Almost any actor, director or producer dreams of a career in Hollywood. Alas, it is very difficult to reach such heights. And therefore the achievements of the Kazakhstan director and producer Timur Bekmambetov are really grandiose. Starting his career as a director of commercials that turned out to be very innovative for the USSR, he went a long way from low-budget movies to multi-million blockbusters that conquered the world.
Timur was born on June 25, 1961 in Guryev. His father is a descendant of the ancient and revered dynasty of Kazakh khans, whose roots can be traced back to the 10th century. The father was the head of a large energy company, and the mother worked as a deputy editor of a regional newspaper.
At his father’s insistence, the future director entered the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. However, Bekmambetov was not too interested in energy and other technical subjects, the young man was fond of the world of art. The future film star left the institute and was immediately drafted into the army, he served near Ashgabat for two years.
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Mikhail Shchepkin was a Russian actor, one of the founders of the Russian actor’s school.
The boy was born on November 6 (17), 1788 in Kursk province into a family of the serfs.
From 1799 to 1801 he studied at the Sudzhansky public school. During his studies, in 1800, he played his first role in Sumarokov’s comedy – Vzdorschitsa.
In 1801-1802 he played in a serf theater of Count G. S. Volkenshtein.
By the way, in 1805, he performed on the professional scene for the first time. Since that time, with the permission of Count G. S. Volkenshtein, Shchepkin played in the Barsov Brothers Theater.
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Alik Sakharov is an American film director, cinematographer.
The boy was born on May 17, 1959 in Tashkent, USSR. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Moscow. As a school boy Alik joined the photo club in one of Moscow’s Houses of Culture. And even to this day he has passion for photography. When Alik was fifteen years old his parents gave him a camera. So, the boy started to film short amateur videos. Andrei Tarkovsky’s film The Mirror had the most significant influence on his artistic taste and is still his favorite movie.
In 1981 his family emigrated to the United States.
You know, in 1985, Sakharov made his first documentary film – The Russian Touch, about the life of Soviet immigrants in New York.
In 1986, he began to work as a cameraman and illuminator on one of the TV stations in the same New York City. There he gained experience on the set of short stories for television, advertising, and music videos.
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Marcello Mastroianni
In 1987, Nikita Mikhalkov made a film Dark Eyes, based on several short stories by Anton Chekhov. The main role in the film, the architect Romano Patra, played prominent Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, who most often starred in the films by famous film director Federico Fellini. For the role in this film the actor won the award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Oscar.
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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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Ivan Ohlobystin is a Russian actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, journalist and writer, creative director of Baon company. By the way, he was a priest at the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ivan was born on July 22, 1966 in the Tula region. The parents of the future actor had a huge age difference – almost half a century. Ivan’s mother was a student who had just reached adulthood. Her spouse’s children from previous marriages were much older than her. Perhaps, that is why the marriage broke up. When Ivan was still young, his father left the family. The boy was brought up by the young but strict mother.
Later his family moved to Moscow, where the boy entered the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). He studied together with many future leaders of Russian cinema: Tigran Keosayan, Bakhtiyar Khudoynazarov, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Alexander Bashirov, Renata Litvinova, Roman Kachanov, Rashid Nugmanov and others. Ivan didn’t finish his studies because he went into the army.
In his youth Ivan was a rebel and joined bikers. Echoes of the biker subculture were forever in the image of Ohlobystin: even becoming a priest, he continued to wear a leather jacket. Also he has tattoos – hands and torso of the actor are covered with various images.
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“Russian women are the most beautiful in the world”, a lot of men say.
So, for centuries many celebrities have chosen Russian beauties as their girlfriends, wives and muses. Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Romain Rolland and many other geniuses were in love with charming women from Russia.
On September 24 popular Danish singer Tomas N’evergreen married Russian actress and singer Valeria Zhidkova. Their wedding was luxurious. There were more than a hundred stars among the guests.
Let’s see who else from the bright stars prefer to marry Russian beauties.
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