All Profiles
1100 individuals with documented roots in the Russian Empire, USSR or Russia — spanning 39 countries and 11 categories.
Anton Yelchin
Leningrad-born star who redefined a generation
Antony Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State, rooted in Kyiv
Arkady Volozh
Co-founder of Yandex, Russia's answer to Google
Ben Whishaw
British actor whose great-grandmother was Russian
Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator from Vermont, grandson of emigrants from Białystok and Radzyń
Bob Dylan
Voice of a generation, roots in Odessa
Boris Johnson
UK PM with roots in the Russian Empire
Capital Bra
Germany's most-charting rapper, born in Siberia
Chrystia Freeland
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister
Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader with Galician-Jewish roots
David Ben-Gurion
Israel's founder, born in Płońsk, Russian Empire
David Duchovny
Actor and writer with Ukrainian Jewish roots
Elena Kagan
First female Solicitor General, SCOTUS Justice
Golda Meir
Israel's Iron Lady, born in Kyiv
Gwyneth Paltrow
Oscar winner with roots in the Russian Empire
Harrison Ford
Han Solo's grandfather fled the Russian Empire
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, royalty with Russian roots
Helene Fischer
Siberia-born queen of German Schlager
Joe Dassin
The American-born Parisian whose soul was Odessan.
Katie Melua
Kutaisi-born voice behind Britain's quiet revolution
Kirk Douglas
Hollywood titan forged from Belarusian immigrant roots
Lenny Kravitz
Rock icon whose roots trace to imperial Kyiv
Leonardo DiCaprio
Oscar-winning actor with Russian Imperial roots
Marina Vlady
French cinema icon born of Russian émigré nobility
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
Michel Polnareff
French pop star whose father was born in Odessa
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Soviet-trained dancer who redefined American ballet
Mikhail Fridman
Oligarch born in Lviv, exiled by war
Mila Kunis
Hollywood star born in Soviet Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Milla Jovovich
Kyiv-born action icon who conquered Hollywood
Natalie Portman
Oscar-winning actress with Lithuanian-Jewish roots
Natan Sharansky
Soviet dissident who defied the KGB for Israel
Nick Clegg
UK Deputy PM with Russian imperial roots
Ornella Muti
Italian screen icon, Baltic-Russian sculptor's granddaughter
Palina Rojinski
Leningrad-born queen of German pop culture
Pamela Anderson
Baywatch icon with Mennonite roots in the Russian Empire
Peter Ustinov
Polyglot actor-playwright with Russian imperial roots
Regina Spektor
Moscow-born singer who made anti-folk poetry in New York
Roman Abramovich
Oligarch who bought Chelsea FC, worth $10B+
Serge Gainsbourg
Provocateur poet, born of Crimean Jewish émigrés
Sergey Brin
Google co-founder who escaped Soviet antisemitism
Seth Rogen
Canadian comedy star with roots in the Russian Empire
Steven Spielberg
Hollywood titan, roots in the Russian Empire
Sylvester Stallone
Rocky's roots run through Odessa
William Shatner
Captain Kirk, rooted in the Russian Empire
Winona Ryder
Hollywood icon with roots in the Russian Empire
Yul Brynner
Vladivostok-born king of Hollywood's golden age
Yuri Milner
Soviet-born physicist turned Silicon Valley kingmaker
Zedd (Anton Zaslavski)
Grammy-winning producer born in Saratov, USSR
Aaron Copland
Composer of Appalachian Spring; son of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania under the Russian Empire
Abner Zwillman
Prohibition-era crime boss known as the Al Capone of New Jersey
Abraham Maslow
Psychologist of the hierarchy of needs and a founder of humanistic psychology; son of Jewish immigrants from Kiev
Ada Yonath
Crystallographer who mapped the structure of the ribosome; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009, the first Israeli woman Nobel laureate (1939–2026)
Adam Levine
Singer of Maroon 5, born in Los Angeles
Adam Schiff
US Senator for California since December 2024, previously in the House of Representatives 2001–24; great-grandson of Lithuanian Jews
Adolfo Bioy Casares
Argentine literary giant and lifelong collaborator of Borges
Adriano Celentano
Italy's rock-and-roll patriarch and a Soviet box-office record-holder
Agnes Bruckner
Hollywood actress born in Germany to Russian-German immigrant parents
Akim Tamiroff
Armenian character actor born in the Russian Empire, trained at the Moscow Art Theatre; two Oscar nominations and the first Golden Globe for best supporting actor