician
Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev (1866 - 1912 ), physicist
Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792 -1856 ), mathematician
Mikhail Lomonosov (1711 -1765 ), polymath
Nikolai Nikolaevich Lusin , mathematician
Aleksandr Lyapunov (1857 -1918 ), mathematician
Trofim Lysenko , biologist
Leonid Mandelshtam (1879 -1944 ), physicist
Yuri Ivanovich Manin , mathematician
Andrei Markov (1856 -1922 ), mathematician
Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834 -1907 ), chemist who developed a periodic table of the chemical elements
Ivan Michurin , selectionist
Aleksandr Fyodorovich Middendorf , zoologist
Gennadi Nevelskoi (1813 -1876 ), captain and navigator
Igor Novikov (b. 1935 ), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist
Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky
Aleksandr Oparin , biologist and biochemist
Peter Simon Pallas (1741 -1811 ), a German working in Russia zoologist
Ivan Pavlov (1849 -1936 ), physician and physiologist
S-Z
Andrei Sakharov (1921 -1989 ), nuclear physicist
Nikolay Semyonov (1896 -1986 ), physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Iosif Shklovsky (1916 -1985 ), astronomer and astrophysicist
Yulian Sokhotski (1842 -1927 ), mathematician
Vladimir Steklov (1863 -1926 ), physicist and mathematician
Georg Steller (1709 -1746 ), naturalist and ornithologist of German origin.
Friedrich Wilhelm Struve (Vasily Yakovlevich Struve) (1793 -1864 ), astronomer
Igor Tamm (1895 -1971 ), physicist, Nobel Prize
Paul Samuilovich Urysohn (1898 -1924 ), a mathematician
Ivan Matveevich Vinogradov , mathematician
Nikolai Vavilov , biologist
Yakov Zeldovich (1914 -1987 ), physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist
Statesmen and military
Before 1917
Royal
See also Tsar for the list of old Russian rulers
A-F
Alexis (1629 -1676 ), "Aleksey Mikhaylovich the Quietest"
Alexander I (1777 -1825 ), "Alexander the Blessed"
Alexander II (1818 -1881 ), "Alexander the Liberator"
Alexander III (1845 -1894 ), "Alexander the Peacemaker"
Alexandra (1872 -1918 ), Tsarina of Russia
Alexius Petrovich (1690 -1718 )
Anastasia (1901 -1918 ), youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
Anna (1693 -1740 ), empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740
Boris Godunov (1551 -1605 )
Catherine I (1683 -1727 )
Catherine II (1729 -1796 ), "Catherine the Great"
Constantine Pavlovich (1779 -1831 ), vice-roy of Poland who abdicated the Russian throne
Elizabeth (1709 -1761 ), daughter of Peter I the Great and Catherine I
Fyodor I (1557-1598)
Fyodor II (1589-1605)
Fyodor III (1661-1682)
Patriarch Filaret , father of the first Romanov tsar
I-Z
See also List of Russian Foreign Ministers
After 1917
Heads of state
Revolution, politics and state figures
See List of socialists: Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Communists .
See White Russians for opponents of Bolsheviks.
A-L
Viktor Abakumov , police official, head of SMERSH
Lavrenty Beria (1899 -1953 ), Soviet chief of secret police under Joseph Stalin
Nikolai Bukharin (1888 -1938 ), Bolshevik party leader, Soviet statesman
Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938 ), Prime Minister of Russia from 1992 to 1998
Sergey Mikhaylovich Darkin (1963 -present), governor of Primorsky Krai
Fedor Dan , menshevik
Feliks Dzerzhinsky , Cheka
Viktor Grishin
Andrei Gromyko (1908 -1989 ), Foreign Minister of the USSR during the Cold War
Lazar Kaganovich
Mikhail Kasyanov (b. 1957 ), Prime Minister of Russia from 2000 to 2004
Alexandra Kollontai (1872 -1952 ), revolutionary, diplomat
Nikolai Krestinsky , Old Bolshevik , repressed
Yegor Ligachev
Maxim Litvinov
M-Z
See also List of people associated with World War II: Soviet Union . See also List of Marshals of the Soviet Union . See also List of Russian Field Marshals .
A-N
Prince Peter Bagration (1765 -1812 )
Semion Cheliuskin (circa 1700 -after 1760 ), Polar explorer, lieutenant-captain of the Russian Imperial Navy
Valery Chkalov (1904 -1938 ), aircraft pilot
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (1900 -1982 ), commanded the 62nd Russian army to victory at the Battle of Stalingrad .
Lev Dovator (1903 -1941 ), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko , commander-in-chief during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 .
Mikhail Kamensky (1738 -1809 ), Catherinian Field Marshal
Konstantin Kaufmann (1818 -1882 ), general who conquered Khiva
Ivan Kozhedub (1920 -1991 ), WWII fighter pilot, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Kutuzov
Sigismund Levanevsky (1902 -1937 ), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
Anatoly Liapidevsky (1908 -1983 ), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
Stepan Osipovich Makarov (1848 -- 1904 ), admiral, explorer
Alexander Matrosov , soldier, Hero of the Soviet Union
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov , commander-in-chief during the Crimean War
Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich , hero of the Napoleonic wars
Pavel Nakhimov (1802 -1855 ), legendary admiral
Alexander Ostermann-Tolstoy , hero of the Napoleonic wars
P-Z
Isai Panfilov (1893 -1941 ), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Paskevich , conqueror of Warsaw in 1831
Alexander Pokryshkin ( 1913 - 1985 , WWII fighter pilot, trice Hero of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Skobelev , "White General" who conquered Central Asia
Aleksandr Suvorov , Generaslissimo who never lost a battle
Victor Talalikhin (1918 -1941 ), WWII lieutentant and Hero of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
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 Vodopianov (1899 -1975 ), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
Klimenty Voroshilov (1881 -1969 ), marshal and politician
Aleksey Yermolov , hero of Battle of Borodino ; military ruler of the Caucasus
Georgy Zhukov 1896 -1974 ), marshal, chief of general staff of the Red Army and representative of STAVKA , four times Hero of the Soviet Union
Other
Evgeny Abalakov , mountaineer
Vitaly Abalakov , mountaineer
Inga Artamonova (1936-1966), 4-time world all-around speed skating champion
Vladimir Beschastnykh , association football player
Anatoli Boukreev (1958 -1997 ), mountaineer
Andrey Chesnokov , tennis player
Elena Dementieva , tennis player
Yelena Isinbayeva , (b. 1982), athlete
Yevgeny Kafelnikov , (b. 1974 ), tennis player
Anastasiya Kapachinskaya , (b.1979), athlete
Alexander Karelin , (b. 1967 ), Greco-Roman wrestling , champion
Andrei Kirilenko , (b. 1981 ), NBA star
Anna Kournikova , (b. 1981 ), tennis player and celebrity
Svetlana Krivelyova , (b.1969), athlete
Anastasia Myskina , (b. 1981), tennis player
Natalya Nazarova , (b.1979), athlete
Nadia Petrova , (b. 1982), tennis player
Evgeni Plushenko (b. 1982), Figure Skater
Roho (Boradzov Soslan Feliksovich) (b. 1980 ), Sumo wrestler
Nina Romashkova (b. 1929 ), athlete, the first Soviet Olympic Champion
Marat Safin (b. 1980 ), tennis player
Maria Sharapova , tennis player
Lidia Skoblikova (b. 1939 ), speed skater , most Olympic medals in speed skating
Dmitri Sychev (b. 1983 ), association football player
Lev Yashin (1929 -1990 ), football goalkeeper
Mikhail Youzhny , tennis player
Other
See List of Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow
Roman Abramovich (b. 1966 ), businessman, 49th richest person in the Forbes list
Ivan Fedorov , the first Russian printer
Vilyam Genrikovich Fisher , a Soviet spy in the United States
Ibrahim Gannibal , grandgrandfather of Alexander Pushkin
Fanya Kaplan , Eser , attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (b. 1963 ), businessman, billionaire
Patriarch Nikon , whose policies precipitated the Raskol
Yemelian Pugachev , Cossack insurgent
Grigori Rasputin (1872 -1916 ), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker
Stenka Razin (1630 -1671 ), cossack insurgent
Aleksei Stakhanov , the work over-achiever who gave the name to the stakhanovite movement
Former Soviet Union
During the times of the Soviet Union nationals of other constituent republics were traditionally known as "Russians" in the West. Some of them were even known under Russian or Russified names. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union many nations (rightfully) chose to "regain" their nationality in the eyes of the world. Therefore some names may be missing from the list above and you may wish to look into the following lists.
By subdivision/nationalities
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