Russia

🇷🇺Svetlana Alexievich

Literature

literary realism

b. 1948

"Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone—the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth."

🇷🇺Ruslana Korshunova

"Ruslana Korshunova's death ruled a suicide"

🇷🇺Alexander Bogdanov

Literature

1873–1928

"It seemed to me that in your arms I felt your entire youthful world. Its despotism, its egoism, its desperate thirst for happiness—all of this was in your caresses. Your love is like murder. But – I love you, Lenni."

🇷🇺Dmitri Mendeleev

Science

1834–1907

"The Principles of Chemistry, Vol.2 Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev, George Kamensky, Thomas Atkinson Lawson"

🇷🇺Simon Soloveychik

Philosophy

1930–1996

"To see a man as beautiful – means to make him really beautiful. There is no cunning, no deceit; this happens every time, everyone knows that."

🇷🇺Kliment Voroshilov

Politics

1924–1953

"It was necessary to close the front against Germany and that it depended on us whether it was to be closed or not."

🇷🇺Pyotr Stolypin

Politics

1862–1911

"You, gentlemen, are in need of great upheavals; we are in need of Great Russia."

🇷🇺Vladimir Arnold

Mathematics

1937–2010

"In almost all textbooks, even the best, this principle is presented so that it is impossible to understand." . I have not chosen to break with tradition."

🇷🇺G. I. Gurdjieff

Philosophy

"Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity."

🇷🇺Alexei Navalny

Science

1976–2024

"I think very poorly of United Russia. United Russia is the party of corruption, the party of crooks and thieves. And it is the duty of every patriot and citizen of our country to make sure that this party is destroyed."

🇷🇺Anatoliy Tymoshchuk

Sports

b. 1979

"He talks to the players. He is like a bridge between the manager and the players. Anatoly used to play here, many remember him. He keeps us on our toes," Nicolas Lombaerts on Tymoschuk's role as an assistant, 2017."

🇷🇺Nikita Khrushchev

Politics

1959–2007

"Yes, today we have genuine Russian weather. Yesterday we had Swedish weather. I can't understand why your weather is so terrible. Maybe it is because you are immediate neighbours of NATO."

"What used to be an advantage had quickly turned into a liability, proving once more that in the mountains, as in life, nothing comes easily."

🇷🇺Andrei Lankov

Entertainment

b. 1963

"Right now, no sane and unbiased person would be so stupid as to doubt that the North Korean state is very repressive."

"Lincoln Center Theater Review, Fall 2006"

"US accusations against Russia of violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty are groundless... We await clear evidence and continue to deny any groundless accusations."

🇷🇺Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Literature

1932–2017

"Why is it that right-wing bastards always stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, while liberals fall out among themselves?"

🇷🇺Gleb Pavlovsky

Science

1951–2023

"Other Russia" is a workshop of picking out pick-locks to the real Russia. Have a read of their texts. Only one question is solved there — how to overthrow Putin's system, i.e. to leave all without the country."

🇷🇺Anatoly Karpov

Politics

1951–2019

"People knew about 110 years of chess history. Nowadays, nobody is able to tell you the name of the world champion of 2000."

🇷🇺Aleksey Mozgovoy

Literature

1975–2015

": Today, there is no power - but a dictatorship. But not a military dictatorship and not the proletarian dictatorship. This is the dictatorship of the directors from former times."

🇷🇺Yasha Levine

Journalism

b. 1950

"We never knew what it was like to have the country’s media and political class brand people like us a possible threat. Until now."

🇷🇺Dolph Lundgren

Entertainment

b. 1957

"If you heal yourself you can heal others."

🇷🇺Lev Vygotsky

Psychology

1896–1934

"As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is itself a major source of development."

🇷🇺Sergei Lukyanenko

Literature

b. 1968

"Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy."

🇷🇺Aleksandr Dugin

Philosophy

b. 1962

"Trubetskoi can be termed the Eurasian Marx."

🇷🇺Elena Efimovna Kuzmina

Military

1931–2013

"“The hypothesis of an origin of the Fedorovo type in the Urals has been disputed. The sources for Fedorovo ceramic technology and triangular ornametation are found in the Eneolithic of central and eastern Kazakhstan."

🇷🇺Dmitry Rogozin

Politics

b. 1963

"There is stud "Khrenovskoy" in my former constituency and that stud is older than all of the United States, older than America. Naturally, that's why we have archaic views."

🇷🇺Vladislav Doronin

Business

"In any case, I am usually in bed by midnight."

🇷🇺Mikhail Kalashnikov

Technology

1886–1969

"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence."

🇷🇺Boris Yeltsin

Politics

Liberalism

1931–2007

"I believe in this tragic hour you can make the right choice. The honor and glory of Russian men of arms shall not be stained with the blood of the people."

🇷🇺Vladimir Tatlin

Art

Constructivism

1885–1953

"A union of purely artistic forms for a utilitarian purpose.."

🇷🇺Vasily Grossman

Technology

1905–1964

"I have not read your novel but I have carefully read the reviews of your manuscript, responses to it, which contain many excerpts from your novel. Look how many quotes from them I have written down."

🇷🇺Heydar Aliyev

Politics

1923–2003

"In reality, the Khojali tragedy is one of the greatest human atrocities of the 20th century. Every effort must be made to seek the world community's unbiased and resolute position regarding this genocide."

🇷🇺Mikhail Lermontov

Literature

Romanticism

1814–1841

"Russian ladies, for the most part, cherish only Platonic love, without mingling any thought of matrimony with it; and Platonic love is exceedingly embarrassing."

🇷🇺Marina Tsvetaeva

Literature

modernism

1892–1941

"Freedom! A wanton slut on a profligate's breast!"

🇷🇺Dmitry Medvedev

Politics

b. 1965

"Somebody should be extremely punctual, while somebody else is exhausting all the limits for being late."

🇷🇺Valentina Tereshkova

Politics

b. 1937

"If I had money, I would enjoy flying to Mars... This was the dream of the first cosmonauts. I wish I could realize it! I am ready to fly without coming back."

🇷🇺Mikhail Bulgakov

Literature

prose

1951–1984

"In fact, I'm beginning to fear that this confusion will go on for a long time. And all because he writes down what I said incorrectly."