List of Russian Americans

This is a list of notable Russian-Americans.

List

Entertainment

*Alina Smith - singer/songwriter [ [http://www.alina-music.com/] "She is truly a talent music lovers will enjoy for many years to come."]
*Olga Baclanova - actress [ [http://www.olgabaclanova.com/] "They called her the Russian Tigress. Olga Baclanova (pronounced bahk-LAH-no-vah), sultry Russian actress of stage and film..."]
*Mikhail Baryshnikov - dancer/actor [ [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,37,00.html] "One night in June 1974, the Russian dancer stepped from a stage in Toronto where he was appearing as a guest star with the Bolshoi Ballet concert group and literally ran to freedom. He stepped outside, followed by a crowd of confused fans, and sprinted to a waiting car that spirited him away from Soviet agents into a life of independence in the United States."]
*Milla Jovovich - model, actress and fashion designer [ [http://www.webwombat.com.au/lifestyle/fashion_beauty/milla.htm] "On the one side were the media and paparazzi, who couldn't get enough of the young Russian beauty..."]
*Yul Brynner - hollywood star, 'The King & I', 'The Magnificent Seven' [http://www.raaad.org/famrusam.php RAAAD.org ] ]
*Oleg Cassini - fashion designer [ [http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-03-18-cassini-obit_x.htm] "Cassini, an actual Russian count..."]
*Alexis Denisof,A American actor who played in Buffy the vampire *Alexandra Danilova - ballerina & teacher
*Andre Eglevsky - ballet dancer & teacher [ [http://www.raaad.org/famrusam.php] " . . greatest male classical dancer of his generation "]
*Josef Gingold (1909-1995) violinist [Gingold - [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16606] "His teacher was Joseph Gingold, and as Bell fondly recalled him, "He was a Russian Jewish violinist..."]
*Theodore Kosloff - ballet dancer, choreographer, actor [ [http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldeen.html] "Theodore Kosloff, the Russian dancer-cum-movie star..."]
*Ivan Koumaev (born 1987) dancer, perhaps best known for being a top 6 finalist in the second season of the popular FOX reality show, "So You Think You Can Dance" [ [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/278852_ivan26.html] "Russian-born and Seattle-trained Koumaev"]
*Sergei Rachmaninoff - composer, pianist, and conductor [ [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=203463 Great Russian Composers: Sergei Rachmaninoff - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - New York Times ] ]
*Olesya Rulin (1988 - ) actress ("High School Musical") [Rulin - [http://www.olesyarulinfan.com/quickfacts.htm] "Olesya is originally from Russia and can read, write and speak Russian fluently"]
*Ignat Solzhenitsyn - conductor and pianist, music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia [ [http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/issues/2006.02.09/locallife5.html Welcome to the Chestnut Hill Local ] ]
*Regina Spektor - singer and pianist
*Igor Stravinsky - composer [ [http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/stravinsky.html TIME 100: Igor Stravinsky ] ]
*Genndy Tartakovsky - an Emmy Award-winning animator.
*Alexander Tcherepnin - pianist/composer [ [http://www.raaad.org/famrusam.php] "Known for stylistic mixture of Romanticism & Modern Experimentation."]
*Snejana "Snow" Urbin (born 1982) dancer, perhaps best known for being a top 12 finalist in the first season of the popular FOX reality show, "So You Think You Can Dance"
*Vladimir Ussachevsky - composer, tape recorder/live sound experiments
*Walter Winchell - columnist [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679764399/] "Walter Winchell, a lower class Russian-American Jewish boy who morphed..."]
*Sofia Vassilieva - actress ( Elose in Eloise at the Plaza)
*Natalie Wood - actress [ [http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:3p6BmYKyoNQJ:www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3%3Fca%3D36%26si%3D1205872%26issue_id%3D11063+%22Natalie+Wood%22+Russian&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=40] "The Russian princess of Hollywood"]
*Anton Yelchin (1989 - ) actor [ [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=277901] "A Russian immigrant who came to the United States with his figure-skater parents when he was merely six months old..."]
*Vladimir Zworykin - pioneer of television technology [ [http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/ZWORYKIN_BIO.html Adventures in CyberSound: Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma ] ]
*Michael Chekhov - a Russian director, actor, actor trainer, and acting theorist, nephew of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and student of Stanislavski.
*Jack Gordon - former husband and manager of American singer La Toya Jackson

Literature

*Isaac Asimov - science fiction writer [ [http://www.kruse.co.uk/asimov.htm] "Although now an American national, Isaac Asimov was Russian by birth..."]
*Reginald Bretnor - science fiction and fantasy writer
*Joseph Brodsky - Nobel Prize in Literature 1987
*Sergei Dovlatov (1941-1990) - short story writer and novelist.
*Vladimir Nabokov - writer [ [http://www.highbeam.com/ref/doc3.asp?docid=1E1:Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition - HighBeam Research ] ]
*Ayn Rand - philosopher and novelist [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0271014415/ Amazon.com: Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical: Books: Chris Matthew Sciabarra ] ]
*Michael Rostovtzeff - writer [ [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Africa/Egypt/_Texts/BEVHOP/Preface*.html#px E. R. Bevan: The House of Ptolemy • Preface ] ]
*Gary Shteyngart (1972 - ) Russian-born writer [Shteyngart - [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16433] "Jewish Russian American writer"]

Medicine

*Boris Vinogradsky, MD - surgeon [ [http://www.russiansurgeon.com] "Although now an American national, Boris Vinogradsky is Russian by birth..."]

cience

*Lera Boroditsky - cognitive scientist [ [http://psychology.stanford.edu/~lera Lera Boroditsky ] ]
*Wassily Leontief - economist, Nobel Prize 1973
*Abraham Maslow, psychologist [ [http://oaks.nvg.org/eg4ra15.html] " . . born to Russian-Jewish parents."]
*Vladimir Nikolayevich Ipatieff - chemist [ [http://www.russian-americans.org/CRA_Art_Russinusa.htm] ]
*Sergei Khrushchev - professor & son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev [ [http://www.salon.com/people/log/1999/06/24/khrushchev/index.html Salon People | A conversation with Sergei Khrushchev ] ]
*Otto Struve - astrophysicist [ [http://www.raaad.org/famrusam.php] " . . made detailed spectroscopic studies of close binary stars; discovered interstellar matter." ]
*Leon Theremin - physicist, inventor of Theremin
*Igor Sikorsky - helicopter designer [ [http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/ Sikorsky Archives News ] ]
*Vladimir Kosma Zworykin - one of the inventors of television [ [http://inventors.about.com/od/xzstartinventors/a/Zworykin.htm Vladimir Zworykin - Electronic Television System ] ]

ports

*Sue Bird (1980 - ) professional women's basketball player [ [http://www.wnba.com/features/bird_russia_4.html] "Some background - my father's name is Herschel Bird and his family is originally from Russia. In fact, our last name is really "Boorda." My great grandfather brought his family through Ellis Island in the early 1900's and we were soon known simply as Bird. This makes me half-Russian (not Czech!). So in my dad's eyes, this gave him a false sense of belonging. Every time I'd say "Dad, stop acting like an American" he would come back with "No one can tell I am not from here" and then attempt to say one of the three Russian words he remembers from his college days. He truly believed that no one would notice, which makes this story even better."]
*Nastia Liukin (1989 - ) gymnast [ [http://www.insidegymnastics.com/news/article.asp?article=040705] "So much has been said about Liukin’s potential it’s hard to believe that the tiny, Russian-born beauty won’t turn 16 until October." [http://www.insidegymnastics.com/news/article.asp?article=woga4] "INSIDE GYM: You were born in the Soviet Union, but you’ve lived in the U.S. since you were two. How much influence does your Russian heritage have on your day-to-day life? LIUKIN: I have to say that I don’t really feel Russian, but I am surrounded by Russian coaches—most of the coaches in our gym are Russian, so I still hear the language all the time. My grandparents are staying with us right now, so I talk Russian to them, and that helps. You know, I’ve never really thought about what my life would have been like if [we’d stayed] in Russia. I’ve been back to visit and I trained in the gym there. I just did a little bit, but it’s a lot different there than it is here."]
*Denis Petukhov - figure skater [ [http://www.isufs.org/bios/isufs00005975.htm] "Russian skater Denis Petukhov" [http://www.usfigureskating.org/Story.asp?id=29035] "Denis Petukhov Becomes A United States Citizen"]
*Sergei Raad - soccer player [ [http://www.cybersoccernews.com/overthere/030801fri.shtml] "Russian-born American Sergei Raad"] [ [http://www.chargers.com/team/roster/igor-olshansky.htm Chargers.com - Team » Roster » #99 Igor Olshansky | DE ] ]

Other

*Sergey Brin - co-founder of Google. He was born in Moscow. [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/D664.html] "Russian immigrant Brin met Page at Stanford grad school..."]
*Oleg Kalugin - former head of KGB operations in the United States [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20030824/ai_n14558425] "Former Russian spy now a proud American"]
*Boris Chaikovsky - founder of Tele-King International [ [http://www.tele-king.com] Founder of Tele-King International ]
*David Sarnoff - founded NBC & RCA [ [http://www.raaad.org/famrusam.php] "Pioneered development of both radio and television broadcasting . . ."]
*Pitirim Sorokin - founded Harvard Sociology Dept 1930

References