I am adding Alexandra Kosteniuk, originally from Perm.
Apart from being an absolutely awesome chessmaster, she is cool and has a lot of style. I like her personality that comes out in her blog which I sometimes check. She is definitely a Russian woman to admire!



This thread did not start very well because I accidentally listed an essentially German woman as the most famous Russian woman...
Frankly I was not up to scratch on Catherine the Greats background, she just came to mind as the most famous woman associated with Russia.... I know she was considered to be a successful monark and that there were lots of stories about her. However I should have guessed that like many European monarks her actual background was not from the country she happened to rule... Oh well.

If anyone else can think of any famous Russian women that you want people to know about, please post!