Sergeanne Golon is a literary pseudonym of Simone Changeux and her husband Vsevolod Golubinov. By the way, the novelist duo is also known as Anne and Serge Golon (Fr. Anne et Serge Golon). Their novels were read in France, Germany, and the USSR. When the movie with Michele Mercier in the title role was filmed the spouses became famous.
Angelique first appeared in bookstores in 1956 under the name of Anne Golon. Serge was looking for historical information. Then the names of both of them were on the covers.
A series of French historical adventure books is about blond, green-eyed beauty. The action took place during the time of Louis XIV of France, although a few of the books take place in other locations. According to Anne Golon, her husband was the prototype of Angelica’s husband – Joffrey de Peyrac.
Vsevolod Golubinov, later known as Serge Golon (1903–1972), was a Russian aristocrat. He was born in Bukhara, Turkestan, where his father was the Tsar’s consul. Actually, Vsevolod was a writer and artist, who knew eleven languages.
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Agrippina Vaganova was a legendary Russian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. You know, she became the first professor of choreography in the USSR. Awesome woman created her own teaching method, known as Vaganova method or Vaganova system, which became the basis of world ballet pedagogy. And her students are known and popular all over the world. By the way, her book Fundamentals of the Classical Dance, published in 1934, remains a standard textbook for the instruction of ballet technique. It was translated into many languages.
Pretty girl was born on July 6, 1879 in St. Petersburg. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her father, Akop Vaganov, served as a non-commissioned officer in Astrakhan, and then moved to the capital. In St. Petersburg, he worked as a chaplain at the Mariinsky Theater.
Since childhood the girl dreamed of dancing. When she was 10 years old, she entered the St. Petersburg Theater School. Thanks to years of hard work, she was one of the best.
In 1897 Agrippina graduated from the Imperial Ballet School and in the same year she joined the Mariinsky corps de ballet.
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Svetlana Druzhinina is a Soviet and Russian actress, film director and screenwriter. You know, she is Honored Artist of Russia (1989) and People’s Artist of Russia (2001). By the way, she received the Medal of Honor in 2006 and Order of Friendship in 2012.
Pretty girl was born on December 16, 1935 in Moscow, Russia. When she was six years old her father went to war and died near Smolensk. In the postwar years her mother worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. The family lived in a small communal flat.
When Druzhinina was 11 years old, she joined the group of circus acrobats. However, her mother didn’t allow the girl to tour with them. So, Sveta left the group.
During Svetlana’s holiday in the pioneer camp she met the granddaughter of Isadora Duncan. The girl studied at the choreographic school at the Bolshoi Theater. Upon her return from the camp Svetlana immediately entered a choreographic school at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre.
Maris Liepa and Natalia Kasatkina were her classmates. However, because of a serious hand injury, the girl had to leave ballet.
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Eleonora Yablochkina (Eleonora Guerra) is a Russian woman, who became a muse and a wife of great Tonino Guerra. By the way, Tonino was a cult Italian poet, writer and screenwriter, painter, sculptor, designer, gardener, philosopher, storyteller, dreamer and romantic.
“When he fell in love with Lora he fell in love with Russia”, said Russian poet Bella Akhmadulina.
Lora met Tonino Guerra in Moscow in 1975. The marriage of a Soviet woman with a foreigner was almost impossible. But even the party leadership of the USSR could not resist their great love.
Yablochkina was a 34-year-old widow. Her husband, Alexander Yablochkin, died right at the entrance to Mosfilm. Despite the great age difference, Lora was very fond of her husband and after his death she was depressed for a long time. She continued to write letters to him, went to the cemetery and categorically did not want to communicate with anyone.
When the great director Michelangelo Antonioni arrived to Moscow with his out-of-competition film Profession: Reporter in the framework of the IX International Film Festival, she was not going to go anywhere. But Inna Konovalova simply persuaded her.
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“She was an angel and she danced like one”, said Maya Plisetskaya.

Galina Ulanova was one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She was a muse of dance.
Pretty girl was born on January 8, 1910 into a family of renowned Mariinsky Ballet dancer, Sergey Ulanov. You know, Galina’s first teacher was her mother, great dancer Maria Romanova.
At first little girl didn’t want to study ballet. She was fond of swimming and fishing, and dreamed of becoming a sailor.
However, the carefree childhood came to an end when Galina was nine years old. The girl entered the Petrograd Choreographic School. Initially she was taught by her mother and then icon of the Russian ballet Agrippina Vaganova became her teacher.
In 1922, when Slava Zakharov and Galya Ulanova danced the mazurka among other pupils of the Leningrad Choreographic School, no one could guess that the girl would be a great dancer and the boy would be a famous choreographer…
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Nadezhda Obukhova was a Soviet and Russian opera singer (mezzo-soprano), Stalin Prize winner (1943), People’s Artist of the USSR (1937). By the way, she was the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, one of the best opera voices in the history of Russia and the world.
Pretty girl was born on February 22 (6 March), 1886 in Moscow. You know, Obukhova came from a noble family. Two of her uncles were professional singers, one of whom was the opera director of the Bolshoi Theatre. Her grandfather Adrian Mazaraki was a noted pianist, and her great-grandfather Yevgeny Baratynsky was a poet of Pushkin circle. The girl had a sister and a brother. When little Nadya was two years old, her mother died. To tell the truth, her sister Anna also became a singer.
A happy life in a rich estate, Russian nature, music lessons – all this was interrupted unexpectedly and quite dramatically. The girl fell ill with tuberculosis. Mazuraki sent his grandson to school in Voronezh, took his granddaughters and went to Nice. The bright nature of the Italian and French Riviera became native to Obukhova forever. It gave her life, a lot of musical and life experiences, which formed her personality. There sisters studied French and Italian, singing, Russian history and literature.
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Olga Lepeshinskaya was one of the most honored Soviet ballerinas. She symbolized the whole epoch of the Russian ballet. Among her numerous awards and titles there were the Order of Lenin, which she got at the age of 21, Order of the October Revolution, Medal for the Defence of Moscow, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour and Amber Cross, the highest award of the Russian Academy of Arts.
They say she was the favorite ballerina of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Pretty girl was born on September 15, 1916 in Kiev, Russian Empire into a noble family. As a child she was fond of dancing. But she did not think about her hobby as a future profession. You know, she dreamed of becoming an engineer and build bridges.
By the way, the girl became a student of the Bolshoi Choreographic School and appeared on the stage at the age of ten in the role of the little bird in the ballet The Daughter of the Snows (Snow Maiden).
At the age of 18 Lepeshinskaya became famous after the premier of Three Fatmen, based on eponymous fairytale by Yury Olesha. She performed the main role.
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