List of Russians
This is a list of people associated with Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and Russia of today. For a long time Russia was a multinational country, and many people of different nationalities contributed to its culture, to its glory, and to its sorrow. They may be Georgians, Jews, Poles, Moors, Udege, Tatars, Belarusians, Germans,... Sometimes we don't know their exact ancestry. Sometimes their formal nationality was written down at random or for political or other reasons. They may have emigrated or immigrated, and thus may appear in other "Lists of...", but nevertheless their names are linked to the words "Russia", "Russian", whether with pride, with shame, or with pain.
Art
Artists
- Nikolay Andreyev (1873-1932), sculptor, graphic artist and stage designer
- Mikhail Anikushin (1917), sculptor
- Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, painter,
- Marc Chagall (1887-1985), painter
- Pavel Chistyakov (1832-1919), painter, Russian teacher
- Aleksandra Ekster (1882-1949), painter, one of the founders of Art Deco
- Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), jewellery designer
- Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), abstract painter
- Alexander V. Kuprin (1880-1960), painter
- Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), landscape painter
- Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi, (1837-1887), painter and the art critic
- Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), suprematist painer, Black square
- Vera Mukhina (1889-1953), sculptress
- Alexander Nikulin (1878-1945), painter
- Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939), painter
- Vasily Polenov (1844-1927), lanscape painer
- Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969), painter
- Liubov Popova (1889-1924), cubist, abstract painter
- Ilya Repin (1844-1930), painter
- Aleksandr Rodchenko (1891-1956), designer, constructivist painer
- Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), painter
- Andrei Rublev (circa 1360-1430), painter
- Valentin Serov (1865-1911), painter
- Vladimir Tatlin (1885 - 1953), painter and architect.
- Vasily Tropinin (1776-1857), painter
- Ivan Vishnyakov (1699-1761), painter
- Apollinary Vasnetsov (1856-1933), painter
See also Russian literature and List of Russian authors.
A-E
- Boris Akunin (b. 1956), author, essayist, translator
- Aleksandr Bek (1903-1972), author
- Andrey Bely (1880-1934), poet and author
- Alexander Belyayev (1884-1942), science fiction author
- Isaac Babel (1894-1940), author
- Vissarion Belinsky (1811-1848), writer, literary critic and philosopher
- Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) "The Secret Doctrine", "Isis Unveiled"
- Vladimir Bukovsky (b. 1942), writer and dissident
- Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), playwright and author
- Kir Bulychev (1934-2003), science fiction author
- Ivan Bunin (1870-1953), first Russian Nobel Prize Winner
- Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), playwright, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull
- Nikolai Chernyshevsky (1828-1889), writer, journalist, politician
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment
- Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1947), novelist and WWII war correspondent
G-R
- Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), author, Dead Souls
- Aleksandr Griboyedov (1795-1828), writer, statesman, Woe from Wit
- Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891), Oblomov
- Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), novelist, My Universities
- Lev Gumilyov (Lev Gumilev)
- Fazil Iskander, (b. 1929), novelist
- Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841), poet, author and painter
- Nikolai Karamzin (1766-1826), poet, author, historian
- Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895), storyteller, novelist, and journalist
- Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), linguistic reformer
- Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), wrote first in Russian, then in English, author of Lolita
- Nikolai Ogaryov (1813-1877)
- Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), was not permitted by USSR to accept the Nobel Prize, Doctor Zhivago
- Viktor Pelevin (b. 1962), novelist
- Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837), the greatest Russian poet, novelist
- Alexander Radishchev (1749-1802), social critic
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), American novelist and philosopher born in St. Petersburg, Russia
- Helena Roerich (1879-1949)
S-Z
A-O
- Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), composer
- Fyodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), opera singer, bass
- Cesar Cui (1835-1918)
- Valery Gergiev (1953), pianist, conductor
- Emil Gilels (1916-1985), pianist
- Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936), composer
- Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956), composer
- Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857), composer of Russlan and Ludmilla
- Nikolai Golovanov (1891-1953), conductor
- Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989), pianist
- Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
- Aram Katchaturian (1903-1978)
- Lena Katina (b. 1984), singer
- Yulia Volkova (b. 1985), singer
- Tikhon Khrennikov (b. 1913), composer
- Kyril Kondrashin (1914-1981), conductor
- Leonid Kogan (1924-1982), violinist
- Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), composer, pianist
- Viktoria Mullova (1959), violinist
- Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), composer of Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition
- David Oistrakh (1908-1974), violinist
- Igor Oistrakh (b. 1931), violinist
P-Z
- Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), composer
- Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
- Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), pianist
- Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composer
- Mstislav Rostropovich (b. 1927), cellist and conductor
- Anton Rubinstein, pianist, composer
- Nikolai Rubinstein (1835-1881), pianist, conductor and composer
- Vasily Ilyich Safonov (1852-1918), composer and music educator
- Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), composer
- Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), composer and pianist
- Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), composer
- Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), composer
- Sergey Taneyev (1856-1915), composer
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), composer
- Grigory Vasilyevich (1915-1998), composer
- Vyacheslav Mescherin (-1995), Synthesizer music composer, audio engineer
Performing Arts
- Mikhail Baryshnikov (b. 1948), ballet dancer
- Sergei Bodrov, filmmaker
- Sergei Bodrov, Jr., actor
- Sergei Bondarchuk (1920-1994), film director
- Boris Bruinov (1922-1997), actor
- Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), ballet impresario
- Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), film director
- Michel Fokine (1880-1942), choreographer, dancer
- Lila Kedrova (1918-2000), actress
- Nikita Mikhalkov (b. 1945), filmmaker and politician
- Solomon Mikhoels, Soviet-Yiddish actor
- Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky (1890-1950), ballet dancer, choreographer
- Ivan Novikoff (1899-2002), ballet master
- Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993), ballet dancer
- Anna Pavlova (1882-1931), ballerina
- Alexander Ptushko (1882-1931), film director
- Konstantin Stanislavsky (1868-1938), actor
- Galina Ulanova (1910-1988), ballerina
(who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language, see List of Russian language poets)
A-N
P-Z
A-S
- Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (1930), physicist
- Vasily Degtyarev (1880-1947), weapons designer
- Pyotr Kozmitch Frolov (1775-1839), mining engineer and inventor
- Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin (1894-1977), aircraft constructor
- Nikolai Kibalchich (1853-1881)
- Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966), rocket engineer and designer, Father of the space program
- Ivan Petrovich Kulibin (1735-1818), mechanic
- Semyon Lavochkin (1900-1960), aircraft designer
- Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin (1847 - 1923), electrical engineer and inventor
- Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan (1905-1970), aircraft designer
- Alexander Popov (1859-1906), Russia's Marconi, an inventor of Radio
- Alexandr Prokhorov (1916-2002), physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964, born in Queensland, Australia
- Boris Rosing (1869-1933)
- Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), helicopter and aircraft designer
- Pavel Sukhoi (1895-1975), aircraft constructor and designer
T-Z
- Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), anarchist
- Nicolas Berdyaev (1874- 1948), philosopher of religion and politics
- Aleksandr Herzen, father of Russian socialism
- Wassily Leontief, economist, Nobel Prize winner
- Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), anarchist
- Alexei Losev (1893-1988)
- Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (1908-1981), archeologist, historian, and ethnographer
- Sergei Ozhegov, lexicographer
- Peter Ouspensky (1878-1947), author of In Search of the Miraculous and Tertium Organum
- Yevgeny Polivanov (1891-1938), linguist and orientalist
- Yevgeny Tarle (1874–1955), historian
A-K
- Alexei Abrikosov, physicist, Nobel Prize recipient
- Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov, mathematician
- Zhores Ivanovich Alferov Nobel Prize winner
- Boris Belousov, chemist / biophysicist
- Pafnuti Chebyshev (1821-1894), mathematician
- Pavel Cherenkov (1904-1990), physicist, Nobel Prize
- Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko (1945-), mathematician, chronologist
- Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (1908-1990), physicist, Nobel Prize winner
- Alexander Frumkin (1895-1976), electrochemist
- Vitaly Ginzburg, physicist, Nobel Prize recipient
- Abram Ioffe (1880-1960), physicist
- Pyotr Kafarov (1817-1878), sinologist
- Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, physicist, discoverer of superfluidity, Nobel Prize in physics
- Nikolai Kardashev (b. 1932), astrophysicist
- Julii Khariton (1904-1996), physicist
- Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987), mathematician
- Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), mathematician
- Igor Kurchatov (1903-1960), atomic bomb physicist
L-P
- Lev Landau (1908-1968), physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize in physics
- Mikhail Lavrentyev (1900-1980), physicist and mathematician
- Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev (1866 - 1912), physicist
- Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792 -1856), mathematician
- Nikolai Nikolaevich Lusin, mathematician
- Aleksandr Lyapunov (1857-1918), mathematician
- Trofim Lysenko, biologist
- Leonid Mandelshtam (1879-1944), physicist
- Andrei Markov (1856-1922), mathematician
- Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834-1907), chemist who developed a periodic table of the chemical elements
- Ivan Michurin, selectionist
- Aleksandr Fyodorovich Middendorf, zoologist
- Gennadi Nevelskoi (1813-1876), captain and navigator
- Igor Novikov (b. 1935), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist
- Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky
- Aleksandr Oparin, biologist and biochemist
- Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), a German-born Russian zoologist
- Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), physician and physiologist
S-Z
- Nikolay Semyonov (1896 -1986), physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry
- Iosif Shklovsky (1916-1985), astronomer and astrophysicist
- Yulian Sokhotski (1842-1927), mathematician
- Vladimir Steklov (1863-1926), physicist and mathematician
- Georg Steller (1709-1746), naturalist and ornithologist of German origin.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Struve (Vasily Yakovlevich Struve) (1793-1864), astronomer
- Igor Tamm (1895-1971), physicist, Nobel Prize
- Paul Samuilovich Urysohn (1898-1924), a mathematician
- Ivan Matveevich Vinogradov, mathematician
- Nikolai Vavilov, biologist
- Yakov Zeldovich (1914-1987), physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist
Statesmen and military
Before 1917
Royal
See also Tsar for the list of old Russian rulers
A-F
I-Z
After 1917
Heads of state
Revolution, politics and state figures
- See List of socialists: Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Communists.
- See White Russians for opponents of Bolsheviks.
A-L
- Viktor Abakumov, police official, head of Smersh
- Lavrenty Beria (1899-1953), Soviet chief of secret police under Joseph Stalin
- Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938), Bolshevik party leader, Soviet statesman
- Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938), Prime Minister of Russia from 1992 to 1998
- Sergey Mikhaylovich Darkin (1963-present), governor of Primorsky Krai
- Fedor Dan, menshevik
- Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Cheka
- Viktor Grishin
- Andrei Gromyko (1908-1989), Foreign Minister of the USSR during the Cold War
- Lazar Kaganovich
- Mikhail Kasyanov (b. 1957), Prime Minister of Russia from 2000 to 2004
- Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), revolutionary, diplomat
- Nikolai Krestinsky, Old Bolshevik, repressed
- Yegor Ligachev
- Maxim Litvinov
M-Z
See also List of people associated with World War II: Soviet Union.
See also List of Marshals of the Soviet Union.
See also List of Russian Field Marshals.
A-N
- Prince Peter Bagration (1765-1812)
- Semion Cheliuskin (circa 1700-after 1760), Polar explorer, lieutenant-captain of the Russian Imperial Navy
- Valery Chkalov (1904-1938), aircraft pilot
- Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (1900 -1982), commanded the 62nd Russian army to victory at the Battle of Stalingrad.
- Lev Dovator (1903-1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Ivan Kozhedub (1920-1991), WWII fighter pilot, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Kutuzov
- Sigismund Levanevsky (1902-1937), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Anatoly Liapidevsky (1908-1983), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Stepan Osipovich Makarov (1848 -- 1904), admiral, explorer
- Alexander Matrosov, soldier, Hero of the Soviet Union
- Pavel Nakhimov (1802-1855), admiral
P-Z
- Isai Panfilov (1893-1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Stanislav Petrov
- Alexander Pokryshkin (b. 1913), WWII fighter pilot, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union
- Aleksandr Suvorov
- Victor Talalikhin (1918-1941), WWII lieutentant and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Tukhachevsky
- Andrey Vlasov (1900-1946), Red Army general turned Nazi collaborator and the commander of volunteer Russian forces (ROA, "Russian Liberation Army") of the German army during WWII
- Mikhail Vodopianov (1899-1975), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Klimenty Voroshilov (1881-1969), marshal and politician
- Aleksey Yermolov, hero of Battle of Borodino; military ruler of the Caucasus
- Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974), marshal, chief of general staff of the Red Army and representative of STAVKA, four times Hero of the Soviet Union
Other
- Evgeny Abalakov, mountaineer
- Vitaly Abalakov, mountaineer
- Inga Artamonova (1936-1966), 4-time world all-around speed skating champion
- Vladimir Beschastnykh, association football player
- Anatoli Boukreev (1958-1997), mountaineer
- Andrey Chesnokov, tennis player
- Yelena Davydova (b. 1961), Olympic gymnast
- Elena Dementieva, tennis player
- Yelena Isinbayeva, (b. 1982), athlete
- Yevgeny Kafelnikov, (b. 1974), tennis player
- Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, (b.1979), athlete
- Alexander Karelin, (b. 1967), Greco-Roman wrestling, champion
- Svetlana Khorkina, Olympic gymnast
- Andrei Kirilenko, (b. 1981), NBA star
- Anna Kournikova, (b. 1981), tennis player and celebrity
- Svetlana Krivelyova, (b.1969), athlete
- Anastasia Myskina, (b. 1981), tennis player
- Natalya Nazarova, (b.1979), athlete
- Alexei Nemov, (b. 1976), Olympic gymnast
- Nadia Petrova, (b. 1982), tennis player
- Marat Safin (b. 1980), tennis player
- Maria Sharapova, tennis player
- Yelena Shushunova (b. 1969), gymnast
- Dmitri Sychev (b. 1983), association football player
- Lev Yashin (1929-1990), football goalkeeper
- Evgeni Plushenko (1982), Figure Skater
Other
- Roman Abramovich (b. 1966), businessman, 49th richest person in the Forbes list
- Ivan Fedorov, the first Russian printer
- Vilyam Genrikovich Fisher, a Soviet spy in the United States
- Ibrahim Gannibal, grandgrandfather of Alexander Pushkin
- Fanya Kaplan, Eser, attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky (b. 1963), businessman, billionaire
- Nestor the Chronicler
- Yemelian Pugachev, Cossack insurgent
- Grigori Rasputin (1872-1916), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker
- Stenka Razin (1630-1671), cossack insurgent
- Aleksei Stakhanov, the work over-achiever who gave the name to the stakhanovite movement
Former Soviet Union
During the times of the Soviet Union nationals of other constituent republics were traditionally known as "Russians" in the West. Some of them were even known under Russian or Russified names. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union many nations (rightfully) chose to "regain" their nationality in the eyes of the world. Therefore some names may be missing from the list above and you may wish to look into the following lists.
Related articles
(who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language, see List of Russian language poets)
A-N
P-Z
A-S
- Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (1930), physicist
- Vasily Degtyarev (1880-1947), weapons designer
- Pyotr Kozmitch Frolov (1775-1839), mining engineer and inventor
- Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin (1894-1977), aircraft constructor
- Nikolai Kibalchich (1853-1881)
- Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966), rocket engineer and designer, Father of the space program
- Ivan Petrovich Kulibin (1735-1818), mechanic
- Semyon Lavochkin (1900-1960), aircraft designer
- Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin (1847 - 1923), electrical engineer and inventor
- Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan (1905-1970), aircraft designer
- Alexander Popov (1859-1906), Russia's Marconi, an inventor of Radio
- Alexandr Prokhorov (1916-2002), physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964, born in Queensland, Australia
- Boris Rosing (1869-1933)
- Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), helicopter and aircraft designer
- Pavel Sukhoi (1895-1975), aircraft constructor and designer
T-Z
- Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), anarchist
- Nicolas Berdyaev (1874- 1948), philosopher of religion and politics
- Aleksandr Herzen, father of Russian socialism
- Wassily Leontief, economist, Nobel Prize winner
- Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), anarchist
- Alexei Losev (1893-1988)
- Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (1908-1981), archeologist, historian, and ethnographer
- Sergei Ozhegov, lexicographer
- Peter Ouspensky (1878-1947), author of In Search of the Miraculous and Tertium Organum
- Yevgeny Polivanov (1891-1938), linguist and orientalist
- Yevgeny Tarle (1874–1955), historian
A-K
- Alexei Abrikosov, physicist, Nobel Prize recipient
- Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov, mathematician
- Zhores Ivanovich Alferov Nobel Prize winner
- Boris Belousov, chemist / biophysicist
- Pafnuti Chebyshev (1821-1894), mathematician
- Pavel Cherenkov (1904-1990), physicist, Nobel Prize
- Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko (1945-), mathematician, chronologist
- Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (1908-1990), physicist, Nobel Prize winner
- Alexander Frumkin (1895-1976), electrochemist
- Vitaly Ginzburg, physicist, Nobel Prize recipient
- Abram Ioffe (1880-1960), physicist
- Pyotr Kafarov (1817-1878), sinologist
- Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, physicist, discoverer of superfluidity, Nobel Prize in physics
- Nikolai Kardashev (b. 1932), astrophysicist
- Julii Khariton (1904-1996), physicist
- Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987), mathematician
- Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), mathematician
- Igor Kurchatov (1903-1960), atomic bomb physicist
L-P
- Lev Landau (1908-1968), physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize in physics
- Mikhail Lavrentyev (1900-1980), physicist and mathematician
- Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev (1866 - 1912), physicist
- Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792 -1856), mathematician
- Nikolai Nikolaevich Lusin, mathematician
- Aleksandr Lyapunov (1857-1918), mathematician
- Trofim Lysenko, biologist
- Leonid Mandelshtam (1879-1944), physicist
- Andrei Markov (1856-1922), mathematician
- Dmitri Mendeleyev (1834-1907), chemist who developed a periodic table of the chemical elements
- Ivan Michurin, selectionist
- Aleksandr Fyodorovich Middendorf, zoologist
- Gennadi Nevelskoi (1813-1876), captain and navigator
- Igor Novikov (b. 1935), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist
- Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky
- Aleksandr Oparin, biologist and biochemist
- Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), a German-born Russian zoologist
- Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), physician and physiologist
S-Z
- Nikolay Semyonov (1896 -1986), physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry
- Iosif Shklovsky (1916-1985), astronomer and astrophysicist
- Yulian Sokhotski (1842-1927), mathematician
- Vladimir Steklov (1863-1926), physicist and mathematician
- Georg Steller (1709-1746), naturalist and ornithologist of German origin.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Struve (Vasily Yakovlevich Struve) (1793-1864), astronomer
- Igor Tamm (1895-1971), physicist, Nobel Prize
- Paul Samuilovich Urysohn (1898-1924), a mathematician
- Ivan Matveevich Vinogradov, mathematician
- Nikolai Vavilov, biologist
- Yakov Zeldovich (1914-1987), physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist
Statesmen and military
Before 1917
Royal
See also Tsar for the list of old Russian rulers
A-F
I-Z
After 1917
Heads of state
Revolution, politics and state figures
- See List of socialists: Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Communists.
- See White Russians for opponents of Bolsheviks.
A-L
- Viktor Abakumov, police official, head of Smersh
- Lavrenty Beria (1899-1953), Soviet chief of secret police under Joseph Stalin
- Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938), Bolshevik party leader, Soviet statesman
- Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938), Prime Minister of Russia from 1992 to 1998
- Sergey Mikhaylovich Darkin (1963-present), governor of Primorsky Krai
- Fedor Dan, menshevik
- Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Cheka
- Viktor Grishin
- Andrei Gromyko (1908-1989), Foreign Minister of the USSR during the Cold War
- Lazar Kaganovich
- Mikhail Kasyanov (b. 1957), Prime Minister of Russia from 2000 to 2004
- Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), revolutionary, diplomat
- Nikolai Krestinsky, Old Bolshevik, repressed
- Yegor Ligachev
- Maxim Litvinov
M-Z
See also List of people associated with World War II: Soviet Union.
See also List of Marshals of the Soviet Union.
A-N
- Petr Bagration (1765-1812)
- Aleksandr Baryatinsky
- Semion Cheliuskin (circa 1700-after 1760), Polar explorer, lieutenant-captain of the Russian Imperial Navy
- Valery Chkalov (1904-1938), aircraft pilot
- Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (1900 -1982), commanded the 62nd Russian army to victory at the Battle of Stalingrad.
- Lev Dovator (1903-1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Ivan Kozhedub (1920-1991), WWII fighter pilot, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Kutuzov
- Sigismund Levanevsky (1902-1937), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Anatoly Liapidevsky (1908-1983), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Stepan Osipovich Makarov (1848 -- 1904), admiral, explorer
- Alexander Matrosov, soldier, Hero of the Soviet Union
- Pavel Nakhimov (1802-1855), admiral
P-Z
- Isai Panfilov (1893-1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Stanislav Petrov
- Alexander Pokryshkin (b. 1913), WWII fighter pilot, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union
- Aleksandr Suvorov
- Victor Talalikhin (1918-1941), WWII lieutentant and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Tukhachevsky
- Andrey Vlasov (1900-1946), Red Army general turned Nazi collaborator and the commander of volunteer Russian forces (ROA, "Russian Liberation Army") of the German army during WWII
- Mikhail Vodopianov (1899-1975), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union
- Klimenty Voroshilov (1881-1969), marshal and politician
- Aleksey Yermolov, hero of Battle of Borodino; military ruler of the Caucasus
- Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974), marshal, chief of general staff of the Red Army and representative of STAVKA, four times Hero of the Soviet Union
Other sportsmen
- Evgeny Abalakov, mountaineer
- Vitaly Abalakov, mountaineer
- Inga Artamonova (1936-1966), 4-time world all-around speed skating champion
- Vladimir Beschastnykh, association football player
- Anatoli Boukreev (1958-1997), mountaineer
- Andrey Chesnokov, tennis player
- Yelena Davydova (b. 1961), Olympic gymnast
- Elena Dementieva, tennis player
- Yelena Isinbayeva, (b. 1982), athlete
- Yevgeny Kafelnikov, (b. 1974), tennis player
- Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, (b.1979), athlete
- Alexander Karelin, (b. 1967), Greco-Roman wrestling, champion
- Svetlana Khorkina, Olympic gymnast
- Andrei Kirilenko, (b. 1981), NBA star
- Olga Korbut (b. 1955), Olympic gymnast
- Anna Kournikova, (b. 1981), tennis player and celebrity
- Svetlana Krivelyova, (b.1969), athlete
- Anastasia Myskina, (b. 1981), tennis player
- Natalya Nazarova, (b.1979), athlete
- Alexei Nemov, (b. 1976), Olympic gymnast
- Nadia Petrova, (b. 1982), tennis player
- Marat Safin (b. 1980), tennis player
- Maria Sharapova, tennis player
- Yelena Shushunova (b. 1969), gymnast
- Dmitri Sychev (b. 1983), association football player
- Lev Yashin (1929-1990), football goalkeeper
- Evgeni Plushenko (1982), Figure Skater
Other
- Roman Abramovich (b. 1966), businessman, 49th richest person in the Forbes list
- Ivan Fedorov, the first Russian printer
- Vilyam Genrikovich Fisher, a Soviet spy in the United States
- Ibrahim Gannibal, grandgrandfather of Alexander Pushkin
- Fanya Kaplan, Eser, attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky (b. 1963), businessman, billionaire
- Nestor the Chronicler
- Yemelian Pugachev, Cossack insurgent
- Grigori Rasputin (1872-1916), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker
- Stenka Razin (1630-1671), cossack insurgent
- Aleksei Stakhanov, the work over-achiever who gave the name to the stakhanovite movement
Former Soviet Union
During the times of the Soviet Union nationals of other constituent republics were traditionally known as "Russians" in the West. Some of them were even known under Russian or Russified names. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union many nations (rightfully) chose to "regain" their nationality in the eyes of the world. Therefore some names may be missing from the list above and you may wish to look into the following lists.
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