They became world famous and Russia is proud of them.

Valentina Grizodubova (April 27, 1909, Kharkov – April 28, 1993, Moscow) was a Soviet pilot, the participant of the Great Patriotic War, the first woman awarded Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor titles. For the first time Valentina rose up into the sky at the age of 2.5 on an airplane, which was made by her father, who was an inventor.
In October 1937, Grizodubova set 5 world records on light airplanes. And in September 1938 together with aviators Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova made a nonstop flight from Moscow to the Far East. It was the International Women’s distance record flight of 6540 km in 26 hours 29 minutes. During World War II the aviator only in May 1943 made 200 combat flights (132 of them at night).
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Death sentence in Odessa, chess matches with the Nazis, the mysterious death.
Let’s remember Alexander Alekhine – multiple winner of various international tournaments, fourth World Chess Champion, the only world champion who died undefeated.
The unique chess player managed to play for France and during the Second World War he managed to compete with the Nazis in informal competitions in the occupied territories.
Man of the world – so you can say about many of today’s athletes. They constantly have to travel, they live in countries where they feel more comfortable and they can choose any place on the planet for training.
However, in the Soviet Union it was extremely difficult to move abroad.
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The Russian Ice Hockey Team won the fifth World Cup title in May 2014. The Russians defeated the team of Finland with a score of 5:2, taking revenge for their defeat in Sochi. And I want to tell about Russian hockey players’ beautiful wives and girlfriends.
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In America, he is called Alexander the Great. Alexander Ovechkin is a Russian professional ice hockey player and captain of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League. He is a World Champion among youth teams, Champion of Russia, the best rookie player, two-time World Champion, Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2009) … To tell the truth, he has a lot of titles and he deserves them.
Alexander was born on September 17, 1985 in Moscow. Tatiana Ovechkina, the mother of the future hockey player, was a legendary basketball player of the USSR national women’s team and Olympic Champion. His father Mikhail is a former professional footballer who played for Moscow Dynamo. His elder brother Sergey also plays hockey.
At the age of 8 the little boy was engaged in hockey. Now Ovechkin is one of the best strikers in the modern history of hockey.
It is noteworthy that at the age of twelve Ovechkin set an absolute record, scoring 59 goals in the championship of Moscow.
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Roman Pavlyuchenko is a Russian footballer playing as a center forward for Russian club FC Lokomotiv Moscow and for the Russian national team. During his football career in England, he was nicknamed Super Pav.
Pavlyuchenko is the most expensive footballer sold abroad.
Roman was born on December 15, 1981 in Mostovskoy village, Krasnodar Krai. He has elder sister Oksana. A few days after the boy was born, the family moved to Karachay-Cherkessia.
His career began when he joined Victory Sports School, where Roman played for 7 years. Then he joined Stavropol School of Olympic Reserve and played for the Stavropol youth club Dynamo.
In 2000, Roman joined Volgograd Rotor and the whole family moved to Volgograd, where his father got a job as a bus driver in the club.
In November 2002 Roman moved to Moscow Spartak where he replaced Vladimir Beschastnykh.
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Elena Baltacha is a British tennis player. She was a four-time winner of the Aegon Award, a winner of 14 ITF tournaments (10 – singles), Junior Singles Semifinalist at Wimbledon 2001.
Pretty girl was born on August 14, 1983 in Kiev, USSR. In 1989 the family moved to the UK.
By the way, she is a daughter of two well-known Soviet athletes. Her father Sergei Baltacha played for Kiev Dynamo, Kharkov Metalist and was a member of the USSR national football team. In the United Kingdom he played for Ipswich Town. Her mother Olga represented the USSR in the pentathlon at the Olympics. Elena’s elder brother Sergey followed in their father’s footsteps, playing for Scottish clubs.
Baltacha began playing tennis at the age of 6. Hard and grass courts were her favorite. Elena began her professional career in 1997.
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Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player, Honored Master of Sports, five-time Grand Slam winner, Olympic silver medalist in London 2012.
Pretty girl was born on April 19, 1987 in Nyagan. The family of the future tennis player moved there from Gomel because of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. Maria started playing tennis at the age of 4. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (great Russian tennis player) presented little Masha with her first tennis racket.
6-year-old Sharapova (in October 1993) had a chance to play with Martina Navratilova, when she gave tennis lessons in Moscow. Navratilova noticed talented girl and strongly advised her father to send Masha to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, located in Florida. So in 1994, her family moved to Florida.
Sharapova’s career started in 2001. ITWA (International Tennis Writers Association) named Maria the best tennis player in 2004. Forbes magazine included her in the list of 100 most influential people in the world and she was the only Russian woman in it.
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