Thread: who are the most famous?

who, in your opinion are the most famous russian/soviet "celebrities" in your own country?

please, tell if you're russian, of russian (or another soviet republic...) decent or a total foreigner.

in france, i can tell you the most famous writers are, and by miles, tolstoy and dostoievsky (probably followed by soljenytsine and tchekhov).
i guess, pushkin is number in russia.
that's quite interesting to put a finger on those differences.

so, my list for france is:
1-stalin-lenin
2-tolstoy-gorbatchev
3-dostoievsky-eltsin-putin
4-trotsky-peter the great-eisenstein (sergei)-soljenytsine-tchekhov
5-khrouchtchev-brejnev-tarkovsky

note that nobody knows who lomonossov is in france

ps: of course, pop idols of the moment (tatu, kurnikova, safin, a ton of tennis women...) shouldn't appear in the list.

Do you mean: "WHO are the most famous... etc."?

soljenytsine - Owwwch. Can't we all just use one transliteration method?

do the French really write Krouchtchev?

possopo, I believe the list is rather similar for England, except that you should put Roman Abramovich and Anna Kournikova above Lenin and Stalin

Putin would be on the list somewhere.

He has it on the list already.

Originally Posted by possopo

how, in your opinion are the most famous russian/soviet "celebrities" in your own country?

In Australia, the most famous Russian is the world champion light-weight boxer named Costya Tzu. A little about him...

Despite being a successful brawler style fighter in the ring, which is why he is so well followed, he is a friendly and well-spoken person in interviews. Also, the occasional account from my own aquaintances suggests this is true. He came from a poor background in Siberia. He initially learnt to fight well because he was so small, and kept getting robbed. Eventually, he moved to Australia on advice of his boxing manager and posse.
A few years back, he was named in the top ten pound for pound fighters in the world. Fighters in heavier divisions often expressed that he fought well out of his weight class. Anyway, that's our most famous Rusky.

My curiosity has me mentioning this next Russian. Alexander Popov is a swimmer who may have had his residency threatened due to his desire to swim for Russia instead of Australia in either the Barcelona or Atlanta Olympics. I don't remember which country he ended up representing. I think he got the Gold Medal for the 50 metres freestyle, in any case. I've not heard peep from him since, which makes me suspicious about whether he was allowed to live here anymore. I think this business may be responsible for his relatively absent career and his anonymity. Because, I do know that he didn't have the facilities nor financial backing to be a successful swimmer if he was to be deported back to Russia. I'm obviously ambiguous about his story. But one thing I do remember clearly, is feeling that Australia's treatment of him seemed pretty dodgy.

Right now, I'd say Roman Abramovich is probably top of the list.

How sad is that?

kalinka_vinnie wrote:

Do you mean: "WHO are the most famous... etc."?

yes of course, sorry

TATY wrote:

do the French really write Krouchtchev?

khrouchtchev, yes

my vote goes for Alexy Nemov, b/c he it so HOTT!

I would say that the only Russian that the average American knows about is Gorbachev.
http://www.time.com/time/time100/leader ... achev.html

soljenytsine - Owwwch. Can't we all just use one transliteration method?

aren't these differences what makes you interested in languages!? Sohlzjenitsyn hehe

I would say that the only Russian that the average American knows about is Gorbachev.

My stepdad is Turkish, and he calls my boyfriend Gorbachev just because he is Russian. He HATES it, but its hilarious!

Originally Posted by Zhenya

soljenytsine - Owwwch. Can't we all just use one transliteration method?

aren't these differences what makes you interested in languages!? Sohlzjenitsyn hehe

Not really. If I didn't know French, I would have interpreted the "je" as "е".