Famous People from Russia

• Berlin, Irving (Temum)

  The composer of "White Christmas"

• Blavatsky, Helena (Dnipropetrovsk)

  The psychic who co-founded The Theosophical Society

• Brin, Sergey (Moscow)

  The co-founder of Google

• Chekhov, Anton (Taganrog)

  Author of The Cherry Orchard

• Dostoevsky, Fedor (Moscow)

  The author of Crime and Punishment

• Eisenstein, Sergei (Riga)

  Russian director of the film The Battleship Potemkin

• Gagarin, Yuri (Klushino)

  The first human in space

• Golovin, Tatiana (Moscow)

  Russo-French tennis prodigy of the early 21st century

• Gorbachev, Mikhail (Privolnoye) (Stavropol)

  The Nobel Prize-winning last leader of the Soviet Union

• Gorky, Maxim (Nizhny Novgorod (now Gorky))

  Russian writer known for his socialist realism

• Ivan the Terrible (Kolomenskoye)

  The first czar of Russia, 1547-84

• Kandinsky, Wassily (Moscow)

  Russian-born founder of Abstract art

• Kerensky, Alexander (Simbirsk)

  Head of Russia between the czar and the Bolsheviks

• Khrushchev, Nikita (Kalinovka) (Kursk)

  Leader of the USSR, 1956-64

• Kosteniuk, Alexandra (Perm)

  The Russian champ who says "Chess is cool"

• Kournikova, Anna (Moscow)

  Famously blonde tennis star of the late 1990s

• Laika the Dog

  The first dog to orbit the Earth

• Lenin, Vladimir (Simbirsk)

  Founder of Bolshevism and the force behind the Russian revolution

• Medvedev, Dmitry (Leningrad)

  President of Russia, 2008-2012 and Prime Minister of Russia, 2012-2020

• Meir, Golda (Kiev)

  The first female prime minister of Israel

• Nabokov, Vladimir (St. Petersburg)

  Author of the novel Lolita

• Nicholas II of Russia (Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin))

  The last emperor of Russia

• Pavlov, Ivan (Ryazan)

  Author of Conditioned Reflexes (1926)

• Peter the Great (Moscow)

  The czar who modernized 18th century Russia

• Prokofiev, Sergei (Sontzovka)

  Russian composer of Peter and the Wolf

• Pushkin, Alexander (Moscow)

  The author of the verse novel 'Eugene Onegin'

• Putin, Vladimir (Leningrad)

  President of the Russian Federation, 2000-2008 and 2012-present

• Rachmaninoff, Sergei

  The Russian pianist who composed Prelude in C-sharp Minor

• Rand, Ayn (St. Petersburg)

  The author of The Fountainhead and leader of Objectivism movement

• Rasputin, Grigori

  Wild-eyed court mystic of Czarist Russia

• Rothko, Mark (Dvinsk)

  Abstract expressionist painter of 1958's "Black on Maroon"

• Sarnoff, David (Uzlian)

  Radio and TV Pioneer and head of RCA

• Sharapova, Maria (Nyagan)

  The tall blonde tennis ace who won Wimbledon at age 17

• Shayk, Irina (Emanzhelisk)

  Cover girl for the 2011 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue

• Stalin, Joseph (Gori)

  The dictatorial leader of the U.S.S.R. from 1928 to 1953

• Tarkovsky, Andrei

  The director of 'Stalker' and 'Solaris'

• t.A.T.u. (Moscow)

  Provocative teen singing duo from Russia

• Tchaikovsky, Peter (Votkinsk)

  The Russian composer who wrote The Nutcracker

• Tereshkova, Valentina (Maslennikovo)

  The first woman in space

• Theremin, Leon (St. Petersburg)

  Inventor of the electronic musical instrument

• Tolstoy, Leo (Yasnaya Polyana)

  Author of War and Peace

• Yeltsin, Boris (Butka)

  The first post-Gorbachev president of Russia

• Zapruder, Abraham

  The man who took a home movie of JFK being shot

• Zhukov, Georgi K. (Strelkovka)

  World War II Russian Army commander

See: Index by Birthplace