Maria Skobtsova, better known as Mother Maria, is one of the most fascinating religious figures of the twentieth century. She was a Russian noblewoman, poet, nun and member of the French Resistance during World War II. In 2004 Maria was canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople as a Martyr.
Elizaveta Pilenko (her real name) was born on December 8, 1891 in Riga. In 1895 Liza’s family moved to Anapa. Her father died on July 17, 1906. The girl was shocked by this tragedy and, in her own words, had lost faith in God. In August 1906 Liza, her mother and her younger brother Dmitry moved to St. Petersburg.
You know, in February 1908, Elizaveta met poet Alexander Blok, they had a long and complex relationship.
On February 19, 1910, she married Dmitry Kuzmin-Karavayev, former Bolshevik and close friend of many writers.
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Anna Leopoldovna was a ruler of Russia from November 1740 to November 1741. You know, she was regent of Russia for her son, the emperor Ivan VI.
Elizabeth Catharina Christine, the future Russian Empress, was born on December 7, 1718 in Rostock, Mecklenburg (Germany). Anna was the daughter of Catherine Ioannovna, niece of Peter I, and Charles Leopold Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna was her aunt. Family life wasn’t good and Catherine took her child and returned to Russia in 1722. Peter I was very angry. Anna Ioannovna, who later ascended to the throne, practically took the girl from her mother.
In 1733, the girl was converted to the Orthodox Christianity and given the name Anna Leopoldovna. And in 1739 Anna married Anthony Ulrich (1714–1776), son of Ferdinand Albert, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbottel. She lived in the palace of Peter the Great in the Summer Garden, and her favorite Moritz Linar lived in the house next door.
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Catherine I (1684 – 1727) was the second wife of Peter I. You know, she reigned as Empress of Russia for only two years, from 1725 until her death. To tell the truth, Catherine took a place in the history of the Russian state as the first woman on the throne.
Her real name was Marta Skavronskaya. There are no documents that confirm her origins. The historians say, she was born in Jakobstadt (now Jekabpils, Latvia) but was orphaned and reared by Johann Ernst Gluck, a Lutheran pastor in Marienburg (now Malbork, Poland). Marta’s parents died of the plague in 1684, and her uncle gave the girl to Lutheran pastor Ernst Gluck, known for his translation of the Bible into the Latvian language. At the age of 17, Marta married Swedish dragoon named Johann Kruse. A day or two after the wedding Johann went to war.
When the Russians captured Marienburg in 1702, she was taken prisoner by the Russian commander, who sold her to Prince Aleksandr Menshikov, best friend of Peter the Great. Menshikov and Marta formed a lifetime alliance, and it is possible that Menshikov wanted to procure a mistress whom he could rely on.
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Anna Ioannovna Romanova was Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. You know, she was the niece of Peter the Great.
The girl was born on February 7, 1693 into the royal family in the Moscow Kremlin. Her parents, Tsar Ivan V and Tsarina Praskovia Feodorovna, raised two more daughters: the elder Ekaterina and the younger Praskovya. From an early age Anna, along with her sisters, was taught Russian language, arithmetic, geography, dances, German and French.
In 1696 Ivan died, and the widowed queen with the children was forced to leave the Kremlin chambers and move to the Izmaylovo country residence. And in 1708 the family moved to St. Petersburg. Soon the Swedes launched an offensive against the northern capital, and relatives of Peter I had to return to Moscow.
Peter’s troops could not prevail in the Northern War. The Russian emperor needed support from the Prussian and Courland rulers. In 1709, the Russian troops occupied Courland. Diplomatic negotiations were held with the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I. It was decided to make an alliance between two dynasties.
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Elena Mayorova was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1989).
Pretty girl was born on May 30, 1958 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. You know, she wanted to become an actress since childhood and attended a theatrical studio for children and youth in her city. In 1976, Elena entered the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS).
After graduation, she became an actress of Sovremennik theatre and was invited to join the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).
The actress perfectly played the role of Masha in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. The play Oresteia was loved not only in the capital of Russia, but also in Europe and Japan, where the Moscow Art Theater often went on tour. In Greece Mayorova, who played the role of Athena in the performance, was awarded the unofficial title Russian Greta Garbo.
In the movie Mayorova debuted when she was still a student. She had played one of the roles in the film You Cannot Even Dream directed by Ilya Frez.
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Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya is a Russian photographer, editor in chief of 7 Days magazine, literary translator from English and French into Russian, journalist. As a photographer, she is best known for the series of photos called Private Collection, which was published in the magazine Caravan of Stories. Elena Obraztsova and Vladimir Spivakov, Inna Churikova and Lyubov Kazarnovskaya, Anatoly Karpov and Valentin Yudashkin, Konstantin Khabensky, Iosif Kobzon and many other famous people took part in this project.
Famous Russian women took part in the project Film Divas. Valeriya and Elizaveta Boyarskaya, as well as Kristina Orbakaite and Olga Drozdova, Olesya Sudzilovskaya and others were among them. The photos allow viewers to see celebrities in very unusual perspectives. They arouse the viewer’s interest in classical art, as well as in the history of costume and fashion.
Katya was born on July 17, 1957 in Moscow into the family of famous Russian poet Robert Rozhdestvensky, and literary critic Alla Kireyeva.
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Alena Arzamasskaya (Temnikovskaya) was born in 1670 in Arzamas. It is known that in her youth, she was forced to marry an elderly peasant. But he did not live long, and very soon she became a widow. After her husband’s death, she became a nun at the Nikolaevskii Monastery near Arzamas, where she learned to read and write, and studied medicine.
She was a comrade and sister-in-arms of Stepan Razin (a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar’s bureaucracy in South Russia).
In 1669, when the peasant uprising of Stepan Razin began, Alena left the monastery and joined the rebels. She cut her hair and dressed in men’s clothes posing as a Cossack leader. She managed to gather a group of 300-400 people, and went with them to the city Temnikov.
After uniting the detachment of Alena with the army of another rebel, Fyodor Sidorov, the number of rebels reached seven thousand. They managed to capture the city of Temnikov and stayed there for two months.
On November 30, 1670 Alena’s army was attacked and destroyed by the Tsar’s army. Seven years after this battle, the German publicist Johann Frisch published a pamphlet in Germany. Today it is the only more or less detailed documentary evidence describing the appearance and the character of Arzamasskaya and her last hours of life.
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