Politics & Public Figures

Antony Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State, rooted in Kyiv

Bernie Sanders

U.S. Senator shaped by a father's flight from empire

Boris Johnson

UK PM with roots in the Russian Empire

Chrystia Freeland

Canada's deputy PM, shaped by Soviet Ukraine

David Ben-Gurion

Israel's founder, born in Płońsk, Russian Empire

Elena Kagan

First female Solicitor General, SCOTUS Justice

Golda Meir

Israel's Iron Lady, born in Kyiv

Michael Bloomberg

NYC mayor, billionaire, grandson of a Russian émigré

Michael Ignatieff

Canadian statesman shaped by imperial Russian exile

Natan Sharansky

Soviet dissident who defied the KGB for Israel

Nick Clegg

UK Deputy PM with Russian imperial roots

Adam Schiff

California senator who rose through federal law.

Alexander Berkman

Russian-born anarchist who attempted to assassinate a steel baron and shaped American radical politics

Alexander Litvinenko

The spy who came in from the cold—and told all.

Alexei Navalny

Russia's most prominent dissident, martyred for truth.

Anna Chapman

Russia's most glamorous Cold War ghost

Ariel Sharon

From Brest-Litovsk roots to Israel's Iron Wall.

Avigdor Lieberman

Soviet-born powerbroker who reshaped Israeli politics.

Barney Balaban

Son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who became president of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years

Ben Bernanke

The economist who kept the world from the abyss.

Bill Browder

Grandson of a Communist, foe of the Kremlin

Chaim Weizmann

Chemist from Pinsk who became the first President of Israel

Claudia Sheinbaum

Mexico's first female president, granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire

Dominic Raab

Former UK Deputy Prime Minister whose father fled Czechoslovakia with Russian imperial roots

Eduard Limonov

Provocateur, punk novelist, and opposition politician born in Dzerzhinsk who made Paris and New York his stage

Eli Cohen

Egypt-born Israeli spy who infiltrated Syria's inner circle and gave Israel victory in the Six-Day War

Emma Goldman

Lithuanian-born anarchist who became the most dangerous woman in America

Ephraim Katzir

Kyiv-born biophysicist who became the fourth President of Israel

George Blake

Dutch-British double agent who spied for the KGB and became one of the Cold War's most notorious moles

Grant Shapps

UK Defence Secretary whose family came from Lithuania and Russia in the Russian Empire era

Gregor Gysi

German leftist politician whose mother was born in St. Petersburg and whose great-grandmother was Russian nobility

Heinrich Zertik

Kazakhstan-born Russlanddeutscher who became a CDU politician representing Germany's Russian-German community

Helen Suzman

Lithuanian-Russian Jewish South African who stood alone in parliament against apartheid for 13 years

Henry Kissinger

German-Jewish refugee who became America's most consequential Secretary of State

Hyman Rickover

Born in Russian-controlled Poland, became the Father of the Nuclear Navy

J.B. Pritzker

Governor of Illinois whose great-grandfather emigrated from Kyiv and built the Hyatt hotel empire

Janet Yellen

US Treasury Secretary and first female Fed Chair — her father emigrated from the Russian Empire's Polish territories

Jared Polis

Governor of Colorado — his grandparents fled Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire to build an American family

Joe Slovo

Born in a Lithuanian shtetl, became the white communist leader of the ANC armed struggle against apartheid

John Key

Former New Zealand Prime Minister whose mother escaped Vienna — her family had Russian Empire roots

Josh Frydenberg

Australian Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader whose mother's family survived the Holocaust in Hungary

Kim Philby

Britain's most damaging spy — the Cambridge Five leader who defected to Moscow in 1963

Konstantin Razvozov

Born in Birobidzhan — the Jewish Autonomous Region — became an Israeli tech entrepreneur

Levi Eshkol

Born in Ukraine, became Israel's third Prime Minister and led the country through the Six-Day War

Madeleine Albright

First female US Secretary of State — her family fled Nazi Europe, with roots in Russian-ruled Jewish communities

Malcolm Rifkind

UK Foreign Secretary with Lithuanian-Jewish roots — one of Britain's most distinguished diplomats

Margaret Hodge

UK Labour politician with Russian-Jewish roots who became the most feared tax investigator in Parliament

Maria Butina

Barnaul-born Russian operative who infiltrated the NRA and US Republican circles — imprisoned then deported

Mark Dreyfus

Australia's Attorney-General whose grandparents fled the Russian Empire to build a new life

Menachem Begin

Born in Brest-Litovsk — from the Irgun to the Nobel Peace Prize and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty

Merrick Garland

US Attorney General and almost-Supreme Court Justice — his grandparents fled the Russian Empire's pogroms

Moshe Dayan

Born in Ukraine, became Israel's most iconic military commander — the eye patch and the Six-Day War

Moshe Sharett

Born in Kherson, Ukraine — Israel's second Prime Minister and first Foreign Minister

Rosa Luxemburg

Born in the Russian Empire's Polish territories — the most important female revolutionary thinker of the 20th century

Rudolf Abel

Born in England to Russian revolutionary parents — became the KGB's greatest illegal spy in America

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Her mother's parents came from Odessa — the Notorious RBG became America's most beloved Supreme Court Justice

Sergei Skripal

Former GRU colonel and double agent poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury — one of the Cold War's most dramatic epilogues

Sergey Shoygu

Tuvan-Russian Defence Minister who oversaw Russia's catastrophic invasion of Ukraine

Shimon Peres

From Pale of Settlement to President of Israel

Simon Wiesenthal

Born in Buchach, Ukraine — Holocaust survivor who hunted Nazis for 50 years and brought Eichmann's colleagues to justice

Simone Veil

Holocaust survivor with Russian Jewish roots who legalised abortion in France and became its moral conscience

Sofa Landver

Born in Leningrad — became Israel's Minister of Immigrant Absorption and voice of the Russian-speaking community

Tal Gilboa

Israeli singer with Romanian-Russian Jewish roots who won The X Factor Israel

Tali Ploskov

Born in Balti, Moldova — Israeli actress and public figure from the Russian-speaking community

Tony Leon

South African opposition leader whose family came from Lithuania and Russia — led the Democratic Alliance against apartheid's legacy

Vitali Klitschko

Born in Kyrgyzstan — WBC heavyweight champion, PhD in sports science, Mayor of Kyiv during Russia's war

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Moscow journalist who survived two poisoning attempts and was imprisoned by Putin — then won the Pulitzer Prize

Volker Beck

Wolfgang Lotz

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

Born in Poltava, Ukraine — became Israel's second President and a founding father of the Jewish state

Yitzhak Rabin

His mother Rosa Cohen came from Mogilev, Belarus — he led Israel to peace and was assassinated for it

Yitzhak Shamir

Born in Ruzhany, Belarus — Stern Gang leader turned Prime Minister, the hardest man in Israeli politics

Yuli Edelstein

Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine — imprisoned by the KGB as a Zionist, became Speaker of the Israeli Knesset

Zalman Shazar

Born in Mir, Belarus — Israel's third President and the poet-statesman of the founding generation

Ze'ev Elkin

Born in Kharkiv — Israeli Cabinet minister and one of the most prominent Russian-born politicians in Israel

Marina Weisband

Kyiv-born political director of Germany's Pirate Party — a new kind of democratic voice

Sergey Lagodinsky

Volgograd-born MEP who became Germany's leading Russian-origin voice in the European Parliament

Paul Ziemiak

CDU politician and former party secretary-general with Eastern European roots

Walter Homolka

Germany's leading liberal rabbi — rebuilt Jewish life in Germany with Russian-Jewish diaspora roots