Prominent Russians: Aleksandr Pushkin #2.
Aleksandr Pushkin is considered Russia's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was the first to use everyday speech in his poetry, fusing Old Slavonic with vernacular Russian. This blend gave his works their rich, melodic quality.

Prominent Russians: Aleksandr Pushkin. #1.
Aleksandr Pushkin is considered Russia's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was the first to use everyday speech in his poetry, fusing Old Slavonic with vernacular Russian. This blend gave his works their rich, melodic quality.

Prominent Russians: Fyodor Dostoevsky #2.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was one of Russia’s greatest writers, one whose works are read and discussed all over the world. His writing is steeped in deep psychology and the exploration of human nature, while it also accurately depicts the Russian reality of his times.

Prominent Russians: Fyodor Dostoevsky #1.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was one of Russia’s greatest writers, one whose works are read and discussed all over the world. His writing is steeped in deep psychology and the exploration of human nature, while it also accurately depicts the Russian reality of his times.

Prominent Russians: Ivan IV the Terrible.
Ivan didn’t immediately become known as Terrible. Born near Moscow on August 25, 1530, Ivan was the long-awaited son of Vasily III. His father died when the boy was only three and Ivan was proclaimed the Grand Prince of Moscow. At first, his mother Yelena Glinskaya acted as a regent, but she died when Ivan was eight years old. Ivan saw her replaced by a group of noblemen fiercely fighting for power.

Prominent Russians: Vyacheslav Molotov.
The true last name of Vyacheslav Molotov, an outstanding Soviet politician and state figure, was Skryabin. Born in the village of Kukarka (in the northeastern part of European Russia), he was the son of a salesman and a rich merchant’s daughter. In the family there were ten children, three of whom died in infancy. While studying at school, Vyacheslav enjoyed playing the violin and writing poems. In 1902 he followed the example of his elder brothers and entered the secondary school in Kazan, where he became interested in revolutionary activities and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

Prominent Russians: Nikita Khrushchev.Nikita Khrushchev was born in 1894 as the son of a coal-miner, in Kalinovka, a village near Russia’s border with Ukraine. He started working at an early age, first as a shepherd, and then at factories and coal mines in Eastern Ukraine. Even before the October Revolution, Khrushchev had become active in workers’ organisations and joined the Bolshevik Party in 1918, serving in the Red Army during the Civil War.....

Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin #5.
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union’s sole leader from 1924 until his death in 1953. One of the most controversial and enigmatic figures in Russian history, he is still the subject of fierce discussions and assessments. His introduction of the command principle and five-year plans aimed at boosting the country’s economy condemned the country to human losses of immense proportions. The scale of repressions astounds and petrifies, though some believe it was a necessary and inevitable measure under the circumstances. Although an ethnic Georgian himself, he launched massive campaigns on the deportation and eradication of many ethnic groups from the Soviet territory. So great was his influence on the people that it eventually grew into a cult of personality, denounced after his death by Nikita Khrushchev, who initiated the so-called “de-Stalinization.”

Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin #4.
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union’s sole leader from 1924 until his death in 1953. One of the most controversial and enigmatic figures in Russian history, he is still the subject of fierce discussions and assessments. His introduction of the command principle and five-year plans aimed at boosting the country’s economy condemned the country to human losses of immense proportions. The scale of repressions astounds and petrifies, though some believe it was a necessary and inevitable measure under the circumstances. Although an ethnic Georgian himself, he launched massive campaigns on the deportation and eradication of many ethnic groups from the Soviet territory.

Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin #3.
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union’s sole leader from 1924 until his death in 1953. One of the most controversial and enigmatic figures in Russian history, he is still the subject of fierce discussions and assessments. His introduction of the command principle and five-year plans aimed at boosting the country’s economy condemned the country to human losses of immense proportions. The scale of repressions astounds and petrifies, though some believe it was a necessary and inevitable measure under the circumstances. Although an ethnic Georgian himself, he launched massive campaigns on the deportation and eradication of many ethnic groups from the Soviet territory. ....