List of Russian people
This is a list of people associated with the modern Russian Federation, the Soviet Union, Imperial Russia, Russian Tsardom, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Kievan Rus', and other predecessor states of Russia.
Regardless of ethnicity or emigration, the list includes famous natives of Russia and its predecessor states, as well as people who were born elsewhere but spent most of their active life in Russia. For more information, see the articles Russian citizens, Russians and Demographics of Russia. For specific lists of Russians, see :Category:Lists of Russian people and :Category:Russian people.
Statesmen
Monarchs
- Rurik, ruler of Novgorod, progenitor of the Rurikid Dynasty, traditionally the first ruler of Russia
- Oleg "the Seer", conqueror of Kiev and founder of Kievan Rus', famous for his wars with the Byzantium
- Igor "the Old", first historically well-attested Rurikid ruler
- Olga, first female ruler of Rus', the first Christian among Russian rulers
- Vladimir I "the Great", turned saint from pagan and enacted the Christianization of Kievan Rus'
- Yaroslav I "the Wise", reigned in the period when Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural flowering and military power, founder of Yaroslavl
- Vladimir II Monomakh, defender of Rus' from Cuman nomads, presided over the end of the Golden Age of Kiev
- Yury I "the Long-Handed", founder of Moscow
- Andrey I, "Bogolyubsky", key figure in transition of political power from Kiev to Vladimir-Suzdal
- Vsevolod "the Big Nest", the Grand Prince of Vladimir during its Golden Age, had 14 children
- Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir, military hero famous for the Battle of Neva and the Battle of the Ice, patron saint and the Name of Russia
- Ivan I "the Moneybag", brought wealth and power to Moscow by maintaining his loyalty to the Golden Horde and acting as its chief tax collector in Russia
- Simeon "the Proud", continued the policies of his father Ivan I, died of the Black Death
- Dmitry Donskoy, saint and war hero, the first Prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in Russia, famous for the Battle of Kulikovo
- Ivan III "the Great", reunited the Central and Northern Rus', put an end to the Mongol yoke, brought Renaissance architecture to Russia
- Ivan IV, the first Tsar of Russia, called "the Terrible" in the West; transformed Russia into a multiethnic, multiconfessional, and transcontinental state
- Boris Godunov, the first non-Rurikid monarch
- False Dmitriy I, the first impostor during the Time of Troubles
- Vasili IV Shuisky, Tsar elected during the Time of Troubles
- False Dmitry II, the second impostor during the Time of Troubles
- Mikhail, first Romanov monarch, oversaw the largest ever expansion of Russia's territory, reaching the Pacific
- Peter I "the Great", first Russian emperor, polymath craftsman and inventor, modernized Russian Army and westernized culture, won the Great Northern War, founded the Russian Navy and the new capital Saint Petersburg
- Catherine I, first Russian empress
- Elizabeth, "the Merry Empress" during the era of high Baroque
- Catherine II "the Great", German-born Russian Empress during the Age of Enlightenment, significantly expanded Russia's territory
- Alexander I, first Russian king of Poland and first Russian grand duke of Finland
- Alexander II "the Liberator", enacted the "Great Reforms" in Russian economy and social structure, including the emancipation reform of 1861
- Alexander III "the Peacemaker", reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II; this policy is known in Russia as "counter-reforms"; he also opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule; during his reign, Russia fought no major wars
- Nicholas II, the last actual emperor, forced to abdicate after the February Revolution, killed with his family during the Russian Civil War
Statesmen of the Tsardom and Empire
- Aleksey Arakcheyev, Minister of War of Alexander I, organized military-agricultural colonies
- Abram Gannibal, general and military engineer of Black African origin, governor of Reval, the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin and hero of his novel The Moor of Peter the Great
- Vasily Golitsyn, 17th-century commander of the Russian Army, Foreign Minister and a favourite of Tsarevna Sophia, abolished rank priority in the military, concluded Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 with Poland, one of the most educated Russians of the time
- Fyodor Golovin, associate of Peter the Great, general admiral, the first Russian field marshal and Chancellor, the first Russian count and the first to receive the Order of St. Andrew, negotiated the Treaty of Nerchinsk and the Treaty of Karlowitz
- Alexander Gorchakov, Foreign Minister and Chancellor of Alexander II, a friend and rival of Otto von Bismarck, denounced the Treaty of Paris, advocated the League of the Three Emperors
- Ivan Goremykin, twice the Prime Minister of Imperial Russia
- Alexander Kerensky, second and the last Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government
- Franz Lefort, tutor of Peter the Great, general and diplomat, oversaw the foundation of the Russian Navy
- Georgy Lvov, first Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government
- Aleksandr Menshikov, associate and friend of Peter the Great, de facto ruler of Russia for two years after Peter's death, generalissimus, Prince, the first Governor of Saint Petersburg
- Pavel Milyukov, founder of the Constitutional Democratic Party, Foreign Minister in the Russian Provisional Government
- Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, governor of the East Siberia, coloniser of the Priamurye and Primorye, concluded the Treaty of Aigun and the Treaty of Beijing with China
- Karl Nesselrode, Foreign Minister of Alexander II and Nicholas I, a leading European conservative statesman of the Holy Alliance
- Grigory Orlov, favourite of Catherine the Great who enthroned her, progenitor of Bobrinsky family, founder of the Free Economic Society, owner of the Orlov Diamond
- Konstantin Pobedonostsev, tutor to Alexander III and Éminence grise of his imperial politics
- Grigory Potyomkin-Tavrichesky, favourite of Catherine II, conqueror and the first governor of Novorossiya, founder of Sevastopol and Yekaterinoslav
- Grigori Rasputin, mystic and healer who influenced the latter politics of Nicholas II
- Kirill Razumovsky, last Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks, the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Nikolay Rumyantsev, Foreign Minister during the French invasion of Russia, founder of the Rumyantsev Museum
- Ivan Serebrennikov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian state
- Mikhail Speransky, chief reformer during the reign of Alexander I, father of Russian liberalism, oversaw the publication of the Full Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire
- Pyotr Stolypin, Interior Minister and then Prime Minister, put down the Russian Revolution of 1905, initiated Stolypin reform
- Pyotr Vologodsky, Minister of Supply of the Russian state
- Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, closest female friend of Catherine the Great, a major figure of the Russian Enlightenment, a director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences and the founder of Russian Academy
- Sergei Witte, Finance Minister who later became the first Prime Minister of Russia, presided over extensive industrialization of the country, and supervised the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway
Soviet statesmen
- Nikolai Bukharin, leading Bolshevik revolutionary, Marxist theoretician, economist and prolific author, Politburo member in the 1920s, editor of government newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, author of The ABC of Communism
- Nikolai Bulganin, leading Communist politician, served as the Minister of Defense and the Premier of the Soviet Union, backed de-Stalinization
- Mikhail Gorbachev last General Secretary of the CPSU and the only President of the Soviet Union, launched the policies of glasnost and perestroika, presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Kalinin, Old Bolshevik politician and the Head of state of the Soviet Union in 1938–1946
- Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union in 1953–1964, launched de-Stalinisation and many erratic policies, backed the progress of the early Soviet space program
- Alexei Kosygin, Soviet Premier under Brezhnev, author of the eventually stifled Kosygin reform which included elements of capitalist management
- Vladimir Lenin, founder of Bolshevik party, the leader of the October Revolution, the first Soviet head of state in 1917–1922, founder of the Soviet Union, creator of Leninism
- Anatoly Lunacharsky, first Soviet Minister of Enlightenment
- Georgy Malenkov, close associate of Stalin, Soviet Premier and one of the leaders after Stalin's death
- Vyacheslav Molotov Soviet Premier in the 1930s, Foreign Minister during World War II, a close associate of Stalin
- Yakov Sverdlov, first de jure head of the Russian SFSR
- Mikhail Suslov, leading ideologist during the Brezhnev era
- Gennady Yanayev, leader of the August Coup that attempted to depose Gorbachev
- Nikolai Yezhov, Interior Minister and head of the NKVD during the period of the Great Purge, was executed soon after
Contemporary Russian politicians
- Viktor Chernomyrdin, leading politician and businessman, served as the first Chairman of Gazprom and the Premier of Russia
- Yegor Gaidar, leading politician and economist, served as the Premier of Russia, launched the controversial shock therapy reforms aimed at creating a liberal free market economy in Russia
- Boris Gryzlov, leading politician, parliamentarian and diplomat, served as the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Chairman of the State Duma, currently serves as the Russian Ambassador to Belarus
- Mikhail Fradkov, leading politician, intelligence official and scholar, served as Premier of Russia and the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, currently heads the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies
- Sergei Kiriyenko, leading politician and apparatchik, served as the Premier of Russia and the General Director of Rosatom, currently serves as the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia
- Sergey Lavrov, leading politician and diplomat, served as the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia
- Yury Luzhkov, leading politician, served as the Mayor of Moscow, was one of the founders of the ruling United Russia party
- Evgeny Markin, businessman, public figure and politician
- Valentina Matviyenko, leading politician, parliamentarian and diplomat, served as the Russian Ambassador to Malta and Greece as well as the Governor of Saint Petersburg, currently the Chairman of the Federation Council
- Dmitry Medvedev, leading politician and security official, served as the President and the Premier of Russia, currently the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia
- Sergei Mironov, leading politician and parliamentarian, served as Chairman of the Federation Council, founder and current Chairman of the A Just Russia — For Truth party
- Yevgeny Primakov, leading politician, diplomat, intelligence officer and academician, served as the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Premier of Russia, presided over the start of Russian economic recovery and a significant change in foreign policy
- Vladimir Putin, leading politician and intelligence officer, served as the Director of the Federal Security Service and the Premier of Russia, currently the President of Russia, presided over impressive Russian economic recovery and military build-up, annexed Crimea
- Anatoly Sobchak, first post-Soviet mayor of St. Petersburg
- Sergei Stepashin, Prime Minister in 1999, currently the head of the Account Chamber of Russia
- Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia from 1991 to 1999
- Vladimir Zhirinovsky, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vice-chairman of the State Duma
- Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation since 1993