Our century has come just recently, and therefore we cannot yet say who exactly the outstanding personalities of Russia are in the 21st century. However, an analysis of the past will give us the opportunity to understand what truly great can we expect from Slavic blood. After all, as you know, who knows the past, the future also knows.
Poets, musicians, politicians, writers, scientists and artists are all outstanding personalities of Russia. The list, albeit a short one, broken down by occupation, is given below.
Politicians
Alexander Nevskiy
The outstanding personalities in the history of Russia, which are mentioned in our article, begin with him. The Grand Duke of Novgorod and the brilliant commander, who managed to defeat the Swedes and Teutons and laid the foundation for the existence of Russia in its historical and cultural tradition.
Ivan IV the Terrible
The cruel Moscow prince, who, thanks to his exorbitant power to the will and thirst for power, created the Russian kingdom, becoming the first king of All Russia.
His bloodthirstiness is known throughout the world. However, one cannot overestimate how much he altered and reformed Russia, creating from it a single and integral state that every neighbor had to reckon with.
Peter I
Reformer and innovator, trying to make Russia a truly European state. The first Emperor of Russia, who became such thanks to the significant expansion of the country at the expense of the Baltic states. The founder of St. Petersburg and the creator of the navy.
Catherine II
Significantly expanded the borders of the Russian Empire. Made the nobility the most privileged and important class. Patroness of science and the arts, the “Russian Enlightener”, who managed to carry out the most profound and important reforms after Peter the Great.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The leader of the October Revolution, one of the most important theoreticians of communism. Creator and inspirer of the first socialist state - the USSR. He died without waiting for the fruits of his struggle.
Writers
Alexander Ostrovsky
The outstanding personalities of Russia of the 19th century among playwrights would hardly ever have formed without the heritage of this author. "Russian Ibsen", the author of the plays "Dowry", "Thunderstorm", "Our People - Let's Count." The first Russian playwright to begin to put deep psychological overtones in the replicas of the characters.
Nikolay Gogol
Playwright and writer. Known for the plays "The Examiner", "Marriage", as well as prose - "Wii", "The Overcoat", etc. A peculiar founder of the genre of "horrors." The main theme of creativity is a small person and the injustice of the world in relation to him.
Fedor Dostoevsky
The author of the novels "Idiot", "Crime and Punishment", "Brothers Karamazov." A deep psychologist who forever changed the tradition of describing the character’s inner life. Behind the gloomy facades of Petersburg and gloomy clouds he always tried to leave hope to the reader. He actively explored the relationship between man and God in his works.
Lev Tolstoy
The author who presented the world with War and Peace and Anna Karenina. A writer of a truly Russian soul. The pacifist, all his life actively opposed the war, which was reflected in his works. He believed that the most important condition for happiness is the unity of man with nature.
Anton Chekhov
An anecdotist, forced to write funny stories to feed his family and received some small coins for it. Outstanding personalities of Russia are impossible without this distinctive “Man without a spleen”. He grew up right in front of his reader, improving and gradually creating the most important works for all world literature - the stories “Typhus” and “Enemies”, the plays “The Seagull” and “Three Sisters”.
Anton Chekhov is the first writer who dared to state that all human problems are from one thing - endless human stupidity.
Poets
Alexander Pushkin
The greatest Russian poet, author of many poems and poems, including the novel in poems "Eugene Onegin." When they say “prominent personalities of Russia” abroad, they most likely immediately call Pushkin. In fact, the creator of classical Russian poetry, the genius of the golden age of the Russian poem. In his poems he managed to raise various topics - from social injustice to subtle love feelings.
Mikhail Lermontov
The author of the poem "Hero of our time" and a huge string of various poems. He fought in the Caucasus, from which he became an almost full-fledged character in his works. He asked questions of the need for war and the alienation of man.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Creator of futurism in the cultural space of Russia. He wrote his poems in a special step form. An ardent communist, is considered one of the mouthpieces of the revolution. Until the end of his life he defended the true ideals of the revolution. One of the main poets of the Silver Age.
Sergey Yesenin
Mayakovsky’s contemporary and its complete opposite as an author. Subtle and sincere lyrics, which at the same time managed to remain an eternal bully and a teenager. He raised the theme of the struggle of the individual with the environment, love of nature and, of course, to a woman.
Vladimir Vysotsky
Bard, author of many songs and poems. The greatest poet of the Bronze Age. His hoarse voice seemed to let his voice down under the heritage that all outstanding personalities of Russia of the 20th century left him. He raised the theme of the internal and external struggle of man, his place in society and in the world in general. Thin satirist.
Bulat Okudzhava
Also a poet who independently performed his poems in the form of songs. Touching and honest, he wrote poems filled with some cosmic thoughtfulness. Often used metaphors, creating with them deep images. His songs had a parable form, which once was even (good-naturedly) spoiled by Vysotsky.
Filmmakers
Lev Kuleshov
Thanks to him, outstanding personalities of Russia began to appear in the cinema. The discoverer of the “Kuleshov effect” - “two independent frames, glued together, create a new meaning”. In fact, the founder of the storytelling.
Sergey Eisenstein
The author of the cult "Battleship Potemkin", which still looks in one breath. Movie theorist and creator of dynamic editing.
The first one who used color in cinema in Russia was the red flag in the same “Battleship Potemkin”.
Michael Romm
Director of documentary ("Ordinary Fascism") and feature ("Nine Days of One Year") films. One of the most important movie theorists of the mid-20th century. Lecturer at VGIK and author of many scientific papers.
Andrey Tarkovsky
A man who manages to shoot a true art house in the USSR. His tapes are filled with personal meanings, full of metaphors and subtle hints. He shot "Solaris" and "Stalker", most often making his works a kind of parable-allegory.
Painters
Andrey Rublev
Contemporary prominent personalities of Russia among artists would not have been possible without a person who laid the foundation of Russian painting.
The author of numerous icons, Andrei Rublev devoted his whole life to this complex art. Now his works are stored not only in churches, but also in various galleries, as samples and ideals of icon painting.
Ilya Repin
The author of many paintings and an absolute workaholic. From under his brush came such things as “Didn't wait, ” “Sailed, ” and “Ivan the Terrible kills his son.” The master of situational, “plot” paintings.
Each of his paintings is like a photograph taken during the culmination of an event that he was trying to capture. His paintings are infinitely lively and can not always reveal their true meaning at first sight. The main thing in Repin is the emotions of the characters and the details.
Kazimir Malevich
The great modernist, is known as the author of the already become common noun "Black Square". He was busy looking for new forms and ways of expressing color in painting. His paintings are full of abstractions and geometric shapes, attempts to invent something new in his art. I tried to find "absolute peace" in the paintings.
Composers
Peter Tchaikovsky
One of the first Russian professional composers, Tchaikovsky made a true craft out of music (in the good sense of the word). He was a man who simply could not help but write music.
The extremely diverse topics raised in all possible genres make Pyotr Ilyich a composer who is able to reach the hearts of every person. His most famous works are The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The most famous author of operas among Russian composers. The main topics that Nikolai Andreyevich worked with are history and a fairy tale (“Three Miracles”, “Snow Maiden”).
He believed that the main goal of music is the unity of the listener with the true nature of the world, which can only be expressed in a similar, melodic form.
Dmitry Shostakovich
A composer with a difficult fate, who initially worked in the style of modernism and actively experimented in all genres. However, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk County” did not personally please Stalin, and then brutal repressions followed.
To save himself and his family, Shostakovich had to create in a purely “state” manner. However, his music really proves that even a simple listener hears the subtext embedded by the composer. Everyone understood the many subtle moods and meanings that he put into symphonies No. 5 and No. 7.
Scientists
Mikhail Lomonosov
The first Russian encyclopedist, "a man of all sciences." He brought Russian studies to the level of Europe. He made many discoveries in almost every modern science for him.
Being an academician and one of the most active personalities of his time, he was an icon for the Russian Enlightenment.
Dmitriy Mendeleev
Already becoming a legendary Russian chemist, who managed to create a periodic system of chemical elements, which significantly pushed world science forward.
The existence of such a table clearly proves the harmony of nature and its clear system.
One of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind, on which, in fact, all modern natural science rests, belongs to him. He worked in other sciences, where he also made various discoveries.
Ivan Pavlov
The first Nobel laureate from Russia. Pavlov made a major discovery in biology and physiology - it was he who found out the presence of reflexes in the body of living beings. And it was this Russian scientist who divided them into conditional and unconditional.
Pavlov devoted his entire life to this discovery, and even dying, he continued to dictate his feelings to his students - so that science could better know the state of death.
Athletes
Ivan Poddubny
The legendary Russian wrestler, "hero of the XX century." For ten years, I have never lost. Five times became the champion in wrestling.
Garry Kasparov
Chess player with many awards, Chess Oscars and the title of world champion. He became famous for his extremely successful combination of various tactics and strategies and the ability to get out of a seemingly completely failed party as a winner.
Kasparov’s Debuts - this is what the unexpected and non-standard moves are called at the beginning of the game.
Lev Yashin
Soviet goalkeeper, famous for its absolute "impenetrability". It is considered the best goalkeeper of the XX century. Repeatedly recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR. The owner of the Golden Ball.
