Russian Milestones

Xah Lee, 2006-02-28, 2011-10-02

A illustration by Milo Manara (b1945).

• Left most: Man with mustache: Emperor Petr I of Russia (b1672)
• White haired woman: Empress Catherine II “The Great” (b1729)
• Left bearded man Ivan the Terrible (b1530)?
• Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (b1934) (first human animal to travel in space)
• Bearded guy to the left of gymnast: novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (b1821)
• Round glassed guy: composer Igor Stravinsky (b1882)
• Gymnast: Olga Korbut (b1955)
• Top right, man in military uniform: Joseph Stalin (b1879)
• Right most, long-haired bearded guy: mystic Grigori Rasputin (b1869)
• Lower right, yellow hatted man: Vladimir Lenin (b1870).

Other pictures:

• Behind the chess set: Russian icon. Russian icons
• Chess. Russians dominated the world in chess. See World Chess Championship
• Sputnik (first satellite in orbit)
• Photo of Hammer ＆ Sickle Flag over the Reichstag building in Battle of Berlin during the end of World War 2.
• The back view of a man in Napolean hat in the center of the image, must be Napoleon, representing Russia's victory of the Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.
• Saint Basil's Cathedral Mosco.
• The Ballerina may represent Anna Pavlova (b1881)
• Men on horses: they migth represent the Mongols of Mongol Empire, who in 1200s ruled Eurasia, including Russia, China, and much Eastern Europe and Middle East.
• Russian warship Aurora, which took part in initializing the October Revolution (1917)

2011-10-02 Who's the dark siloutte figure with a nail thru the neck, on upper right? (answer: it might be Ivan the Terrible as depicted in the film Ivan the Terrible (film) (Иван Грозный), directed by Sergei Eisenstein (1898 〜 1948) (thanks to François-René Rideau) )

Thanks to people on alt.usage.english who have helped in identification. Source groups.google.com.