Russian Personalities

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

Category Archive: History

Mikhail Kutuzov – Russian Field-Marshal

Mikhail Kutuzov - Russian Field-Marshal. Portrait by Oleshkevich

Mikhail Kutuzov – Russian Field-Marshal. Portrait by Oleshkevich


Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Derzhavin, Zhukovsky and other geniuses of literature praised this brave man. The Field Marshal won a crushing victory in the battle of Borodino, saving the Russian Empire from Napoleon Bonaparte.
Mikhail Kutuzov was born on September 5 (16), 1747 in St. Petersburg into the family of lieutenant-general Ilyarion Matveyevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov and his wife Anna Illarionovna.
The father of the great commander, who was a colleague of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, began his career under Peter the Great. Having graduated from a military engineering training institution, he began to serve in the engineering troops. For exceptional intelligence and erudition contemporaries called Illarion Matveyevich a Walking Encyclopedia.
Certainly, the Field Marshal’s parent contributed to the development of the Russian Empire. For example, even under Elizaveta Petrovna he made a model of the Catherine Canal, which is now called Griboedov Canal. Thanks to the project of Illarion Matveyevich, the consequences of the flooding of the Neva River were prevented. The plan of Kutuzov was carried out during the reign of Catherine II. As a reward, he received a gold snuff-box decorated with precious stones as a gift.
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Most beautiful women in the USSR

Tatiana Drubich

Most beautiful women in the USSR. Tatiana Drubich


Standards of beauty change over time, but since the Soviet times they didn’t change a lot. Here you’ll see the list of the most beautiful women of the USSR.

Tatiana Drubich
Tatiana Drubich, Natalie Portman of the Soviet cinema, was the main muse of film director Sergei Solovyov. In her first film she starred at the age of 12. Despite the success of the film One Hundred Days After Childhood, where Drubich played at the age of 14, she refused to enter the Film Institute and became an endocrinologist. Then she worked as a doctor in the district hospital and had time to act in films. The roles in the films by Sergei Solovyov and the thriller 10 Little Indians made her famous.
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Andrei Sakharov – father of the hydrogen bomb

Andrei Sakharov - father of the hydrogen bomb

Andrei Sakharov – father of the hydrogen bomb


Peace, progress, human rights – these three goals are insolubly linked to one another: it is impossible to achieve one of these goals if the other two are ignored.
Some people remember Andrei Sakharov as the “father of the hydrogen bomb”, the others as human rights activist and dissident. Hard to believe, but there are two faces of one person.
Sakharov, a nuclear physicist, the youngest academician, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, brilliant scientist … At some point, he started to think about social problems and came to the idea of radical change to the country. The conflict with the government led to exile. And then followed the rise: the return to Moscow, millions of people listened to his words, almost national mourning after the death…
He had a quaint destiny: he became the creator of the most devastating weapons, and then – “dove of peace”, a fighter for human rights. Perhaps, such an active civil position, as well as a wide range of interests determined the brilliant discoveries and inventions of the scientist. Although he liked to emphasize the importance of the spouse, who inspired him.
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Vladimir Lenin – Leader of the proletarian revolution

Vladimir Lenin - Leader of the proletarian revolution

Vladimir Lenin – Leader of the proletarian revolution


Vladimir Ulyanov, known around the world under the pseudonym Lenin, was one of the most controversial figures in Russian history of the late XIX – early XX centuries. For some, he is the personification of the evil of the world, for someone – the greatest theorist and revolutionist. Who was he – a man who sincerely tried to find the path to a brighter socialist future or a clever politician who knew how to keep his nose in the wind?
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was born on April 22, 1870, in Simbirsk. His father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was an inspector of schools, who did everything possible to help working people to get a good education. Lenin’s mother Maria Alexandrovna knew French, German and English and was a very good pianist.
Vladimir had two brothers, Alexander and Dmitry, and three sisters, Anna, Olga, and Maria.
Vladimir’s mother taught him how to read when he was still very young. She also taught him music, which he loved for the whole of his life. But he was most interested in reading and history, and in the life of the people around him.
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Most influential women in Russian history

Catherine II

Most influential women in Russian history. Catherine II


In the history of Russia women were not on the sidelines. They ruled, played political games, contributed to the scientific and spiritual life. Women have changed history.

Catherine II
Catherine gave Russian provinces personal coat of arms, defeated the Turks twice, divided Poland and Crimea became Russian.
In Europe, the Empress was called Russian Messalina. She had changed 21 lovers.
Catherine loved coffee, snuff, small dogs, and a correspondence with Walter. Catherine did not love her husband, son and the first Russian dissidents.
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Sergei Bermeniev – Portrait Photographer

Sergei Bermeniev - Portrait Photographer

Sergei Bermeniev – Portrait Photographer

As a photographer Sergei Bermeniev conquered Hollywood. He is a master of black-and-white portrait.
One of the world’s best portrait photographers Bermeniev seem to have time to take pictures of all the leading stars both Russian and Western. Federico Fellini and Sharon Stone, Joseph Brodsky and Viktor Tsoi, Vladimir Putin and Meryl Streep… And the list of the stars isn’t complete.
Portrait genre is one of the most important in photography. The rapid development of this new art form in the middle of the XIX century is explained very simple – people want to have pictures of themselves and their families. The appearing of a photo portrait not only changed the structure of the historical memory of mankind, but also transformed the social mechanisms of mass communication. The phenomenon of stars is one of the most important things today. There are stars in all spheres of our life: culture, politics, social life. And it is very important when there is a possibility to replicate portrait of the star.
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Elena Blavatskaya – founder of the Theosophical Society

Elena Blavatskaya - founder of the Theosophical Society

Elena Blavatskaya – founder of the Theosophical Society


Elena Blavatskaya was a Russian noblewoman, religious philosopher, writer, occultist and spiritualist, traveler. You know, she was a founder of the Theosophical Society and the World Brotherhood. Elena’s main works were written in English. Some authors suggested that she had the ability to clairvoyance. Actually, she can be called one of the most influential women in world history. Elena was called the Russian Sphynx; she opened Tibet to the world and showed the Western intelligentsia occult sciences and Eastern philosophy.
Elena was born on July 31, 1831 in Yekaterinoslav into a family of famous writer-novelist Elena Hahn (people called her Russian George Sand) and Colonel Peter Hahn. Blavatskaya’s great-grandfather, Prince Pavel Dolgorukov (1755-1837) was awarded the highest military award – the Order of St. George, and he was Kutuzov’s friend and colleague. Sergei Witte, highly influential policy-maker, was Elena’s cousin. Her sister Vera, the future writer Jelihovskaya, was born in 1835 in Odessa.
In 1838, mother and little girls went to Poltava, where Elena was engaged in dancing and her mother taught her to play the piano.
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