December 31

New Year's Eve

 

 

New Year's Eve, the last day of the year, according to the Gregorian calendar, is on December 31. Most Russians celebrate New Year's Eve with their families and close friends or at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink and watch or light fireworks to mark the new year. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into January 1 (New Year's Day).

Happy New Year!

Birthdays

Anatoly Borisovich Kuznetsov (December 31, 1930), a Soviet and Russian actor, probably best known for his role as a Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov in White Sun of the Desert (1969). He graduated from Theatrical School of Moscow Art Theater in 1955. Anatoly Kuznestov was honored with People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1979. He is living and working in Moscow.

Semyon L'vovich Ferdman, or Semyon Farada (1933 - 2009), a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, best known for the films The Very Same Munchhausen, Charodey, Adventures of Captain Vrungel, Formula of Love and The Garage.

Nikolay Tsiskaridze (born on 31 December 1973), a premier dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet. Ethnically Georgian. He joined the Moscow Ballet School in 1987 and was admitted into the Bolshoi Ballet in 1991 and became the youngest person to be named a People's Artist of Russia (2001). He received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 2001 and 2003 and the Prix Benois de la Danse in 1999.

December 30

Birthdays

Nikolay Glazkov, Russian poet 

Pavel Ponomaryov, Russian-Estonian actor

December 29

    

 

     Sergey Prohanov was born on the 29 of December in 1952. He is a Soviet and Russian actor of the theatre and cinema, a theatrical director, an artistic leader of the theatre of “The Moon”. Sergey Prohanov is a People’s Artist.

December 28

Nikolai Pavlovich Bryukhanov (Russian: Николай Павлович Брюханов; last name sometimes transliterated as Briukhanov; party aliases Andrey and Andrey Simbirsky; literary alias N. Pavlov) (December 28, 1878 (New Style) - September 1, 1938) was a Soviet statesman and political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finance between 1926 and 1930. Until recently, his date of death was believed to have been June 30, 1943.

Ivan Stepanovich Konev (Russian: Ива́н Степа́нович Ко́нев; 28 December [O.S. 16 December] 1897 – 21 May 1973), was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin.

In 1956, as the Commander of Warsaw Pact forces, Konev led the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution by Soviet armoured divisions.

Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich (28 December [O.S. 15 December] 1908–12 April 1974) (Russian: Евгений Викторович Вучетич) was a prominent Soviet sculptor and artist. He is known for his heroic monuments, often of allegoric style.

Anatoly Moiseevich Vershik (Russian: Анато́лий Моисе́евич Ве́ршик; born on 28 December 1933 in Leningrad) is a Soviet and Russian mathematician. He is most famous for his joint work with Sergey V. Kerov on representations of infinitesymmetric groups and applications to the longest increasing subsequences.

Vershik studied at Leningrad State University, receiving his doctoral degree in 1974; his advisor was Vladimir Rokhlin.

He works at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics and at Saint Petersburg State University. In 1998–2008 he was the president of the St. Petersburg Mathematical Society.

December 27

Rescuer’s Day

 Rescuer's day in Russia established by Presidential Edict № 1306 of November 26, 1995, "On establishment the Rescuer's Day of the Russian Federation". Russian Rescue's Corps was established by a Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, December 27, 1990. Date of establishment of Ministry of EMERCOM of Russia and Rescuer's Day is date of adoption of resolution.

 

 Birthdays

 

Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (27 December 1761 – 26 May 1818),  a Russian Field Marshal and Minister of War during Napoleon's invasion in 1812 and War of the Sixth Coalition. During the Patriotic War of 1812 Barclay assumed the supreme command of the 1st Army of the West, the largest of the Russian armies facing Napoleon. He proposed the now famous scorched earth strategy of drawing the enemy deep into one's own territory.

 

Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov (December 27, 1832 – December 16, 1898) , a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov Gallery and Tretyakov Drive in Moscow. Aspiring to show the beginnings and development of the domestic school of art , Tretyakov acquired pictures by masters of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries and landmarks of Old Russian painting. Tretyakov had the fullest collection of such artists as: V.G. Perov, I.N. Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, Vasily Surikov, I.I. Levitan, and Valentin Serov. The gallery together with the paintings was transferred to the city inter vivos.

December 26

Mikhail Sergeevich Boyarsky b. December 26, 1949 in Leningrad) is aSoviet/Russian actor and singer, living in the city of Saint Petersburg. He is best known for the role of d'Artagnan in the filmd'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993). He was also a popular singer of the 1980s and completed several tours. He is an Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984) and a People's Artist of Russia (1990).

Tatiana Sorokko (b. 26 December 1971) is a Russian-born American model, fashion journalist and haute couture collector.She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion houses, appeared on covers of leading fashion magazines, and became the first Russian model of the post-Soviet period to gain international recognition. After modeling, Sorokko worked as contributing editor for such publications as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. Her distinct personal style and her private collection of historically important haute couture clothing were subjects of museum exhibitions in Russia and the U.S.

December 25

    Vladislav Galkin was a Russian actor known for The Master and Margarita (2005 TV mini-series).Thanks to his versatility, Vladislav Galkin managed to overcome the initial typecast as a regular Russian man. He demonstrated remarkable range in various leading and supporting roles, such as Sashok in popular series Dalnoboyshchiki (2001 TV series), in Diversant (2004 TV mini-series).
   Director Stanislav Govorukhin said that actor Galkin was a rare talent able to fill silence with deep special meaning. Director Vladimir Bortko stated that Galkin was a delicate and sensitive person who died because of yellow press and ruthless paparazzi.Vladislav Galkin was laid to rest in Actors' Alley of Troekurovskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.

December 24

Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev was born this day. He was a Soviet writer, one of the co-founders of the Union of Soviet Writers and its chairman from 1946 to 1954.In 1927, he published the novel The Rout (also known as The Nineteen), in which he described youthful guerrilla fighters. In 1930, he published the first part of the novel The Last of the Udege, on which he continued working the rest of his life (an edition containing the second volume, all he was able to complete, was published in 1940.) In it, Fadeyev intended to show "that an extremely primitive people may experience a leap from tribal communism to the complex collective organization of the twentieth century, skipping over the intervening historical stages: family, private property, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism. Uneven though it is, The Last of the Udegs contains some of Fadeyev's best pages, and the fact that he spent his energies on literary administration rather than on the completion of this novel is a minor tragedy."

In 1945, he wrote the novel, The Young Guard (based upon real events of World War II) about the underground Komsomol organization named Young Guard, which fought against the Nazis in the occupied city Krasnodon (in the Ukrainian SSR). For this novel, Fadeyev was awarded the Stalin Prize(1946). In 1948, a Soviet film The Young Guard, based on the book, was released, and later revised in 1964 to correct inaccuracies in the book.

Fadeyev was a champion of Joseph Stalin, proclaiming him "the greatest humanist the world has ever known".

December 23

Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov (also spelled Mikhael Gromov or Michael Gromov; Russian: Михаи́л Леони́дович Гро́мов; born 23 December 1943), is a French-Russian mathematician known for important contributions in many different areas of mathematics. He is considered a geometer in a very broad sense of the word.

Gromov's mother, military physician Lia Rabinovich, was a first-degree cousin of the chess world champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

Vadim Rimovich Sharifijanov (born December 23, 1975) is a former professional ice hockey right winger who spent parts of three seasons in the National Hockey League. He last played in the Vysshaya Liga, or Russian 2nd division, with Toros Neftekamsk.

December 22

                                                           Birthdays

 

Constantin Fahlberg (22 December 1850 in Tambov – 15 August 1910 in Nassau) discovered the sweet taste of anhydroorthosulphaminebenzoic acid in 1877–78 when analysing the chemical compounds in coal tar at Johns Hopkins University for Professor Ira Remsen (1846–1927). Later Fahlberg gave this chemical "body" the trade name Saccharin.

 

 

Eduard Nikolayevich Uspensky (born December 22, 1937) is a Russian writer and author of several children's books. Among his most beloved characters are a serious but adventurous boy known, for his serious disposition, by the sardonic nickname of Uncle Fyodor , from Uncle Fyodor, His Dog and His Cat; and the anthropomorphic duo of Crocodile Gena  and Cheburashka, featured in a children's novel by Uspensky about the adventures of the two animal friends.

 

Dmitri Valeryevich Khokhlov (born 22 December 1975 in Krasnodar) is a retired Russian football player and a current coach. He played as a holding midfielder or playmaker. He is currently the reserves team manager for FC Dynamo Moscow. During his time with FC Lokomotiv Moscow he participated in their memorable 2003–04 UEFA Champions League campaign, scoring third goal in the 3–0 home victory against Internazionale.He played for the Russia national football team and was a participant at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. His son Igor Khokhlov is now a professional footballer.

 

 

December 21

Petr Kirillovich Koshevoi (Russian: Пётр Кириллович Кошевой) (December 21, 1904 — August 30, 1976) was a Soviet military leader.

Koshevoi was born to a peasant Ukrainian Cossack family and joined the Red Army in 1920

He took part in the Russian Civil War and commanded a corps during the second world war taking part in the defense of Stalingrad, the Liberation of the Crimea and the capture of East Prussia. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice - in 1944, for the taking of Sapun-gora (called a key to Sevastopol) and in 1945, for his part in the capture of Königsberg.

Following the war, Koshevoi commanded the Siberian Military District in 1957-60, the Kiev Military District in 1960-65, and the Group of Soviet forces in East Germany in 1965-69. Koshevoi was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1968. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow

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 Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin (Russian: Дми́трий Оле́гович Рого́зин; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian diplomat and politician, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia, vice-premier of Russian Government in charge of defense industry.

In January 2008, he became Russia's ambassador to NATO, until December 2011. He was a leader of the Rodina (Motherland) party until it merged with other similar Russian parties to form the Fair Russia party.  He speaks 4 languages and holds a doctor's degree.

On 18 February 2011 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Dmitry Rogozin as a Special Representative on anti-missile defence and negotiations with NATO countries on this issue.

On 23 December 2011 Dmitry Rogozin was appointed deputy premier of Russian Government in charge of defense and space industry. As responsible for the defense industry he leads the creation of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry(Российский Фонд перспективных исследовательских проектов в оборонной промышленности; Russian DARPA).

Olga Alexandrovna Aroseva (Russian: О́льга Алекса́ндровна Аро́сева; b. 21 December 1925, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian actress.

December 20

20 December, 2012

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  December 20 - The day of national security service workers (professional holiday)

  1699 - Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1

  1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.

  1922 - 14 republics  form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)

  1990 - Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns