Discover the notable alumni of Saint Petersburg State University. The list includes people like Katerina Tikhonova, Andrey Arshavin, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Gogol & Pyotr Stolypin. This list of notable alumni is loosely sorted by popularity and has people from different domains of life, such as writers, intellectuals & academics, leaders, miscellaneous and media personalities etc.

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 1 

Ayn Rand

(Writer and Philosopher Known for Her Best-Selling Novels ‘The Fountainhead’ and ‘Atlas Shrugged’)

Birthdate: February 2, 1905

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: March 6, 1982

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American philosopher and writer. Apart from publishing two best-selling novels, Ayn Rand is credited with developing a philosophical system called Objectivism. Over the years, Ayn Rand has been a major influence among American conservatives and libertarians. Some of the famous personalities influenced by her include Amber Heard, Vince Vaughn, Jimmy Wales, Ayelet Shaked, and Mary Ruwart.

 2 

Vladimir Putin

(President of Russia (2000 - 2008, Incumbent Since 2012))

Birthdate: October 7, 1952

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

The current President of Russia, Vladimir Putin is a popular politician, with the highest approval rating of any leader in the world as of July 2020. As a high-level politician who has the support of his citizens, he is a powerful figure in world politics. He has been accused by human rights organizations of persecuting political critics and activists.

 3 

Nikolai Gogol

(Russian Novelist, Short Story Writer and Playwright)

Birthdate: April 1, 1809

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Velyki Sorochyntsi, Ukraine

Died: March 4, 1852

Nikolai Gogol was a Ukrainian author who redefined Russian literature with his novels such as Dead Souls and his short stories such as The Overcoat and Diary of a Madman. Most of his works were influenced by Ukrainian folklore. He was typically fond of the grotesque as a literary element.

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Birthdate: May 23, 1951

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Zlatoust, Russia

Russian chess grandmaster, Anatoly Karpov, was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985, before finally being defeated by Garry Kasparov. With over 160 first-place finishes, Karpov is widely considered one of the greatest players in history. Since his retirement, he has involved himself in several humanitarian causes. He has an extensive stamp collection.

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 5 

Mariya Putina

(Russian Pediatric Endocrinologist and Eldest Daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin)

Birthdate: April 28, 1985

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Maria Vorontsova, the eldest daughter of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is a pediatric endocrinologist and Putin's advisor in genetic engineering. She has also co-written a book on idiopathic stunting in kids. She is currently a PhD candidate at Moscow’s Endocrinology Research Centre and is married to Dutch entrepreneur Jorrit Faassen.

Birthdate: December 9, 1842

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

Died: February 8, 1921

Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin was a passionate advocate of anarcho-communism. He was also an activist, revolutionary, economist, and sociologist. He was arrested and imprisoned for his activism in 1874. However, he managed to escape and lived in exile for over 40 years in different countries across Europe. He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917. 

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Birthdate: October 31, 1892

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

Died: March 24, 1946

Alexander Alekhine was a French and Russian chess player renowned for his imaginative and fierce attacking style. He also possessed great positional and endgame skill, which he used effectively to reign as the World Chess Champion from 1927 to 1935 and then from 1937 to 1946. Also a theoretician, Alexander Alekhine innovated several opening variations, including the Alekhine's Defence.

 8 

Pavel Durov

(French entrepreneur who is best known for being the founder of the social networking site VK and later of Telegram Messenger)

Birthdate: October 10, 1984

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

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 9 

Alexander Kerensky

(Minister-President of the Russian Republic (September 1917 - November 1917))

Birthdate: May 4, 1881

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Ulyanovsk, Russia

Died: June 11, 1970

Alexander Kerensky was a Russian revolutionary and lawyer who played a major role in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Alexander Kerensky is often portrayed in films and TV series. In the 1971 epic historical drama film Nicholas and Alexandra, he was played by John McEnery. In the 2019 series The Last Czars, he was portrayed by Kestutis Cicenas.

Birthdate: March 1, 1956

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Vilnius, Lithuania

Dalia Grybauskaitė became the first female president of Lithuania and the first to be re-elected. Popularly known as Lithuania’s Iron Lady and often compared to Margaret Thatcher, she has also been the UN Commissioner of the Year. A black belt in karate, she has mastery over four languages.

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 11 

Ksenia Sobchak

(Host of the Reality Show 'Dom-2' on the Russian channel TNT)

Birthdate: November 5, 1981

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Ksenia Sobchak is a Russian TV anchor, journalist, actress, socialite, and public figure. The daughter of popular Russian politicians, Sobchak achieved popularity when she started hosting the popular reality TV show, Dom-2. In 2018, at the age of 36, she was chosen as the Civic Initiative's presidential candidate, becoming the youngest presidential candidate in the history of Russia.

 12 

Mariss Jansons

(Conductor)

Birthdate: January 14, 1943

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Riga, Latvia

Died: November 30, 2019

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 13 

Viktor Korchnoi

(Soviet-Swiss Chess Grandmaster)

Birthdate: March 23, 1931

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: June 6, 2016

Viktor Korchnoi was a writer and chess grandmaster. He is widely regarded as one of the best players never to have achieved the World Chess Championship title. He played chess until old age and became the oldest player to be ranked in the top 100 players list when he won the World Senior Chess Championship in 2006 at age 75.

 14 

Julius Martov

(Russian Revolutionary and Prominent Menshevik Leader)

Birthdate: November 24, 1873

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Constantinople, Turkey

Died: April 4, 1923

Russian revolutionary and politician Julius Martov was a prominent leader of the Mensheviks. A close associate of Vladimir Lenin since his initial political career, he later clashed with Lenin’s ideology of limiting party membership to an exclusive group. He spent his finals years in Berlin as an editor of Socialist Courier.

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 15 

Anatoly Sobchak

(First democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg)

Birthdate: August 10, 1937

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Chita, Russia

Died: February 19, 2000

 16 

Dmitry Medvedev

(Prime Minister of Russia from 2012 to 2020 and President of Russia from 2008 to 2012)

Birthdate: September 14, 1965

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, has also been the prime minister and president of Russia. Born to teacher parents, he was an intelligent child and began studying his father’s encyclopedia in third grade. He is known for his support of the nuclear disarmament treaty.

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Birthdate: August 31, 1986

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Dresden, Germany

Katerina Tikhonova is a Russian acrobatic dancer who finished fifth at a world championship event held in Switzerland in 2013. The daughter of Vladimir Putin, Tikhonova serves as director of the National Intellectual Reserve Centre (NIRC) and National Intellectual Development Foundation (NIDF), which are initiatives of Moscow State University.

 18 

Alexander Stepanovich Popov

(Russian Physicist Who Was One of the First Persons to Invent a Radio Receiving Device)

Birthdate: March 16, 1859

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Krasnoturinsk, Russia

Died: January 13, 1906

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist best remembered for his pioneering work in transmitting radio signals. One of the first inventors to come up with a radio receiving device, Popov's work was contemporaneous with the groundbreaking work of Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Popov's life and career inspired the 1949 biographical film Alexander Popov which was directed by Herbert Rappaport.

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 19 

Andrey Markov

(Mathematician)

Birthdate: June 14, 1856

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Ryazan, Russia

Died: July 20, 1922

 20 

Olga Buzova

(Russian Singer and Media Personality)

Birthdate: January 20, 1986

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Height: 5'9" (175 cm)

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 21 

Sergei Ivanov

(Chief of the Presidential Administration of Russia from 2011 to 2016)

Birthdate: January 31, 1953

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russian politician Sergei Ivanov has been the Special Representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin on issues related to the environment, the ecology, and transport, since 2016. He has previously also been the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Russian minister of defense. A polyglot, he can speak Norwegian and French, too.

 22 

Alexander Friedmann

(Physicist and Mathematician Best Known for His Pioneering Theory That the Universe Was Expanding)

Birthdate: June 16, 1888

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia

Died: September 16, 1925

Though born to a ballet dancer father and a pianist mother, Alexander Friedmann grew up to be a talented mathematician and cosmologist. He had served as an aviator during World War I and later also taught. He died of typhoid at age 37 after eating a pear during his honeymoon.

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 23 

Osip Mandelstam

(Poet)

Birthdate: January 14, 1891

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland

Died: December 27, 1938

 24 

Peter Svidler

(Russian Chess Grandmaster and an Eight-Time Russian Chess Champion)

Birthdate: June 17, 1976

Sun Sign: Gemini

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler had started playing chess at age 6. Initially mentored by Andrey Lukin, he later grew up to win the Russian Chess Championship eight times. However, in spite of competing in three World Championship tournaments, he never won the world title. He now appears as a chess commentator.

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 25 

Sergey Nechayev

(Revolutionary)

Birthdate: October 2, 1847

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Ivanovo, Russia

Died: December 3, 1882

 26 

Dmitri Ivanovsky

(Russian Botanist, the Co-Discoverer of Viruses and One of the Founders of Virology)

Birthdate: October 28, 1864

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Gdov, Russia

Died: June 20, 1920

Best remembered for his co-discovery of viruses during his research on the mosaic disease in tobacco, Russian botanist Dmitri Ivanovsky is regarded as one of the pioneers of virology. Interestingly, following his discovery, he didn’t focus on virology much and taught plant anatomy and physiology instead.

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 27 

Viktor Shklovsky

(Novelist)

Birthdate: January 24, 1893

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: December 6, 1984

 28 

Nikolay Chernyshevsky

(Critic)

Birthdate: July 24, 1828

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Saratov, Russia

Died: October 29, 1889

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 29 

Boris Grebenshchikov

(Musician)

Birthdate: November 27, 1953

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

 30 

Valentin Glushko

(Engineer)

Birthdate: September 2, 1908

Sun Sign: Virgo

Birthplace: Odesa, Russian Empire

Died: January 10, 1989

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 31 

Aleksandr Ulyanov

(Russian Revolutionary and Elder Brother of Vladimir Lenin)

Birthdate: April 12, 1866

Sun Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Died: May 20, 1887

Russian revolutionary Aleksandr Ulyanov was the elder brother of Vladimir Lenin, who founded the Soviet Union. Though initially not interested in politics, he later became involved in St. Petersburg student politics and was part of a plot to kill Alexander III. He was hanged along with four of his comrades.

 32 

Vladimir Bekhterev

(Russian Neurologist and the Father of Objective Psychology Known for Noting the Role of the 'Hippocampus' in Memory)

Birthdate: January 20, 1857

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Sorali, Russia

Died: December 24, 1927

Neurologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev is best remembered for his research on the brain and conditioned reflexes and for his pioneering research on objective psychology. He taught at institutes such as the University of Kazan and was also known for his rivalry with contemporary Ivan Pavlov.

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 33 

Nikolay Nekrasov

(Poet who Introduced Ternary Meters and the Technique of Dramatic Monologue into Russian Poetry)

Birthdate: December 10, 1821

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Nemyriv, Ukraine

Died: January 8, 1878

Russian poet Nikolay Nekrasov established himself as a successful businessman before stepping into writing. He bought and developed the magazine Sovremennik, or The Contemporary. Most of his poems, such as Red-Nosed Frost, spoke about the misery of the peasant class. He also introduced the dramatic monologue to Russian literature.

 34 

Georgy Chicherin

(Revolutionary)

Birthdate: November 24, 1872

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Tambov Governorate, Russian Empire

Died: July 7, 1936

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 35 

Nikolai Kondratiev

(Russian Economist Known for His Contributions to 'Business Cycle Theory' Known as 'Kondratiev Waves')

Birthdate: March 4, 1892

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Galuevskaya, Russia

Died: September 17, 1938

Russian Soviet economist, statistician and proponent of the New Economic Policy (NEP) Nikolai Kondratiev, one of the early leading figures of Soviet economics, is best remembered for the business cycle theory called Kondratiev waves. Major works of Kondratiev include The Grain Market and The World Economy and its Conjunctures During and After the War.

 36 

Tatyana Kazankina

(Russian Athlete and Olympic Gold Medalist)

Birthdate: December 17, 1951

Sun Sign: Sagittarius

Birthplace: Saratov Oblast, Russia

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 37 

Mikhail Vrubel

(Painter)

Birthdate: March 17, 1856

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Omsk, Russia

Died: April 14, 1910

Mikhail Vrubel was a Russian painter best remembered for his expertise in all genres of art, such as painting, graphics, theatrical art, and decorative sculpture. At the start of the 20th century, his art became an integral part of Art Nouveau. In 1905, Mikhail Vrubel was honored with the title Academician of Painting.

 38 

Svetlana Kapanina

(Pilot)

Birthdate: December 28, 1968

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Shchuchinsk, Kazakhstan

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 39 

Alexei Kudrin

(4th Chairman of the Accounts Chamber)

Birthdate: October 12, 1960

Sun Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Dobele, Latvia

Height: 5'10" (178 cm)

 40 

Diana Arbenina

(Singer)

Birthdate: July 8, 1974

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Vałožyn, Belarus

Height: 5'5" (165 cm)

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 41 

Dmitry Merezhkovsky

(Russian Novelist and Poet)

Birthdate: August 2, 1866

Sun Sign: Leo

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: December 7, 1941

 42 

Valery Durov

(Philologist, Educator)

Birthdate: July 13, 1945

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Height: 5'9" (175 cm)

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 43 

Tatyana Tolstaya

(Writer)

Birthdate: May 3, 1951

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia

 44 

Valery Leontyev

(Soviet-Russian Pop Singer and Actor)

Birthdate: March 19, 1949

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Ust'-Usa, Russia

Valery Leontyev is a Soviet and Russian singer who achieved fame during the 1980s. Counted among the most important artistes of Soviet and Russian music, Leontiev was honored with the People's Artist of the Russian Federation title in 1996. Leontyev is also one of the most decorated artistes and is often referred to as a legend by the Russian media.

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 45 

Ivan Kalyayev

(Poet, Revolutionary)

Birthdate: July 6, 1877

Sun Sign: Cancer

Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland

Died: May 23, 1905

 46 

Vasily Dokuchaev

(Russian Ecologist and Geologist Who Conducted Path-Breaking Research on Soil Science)

Birthdate: March 1, 1846

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Milyukovo, Russia

Died: November 8, 1903

Russian ecologist, geomorphologist, and soil scientist Vasily Dokuchaev initially taught at the University of St. Petersburg and was later associated with the Novo-Aleksandr Institute of Agriculture and Forestry. He developed a soil classification system that explained the 5 factors for soil formation. The city of Dokuchaievsk in Ukraine is named after him.

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 47 

Roy Medvedev

(Political Writer)

Birthdate: November 14, 1925

Sun Sign: Scorpio

Birthplace: Tbilisi, Georgia

 48 

Boris Groys

(Art Critic)

Birthdate: March 19, 1947

Sun Sign: Pisces

Birthplace: Berlin, Germany

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 49 

Galina Starovoytova

(Politician)

Birthdate: May 17, 1946

Sun Sign: Taurus

Birthplace: Chelyabinsk, Russia

Died: November 20, 1998

 50 

Konstantin Ernst

(Producer, Writer)

Birthdate: February 6, 1961

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

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