Nikolay Andreyevich Andreyev (1873 - 1932), sculptor, graphic artist and stage designer
Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin (born 1917), sculptor
Mark Zakharovich Shagal (1887 - 1985), painter
Carl Faberg� (1846 - 1920), jewelery designer
Isaak Levitan (1860 - 1900), landscape painter
Vera Ignat'evna Mukhina (1889 - 1953), sculptress
Alexander O. Nikulin (1878 - 1945), painter
Andrei Rublev (circa 1360 - 1430), painter
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865 - 1911), painter
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776 - 1857), painter
Ivan Yakovlevich Vishnyakov (1699 - 1761), painter

Authors

Andrey Bely (1880 - 1934), poet and author
Isaak Babel, (1894-1940), author
Mikhail Bulgakov, (1891-1940), playwright and author
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870 - 1953), First Russian Nobel Prize Winner
Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904), playwright
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881), Brothers Karamazov - Crime and Punishment
Ilya Gregoryevich Ehrenburg (1891 - 1947), novelist and WWII war correspondent
Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 1852), author, Dead Souls
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812 - 1891), Oblomov
Maxim Gorky (1868 - 1936)
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), poet, author and painter
Nikolai Leskov (1831 - 1895), storyteller, novelist, and journalist
Nikolai Ogaryov (1813 - 1877), author
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711 - 1765), linguistic reformer
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977), wrote first in Russian, then in English, author of Lolita
Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), refused Nobel Prize, Doctor Zhivago
Aleksandr Pushkin, (1799 - 1837), Russian poet
Alexander Radishchev (1749-1802), social critic
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, (1826 - 1889), Russian novelist
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (born 1918), Nobel Prize for Literature
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) War and Peace, Anna Karenina
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884 - 1937), author of We

Performing Arts

Mikhail Baryshnikov (born 1948), ballet dancer
Sergei Bondarchuk (1920 - 1994), film director
Boris Bruinov (1922 - 1997), actor
Serge Diaghilev (1872 - 1929), ballet impresario
Sergei Eisenstein (1898 - 1948), film director
Nikita Mikhalkov (born 1945), actor, director, producer, writer, and politician
Ivan Novikoff (1899 - 2002), ballet master
Rudolf Nureyev (1938 - 1993), ballet dancer
Anna Pavlova (1882 - 1931), ballerina
Alexander Lukich Ptushko (1882 - 1931), film director
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky (1868 - 1938), actor
Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova (1910 - 1988), ballerina

Poets:

(who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language)

Anna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966), poet
Valeri Bryusov (1873 - 1924), poet, novelist, critic
Denis Davydov (1784 - 1839), poet
Osip Mandelstam, (1891 - 1938), (also spelt Mandelshtam), Russian poet
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930), poet
Aleksandr Pushkin, (1799 - 1837), Russian poet
Marina Tsvetaeva, (1892 - 1941), Russian poet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, (born 1933), Russian novelist

Inventors:

Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (born 1930), physicist
Pyotr Kozmitch Frolov (1775 - 1839), mining engineer and inventor
Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushiin (1894 - 1977), aircraft constructor
Nikolai Kibalchich (1853 - 1881)
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (1907 - 1966), rocket engineer and designer, "Father of the space program"
Alexander Stepanovitch Popov (1859 - 1906), Russia's Marconi
Alexandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov (1916 - 2002), physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics 1964
Boris Lwowitsch Rosing (1869 - 1933)
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889 - 1972), helicopter and aircraft designer
Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (1895 - 1975), aircraft constructor and designer
Leon Theremin (Lev Sergeivitch Termen) (1896 - 1993), inventor of one of the first electronic musical instruments, the Theremin
Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky, (1857 - 1935), rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautics
Andrei Nicholayevich Tupolev, (1888 - 1972), aircraft designer and builder
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1899 - 1982), physicist and electrical engineer

Explorers:

Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741), explorer of north-western and south-western Alaska
Semion Ivanovich Dezhnev (circa 1605 - 1673), explorer of north-eastern Asia
Ivan Fedorov, explorer of north-western Alaska

Military:

Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev (1925 - 1970), cosmonaut
Georgi Timofeyevich Beregovoi (1921 - 1995), cosmonaut
Semion Ivanovich Cheliuskin (circa 1700 - after 1760), Polar explorer, lieutenant-captain of the Russian Imperial Navy
Lev Mikhailovich Dovator (1903 - 1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Yuri Gagarin (1934 - 1968), pilot and the first human cosmonaut
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub (1920 - 1991), WWII fighter pilot , trice Hero of the Soviet Union
Sigizmund Aleksandrovich Levanevsky (1902 - 1937), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union
Anatoly Vasilyevich Liapidevsky 1908 - 1983), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union
Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov (1802 - 1855), admiral
Isai Ivanovich Panfilov (1893 - 1941), WWII general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin (b.1913), WWII fighter pilot, trice Hero of the Soviet Union
Victor Vasilyevich Talalikhin (1918 - 1941), WWII lieutentant and Hero of the Soviet Union
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 Vasilyevich Vodopianov (1899 - 1975), aircraft pilot, among the first to receive the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (1881 - 1969), marshal and politician
Pyotr Klimentyevich Voroshilov (1914 - 1984), Red Army leader and commander
Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov (1896 - 1974), marshal, chief of general staff of the Red Army and representative of STAVKA, four times Hero of the Soviet Union

Musicians/Composers:

(many of them of different ethnic background, but who were/are citizens of Russia and/or the Soviet Union)

Alexander Borodin, (1833 - 1887), Russian composer
Feodor Chaliapin (1873 - 1938), (French spelling of Russian first name Shaliapin) - opera singer, bass
Cesar Cui (1835 - 1918),
Valeri Gergiev (born 1953), pianist, conductor
Alexander Glazounov (1865?1936), composer
Reinhold Moritzovich Gliere (1875 - 1956), composer
Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857), composer of Russlan and Ludmilla
Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov (1891 - 1953), conductor
Emil Grygoryevich Gilels (1916 - 1985), pianist
Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904 - 1987)
Aram Ilyich Katchaturian (1903 - 1978)
Lena Katina (born 1984) and Yulia Volkova (born 1985), members of t.A.T.u
Kyril Kondrashin (1914 - 1981), conductor
Leonid Kogan (1924 - 1982), violinist
Viktoria Mullova (born 1959), violinist
Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881), composer of Boris Godunov
David Oistrakh (1908 - 1974), violinist
Igor Davidovich Oistrakh (born 1931), violinist
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953), composer
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943),
Sviatoslav Richter (1915 - 1997), pianist
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), composer
Mstislav Rostropovich (born 1927), cellist and conductor
Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1835 - 1881), pianist, conductor and composer
Vasily Ilyich Safonov (1852 - 1918), composer and music educator
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1871 - 1915), composer and pianist
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975), composer
Igor Stravinsky, (1882 - 1971), Russian composer
Sergey Taneyev (1856 - 1915), composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), composer
Grigory Vasilyevich (1915 - 1998), composer

Politicians:

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, (1914 - 1984), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR (November 12, 1982 - February 9, 1984)
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, (1888 - 1938), Bolshevik party leader, Soviet statesman
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, (1911 - 1985), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR
Boris Godunov (1551 - 1605), tzar
Mikhail Gorbachev (born 1931), general secretary of the communist party and president of the USSR, Nobel Prize winner
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1908 - 1989), "Cold War" Foreign Minister of the USSR
Nikita Khrushchev, (1894 - 1971), general secretary of the communist party of the USSR and head of state
Vladimir Lenin, (1870 - 1924), Bolshevik party leader and the first Soviet head of state
Vladimir Putin (born 1952), president of Russia
Joseph Stalin, (1879 - 1953), (a pseudonym) - Soviet leader
Leon Trotsky, (1879 - 1940), (a pseudonym) - Russian Revolution leader
Boris Yeltsin, (born 1931), President of Russia 1991-1999

Philosopherss

Mikhail Bakunin (1814 - 1876), anarchist
Nicolas Berdyaev (1874- 1948), philosopher of religion and politics
Peter Kropotkin (1842 - 1921), anarchist
Peter D. Ouspensky (1878 - 1947), author of In Search of the Miraculous and Tertium Organum

Royal Family

Ivan III of Russia, "Ivan the Great", (1440-1505)
Ivan IV of Russia, "Ivan the Terrible", (1530 - 1584)
Peter I of Russia, "Peter the Great", (1672 - 1725)
Alexander I of Russia, "Alexandet I the Blessed" (1777 - 1825), Russian, Polish ruler
Alexander II of Russia, "Alexander II the Liberator" (1818 - 1881)
Alexander III of Russia, "Alexander III the Peacemaker" (1845 - 1894)
Alexandra of Russia, (1872 - 1918)
Princess Brassova, (1880 - 1952)
Nicholas I of Russia, "Nicolas I the Unforgettable" (1825 - 1831)
Nicholas II of Russia, "Nicholas II the Bloody" (1868 - 1918)
Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova, (1901 - 1918)
Maria Nicolaievna Romanova, (1899 - 1918)
Marie Fyodorovna Romanova, (1848 - 1928)
Olga Nicolaievna Romanova, (1895 - 1918)
Olga Alexandrovna Romanova, (1882 - 1960)
Tatiana Nicolaievna Romanova, (1897 - 1918)
Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov (1878 - 1918), Grand Duke
Aleksey I of Russia, "Alexey Michailovich the Quietest" (1629 - 1676)
Catherine I of Russia, (1683 - 1727)
Peter III of Russia, (1728 - 1762)
Catherine II of Russia, "Catherine the Great" (1729 - 1796)
Paul I of Russia (1754 - 1801)
Alexius Petrovich, (1690 - 1718)
Elizabeth of Russia, (1709-1761)

Scientists and Mathematicans

Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev (1821 - 1894), mathematician
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (1904 - 1990), physicist
Il'ja Mikhailovich Frank (1908 - 1990), physicist
Alexander Naumovich Frumkin (1895 - 1976), electrochemist
Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (1927 - 1967), cosmonaut
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903 - 1987), mathematician
Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya, (1850-1891), mathematician
Lev Davidovich Landau (1908 - 1968), physicist and mathematician
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky - (1792 - 1856), mathematician
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov (1857 - 1918), mathematician
Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam (1879 - 1944), physicist
Andrei Andreevich Markov (1856 - 1922), mathematician
Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 - 1907), chemist, creator of the Periodic Table of Elements
Gennadyi I. Nevelskoi (1813 - 1876), captain and navigator
Igor Dmitrievich Novikov (born 1935), theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist
Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936), physician and physiologist
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (1896 - 1986), physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky (1916 - 1985), astronomer and astrophysicist
Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski (1842 - 1927), mathematician
Vladimir Andreevich Steklov (1863 - 1926) , physicist and mathematician
Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm (1895 - 1971), physicist
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914 - 1987), physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist

Sports Personalities:

Yelena Davydova (born 1961), Olympic gymnast
Sergei Fedorov (born 1969), NHL star
Valery Kharlamov (1948 - 1981), Russia's most popular international ice hockey player
Andrei Kirilenko (born 1981), NBA star
Anna Kournikova (born 1981), Professional tennis player
Vladimir Petrov, ice hockey player
Yelena Shushunova (born 1969), gymnast
Vladislav Tretiak (born 1952), ice hockey goalie
Alexander Yakushev (born 1947), ice hockey player
Lev Yashin (1929 - 1990), world renowned football goalkeeper

Other

Mikhail Khodorkovsky (born 1963), businessman
Grigori Rasputin (1872 - 1919), friar, adventurer, mystic wonder-worker
Roman Abramovich (born 1966), businessman, 49th richest person in the Forbes list
Garry Kasparov (born 1963), chess grandmaster
Anatoly Karpov (born 1951), chess grandmaster