Fashion & Entertainment

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Soviet-trained dancer who redefined American ballet

Alexey Brodovitch

The Russian émigré who reinvented American design

Anna Pavlova

The Swan who carried Russia to the world.

Anna Trebunskaya

Russian ballroom champion who became a Dancing with the Stars fan favourite

Anne V (Vyalitsyna)

Nizhny Novgorod's model who conquered New York

Annie Leibovitz

The lens that defined American celebrity for 50 years.

Artem Chigvintsev

Vladivostok-born dancer who conquered Hollywood.

Bar Refaeli

Israel's global face with Eastern European roots.

Calvin Klein

Bronx-born designer with Russian roots who invented American minimalism

Chaim Soutine

Expressionist painter from a Belarus shtetl who became a giant of Parisian modernism

Cheryl Burke

Dancing with the Stars champion with Russian Empire roots who became America's most-watched ballroom dancer

Dasha Zhukova

Moscow-born art patron and Garage Museum founder who brought contemporary art to Russia

David Copperfield

The world's greatest illusionist, son of a mother with Russian Jewish roots

Diane Arbus

Russian-Jewish immigrant granddaughter who became the most influential American photographer of the 20th century

Diane von Furstenberg

Belgian-American fashion icon whose father came from Kishinev in the Russian Empire

Dmitry Chaplin

Rostov-born dancer who became a So You Think You Can Dance star and Broadway choreographer

Ernst Neizvestny

Yekaterinburg sculptor who argued with Khrushchev and created the Tree of Life

Erté (Romain de Tirtoff)

Born in St. Petersburg, he became the defining Art Deco designer of the 20th century

Esti Ginzburg

Israeli model and actress with Russian-Jewish roots who became a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit star

Eugenia Volodina

Kazan supermodel who became one of the world's top runway stars of the 2000s

Fred Astaire

The greatest dancer in Hollywood history, son of a father who emigrated from the Russian Empire

Gala Dalí

Born Elena Diakonova in Kazan, she became Salvador Dalí's muse, model, and manager

Gleb Savchenko

Moscow-born professional dancer and Dancing with the Stars fan favourite

Gregori Warchavchik

Odessa-born architect who introduced modernism to Brazil with the first modernist house in Latin America

Harry Seidler

Born in Vienna to Russian-Bessarabian Jewish parents, became Australia's greatest modernist architect

Ilya Kabakov

Born in Dnipro, became the most celebrated conceptual artist of the Soviet underground

Irina Shayk

From the Urals to the world's runways

Jaime Lerner

Son of Polish-Russian Jewish immigrants who transformed Curitiba into the world's most liveable city

Karina Smirnoff

Kharkiv-born ballroom champion and Dancing with the Stars professional dancer

Katya Jones

St. Petersburg-born multiple world champion who became Strictly Come Dancing's Russian star

Kazimir Malevich

Born in Kyiv, painted Black Square and invented abstract art

Komar & Melamid

Moscow conceptual art duo who invented Sots Art, emigrated to New York, and turned democracy into a painting

Kristina Rihanoff

Vladivostok-born ballroom champion and Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer

Lasar Segall

Born in Vilnius, became Brazil's most important modernist painter

Lilia Kopylova

Moscow-born ballroom champion and Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer

Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Odessa-born ballroom champion who became Dancing with the Stars' most beloved bad boy

Man Ray

Born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia to parents from Kyiv and Minsk — became Surrealism's greatest photographer

Marc Chagall

Vitebsk's dreamer who painted heaven on Earth

Mark Rothko

From Dvinsk to the sublime: Rothko's color fields

Maryna Linchuk

Minsk-born Victoria's Secret Angel who became one of the world's top supermodels

Mathilde Kschessinska

The Romanovs' prima ballerina — born in St. Petersburg, loved by a Tsar, ended up in Paris

Michael Kors

Fashion mogul whose mother Joan has Austrian-Russian Jewish roots — built a $10 billion luxury empire

Mikhail Chemiakin

Moscow-born artist who was expelled from the Soviet Union and befriended Vladimir Vysotsky in Paris

Natalia Vodianova

From Nizhny Novgorod streets to global runways

Natasha Poly

Perm-born supermodel who became one of the world's most recognisable faces on the runway

Naum Gabo

Born in Bryansk — co-invented Constructivism and became one of the 20th century's defining sculptors

Nigella Lawson

Britain's most famous food writer — her grandmother Vanessa Salmon had Russian and German Jewish roots

Oleg Cassini

Born in Paris to a Russian diplomat family — became Jackie Kennedy's official couturier

Ossip Zadkine

Born in Vitebsk like Chagall — became one of the 20th century's greatest sculptors in Paris

Pasha Kovalev

Siberian ballroom champion who became Strictly Come Dancing's most passionate professional dancer

Peggy Guggenheim

Granddaughter of Meyer Guggenheim — became the greatest patron of modernist art in history

Ralph Lauren

His parents came from Pinsk, Belarus — he invented the American dream as a fashion

Rotem Sela

Israeli actress and model with Turkish and Polish Jewish roots — voice of a generation on social media

Sasha Farber

Moscow-born Dancing with the Stars professional and fan favourite

Sasha Pivovarova

Moscow-born Prada muse and avant-garde supermodel who redefined the early 2000s runway

Slava Polunin

Novozybkov-born clown who created Snowshow — the most magical theatre production of the 20th century

Sonia Delaunay

Born in Odessa — co-founded Orphism, revolutionised colour in art and fashion, and became a Cubist pioneer

Tamara Karsavina

Born in St. Petersburg — Diaghilev's prima ballerina and Nijinsky's partner in The Firebird and Petrushka

Tamara de Lempicka

Born in Warsaw — the Art Deco queen whose portraits of the jet set defined the glamour of the 1920s

Tatiana Patitz

Hamburg-born supermodel of Baltic-Russian origin — one of the original five supermodels of the 1990s

Theodore Kosloff

Born in Moscow — the Imperial Ballet dancer who became Cecil B. DeMille's choreographer and silent film star

Val Chmerkovskiy

Odessa-born ballroom champion and Dancing with the Stars fan favourite — Maksim's brother

Valentina Zelyaeva

Born in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia — the supermodel from Siberia's Buddhist heartland who walked for Chanel and Prada

Vaslav Nijinsky

Born in Kyiv — the greatest male dancer in history, whose Afternoon of a Faun shocked Paris and changed art forever

Vlada Roslyakova

Born in Omsk, Siberia — became one of the world's top supermodels and a Chanel muse

Wassily Kandinsky

Moscow-born father of abstract painting

William Kentridge

South Africa's greatest living artist — his family came from Lithuania and Russia

Xenia Deli

Xenia Tchoumitcheva

Zurab Tsereteli

Stefanie Giesinger

Germany's Next Top Model winner turned international supermodel — mother is a Russian-German Aussiedler