Politics & Public Figures

Antony Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State, rooted in Kyiv

Bernie Sanders

U.S. Senator from Vermont, grandson of emigrants from Białystok and Radzyń

Boris Johnson

UK PM with roots in the Russian Empire

Chrystia Freeland

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister

David Ben-Gurion

Israel's founder, born in Płońsk, Russian Empire

Elena Kagan

First female Solicitor General, SCOTUS Justice

Golda Meir

Israel's Iron Lady, born in Kyiv

Michael Bloomberg

Bloomberg L.P. founder and New York mayor, grandson of emigrants from Vilna and Grodno

Michael Ignatieff

Canadian statesman, grandson of a tsarist minister

Natan Sharansky

Soviet dissident who defied the KGB for Israel

Nick Clegg

UK Deputy PM with Russian imperial roots

Adam Schiff

US Senator for California since December 2024, previously in the House of Representatives 2001–24; great-grandson of Lithuanian Jews

Alexander Berkman

Russian-born anarchist who attempted to assassinate a steel baron and shaped American radical politics

Alexander Litvinenko

The spy who came in from the cold—and told all.

Alexei Navalny

Russia's most prominent dissident, martyred for truth.

Anna Chapman

Russia's most glamorous Cold War ghost

Ariel Sharon

Prime Minister of Israel (2001-2006); son of emigrants from Brest-Litovsk and Mogilev

Avigdor Lieberman

Soviet-born powerbroker who reshaped Israeli politics.

Ben Bernanke

Economist, chairman of the US Federal Reserve 2006–2014 and Nobel laureate 2022; grandson of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania

Bill Browder

Grandson of a Communist, foe of the Kremlin

Chaim Weizmann

Chemist and first President of Israel, born in Motal

Claudia Sheinbaum

President of Mexico since October 2024, the first woman in the office; her paternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews who emigrated to Mexico

David Miliband

British Foreign Secretary 2007–10 and president of the International Rescue Committee since 2013; grandson of a Warsaw leather worker born in the Russian Empire

Dominic Raab

Former UK Deputy Prime Minister whose father fled Czechoslovakia with Russian imperial roots

Ed Miliband

British Foreign Secretary since July 2026 and Leader of the Labour Party 2010–15; grandson of a Warsaw leather worker born in the Russian Empire

Eduard Limonov

Provocateur, punk novelist, and opposition politician born in Dzerzhinsk who made Paris and New York his stage

Eli Cohen

Israeli intelligence officer, born in Alexandria to Syrian Jewish parents from Aleppo; executed in Damascus in 1965

Emma Goldman

Anarchist writer and speaker born in Kovno; deported from the US to Soviet Russia in 1919

Ephraim Katzir

Kyiv-born biophysicist who became the fourth President of Israel

George Blake

Dutch-British double agent who spied for the KGB and became one of the Cold War's most notorious moles

Grant Shapps

UK Defence Secretary whose family came from Lithuania and Russia in the Russian Empire era

Gregor Gysi

German leftist politician whose mother was born in St. Petersburg and whose great-grandmother was Russian nobility

Heinrich Zertik

Kazakhstan-born Russlanddeutscher who became a CDU politician representing Germany's Russian-German community

Helen Suzman

Lithuanian-Russian Jewish South African who stood alone in parliament against apartheid for 13 years

Henry Kissinger

US Secretary of State, born in Fürth, Bavaria

Hyman Rickover

Admiral and engineer born in Maków Mazowiecki in 1900; directed the development of the first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, and of US naval nuclear propulsion

J.B. Pritzker

Governor of Illinois whose great-grandfather emigrated from Kyiv and built the Hyatt hotel empire

Janet Yellen

Economist; first woman to chair the Federal Reserve and to serve as US Treasury Secretary; her father's family came from Sokołów Podlaski

Jared Polis

Governor of Colorado — his grandparents fled Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire to build an American family

Joe Slovo

Born in Obeliai, Lithuania, in 1926; South African Communist Party leader, MK chief of staff and Minister of Housing

John Key

Former New Zealand Prime Minister whose mother escaped Vienna — her family had Russian Empire roots

Josh Frydenberg

Australian Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader whose mother's family survived the Holocaust in Hungary

Kim Philby

British intelligence officer and Soviet agent who went to Moscow in 1963

Konstantin Razvozov

Birobidzhan-born judoka who competed for Israel at Athens 2004 and served as Minister of Tourism

Levi Eshkol

Third Prime Minister of Israel (1963–69), born Levi Shkolnik in Oratov, Kiev Governorate, in 1895

Madeleine Albright

First female US Secretary of State (1997–2001), born in Prague to Czech parents of Jewish origin

Malcolm Rifkind

Foreign Secretary 1995–97, Defence, Transport and Scottish Secretary under Thatcher and Major; his family came from Mosėdis in the Kovno Governorate

Margaret Hodge

UK Labour politician with Russian-Jewish roots who became the most feared tax investigator in Parliament

Maria Butina

Barnaul-born Russian operative who infiltrated the NRA and US Republican circles — imprisoned then deported

Mark Dreyfus

Australia's Attorney-General whose grandparents fled the Russian Empire to build a new life

Menachem Begin

Prime Minister of Israel (1977-1983), born in Brest-Litovsk

Merrick Garland

US Attorney General 2021–25 and chief judge of the D.C. Circuit 2013–20; his grandparents left the Pale of Settlement in the early 1900s

Moshe Dayan

Chief of Staff and minister; son of emigrants from Zhashkiv

Moshe Sharett

Israel's first foreign minister (1948–56) and second prime minister (1954–55), born Moshe Shertok in Kherson in 1894

Rosa Luxemburg

Born in the Russian Empire's Polish territories — the most important female revolutionary thinker of the 20th century

Rudolf Abel

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne; Soviet intelligence officer exchanged for Gary Powers in 1962

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

US Supreme Court Justice; daughter of an emigrant from Odessa

Sergei Skripal

Former GRU colonel and double agent poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury — one of the Cold War's most dramatic epilogues

Shimon Peres

Born in Wiszniew (now Vishnyeva, Belarus); Prime Minister and President of Israel

Simon Wiesenthal

Holocaust survivor and documenter of Nazi crimes; son of an emigrant from the Russian Empire

Simone Veil

French magistrate and stateswoman, born in Nice

Sofa Landver

Born in Leningrad — became Israel's Minister of Immigrant Absorption and voice of the Russian-speaking community

Tal Gilboa

Israeli singer with Romanian-Russian Jewish roots who won The X Factor Israel

Tali Ploskov

Born in Balti, Moldova — Israeli actress and public figure from the Russian-speaking community

Tony Leon

South African opposition leader whose family came from Lithuania and Russia — led the Democratic Alliance against apartheid's legacy

Vitali Klitschko

Born in Kyrgyzstan — WBC heavyweight champion, PhD in sports science, Mayor of Kyiv during Russia's war

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Moscow journalist who survived two poisoning attempts and was imprisoned by Putin — then won the Pulitzer Prize

Wolfgang Lotz

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

Second and longest-serving President of Israel (1952–63), historian and Labour Zionist leader, born Yitzhak Shimshelevich in Poltava in 1884

Yitzhak Rabin

Prime Minister of Israel; son of emigrants from the Kiev Governorate and Mogilev

Yitzhak Shamir

Seventh Prime Minister of Israel (1983–84, 1986–92), born Yitzhak Yezernitsky in Ruzhany in 1915

Yuli Edelstein

Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine — imprisoned by the KGB as a Zionist, became Speaker of the Israeli Knesset

Zalman Shazar

Third President of Israel (1963–73), journalist and scholar, born Shneur Zalman Rubashov in Mir, Minsk Governorate, in 1889

Ze'ev Elkin

Born in Kharkiv — Israeli Cabinet minister and one of the most prominent Russian-born politicians in Israel

Marina Weisband

Kyiv-born political director of Germany's Pirate Party — a new kind of democratic voice

Sergey Lagodinsky

Volgograd-born MEP who became Germany's leading Russian-origin voice in the European Parliament

Paul Ziemiak

CDU politician and former party secretary-general with Eastern European roots

Walter Homolka

Germany's leading liberal rabbi — rebuilt Jewish life in Germany with Russian-Jewish diaspora roots

Ernst Albrecht

Brussels director-general, Lower Saxony premier, Knoop heir

Ursula von der Leyen

President of the European Commission, descended from the Russian Empire's cotton baron

Franz Lefort

The Genevan who became Peter the Great's closest advisor

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Grandson of a Romanov grand duchess born at Pavlovsk, whose DNA identified the last imperial family

Kaja Kallas

Born in Soviet Tallinn, daughter of a mother deported to Siberia as a baby; EU foreign policy chief

Siim Kallas

Born in Soviet Tallinn; Soviet banker and USSR People's Deputy, then architect of the Estonian kroon and EU Commissioner

Valdis Dombrovskis

Born in Soviet Riga; physicist, three-term prime minister of Latvia and senior European Commissioner

Alexander Stubb

President of Finland, grandson of two Vyborg-born grandparents from the Grand Duchy era

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Daughter of a Russian grand duchess, the last foreign princess to marry into the British royal family

Prince Michael of Kent

Grandson of a Russian grand duchess, qualified Russian interpreter, whose DNA helped identify the Romanovs

Anna Pavlovna, Queen of the Netherlands

Daughter of Tsar Paul I who became Queen of the Netherlands and ancestor of the Dutch royal house

Queen Marie of Romania

Granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and Alexander II, Queen of Romania through the First World War

King Michael I of Romania

Great-grandson of two Russian grand duchesses, and one of the few foreigners awarded the Soviet Order of Victory

King Constantine II of Greece

Last King of the Hellenes, Olympic champion, great-grandson of a grand duchess born at Pavlovsk

Queen Sofía of Spain

Queen of Spain for four decades, great-granddaughter of a grand duchess born at Pavlovsk

King Felipe VI of Spain

King of Spain, great-great-grandson of a Russian grand duchess born at Pavlovsk

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

Queen of Denmark for fifty-two years, great-granddaughter of a grand duchess born at Peterhof

King Frederik X of Denmark

King of Denmark, great-great-grandson of a Russian grand duchess born at Peterhof

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands

King of the Netherlands, direct descendant of Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, daughter of Tsar Paul I

King Charles III

King of the United Kingdom, great-grandson of a Russian grand duchess born at Pavlovsk

Prince Chula Chakrabongse

Siamese prince, author and motor-racing team owner; son of a mother born in Lutsk in the Russian Empire

Ekaterina Desnitskaya

Nurse from Lutsk who married Prince Chakrabongse of Siam in 1906 and became Mom Katerin Na Phitsanulok

Abram Gannibal

African-born godson of Peter the Great who became a Russian general-in-chief and military engineer; great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin

João Lourenço

President of Angola since 2017; studied at the Lenin Military-Political Academy in Moscow from 1978 to 1982

José Eduardo dos Santos

President of Angola 1979–2017; studied petroleum engineering in Baku in the 1960s and married a Russian there

Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Journalist, writer and translator born in Odessa in 1880; founder of the Jewish Legion in the First World War, of Revisionist Zionism and of the Betar movement