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Lev Gorn was born in 1971 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He is an actor and director, known for For All Mankind (2019), The Americans (2013) and Maniac (2018).- Alexandra Bokova is a Russian-American actress from Stavropol, Russia. Her hometown, once an exile for Russia's progressives such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, is the first in North Caucusus region to establish a Theater- Stavropol Academic Theater of Drama. Her greatest influence is her grandmother Alla Bokova, renowned stage actress and a Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation. Growing up in an artistic environment shaped Alexandra's love and understanding of performing arts. She spent her childhood hosting a children's TV show called Nezhniy Vozrast. As a teenager, Alexandra immigrated to the United States, where she planned to pursue her other passion - working with human rights organizations. After earning a Political Science degree from San Francisco State University, her path lead her back to her artistic roots where she landed the lead in Mermaid Down.
- Actor
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Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Communist Party. He initiated the changes known as "perestroika" and "glasnost".
He was born Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev into a peasant family on March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoe, Stavropol province, Southern Russia. His father, named Sergei Gorbachev, was a tractor driver. His mother, named Maria Panteleyeva, was a peasant. His grandparents were deported and sentenced for nine years under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, for their success in becoming richer independent farmers known as kulaks. Young Gorbachev witnessed the destruction of traditional farming and degradation of villages, that caused massive exodus of people from their land and to gloomy industrial Soviet cities, where they were doomed to become brainwashed by propaganda and live in small flats under restricting political and economic conditions for the rest of their lives. During the Second World War Gorbachev survived the Nazi occupation of his land in Stavropol province in 1942-1943. After the war, Gorbachev chose to remain on his land, although it was now taken by the Communist Government, the ranks of which he would penetrate later. Gorbachev privately described his life and work on a Soviet collective farm as serfdom.
In 1947 Gorbachev shot to fame at the age of 16, after helping his father, a combine harvester operator, to harvest a record crop on a collective farm. For this achievement he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and was promoted to the Communist Party at the age of 21. From 1950 - 1955 he studied law on a State scholarship at Moscow State University. There he met his future wife, Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva (nee Titarenko), they married in September 1953, and their daughter, Irina, was born in January 1957. After a brief stint as a Government Lawyer in Stavropol, Gorbachev made a career as a ranking leader of Komsomol (Union of Young Communists), then as a Communist Party leader of Stavropol province, climbing to the ranks as Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. At that time Gorbachev made his first travels outside of the Soviet Union. While the Soviet leaders were manipulating their own people into submission through fear and control, the West Europeans enjoyed freedom and prosperity that attracted East Germans and other Soviet satellites. Gorbachev learned his first lesson on his tour in East Germany, witnessing their rapid recovery after the Second World War. At the same time, in 1956, Yuri Andropov and Georgi Zhukov led the attack on Hungarian Revolution, and killed thousands of Hungarians who opposed the Soviet-imposed regime. Then Soviet leadership made more aggressive international actions by spreading military support to pro-communist regimes across the world and also by building the Berlin Wall and enforcing Soviet military and political domination in Eastern Europe. These Soviet actions alienated Europeans.
Open political discussions in the Soviet Union were not allowed under threat of prosecution, freedom of speech was never guaranteed, all media was owned and controlled by the Soviet government and independent activity was suppressed, and only some fragmented information was made available to ranking provincial communists, such as Gorbachev. In 1961 he attended the important 22nd Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow, where Nikita Khrushchev announced his Utopian plan to surpass the USA per capita income in 20 years. At the same 22nd Congress, upon Khrushchev's instruction, Gorbachev, among other top communists received a copy of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's anti-Stalin publication "One day of Ivan Denisovich" which criticized the brutality of Gulag prison-camps and the Soviet regime in general. That gave Gorbachev and some other young communists a hope that Khrushchev may change the brutal Soviet regime. However, in 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was arrested and dismissed by pro-Stalin group led by Leonid Brezhnev who eventually established a remake of Stalinism for the next 18 years, albeit in a more grotesque and senile version of Soviet regime. Then Brezhnev's regime crushed the Prague Spring of 1968, fought the Chinese Army over a border dispute in 1969, sent Soviet Tanks and Air Force to Egypt and Syria against Israel in the 1970s, as well as in North Vietnam against the French and Americans. At that time Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa Maksimovna, were allowed to travel to the Western Europe and see the difference between reality in European countries and its distorted depiction by the Soviet propaganda. In 1972 he headed the Soviet official delegation to Belgium, then, in 1974 was made Member of the Supreme Soviet in charge of the Commission on Youth Affairs. During the 1970s Gorbachev enjoyed a highly privileged life of a ranking communist, having many perks such as a villa in a suburb of Moscow, a special limo with a chauffeur and guards, and regular luxurious vacations in Italy and in the South of France, all at the expense of the Communist Party. However, this allowed him to see the striking difference between the quality of life in the Western Europe and gloomy survival of masses in the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev witnessed that people were living hopeless lives having no choice. Workers of collective farms lived without identification documents up until the 1970s. Undocumented citizens at collective farms were disposable. Migrants were used as industrial slaves, for symbolic pay. Wages were set by the state and did not depend on productivity or quality. The economy was governed by the state 5-year plan. This mostly ignored the world and domestic market signals; and lacked the incentives for innovation and efficiency. Teachers were forced to indoctrinate children of all ages from kindergartens through schools and universities. Total control and manipulation was demonstrated twice a year at annual May Day parades and Great Revolution parades on November 7. Military parades were accompanied by marching masses of industrial workers and managers, doctors and scientists, as well as teachers and students from all schools and universities. Exemplary obedient people were rewarded with better food and perks. Taming millions to obedience by fear and hunger led to a massive degradation of human rights, poor spirituality, lack of initiative and creativity, and the decay of public health and vitality. The country of almost three hundred million people was stuck in stagnation, inefficiency, and apathy. Brighter students were taken into the military-industrial system, brainwashed and locked there for life with little choices. Opponents were locked in the "Gulag" prison-camps, mostly in Siberia. There, millions were working various hard labor jobs in grand-scale economic projects; like the Baikal-Amur railroad (BAM). Since the Communist Revolution of 1917, people had been continually stripped of their land and property. Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev the destruction of independent farming was finalized. By the 1960s and 1970s massive poverty and anxiety pushed millions to migrate to cities. Mass-construction of cheap panel buildings was lagging behind. Millions of families shared poor housing, hostels, and dorms in cities. Villages were deserted. Collective farms decayed. Agricultural output fell below the levels of the Tsar's age. Tens of thousands of churches and monasteries were destroyed across the Soviet Union, and many churches were replaced by offices and halls of the Communist party. Spiritual life was dominated by ugly propaganda. People were blinded by fear and pushed to wrong values. Meaningful human virtues were replaced with fake ideals of ruthless Soviet communism. Propaganda idolized members of the Soviet Politburo, their portraits were decorating every school and factory along with countless portraits and statues of the first Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
In November 1979 Gorbachev was promoted Candidate Member of the Politburo, then less than a year later, he was made Full Member of Politbureau, the highest rank in the Communist Party which gave him unlimited direct access to Brezhnev and Andropov. The latter also promoted Gorbachev to sub for him at several Politburo meetings, and gave him a huge power in decision-making. Gorbachev developed a personal friendship with another Politburo member, Eduard Shevardnadze, and the two were vacationing together at the prestigious Black sea resort of Pitsunda. At that time the invasion of Afghanistan, ordered by senile Brezhnev in 1979, seriously undermined international credibility of the Soviet Union. Andrei Sakharov wrote an open letter to Brezhnev calling for a stop to the war. 50 nations boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Crackdown on intellectual freedom and human rights included the use of psychiatric terror, arrests, and the exile of dissidents. The head of the KGB Yuri Andropov declared Andrei Sakharov the "enemy No. 1." Sakharov was forcefully exiled from Moscow to the militarized 'closed' city of Gorky. He was placed under tight surveillance and restricted from any contacts. His wife was also under tight surveillance. By his 70th birthday Brezhnev's health declined dramatically; but he made himself a Generalissimus Marshal of the Soviet Union, similar to that of Joseph Stalin. Brezhnev accepted over 200 decorations and awards, including awards from all pro-Soviet governments, except China. Brezhnev accepted countless expensive gifts and amassed a collection of vintage cars and other bribes. His personal vanity and behavior was replicated at all levels of the Communist Party and led to massive corruption. The old Brezhnev lost his acting abilities and couldn't even read the script. Massive disillusionment was reflected in cynical jokes about the Soviet life. The ugly reality in the Soviet Union was reflected in its senile leader. Gorbachev saw that outdated economic and political system in the Soviet Union was doomed, but propaganda was still brainwashing the minds of millions, because it was controlled by the privileged few top communists who lived in denial of the big reality.
The youngest Politburo Member, Mikhail Gorbachev, was contemplating reforms. Leonid Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982, and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov who died just 16 months later. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, who died in just 13 months. In 1983 Politbureau member Rashidov committed suicide, then, in 1984 the powerful Defence Minister Ustinov died. While the Soviet Union was in a dying mode, the real world was rapidly growing into computer age that reshaped global community. The rigid Soviet System was incompatible with the constantly innovating world. USSR failed to respond to rapidly changing reality and alienated forward-thinking people even in the pro-Soviet countries. During the early 1980s Soviet Politbureau was torn between two viciously fighting groups of Communists, one was made of the old hard-liners led by Andrei Gromyko, the apprentice of Joseph Stalin. The other, pro-democracy group, was made of the forward-thinking members of the Politbureau who chose Gorbachev as their leader along with Aleksandr Yakovlev who was the brain behind Gorbachev's moves. With Gorbachev's support Yakovlev managed to change all hard-liners in the Soviet media and propaganda system. In March 1985 Gorbachev was made the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, becoming the first Soviet leader to have been born after the disastrous Russian Revolution of 1917. He announced reforms called 'perestroika' (aka.. restructuring) and 'glasnost' (aka.. opening up), and lifted the walls of propaganda and denial. However, Gorbachev's first reform on regulations related to manufacturing and trade of alcohol became an economic disaster, causing a serious economic damage to the Soviet Union's State budget with annual losses exceeding tens of billions of dollars. Although his reforms were supported by public, many communist hard-liners openly opposed Gorbachev. Eventually, by the late 1980s Gorbachev's push for economic liberalization resulted in emergence of co-operatives and other forms of independent businesses, making the movement to freedom irreversible.
In December of 1986, Gorbachev personally contacted Andrei Sakharov in his exile. Gorbachev ordered that the KGB should release Sakharov and return him to Moscow. Back in Moscow Sakharov continued his work as a humanitarian. A few months before his death, he was elected as a representative of the Academy of Sciences to the Supreme Soviet in 1989. Sakharov showed to the World what an independent thinker can do by going to the extremes of science. He invented a bomb that could bring the most horrible extermination of life, and then took a stand to ban his own invention for the salvation of planet Earth. Gorbachev had important meetings with Ronald Reagan culminating in their summit in Reikjavik, Iceland, and leading to a more stable political and military situation in the world, that resulted in reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989. At that time the Soviet hard-liners criticized Gorbachev's international moves, saying that he was not a leader, but rather a follower of Ronald Reagan's instruction: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall" when the state of world affairs did not allow Gorbachev to disobey without a risk of losing his face. He also followed recommendations by Margaret Thatcher on opening the "Iron Curtain" to allow the Russian people to see the world and learn about the diverse international reality and travel freely on their own. A first, Gorbachev skillfully used hidden buttons within the rigid structure of the Soviet power tainted by the long tradition of obedience, fear and intimidation, which was installed by dictator Joseph Stalin within the ranks of Communist bureaucracy. That fear of the man in Kremlin served Gorbachev's plans well, as he managed to overcome the resistance of hard liners in ending the ruling powers of the Communist Party. Soon Gorbachev began giving away many power buttons in Moscow, which allowed his rivals to gain strength and independently form opposition groups. Andrei Gromyko, the last living member of Joseph Stalin's old Politbureau, had criticized Gorbachev's methods as "weak leadership" and also said "He (Gorbachev) is unfit for the Hat" (where the Hat means Kremlin, or an allusion to the Tsar's crown of power). Such criticism was ignored by most of the younger members of the Communist Politbureau and Central Committee, because weak central leadership allowed provincial bosses to privatize state property at a fraction of its real value.
Gorbachev replaced his hard-line critic Andrei Gromyko with Eduard Shevardnadze as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, and both Gorbachev and Shevardnadze pushed for international détente and withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. In another effort to add weight to his gradually eroding power, in March of 1990 Gorbachev updated his official title by adding a newly created post as President of the Soviet Union, albeit he was not really a democratically elected president. He surrounded himself with the political council of 15 top politicians, but he was lacking the grass-roots connections with masses and mid-level bureaucracy across the country. At that time Gorbachev began to experience powerlessness in his efforts to change the gigantic Soviet system, he was known for expressing his powerlessness by using profanities and anger at his meetings with the ranks of Soviet Government and industrial leaders. Gorbachev was facing an impossible task of modernizing the brittle structure of the Soviet Communism, especially the massive and inefficient Soviet military-industrial complex where opposition to reforms was the most organized, and inefficiency was dissembled as a military secret, like a catch-22, thus making it unreformable. Gorbachev himself was still perceived as the Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, and that stigma became the weakest part of his image in the eyes of many open-minded and quickly learning people in the Soviet Union. His effort to gain political weight by adding a figure of Vice-President of the Soviet Union had failed and soon backfired. Gorbachev's fatal mistake was letting the Members of Politbureau to chose the Vice-President of the Soviet Union behind closed doors in Kremlin; the "chosen" one was a career communist Gennadi Yanayev who would very soon betray Gorbachev during the coup.
Eventually Gorbachev became overshadowed by a much stronger figure of Boris Yeltsin, who gained more popular support by pushing further economic and political reforms, and also criticized Gorbachev's manner of restructuring of the Soviet system as slow, indecisive and inefficient. The rivalry between two former Communist comrades ended in the August 1991 coup, when still powerful KGB and Soviet Army leaders tried to take the power away from both Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Their coup failed just a couple days later, after the entire country watched Gennady Yanayev and his coup members on TV. "Let me say that Mikhail Gorbachev is now on vacation. He is undergoing treatment, himself, in our country. He is very tired after all these years and he will need time to get better." said Gennadi Yanayev before the cameras, and his hands were visibly trembling from fear. Gorbachev's disappearance during the coup was also seen as his grave weakness. Boris Yeltsin disposed his Communist ID card in front of the cameras and publicly denounced Gorbachev. Then all ranks of communists deserted the Communist Party in a massive exodus, and that was the end of the Soviet Union. All regional leaders were anxious to rule as presidents of their own independent states, and Yeltsin was already elected the president of Russia, the biggest part of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin met with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus and they made a treaty as independent states. By the end of December 1991 the Soviet Union became obsolete and Gorbachev retired after a formal signing of dissolution of the USSR.
Mikhail Gorbachev is still regarded in the Western world for his input in ending the Cold War and helping the reunification of Germany. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1990) and received numerous international awards, decorations and privileges, such as the Honorary German Citizenship. However, in Russia Gorbachev's political standing failed to gain any substantial public support. He received less than 1% of popular vote in the 1996 presidential elections in Russia, when his former rival Boris Yeltsin was elected for his second presidential term. In 2001 Gorbachev founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia, but later, in 2003, he had resigned from the party leadership and stayed away from most of the current Russian political forces and media. In contrast to Gorbachev's popularity all over the world, he fell in obscurity in Russia, largely because in the new era of the wild Russian capitalism his outdated views and experience became obsolete. Instead he turned to business of giving lecture tours and speeches internationally and selling photo-ops with him for money that goes to humanitarian causes; he also sold his name and image to commercials such as the Pizza Hut and other businesses. He has been running the business of the Gorbachev Foundation, which handles his international appearances, while keeping a low profile in the current political life of Russia. In 2005 he was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for his role in re-unification of Germany. In 2006 Gorbachev underwent a carotid artery surgery in Munich, Germany.- Kira Golovko is a Russian actress of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).
She was born Kira Nikolaevna Ivanova on March 11, 1919, in Essentuki, Stavropol province, Russia. In 1936 - 1937 she studied Russian literature at Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and Arts. In 1938 Golovko made her stage debut as Milk in 'Sinyaya ptitsa' (aka.. The Blue Bird) by Maurice Maeterlinck.
Since 1938 Kira Golovko was a permanent member of the troupe at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). There her stage partners were such renown Russian actors as Olga Knipper-Chekhova, Ivan Moskvin, Nikolay Khmelyov, Alla Tarasova, Anatoli Ktorov, Olga Androvskaya, Angelina Stepanova, Anastasiya Georgievskaya, Mikhail Yanshin, Aleksey Gribov, Boris Livanov, Mikhail Kedrov, Viktor Stanitsyn, Vasili Toporkov, Mark Prudkin, Pavel Massalsky, and others. Golovko made acclaimed stage appearances in Anton Chekhov's classic plays, such as Olga in 'Tri Sestry' (aka.. The Three Sisters), and various characters in other plays. She also shone as Dolly in 'Anna Karenina', an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Lev Tolstoy, as Natasha in 'Na dne' (aka.. The Lower Bottoms) by Maxim Gorky, and starred in the title role in 'Maria Stuart'.
In the course of her career Kira Golovko played various roles in 44 plays at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). She also worked on stage with the next generations of MKhAT actors, such as Oleg Efremov, Tatyana Doronina, Evgeniy Evstigneev, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Oleg Tabakov, Kristina Babushkina, Alla Pokrovskaya, Olga Barnet, Tatyana Lavrova, Iya Savvina, Nina Gulyaeva, Elena Panova, Darya Moroz, Olga Litvinova, Natalya Rogozhkina, Ekaterina Semyonova, Olga Yakovleva, Raisa Maksimova, Irina Miroshnichenko, Evgeniya Dobrovolskaya, Anastasiya Voznesenskaya, Andrey Myagkov, Stanislav Lyubshin, Vladimir Kashpur, Vladlen Davydov, Viktor Sergachyov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Evgeniy Kindinov, Vladimir Krasnov, Sergei Desnitsky, Dmitriy Nazarov, Sergey Sazontev, Avangard Leontev, Igor Vasilev, Igor Vernik, Sergei Sosnovsky, Mikhail Porechenkov, Konstantin Khabenskiy, Valeri Khlevinsky, Aleksei Agapov, Valeriy Troshin, Mikhail Trukhin, Eduard Chekmazov, Aleksey Kravchenko, and Evgeniy Mironov among others. During the 2000s Golovko made appearances Milonova in 'Les' (aka.. The Forest) by Aleksandr Ostrovskiy, and as Assunta opposite Irina Miroshnichenko in 'Tatuirovannaya Roza' (aka.. The Rose Tattoo) by Tennessee William, directed by Roman Viktyuk.
Kira Golovko was designated People's Actress of Russia (1957). She was awarded the Stalin's Prize (1947), and received numerous decorations from the Soviet and Russian governments. She is living in Moscow, Russia. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer who was imprisoned for his criticism of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and later exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile.
He was born Aleksandr Isaakovich Solzhenitsyn on December 11, 1918, in Kislovodsk, Southern Russia. He was born six months after the tragic death of his father, who was an Army artillery officer. His mother spoke English and French, she encouraged Solzhenitsyn's interest in literature and science. Since 1937 he was writing chapters for his book about the First World War. In 1936-1941 he studied at the Rostov State University, graduating with degrees in mathematics and physics. In 1939- 1941 he also took correspondence courses in literature from the
During the Second World War Solzhenitsyn served as an artillery captain in the Red Army. He was involved in major battles at the front as a commander of an artillery unit, and was twice decorated for courage. In February of 1945 he was fighting against the Nazis on the territory of East Prussia. There he was arrested by the Soviet secret service, because they opened all his private letters and found one line critical of Joseph Stalin. Solzhenitsyn was tried in his absence by a three-man tribunal of the Soviet security police and was sentenced to 8 years of prison just for describing Joseph Stalin as a "man with mustache" in a private letter to a friend.
Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years in Soviet Gulag prison-camps. There he was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach. He was forced to work as a miner, a bricklayer, a foundry-man, and as a mathematician. His mathematical skills really saved his life, because he was released from prison-camp and was eventually used in the secret "sharashka" prison-camp for scientists. After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 he was sent to a Tashkent hospital for tumor removal and radiation therapy. He described his experience of the treatment and recovery from cancer in his novel 'Cancer Ward'. Solzhenitsyn was secretly writing a thorough account of his life in prison-camps. That became the content of his first official publication in 1962. He gave Aleksandr Tvardovsky his autobiographical story 'One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' which was allowed for publication after personal permission from Nikita Khrushchev. That one sensational publication gave Solzhenitsyn a brief chance to publish one more small work during the "Thaw" that was initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.
In 1964 Nikita Khrushchev was dismissed by Leonid Brezhnev and neo-Stalinist hard liners. Solzhenitsyn fell under suspicion and was in danger again. At that time he took a risk and arranged that his manuscripts of autobiographical books 'First Circle' and 'Cancer Ward' were secretly smuggled out of the Soviet Union, and published in the West. But at home, his writings were confiscated by the KGB in 1965 and banned. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but could not go outside of the Soviet Union, and could not receive the award until several years later. Meanwhile he was wanted by the KGB, because he was officially restricted from being in Moscow and was secretly living in the dacha of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya.
Solzhenitsyn was one of the leading dissidents in the Soviet Union, and was active against the Soviet Communist regime. His main work 'Gulag Archipelago' (1973), being inspired by the academic work of Anton Chekhov titled 'Island of Sakhalin' (1895). After the publication of 'Gulag Archipelago' abroad in 1973, he was arrested again, and charged with "anti-Soviet" treason, then exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. He lived mostly in Cavendish, Vermont, USA, until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then he was invited by the new Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his Russian citizenship was restored. Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia in 1994 and was granted a suburban house in Moscow. His wife and three sons remained American citizens.
Back in Moscow, Solzhenitsyn enjoyed full recognition and wide publication of all his works. He was an active and important figure in Russian society, because of his independent position and sharp criticism of the declining state of affairs in Russia. He refused to take award from the Russian president Boris Yeltsin. His weekly TV show was canceled. His provocative and controversial two-volume history of Russian-Jewish relations ignited debates, which included little praise, but substantial criticism from both sides. His autobiographical novel 'First Circle' was made into a TV-movie and shown on the Russian national TV in 2006.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died at age 89, on August 3, 2008, at his home near Moscow. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia, especially among the Russian conservatives and Orthodox Christians. Solzhenitsyn received a state funeral and was laid to rest in Donskoy Convent cemetery in Moscow, Russia. - Writer
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Semyon Slepakov was born on 23 August 1979 in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He is a writer and producer, known for House Arrest (2018), Univer. Novaya obschaga (2011) and Ozabochennye (2015).- Lyubov Rumyantseva was born on 18 April 1943 in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Alpiyskaya ballada (1966), Mirovoy paren (1972) and Annychka (1969). She died on 18 November 2020 in Minsk, Belarus.
- Yuri Andropov was born on 15 June 1914 in Nagutskaya, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Soluno-Dmitrevskoye, Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He died on 9 February 1984 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
Lyudmila Kasyanova was born on 10 December 1936 in Yessentuki, Stavropol Krai, Russia, USSR. She was an actress, known for Don Kikhot (1957), Solange Leben in mir ist (1965) and Trotz alledem! (1972). She died on 2 January 2020 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Actress
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Sasha Kolos is a singer-songwriter, actress and dancer based in Los Angeles, California. Hailing from Stavropol, Russia, the multi-talented artist began dancing and singing at a very young age. Sasha decided to move to LA at age 17 to pursue acting and music. Her acting career took off quickly, while studying at the New York Film Academy (LA). Beginning with short films, Sasha landed her first lead role in a feature film ("Silent Screams") in 2013.
Music has always been a big part of Sasha's life. Growing up she listened to Queen, The Beatles, Scorpions and Nirvana. Inspired by music icons, she started writing her own songs. Sasha consistently creates catchy lyrics based on her own personal experiences. As an artist she expresses herself through heartfelt lyrics, sharing her passion through art with every project she's a part of.
2014 was a big year in music for the singer. She wrote and recorded her first single "You Don't Know". On December 19th, the debut track went live on iTunes and Amazon and premiered at indie radio stations in the UK and USA (XRP, KSCR and many more). On the heels of the song's success and overwhelming support from listeners, Kolos completed shooting a music video and launched an IndieGoGo campaign for her first official four song EP.- Elena was already a world-class pairs skater by the age of 15, skating for Latvia with Oleg Shliakhov. In January of 1996, Shliakhov's skate struck her in the head during practice and the blade penetrated her skull. Elena made her return to the ice later that year with Anton Sikharulidze. After less than a year together, they were European medalists. In 1998, Elena and Anton won the Olympic silver medal and the world championships.
- After getting his college degree in Oriental languages (St Petersburg Univ., 1907), Ilya Surguchev became a writer who attracted the attention of the famous Maxim Gorky (Gor'kii). Through his "Znanie Press", Gorky helped to get Surguchev's first stories and first novel ("The Governor," 1912) published. Surguchev's biggest success came when he was only 34, with his stage play "Autumn Violins" (performed at the Moscow Art Theater, 1915). Like several other successful creative people, Surguchev left Russia after the Communist Revolution, and lived the rest of his days (1920-1956) in Western Europe, where he continued to write and publish, although not with the same success as the romantic drama "Violins" back in the teens. That hit stage play was translated to English & published in New York (entitled simply "Autumn," 1924), although apparently not performed on Broadway or filmed at that time. Surguchev earned some money from the film industry (Fox Studio) in 1935, when he contributed to the script of "Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" with Ronald Colman. This apparently attracted the attention of Fox Studio's famous Russian-born actor-director Gregory Ratoff (Grigorii Ratov or Baratov), who collaborated with British writer Margaret Kennedy to do another English adaptation of the Russian play "Autumn Violins" in the late 1930s. Ratoff's version, however, was laid aside due to WW2, and it was not until 1949 that Ratoff finally converted it to film, when he had left Fox Studio and was working abroad. This time Surguchev's romantic drama "Autumn Violins" was completely retitled as "That Dangerous Age," starring Myrna Loy and Roger Livesey. When Ratoff-Surguchev's film was later imported to the US, it was re-re-titled, as "If This Be Sin"! But so long as Surguchev was paid for his literary contribution, 34 years after he'd written it, perhaps he did not complain too much...
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Aleksy Awdiejew was born on 18 July 1940 in Voroshilovsk, RSFSR, USSR [now Stavropol, Russia]. He is an actor and composer, known for Europa Europa (1990), Pulkownik Kwiatkowski (1995) and Ekstradycja (1995).- Director
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Sergey Komarov was born on 21 February 1964 in Lermontov, Stavropol Krai, USSR [now Lermontov, Stavropol Krai, Russia]. Sergey is a director and writer, known for The Talk (2011), Eti Glaza Naprotiv (2016) and Odin den (2008).- Nikolai Konovalov was born on 16 July 1885 in Georgiyevsk, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Spring (1947), Spring Song (1941) and Muzykalnaya istoriya (1940). He died on 16 April 1947 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Anatoliy Toropov was born on 14 June 1928 in Pyatigorsk, North Caucasus Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Khmuryy Vangur (1959), Severnaya povest (1960) and Ugryum-reka (1969). He died on 25 July 2019.
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Aleksey Shipenko was born on 3 October 1961 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR. He is a writer and actor, known for Globo de Fogo, December and Suzuki (2008).- Costume Designer
- Make-Up Department
Maria Stepanova was born on 23 February 1979 in Mikhaylovsk, Stavropol Krai, USSR [now Russia]. She is a costume designer, known for Classmates (2011) and Cold War (1998).- Anna Kalashnikova was born on 13 June 1984 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She is an actress, known for Amazonki (2011), Pust govoryat (2005) and Zvyozdy soshlis (2017).
- Actor
- Producer
Ivan Solovyov was born on 7 April 1910 in Pyatigorsk, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was an actor and producer, known for Admiral Ushakov (1953), Karavan smerti (1992) and Attack from the Sea (1953). He died on 3 December 1982 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].- Anna Ovsyannikova was born on 24 February 1947 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She is an actress, known for Babusya (2003), Iskushenie B. (1991) and In That Land... (1998).
- Sound Department
Yuri Sayadyan was born in 1935 in Pyatigorsk, North Caucasus Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. Yuri is known for Ktor me yerkinq (1980), The Color of Pomegranates (1969) and Baghdasare bazhanvum e knojits (1977). Yuri died on 20 December 2009 in Yerevan, Armenia.- Anton Kocharian was born on 23 April 1991 in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Andrey Korytko was born on 8 July 1987 in Stavropol region, Russia. He is a director and writer, known for Freedom (2015), Yardy (2020) and Yards.doc (2017).- Born on January 10, 1967 in Stavropol. In 1995 he graduated from VGIK (acting and directing workshop Solovyov). Filmed in Films: In a foreign land (2018), Hornet's Nest (2016), Teacher in Law. Return (2013), Delta (2013), Urban spies (2013, MosGas (2012), Karpov (2012), Without a trace (2012), Hour Volkova-5 (2011), Forester (2011), Vendetta in Russian (2010 ), Volkova Hour (2007), Hello, we are your roof! (2005), Airport (2005), Operational alias (2003), No More Mr. Nice Guy (1993) and many others.
- Actor
- Director
Janis Politov was born October 9, 1981 in the town of Yessentuki.
In 2002-2003 he studied at the "TV School Ostankino ", as a television radio host.
In 2007 he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), acting department. His professor was the People's Artist of Russia - Shilovsky Vsevolod Nikolaevich. Later he was working in the theater, "The Cherry Orchard" (2007) under the leadership of A.Vilkina, and the Moscow Drama Theater under the direction of Armen Jigarkhanyan. (2008).
Since 2009, he is a host of the children's family education channel "My Joy" in the program "The Academy of Sciences of entertaining. Physics".- Angelina Chernova was born on 27 December 1973 in Kislovodsk, Stavropol Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She is an actress, known for Are (2005), 8 ½ $ (1999) and Gena Beton (2014). She has been married to Roman Kachanov since 2004. They have two children.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Anastasiya Vyadro was born on 29 January 1989 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR. She is an actress, known for Ivan Vasilievich menyaet vsyo (2023).- Writer
- Actor
Arthur Adamov was born on 23 August 1908 in Kislovodsk, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was a writer and actor, known for Professor Taranne (1987), Teatterituokio (1962) and Teatro de siempre (1966). He was married to Jacqueline Autrusseau. He died on 15 March 1970 in Paris, France.- Actor
- Director
Yuriy Tomoshevskiy was born on 11 August 1956 in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai, USSR. He was an actor and director, known for Vladimir Svyatoy (1993), Kazhdyy desyatyy (1984) and S tekh por, kak my vmeste (1983). He died on 5 May 2018 in Germany.- Varvara Shurkhovetskaya was born on 17 December 1913 in Pyatigorsk, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. She was an actress, known for Day lapu, drug! (1967). She died on 5 May 2017 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
- Producer
- Actress
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Anastasia Buterina was born on 19 September 1989 in Mineralnye Vody, Stavropol Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She is a producer and actress, known for The Intersection, THE FORT (2018) and Penny (2018).- Lyudmila Konyaeva was born on 26 July 1968 in Stavropol territory, the village of Aleksandrovskoye, Russia. She is an actress, known for The Birth of Music (2010), Dreams of the Past (2022) and The Daddy's Meat (2004).
- Production Designer
- Art Director
- Writer
Valentin Konovalov was born on 13 April 1930 in Pyatigorsk, North Caucasus Krai, RSFSR, USSR [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was a production designer and art director, known for Po glavnoy ulitse s orkestrom (1986), Wartime Romance (1983) and Vernost (1965). He died on 3 June 1996.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
Mihailo Ivanjikov was born on 19 September 1904 in Georgiyevsk, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Put dzinova (1940), Tito u Cehoslovackoj i Poljskoj (1946) and Major Bauk (1951). He died on 7 September 1968 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia [now Serbia].- Maksim Grekov was born on 11 December 1922 in Stavropol, RSFSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Gorod na zare (1959), Kak Dzhanni popal v ad (1956) and Meksikanets (1956). He died on 20 February 1965 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Nikolai Valyano was born on 12 May 1903 in Stavropol-Kavkazsky, Stavropol uyezd, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Stavropol, Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Granitsa (1935), Sentimentalnyi Roman (1976) and Tri tolstyaka (1966). He died on 5 September 1980 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].
- Art Department
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Konstantin Sharkov was born in 1979 in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He is an actor, known for Deadline (2004), Dabl trabl (2015) and Obstoyatelstva (2009).- Viktoriia Sainova was born on 19 November 1991 in Stavropol, Russia. She is known for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023), Botan i superbaba (2022) and 97 Minutes (2023).
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Actor
Grigory Sarkisov was born on 9 July 1902 in Pyatigorsk, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire [now Stavropol krai, Russia]. He was an assistant director and director, known for Pluzum (1960), Harut (1933) and The New Teacher (1939). He died in 1964 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR [now Armenia].- Boris Chirskov was born on 23 August 1904 in Sandata, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Rostov Oblast, Russia]. He was a writer, known for The Turning Point (1945), Barer neizvestnosti (1962) and Syostry (1957). He died on 22 June 1966 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].
- Director
- Writer
Vitali Dmitrievich Golovin was born into the family of a famous Russian actor. His father, Dmitri Golovin, was a leading Opera soloist of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and an Honorable Actor of Russia. Vitali Golovin was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied as a pianist and majored as an Opera Director. The Golovins family were friends with singer Feodor Chaliapin Sr. and director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Meyerhold and Golovin were neighbors in the prestigious building No. 12 on Bryusovsky (now renamed Nezhdanovoi) Street in Moscow, and both families were prominent in the Moscow intellectual elite.
Massive repressions and executions of innocent people surged during the 1930s under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. In 1939 Meyerhold's wife, actress Zinaida Raikh, was found dead. In 1940 Vsevolod Meyerhold was executed on political charges. In 1943 Vitali Golovin and his father were falsely accused of murder of Meyerhold's wife and both were arrested. The real reasons for their arrest were political. Golovin's father was accused of giving performances at the Paris Opera when Denikin and other prominent anticommunist figures were in the audience. Additional accusation was that Vitali Golovin and his father were telling political jokes. They were exiled in Gulag prison camp in Siberia. There, in the prison camp, they assembled a group of exiled actors, and started a theater of prisoners and performed for prisoners.
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 some efforts were made to liberate people in the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev denounced the crimes and dictatorship of Stalin in his secret speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956. Later Vitali Golovin and his father were cleared of all charges. They were rehabilitated in their rights to return to Moscow and to comeback to their professional careers.- Lev Rudin was born on 27 October 1974 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR.
- Anatoli Gorlo was born on 7 July 1940 in Budennovsk, Stavropol, USSR. He was a writer, known for Koren zhizni (1977), Zhenshchina v belom (1981) and Chyornyy koridor (1988). He died on 1 April 2014.
- Arkadi Perventsev was born on 26 January 1905 in Nagut, Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire [now Nagutskoye, Stavropol Krai, Russia]. He was a writer, known for Tretiy udar (1948), Zheleznyy potok (1967) and Kochubey (1958). He died on 30 October 1981 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Anna Baydavletova was born on 26 November 1992 in Stavropol, Russia. She is an actress, known for Ranetki (2008), Ranetki live (2009) and Premiya Muz-TV 2009 (2009).
- Aleksandr Mikhaylushkin was born on 1 September 1943 in Stavropol, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Odnazhdy dvadtsat let spustya (1981), Sadis ryadom, Mishka! (1978) and Pod kupolom tsirka (1989). He died on 28 October 2010 in Moscow, Russia.