List of Russian Jews

The Jewish presence in Russia dates back to the 7th century, and a converted Jewish Khazar kingdom sprang up a hundred years later. By the formation of the Soviet Union, there were some 2.5 million Soviet Jews, mostly Ashkenazi. After its collapse, many emigrated to Israel, USA and Germany, though Russia still has one of the larger Jewish populations in the world. The following is a list of some prominent Russian Jews.

Table of contents

1 Politicians 2 Scientists & Academics 2.1 Nobel Prize/Fields Medal Winners 2.2 Others 3 Cultural Figures 4 Authors & Poets 5 Business Figures 5.3 Entrepeneurs 5.4 Oligarchs 6 Sport Figures 6.5 Chess 6.6 Other Sports 7 Miscellaneous

Politicians

• Mikhail Fradkov, Prime Minister (half Jewish)
• Lev Kamenev & Grigory Zinoviev, ruling triumvirate with Stalin
• Sergei Kiriyenko, Prime Minister (half Jewish)
• Julius Martov, Menshevik leader
• Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik politician
• Chaim Weizmann, Zionist leader & Israeli president
• Grigory Yavlinsky, liberal leader (half Jewish)
• Vladimir Zhirinovsky, nationalist (half Jewish)

Scientists & Academics

Nobel Prize/Fields Medal Winners

• Alexei Abrikosov, physics (2003) (half Jewish)
• Zhores Alferov, physics (2000) (half Jewish)
• Il'ja Frank, physics (1958)
• Vitaly Ginzburg, physics (2003)
• Leonid Kantorovich, economics (1975)
• Pyotr Kapitsa, physics (1978) (half Jewish)
• Maxim Kontsevich, fields medal (1998) (unconfirmed)
• Simon Kuznets, economics (1971)
• Lev Landau, physics (1962)
• Wassily Leontief, economics (1973) (half Jewish)
• Gregori Margulis, fields medal (1978)
• Elie Metchnikoff, medicine (1908) (half Jewish)
• Ilya Prigogine, chemistry (1977)
• Igor Tamm, physics (1958)
• Selman Waksman, medicine (1952)
• Efim Zelmanov, fields medal (1994)

Others

• Zora Arkus-Duntov, father of the Chevrolet Corvette
• Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method
• Izrail Gel'fand, mathematician
• Mikhail Gurevich, co-inventor of the MiG
• Roman Jakobson, linguist
• Solomon Lefschetz, mathematician
• Alexander Luria, neuropsychologist
• Abraham Maslow, psychologist
• Ayn Rand, philosopher
• Anatol Rapoport, game theorist
• Lev Vygotsky, developmental psychologist
• Vladimir Zworykin, pioneer of television technology

Cultural Figures

• Vladimir Ashkenazi, pianist (half Jewish)
• Sergei Eisenstein, director (half Jewish)
• Emil Gilels, pianist
• Evgeny Kissin, pianist
• Serge Koussevitzky, conductor
• El Lissitzky, designer
• Alla Nazimova, actress
• Yuri Norstein, animator
• Maya Plisetskaya, ballerina
• Anton Rubinstein, pianist
• Alfred Schnittke, composer (half Jewish)
• Beverly Sills, opera singer
• Sophie Tucker, singer
• Maxim Vengerov, violinist
• Dziga Vertov, director

Authors & Poets

• Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer
• Isaac Babel, writer
• Saul Bellow, writer, Nobel Prize (1976) (Russian parents)
• Joseph Brodsky, poet, Nobel Prize (1987)
• Ilya Ehrenburg, writer
• Osip Mandelstam, poet
• Boris Pasternak, writer, Nobel Prize (1958)

Business Figures

Entrepeneurs

• Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google (half Jewish)
• Maurice Greenberg, founder of Coleco
• Michael Kogan, founder of Taito
• Rose & Morris Michtom, creators of the Teddy Bear

Oligarchs

• Roman Abramovich, billionaire, owner of Chelsea FC
• Boris Berezovsky, exiled ex-billionaire
• Vladimir Gusinsky, exiled former media tycoon
• Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned oil billionaire

Sport Figures

Chess

• Mikhail Botvinnik, World Champion
• Gary Kasparov, World Champion (half Jewish)
• Viktor Korchnoi, World Championship challenger (half Jewish)
• Alla Kushnir, Women's World Championship challenger
• Vasily Smyslov, World Champion (half Jewish)
• Boris Spassky, World Champion (unconfirmed half Jewish)

Other Sports

• Nikolay Epstein, Soviet hockey coach
• Alexander Gomelsky, Soviet basketball coach
• Maria Itkina, sprinter
• Fania Melnik, discus thrower
• Irina Slutskaya, figure skater (half Jewish)

Miscellaneous

• Fanya Kaplan, would-be assassin of Lenin
• Immanuel Velikovsky, controversial writer on cosmology

See also: List of Jews, List of Jews by country