1 Peter the Great
He was the only catalyst who brought Russia, then a medieval state, to the forefront of the western powers of the day, due to his unswerving program of westernization inspired by his vision and daring.
He made Russia great! The greatest ruler in the world! He brought up Russia from medieval ages and smashed the greatest European army of that time - Sweden army headed by Carl XII
The work this single man has done is incredible!
2 Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, sometimes transliterated Dostoevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher.
3 Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.
4 Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev tried to save an economically crippled USSR with his reforms. It wasn't his fault that Yeltsin stabbed him in the back and screwed over the people of the Soviet Union... come on people!
He's a jerk, destroyed great country!
Rest In Piss, traitor of the Motherland!
5 Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (6 June [O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [O.S. 29 January] 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.
6 Catherine The Great
7 Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Made ballet what it is
8 Vyacheslav Butusov
He is the best
9 Yuri Gagarin
First man in space. Enough said.
First human in space...
10 Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements. Brought coherence to chemistry research and its educational delivery. He ordered the foundational document of biological research, materials science and applications, and so many innovations past, present, and yet to come. Say that about a politician! He has had greater lasting global impact than communism and all that.
The Contenders
11 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (December 11, 1918 - August 3, 2008) was a Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, short story writer and political prisoner. Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism and helped to raise global awareness of the Soviet Gulag forced-labor ...read more.
12 Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008. He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012.
Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant... read more I support Vladimir Putin, under whose watch the oligarchs are put in check (if not outright arrested), Russian army regains ability to project power on a global scale, quality of life in Russia is on the rise, new military technologies being developed, all national debt is paid-off (Russia's debt level is now 3-5 %), under Putin, Russian economy is not collapsing DESPITE coordinated economic sanctions, new developments in economy and space technologies, Russian population has started growing.
The reason why Russians love Putin is because he took Russia out of recession and shock economic therapy and turned the economy around and made Russia a great power again.
The USA and NATO/EU wants Russia to be down and reliant on EU/USA, subersvient to their will, which is why the IMF gave Russia loans in the early 1990s designed to keep Russias economy down and preventing Russia from recovering after the USSR split up.
Putin turned all of that around and has helped Russians take pride again in their country.
13 Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870–21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments to the ideology are called Leninism. Yes, I know, it might sound weird, but I always imagine the Soviet until on when stressed, imagining their hard times, I'm weird, I know, I'm weird, just don't judge me
He made the Soviet Union and ended the messed up reign of Tzar, meaning that he overthrew the descendents of other people such as Catherine the great
14 Georgy Zhukov
15 Alexander Nevsky
16 Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history.
His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress".
17 Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian dictator, and was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Destroyed the Nazi Invader! Our leader with faith in the people.
No. He killed millions of innocents. Also he wasn't even Russian, he was Georgian.
18 Alexander I
19 Alexander Suvorov
20 Stanislav Petrov
21 Yaroslav the Wise
22 Mikhail Lomonosov
23 Igor Stravinsky
24 Sergei Rachmaninoff
25 Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov