Russian Personalities

People well-known in art, sport, film, fashion

Category Archive: Contests

Yana Dobrovolskaya – Miss Russia-2016

Yana Dobrovolskaya - Miss Russia-2016

Yana Dobrovolskaya – Miss Russia-2016

18-year-old Yana Dobrovolskaya from Tyumen became a winner of Miss Russia-2016. She was the best of the 50 contenders. The final took place on Saturday, April 16, at the concert hall Barvikha Luxury Village in the Moscow region. The judges of the contest were restaurateur Arkady Novikov, gymnast Laysan Utiasheva, producer Joseph Prigogine and two of the most beautiful girls of the universe and the world Oxana Fedorova and Ksenia Sukhinova.
Yana was born on December 8, 1997. She graduated from the Tyumen State College of Arts.
In 2014, the girl performed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and also won in the nomination Miss Intellect of Miss Volga-2015 competition.
You know, Yana speaks English, is engaged in ballroom dancing, loves books, and is interested in child psychology.
As a winner Dobrovolskaya received the exclusive crown made of white gold with diamonds and pearls worth a million dollars, three million rubles and a car. She is going to spend the money on her education and charity. In the future, the ambitious girl plans to open her own dance school.
More »

Sofia Nikitchuk – Miss Russia 2015

Sofia Nikitchuk – Miss Russia 2015

Sofia Nikitchuk – Miss Russia 2015


Sofia Nikitchuk, a student from Yekaterinburg, became the winner of Miss Russia 2015 (annual beauty pageant).
18-year-old Vladislava Yevtushenko from Chita took the second place and 21-year-old Anastasia Naydenova from Voronezh became the third.
As a prize Nikitchuk received the crown of white gold with diamonds and pearls, 3 million rubles and a car. Also she won the right to represent Russia at Miss World and Miss Universe contests.
50 girls from Russian cities, including three Crimean representatives – from Simferopol, Sevastopol and Kerch, took part in the final of the competition. The final of the national beauty contest Miss Russia-2015 was held on April 18 in a concert hall Barvikha Luxury Village.
More »

Gordei Kolesov – Russian prodigy

Gordei Kolesov

Gordei Kolesov


Gordei Kolesov, six-year-old Russian prodigy, has become a star in China. His performance in one of the entertainment programs on China Central Television, CCTV-1, has excited the whole country. The jury was fascinated by the unusual Russian boy. The most influential newspaper of the country, Renmin Ribao, wrote about the winner and Xinhua News Agency made a report about him.
The boy speaks five languages: Chinese, English, Spanish, French, and, of course, Russian.
During the TV show the boy read the poems by Su Chi, an ancient Chinese poet of Sun dynasty. Also he said that he knew 555 Chinese idioms (Chengyu) –fixed expressions.
The boy is not only fluent in Chinese, but also is an expert in Chinese characters (hieroglyphs). Most recently, he won Readers’ Choice Award in Chinese hard pen-2014 Calligraphy Contest. One of the judges said that Gordei writes characters better than many Chinese children.
More »

Anastasia Kostenko – Russian Beauty

Anastasia Kostenko – Russian Beauty

Anastasia Kostenko – Russian Beauty

Yulia Alipova the winner of Miss Russia 2014 title did not represent the country in the Miss World 2014 contest in London.
20-year-old Anastasia Kostenko, second Vice-Miss Russia 2014, went to the United Kingdom in November instead of the most beautiful Russian girl Yulia Alipova. Howewer, beautiful Russian girl took only the 20th place.
Anastasia was born on March 29, 1994 in Salsk, Rostov region. She is professionally engaged in choreography and graduated from the Rostov College of Arts. Now she lives in Moscow and studies at the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University, Faculty of Journalism. Famous Russian designer Igor Chapurin sewed a dress special for Miss World beauty pageant.
Why didn’t the winner of the national beauty contest go to London?
More »

Anzhelika Pomitun – Miss Crimea 2014

Anzhelika Pomitun - Miss Crimea 2014

Anzhelika Pomitun – Miss Crimea 2014


22-year-old Anzhelika Pomitun was chosen as the most beautiful girl of Crimea. Miss Crimea 2014, the first beauty pageant of the Russian republic, was held on September 12 in the Crimean hotel complex Respect Hall in Yalta. Now the girl will represent the Republic of Crimea at the national beauty contest – Miss Russia. There were 30,000 girls who desired to take part in the contest, but only 20 of them entered the final round. There were the most beautiful girls from Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Yalta and Evpatoria (Yevpatoria).
Natalia Rogozina, world champion in boxing, Maria Butyrskaya – Russian figure skater, three-time European champion, six-time champion of Russia, and Arina Novoselskaya, the Minister of Culture of Crimea, were the members of the jury. They were headed by the famous Russian “Mata Hari” – Anna Chapman, who gave the contestants dresses from her designer collection. Chapman chose a few girls, whom she plans to use in photo shoots and her fashion brand promotion.
More »

Kira Kazantsev – Miss America of Russian origin

Kira was crowned by Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri. AP Photo/Mel Evans

Kira Kazantsev was crowned by Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri. AP Photo/Mel Evans


Miss America 2015: beauty queen is the daughter of immigrants from Russia!
23-year-old Kira Kazantsev, the daughter of immigrants from Russia, won the title of Miss America 2015 beauty pageant, which was held on September 14th in Atlantic City (New Jersey). The beautiful girl represented the State of New York. To tell the truth, representatives from New York won the title of Miss America for third year in a row.
You know, Kira is a singer and at the contest she performed hit Happy by Pharrell Williams.
53 girls took part in the contest, but the girl of Russian origin was chosen as the most beautiful one.
The winner was crowned by Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri. The beautiful girl received not only the title and crown but also 50 thousand dollars to continue her education. Kira studied at the Hofstra University and dreams of becoming a lawyer and has already been accepted to the Fordham University’s Law School.
More »

Sofya Skya – Sofya Arzhakovskaya

Sofya Skya actress and Beauty Queen

Sofya Skya – actress and Beauty Queen


Sofya Skya is a Russian ballet dancer, an American film actress and Mrs. World 2006 winner. Her real name is Sofya Arzhakovskaya.
The beautiful girl was born on August 12, 1987 in St. Petersburg into a family of a dentist. Her grandmother Emma Shchetinina was a famous harpist and teacher, Honored Artist of Bashkortostan.
The little girl liked dancing very much. At the age of ten, she joined the children’s studio Music Hall, where she began to earn her own money. At the age of 12 Sofya moved to Ufa, where she entered the Nureyev Russian State Ballet Academy. 16-year-old girl joined the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre as a Corps de Ballet member. You know, she participated in Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Snow White, Esmeralda, Raymonda.
At the age of eighteen Sofya became the first Russian beauty ever won Mrs. World pageant. In total, she has won five beauty pageants, including Russian Grace contest. On June 17, 2005 Sofya opened the third Viennese Ball in Moscow. After the victory Arzhakovskaya moved to the United States to continue her studies.
More »