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Chulpan Khamatova is an internationally acclaimed film and stage actress and well-known philanthropist who left Moscow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and took permanent residency in Latvia.

She was born Chulpan Nailyevna Khamatova on October 1, 1975, in Kazan, Tatarstan Republic, Russia. She is an ethnic Tatar. Her name means "morning star" in Tatar language. Her mother, Marina Galimullovna Khamatova, was an engineer. Her father Nail Khamatov, was also an engineer and a managing director of a firm in Tatarstan, Russia.

Young Khamatova was a professionally trained figure skater. She suffered from a back trauma after a fall on ice; after that she quit figure skating, but continued roller-skating. She also had a gift for mathematics and studied at the prestigious School of Mathematics in Kazan. Then she studied for one semester at business school of Kazan University, but became bored and decided to change her career and entered the Kazan School of Theatre. From 1995-1998 Khamatova studied acting at the State Institute of Theatrical Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, and graduated from the class of Aleksei Borodin in 1998 as an actress.

Khamatova was a third year student at GITIS when she made her film debut in the role of Katya in Vadim Abdrashitov's film Vremya tantsora (1998). She won critical acclaim in Russia after playing a female lead in Country of the Deaf (1998). Soon she gained international attention after starring as Mamlakat opposite Moritz Bleibtreu in Luna Papa (1999) by director Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, which became a "quiet masterpiece" in Germany as well as in Russia. Khamatova's effortless style shines in a variety of her film characters ranging from farcical Lara in Good Bye Lenin! (2003), to charming seductress Nelly in 72 metra (2004), to passionate and sophisticated Lara in Doctor Zhivago, a Russian TV-series based on the eponymous book by Boris Pasternak.

Chulpan Khamatova became one of the most celebrated young actresses of Russian theatre and cinema. She was designated Honorable artist of Russia. In 2004 Khamatova was awarded State Prize by Russian president Vladimir Putin for her achievements in acting. From 1998 to 2022, she was a permanent member of Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow under directorship of Galina Volchek and other directors. Her stage and film partners has been such actors as Sergey Shakurov, Dina Korzun, Valentin Gaft, Inna Churikova, Sergey Garmash, Marina Neyolova, Elena Yakovleva and other notable Russian actors. From 2008 to 2022, Khamatova collaborated with the Theatre of Nations in Moscow. From 1995 to 2002 Khamatova was married to her class-mate, a fellow actor Ivan Volkov, their daughter, named Arina, was born in 2002. She was in relationship with a Russian émigré, actor-dancer Aleksei Dubinin with whom she has daughter Alina, born in 2003. Her third daughter, Iya Shein, was born in 2010. Besides her native Russian and Tatar, Chulpan Khamatova is fluent in German and English.

In 2006, Khamatova was a member of the six-person jury at the 63rd Venice Film Festival headed by French actress Catherine Deneuve. Chulpan Khamatova has been one of the leading figures for charitable causes in Russia. Since 2005 Khamatova and her fellow Russian actors started a charitable initiative "Podari Zhizn" for the benefit of children suffering from leukemia.

In March 2022, Chulpan Khamatova with her three daughters left Russia and gave an interview saying that she has gone into exile in Latvia, because of Russian war in Ukraine. Khamatova bought a house and settled in a suburb of Riga, the capital city of Latvia. In March 2022, Chulpan Khamatova became a permanent member of the troupe at the New Riga Theatre upon invitation from Alvis Hermanis, artistic director of the company. She also made appearances on Latvian TV and made public speeches at anti-war protests in Riga, Latvia. Khamatova is learning Latvian, her three daughters are also adjusting to the new life in Europe.

Elizaveta Maximová is a Czech film and theatre actress, born in Kazan, Russia. Czech Lion Award nomination - Best Supporting Actress (Herec, 2020) Known for Spravedlnost; Altantis, 2003 (Cannes Film Festival - Cinéfondation 2017); Stockholmsky syndrom; Hra ; Herec ; 128k (Cannes Film Festival - Cinéfondation 2019) Graduate of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (2016)

Valery Tscheplanowa was born on 7 March 1980 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is an actress and writer, known for Speed Racer (2008), Doktor Martin (2007) and Son of Sofia (2017).

Aida Garifullina was born on 30 September 1987 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), L'elisir d'amore (2018) and Roméo et Juliette (2018).

Anastasiya Krylova was born on 17 May 1995 in Kazan, Russia. She is an actress, known for Zakryt geshtalt (2022), Muzhskoe slovo (2024) and Ispravlennomu verit (2018).

Born in 1984 in Kazan Russia, Eugenia Volodina is a top fashion model with an infinite amount of enviable campaigns and editorial work to her credit. A flawless beauty with refined features, her grace and delicacy has earned her much popularity in the fashion industry indefinitely congealing her name on top fashion houses and designers lists.

Eugenia's modeling career began when she was only 15 years old. Attending an open call at one of Russia's most prestigious agencies quickly won her amiability which would land her modeling jobs. Her big break however came in 2002 when notable photographer Steven Meisel shot her for Italian Vogue. Shortly thereafter, Eugenia scored a vital and monumental Gucci ad campaign alongside her comrade, Natalia Vodianova.

Rarely giving interviews, little is known about this wonder from the icy banks of the Volga, and there's certainly no telling how far she will go.

Gala Dalí was born on 7 September 1894 in Kazan, Russian Empire [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She was married to Salvador Dalí and Paul Éluard. She died on 10 June 1982 in Port Lligat, Spain.

Evgeny Afineevsky is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated director, whose current documentary, CRIES FROM SYRIA, was an Official Selection at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Afineevsky won Best Director and earned nomination for Best Documentary from the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. He and his film earned IPA Satellite Awards nominations for Best Documentary and Best Song in a Documentary for PRAYERS FOR THIS WORLD, performed by Cher. The Awards Circuit Community Awards nominated his movie as Best Documentary Feature for 2017. He won International Documentary Association's Courage Under Fire Award, earned a PGA Award nomination, won a Humanitas Prize and Cinema for Peace Awards as Most Valuable Documentary of the Year, won 32nd Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, Documentaries Without Borders Film Festival and 51st Houston WorldFest Film Festival, as well as the Overseas Press Club's Peter Jennings Award. Recently Afineevsky and his movie CRIES FROM SYRIA earned 4 Emmy nominations. In creating CRIES FROM SYRIA, Afineevsky spent months on the ground in Syria, using his cameras to craft a comprehensive account of the brutal five-year civil war. He edited hundreds of hours of footage from Syrian activists and citizen journalists, as well as testimony from child protestors, leaders of the revolution, human-rights defenders, ordinary citizens, and high-ranking army generals who defected to tell this important story. Afineevsky built his filmmaking career on providing a first-hand account of conflict, even if it means putting his own life in danger. He earned an Oscar and Emmy nomination in 2016 for WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, which details the 2013 student uprising that transformed into a violent revolution. The film also looked at the shady negotiations between Ukraine's corrupt former president, Viktor Yanukovich, and Russian president Vladimir Putin that kept Ukraine from joining the European Union. Afineevsky's tenacity in his storytelling ultimately attracted the unwanted attention of Russian intelligence agents, who continue to track him and his work. WINTER ON FIRE was an Official Selection of the Venice and Telluride International film festivals. He won the People's Choice Award for the Best Documentary from the Toronto International Film Festival and received Television Academy Honors Award. His documentary work dates back to his life in Russia as a teenager, where he won First Prize for Best Documentary at the Black Sea International Film Festival. He's since continued to demonstrate a commitment documenting important stories of change, but he also has worked in a wide spectrum of genres. From 1994-2000, he produced more than 30 musicals in Israel, including BAT (DIE FLEDERMAUS), GYPSY BARON, VIENNESE BLOOD, NIGHT IN VENICE, SILVA PRINCESS OF CHARDAS, MOZART KONZERTE (with the Prague National Opera Orchestra), among many others. He also directed the Israeli TV series DAYS OF LOVE in 1999. His work in feature films include producing a modern-day adaptation of Dostoyevsky's classic novel CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (2002), which stars Crispin Glover, Vanessa Redgrave, John Hurt, and Margot Kidder; OPEN HEART (2002); AND DEATH GAME (2001), starring Billy Drago and Joe Lara. All three films went on to win accolades from the Houston WorldFest. He wrote and directed the 2009 family comedy starring Lainie Kazan, OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!! (2009), for which he won more than 23 international film awards. He also wrote and directed DIVORCE: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE KIDS' EYES (2014), which provides an educational look at the different situations the children of divorced parents deal with. Afineevsky resides in Los Angeles and is a member of the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Directors Guild of America and Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Feodor Chaliapin Sr. was born on February 13, 1873, in Omet Tawi, near Kazan, Russia. His childhood was full of suffering, hunger, and humiliation. From the age of 10-16, he was working jobs at river ports, restaurants, and tried acting on stage with various Russian provincial troupes. In 1890, Chaliapin was hired to sing in a choir at the Semenov-Samarsky private theatre in Ufa. There he began singing solo parts. In 1891, he toured Russia with the Dergach Opera. In 1892, he settled in Tiflis (Tbilisi), because he found a good teacher, Usatov, who gave Chaliapin free professional opera training for one year. He also sang at the St. Aleksandr Nevsky Cathedral in Tbilisi during the years 1892-1893.

In 1893, Chaliapin began his career at the Tbilisi Opera. On February 4, 1894, he had his final 'Benefith' night. It was a triumphal performance attended by the elite of the city of Tbilisi, where Chaliapin gave a total of 72 Opera performances. In 1894, he moved to Moscow upon recommendation of his teacher Usatov. While working at the Mamontov Opera and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Chaliapin also had regular repertoire performances at the Imperial Mariinsky Opera in St. Petersburg. In 1901 he made his debut at La Scala in the role of Mefistofele in Faust by Jules Massenet under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. His most famous roles were Boris Godunov in the eponymous opera by Modest Mussorgsky, and Ivan the Terrible in the Maid of Pskov by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

In 1896, Mamontov introduced Chaliapin to a young Italian ballerina Iola Tornagi, who came to Moscow for a stage career. She quit dancing and devoted herself to family life with Chaliapin. He was very happy in this marriage. They settled in Moscow and had six children. Their first boy died at the age of 4, causing Chaliapin a nervous breakdown. His son Boris Chaliapin became a famous painter. His son Feodor Chaliapin Jr. became a famous film actor. Their mother Iola Tornagi was living in Soviet Russia until 1959, when Nikita Khrushchev brought the "Thaw". Iola Tornagi was allowed to leave and reunited with her son 'Feodor Chaliapin Jr,' in Rome, Italy.

In 1906, Chaliapin started a civil union with Maria Valentinovna Petzhold in St. Petersburg, Russia. She had three daughters with Chaliapin in addition to 2 other children from her previous family. He could not legalize his second family, because his first wife would not give him a divorce. Chaliapin even applied to the Emperor Tsar Nicholas II with a request of registering his 3 daughters under his last name. His request was not satisfied. Chaliapin was torn between his two families for many years, living with one in Moscow, and with another in St. Petersburg. Finally with Maria Petzhold and their 3 daughters he left Russia for good.

Emigration from Russia in 1922, was painful. Soviet government stripped Chaliapin of all his titles and honors. He settled in Paris, France. There he performed at the Paris Opera, as well as at numerous private concerts for Sergei Diaghilev. His acting and singing was sensational. He made many sound recordings between the 1900 and 1938, of which the 1913 recordings of the Russian folk songs 'Vdol po Piterskoi' and 'The Song of the Volga Boatmen' are best known. The only sound film which shows his acting style is 'Don Quixote' (1933). Chaliapin worked for impresario Sol Hurok and sang for 8 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he had an immense success.

Chaliapin collaborated with Maxim Gorky, who wrote and edited his memoirs, which he published in 1933. Chaliapin revolutionized opera by bringing serious acting in combination with great singing. Chaliapin Sr. was the undisputed best basso in the first half of the 20th century. In the late 1930's he suffered from leukemia and kidney ailment. Feodor Chaliapin Sr. died on April 12, 1938, in Paris, France. He was laid to rest is the Novodevichy Monastery Cemetery in Moscow.

Raoul Ganeev was born on 11 February 1964 in Kazan, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. He is an actor, known for The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and Stargate SG-1 (1997).

Svetlana Smirnova-Martsinkevich is a Russian theater and film actress. She was born in Kazan in a family of artists. Her father held the position of administrator at the Kazan Theater of Young Spectators for many years, and her mother runs the Autograph Theater. From early childhood, Svetlana saw herself as an actress, a continuer of family traditions. After the ninth grade, she decided to enroll in the course of director Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy, but when the applicant was ready to enroll in the academy, it turned out that she did not have a certificate of secondary education. In 2009, Svetlana Smirnova-Martsinkevich graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts (SpbGATI), course of Semyon Spivak. After graduation she joined the troupe of the Youth Theater on Fontanka.

Her film debut took place in an episode of the fourth season of the multi-part television project Vsegda govori «vsegda» (2003) in 2007. And the actress became widely known for her role as Vera in the film Innocent Saturday (2011). The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011. The film, directed by Aleksandr Mindadze, is dedicated to the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Svetlana Smirnova-Martsinkevich played two notable roles in the TV series - Doroga v pustotu (2012) and ,Obratnaya storona Luny (2012) which brought her widespread love from the audience.

Leonid Filatov was born on December 24, 1946, in Kazan, Tatarstan, Soviet Union (now Kazan, Tatarstan Russia). His father, Aleksei Eremeyevich Filatov, was a radio engineer who traveled frequently, and his parents divorced when he was 7 years old. Young Leonid Filatov moved with his mother, Klavdia Nikolaevna Filatova, to the city of Ashkhabad, Tadjikistan. There he made his stage acting debut in an amateur play at a secondary school. In 1965 he came to Moscow and applied to State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but failed the entrance exam. However, his persistence and determination soon paid off, and from 1965 - 1969 Filatov studied at Schukin Theatrical School at Vakhtangov theatre, graduating in 1969, as an actor.

From 1969 - 1985 and from 1987 - 1993 Filatov was a permanent member of the legendary troupe at Taganka Theatre under the leadership of director Yuriy Lyubimov. There his stage partners were Vladimir Vysotskiy, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Ivan Dykhovichnyy, Natalya Sayko, Boris Galkin, and Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov among other notable Russian actors. During 1985-1987 he worked with the troupe of Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow, then returned back to Taganka. In 1993 Filatov joined Nikolay Gubenko, Natalya Sayko, Zhanna Bolotova, and Nina Shatskaya in formation of an independent company called "Sodruzhestvo akterov Taganki" (aka.. Fraternity of actors from Taganka).

Leonid Filatov shot to fame with the leading role as Igor Skvortsov opposite Georgi Zhzhyonov and Alexandra Yakovleva in a popular Russian film Ekipazh (1980), by director Aleksandr Mitta. During the 1990s Filatov made a career as film director. From 1994 - 1997 he hosted a popular TV show on the Russian National TV, titled "Chtoby pomnili" (aka.. To be remembered). In 1997 Filatov suffered from a stroke, then had his kidneys removed, and remained bedridden for several years. He received thousands of letters from his fans and admirers. Filatov also was comforted by his beloved wife, Nina Shatskaya who cared for him during all seven years of his illness. At that time Filatov suffered from much physical and emotional pain, as well as from depression because he was unable to go back to acting, so he expressed himself through writing.

Leonid Filatov was designated People's Artist of Russia (1994). He was awarded the state Prize of Russia for his work in theatre and film. His books and plays were adapted to stage and film. Leonid Filatov died of pneumonia and complications from a kidney disease on October 26, 2003, in Moscow, Russia, and was laid to rest in Vagankovskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.

Kamila Valieva was born on 26 April 2006 in Kazan, Russia.

Galina Kravchenko was a Russian film actress known as Maria Lvovna Karagina in War and Peace (1965).

She was born Galina Kravchenko on February 11, 1905, in Kazan, Russian Empire (now Kazan, Tatrstan, Russia). After the Russian revolution of 1917, she moved to Moscow; there her mother worked in the Soviet Government. In 1923, in her mother's Moscow office young Kravchenko met Vsevolod Pudovkin, who was very impressed with her natural beauty and talent, and recommended her to the acting school at State Institute of Cinema (VGIK). From 1924 - 26 she studied acting under Vladimir Gardin, graduating as actress. During the 1920s and 30s Kravchenko was a staff actress with Mezhrabpom Film Studio. She enjoyed a stellar career in Soviet silent films.

Kravchenko was married to popular actor Andrey Fayt, and the couple was part of Moscow cultural milieu during the 1920s and early 30s. During the 1930s she was married to the son of the powerful Soviet leader, Lev Kamenev, who was a political opponent of Joseph Stalin. After the party leader Sergey Kirov was assassinated on Dec. 1, 1934, Kamenev was secretly tried and sentenced, on false accusations for having contributed to the crime. In August 1936, however, Kamenev and Zinovyev were tried again in the first public-show trial of the Great Purge. Accused of conspiring to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, Kamenev was brutally pressured and eventually confessed to the fabricated charges in the vain hope of saving his family. He was shot, and his wife perished in the Gulag. Five decades later, Lev Kamenev was cleared of charges by the Soviet Supreme Court in 1988.

Kravchenko suffered a blow to her acting career and personal life. She was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, and was practically unemployed for more than 20 years. After the death of Stalin, Kravchenko returned to Moscow and struggled to survive until the late 1950s, when Nikita Khrushchev initiated the "Thaw" in cultural life in the Soviet Union. At that time, Kravchenko was an almost forgotten aging actress, and her career was limited to playing bit parts as mothers and grandmothers in low-budget Soviet films.

Kravchenko made a comeback as Maria Lvovna Karagina, the omnipresent socialite in War and Peace (1965) by director Sergey Bondarchuk. At that time, Bondarchuk was not a member of the Soviet Communist party, so he was dare to cast many actors who were previously censored under Stalin, including Kravchenko. She later wrote a book of memoirs describing her joy of working with Bondarchuk in 'War and Peace'.

Kravchenko was designated Honorable Actress of Russia in 1980. Both her late husband and her father-in-law, Lev Kamenev, were posthumously cleared of all charges during Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms "perestroika" and "glasnost." Kravchenko died on March 5, 1996, in Moscow, Russia.

Russian-born French experimental short artist Alexeieff, who with his wife American-born Claire Parker invented the pinscreen animation technique,is most known for designing the prologue sequence for Orson Welles's The Trial.He grew up in Constantinople, then the Ottoman Empire, where in 1906 his military attaché father was killed by the German secret service.Returning to Czarist Russia with his school principal mother, he entered the Cadets military academy of Saint Petersburg and his 16 years there would influence his later fondness for Russian themes in his art work and filmmaking. After the Revolution, in 1922, Alexeieff settled in Paris where he studied painting, did stage decor, and beginning in 1925 lent his hand to illustrating editions of classic literature.Under the influence of the avant garde Cinema movement of the time, he aspired to move into directing.His landmark work, Night on Bald Mountain, in 1933 was a fusion of a musical piece and imagery 7 years before Wait Disney attempted the same piece as part of Fantasia.Two years later he would produce the first promotional film in France made in color.

Yana Guryanova was born on 21 October 1987 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Bansu, Dominika (2018) and Mesto! (2019).

Yilmaz Arslan was born in Kazanll, Turkey, but has lived in Germany since 1975. In 1992, at the age of just 24, he made his debut film, Langer Gang, for which he subsequently won many awards. By his second film in 1999, Yara (Filmclub Award at the 1999 Max Ophuls Festival), he was simultaneously carrying out the roles of director, writer and producer. The same is true of his 2005 film Fratricide (Silver Leopard at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival) coproduced by Tarantula and sold in 26 countries. Besides his activities of producer, screenwriter and director, he teaches cinema at Goethe Institut network in Europe and he's part of the selection committee of the Medien-und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wurttemberg (MFG). In 2016, he created a new production company: Film Maxma.

Rimma Latypova was born on 29 August 1964 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Three Days (1991), Nautilus (1990) and Chyortovy kukly (1993).

Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov is a Russian army general serving as the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Defence Minister, replacing Nikolay Makarov. He was appointed by president Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2012. Gerasimov was born in Kazan, Tatar ASSR on 8 September 1955. He graduated from the Kazan Suvorov Military School (1971-1973), the Kazan Higher Tank Command School, the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy (1984-1987), and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1995-1997).

Shamil Khamatov was born on 29 January 1985 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. He is an actor, known for Trassa M8 (2008), The Day After (2013) and Serdtse moyo - Astana (2012). He has been married to Darya Belousova since 1 October 2010.

Tatiana Kovylina was born in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is known for Duran Duran: Falling Down (2007), The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2005) and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2009).

Vasili Aksyonov was a medical doctor turned writer during the dramatic changes and transformations of Russia and Russian society under the Soviet-communist regime.

He was born Vasili Pavlovich Aksyonov on August 20, 1932 in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia; where his father lived before his imprisonment. Aksyonov's parents spent many years in prisons and exile under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Aksyonov spent part of his childhood in Siberian exile in Magadan with his mother Yevgeniya Ginsburg, an exiled dissident. Aksyonov spent several years of his boyhood in a state home. He graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute in 1956 and worked as a doctor in residency at the Quarantine Station of Leningrad Sea Port. From 1957-1958 he worked as a Medical Doctor in the village of Voznesenie, Onega, Northern Russia. From 1958-1960 he worked as a Medical Doctor in Moscow.

The "Thaw", that was initiated by Nikita Khrushchev, allowed Aksyonov to have his first short stories published in the magazine 'Yunost' (Youth) in 1956, under then editor-in-chief Valentin Kataev. His 'Kollegi' (Colleagues 1960) and 'Zvezdny Bilet' (Star Ticket 1961) became extremely popular and were made into eponymous films. 'Pora, moy drug, pora' (It's Time, My Friend, It's Time 1963), 'Apelsiny is Marokko' (Oranges from Marocco 1964), and 'Zatovarennaya Bochkotara' (Surplussed Barrelware 1965) became part of the language of youth. Aksyonov's generation was labeled by Soviet propaganda as "Stilyagi" (Fashionable ones) for their festive and stylish way of life; the opposite of the officially controlled Soviet gloom. Literary critic Stanislav Rassadin coined the term "Shestidesyatniki" (People of the 1960's) which embraced such writers as Bella Akhmadulina, Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesensky, Bulat Okudzhava, and others, who emerged during the "Thaw" of 1956-1964.

The dismissal of Nikita Khrushchev was followed by restrictions in all aspects of Soviet life, where KGB, censorship, and official critics were acting as one. Aksyonov fell under suspicion and surveillance by the KGB. His last official publication was 'V Poiskah Zhanra' (In Search of a Genre 1972). His novels 'Ozhog' (The Burn 1976) and 'Ostrov Krym' (The Island of Crimea 1979) were banned. Aksyonov received a personal warning in a face-to-face meeting with two secret service agents. In 1979 Aksyonov organized and published an almanac of prose and poetry titled 'Metropol' which was immediately banned. 'Metropol' included works by Bella Akhmadulina, Fazil Iskander, and other dissident writers of the 60's generation. Official repressions and threats against Aksyonov forced his expatriation in 1980.

During 80s, 90s, and 2000s, Aksyonov continued writing and his works were published in both English and Russian in the USA. He also was a professor of literature in Washington D.C. for 24 years until his retirement. His script about Soviet life under Joseph Stalin was made into a TV series Moscovskaya saga (2004 TV). He was awarded the Open Russia Booker Prize for 2004. His new novel 'Moskva-kva-kva' (2006) was published in the Moscow magazine 'Oktyabr'.

Outside of his writing profession Aksyonov was a co-founder of jazz festivals in Moscow, Russia and in Kazan, Tatarstan. He returned to Russia in the 1990s, and was living in his Moscow apartment with his wife, Maya Zmeul, and had a second home in Biarritz, France. He died of a heart failure on 6 July 2009, in Moscow, Russia.

Anna Gourari was born on 3 October 1972 in Kazan, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Invincible (2001), Die Harald Schmidt Show (1995) and III nach neun (1974).

Marina Maksimova was born on 10 June 1984 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Tatarstan, Russia]. She was previously married to Aleksey Lugovtsov.

Maksim Mikhaylov was born on 25 August 1893 in Koltsovka, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire [now Chuvash Republic, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), Slippers (1945) and The Great Glinka (1946). He died on 30 March 1971 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].