December 19

Vladimir Kristovskiy was born on December 19 in 1975. He is a famous Russian musician, a leader of music band “Uma2rmaH”. In 1998 he created a punk-rock band and won a newspaper contest after that his band broke up. In 2003 Vladimir together with his brother Sergey created a new band which still exists.

Leonid Brezhnev (19 December 1906-10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in length. Dring Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time, but his tenure as leader has often been criticized for marking the beginning of a period of economic stagnation in which serious economic problems were overlooked, problems which eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

December 18

                                                                  Birthdays

 

 

 

Karl Rossi, an outstanding Russian architect of Italian origin was born on 18 December 1775 in Naples, Italy. He designed quite a number of building and architectural ensembles in Saint Petersburg. Karl Rossi is considered an adherent of the late classicism architectural style: his works combine grandiosity with noble simplicity. His creations feature expressiveness, resplendence of order compositions, innovative methods and harmonious combinations of architecture and sculpture.

 

 

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Dzhugashvili 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953). He was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death on 5 March 1953. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the Russian Revolution in 1917, Stalin held the position of General Secretary of the party's Central Committee from 1922 until his death. While the office was initially not highly regarded, Stalin used it to consolidate more power after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, gradually putting down all opposition.

 

                                                       

Alexei Venediktov (born 18 December 1955) is a Russian journalist, editor-in-chief and host at the Echo of Moscow radio station, president of the Echo TV Russia.
Since 1990 he has been working for Echo of Moscow. Since 1996 he has been the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow. Since 2002 he has been president of the Echo TV Russia. In September 2006, Venediktov tried himself as a host on TV-channels Domashny, V kruge sveta. Venediktov owns 18% of Echo of Moscow's shares, but resigned from the board in protest against Gazprom-Media announcement to change the board in February 2012.

December 17

On December 17, 1963, the French sport edition “France Football” awarded its Golden Ball trophy to Lev Yashin, the legendary Soviet goalkeeper, the only goalkeeper in the entire history of world soccer to receive this award.

Dubbed by his fans as the Black Panther for his amazingly long and catlike precise leaps and black outfit, Yashin played a total of 812 games, with 207 of them leaving the gate clean. Valery Maslov, Yashin’s teammate, recalled, that Yashin “during practices, could catch a very difficult ball, then get back on his feet in a split second and hit the second ball, in the meantime flying into the opposite corner of the gates… I have never seen that trick done by anyone else! As a goalkeeper, he was close to ideal.”

Yashin was the first one to introduce a lot of new features to the game, which later became classics of soccer. So influential and respected was he that he even made coaches change their game plans. After the bronze medal game between the Soviet Union and Portugal in the 1966 World Cup, Eusebio, the legendary Portuguese soccer player, noted that “Yashin is a remarkable goalkeeper, the best in our century.”

However, Yahin’s first soccer experience brought him a lot of disappointment, as in the spring of 1949, at a routine game, Yashin missed a ball kicked by the goalkeeper of the opponent team. Since the game was not of importance, Yashin’s teammates, instead of reproaching the young goalkeeper, made fun of him, which, for Yashin, was an even bigger humiliation. A number of other relatively unsuccessful games almost made Lev Yashin turn to ice hockey, at which he appeared to be more skillful at the time.

Real fame and glory hit Yashin after victory at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, and was followed by coming first at the European Soccer Tournament four years later.

After such intoxicating success, the entire country was expecting even larger achievements from the Soviet team at the next World Championship in Chile in 1962. However, although the Soviet team placed the highest inside the group, topping the stronger opponents from Yugoslavia and Uruguay, they lost 1:2 to the Chilean team in the quarter-finals.

Such a major failure was thought by many to be entirely Yashin’s fault. Yashin was literally showered with harsh, devastating criticisms, as the sport’s authorities started making hints about his imminent retirement, while even his most devoted fans hissed and booed their idol when he walked out on the field. He was constantly threatened, the walls of the apartment building where he lived were all scribbled with abusive messages and bullies destroyed his car.

However, foreign media and fans, on the contrary, praised Yashin’s performance highly, as they saw the Soviet loss as a one-time misfortune, generally considering Yashin a hero and the Soviet Union’s most successful soccer player. So great was the foreign admiration of Yashin, he was even chosen to play in the game devoted to the centenary of the British game, teamed up with others of the world’s greatest soccer players.

Back then such jubilee games were a novelty and attracted a lot of attention. Such recognition abroad, along with the Golden Ball award, significantly shifted the attitude toward Yashin in the Soviet Union. Yashin regained his popularity among fans at home, the moment he won his laurels on the international scale. The authorities immediately forgot about his critical age and very eagerly reserved him a ticket to the next World Tournament.

Yashin was named the best goalkeeper of the century, and in 1994, the Yashin Prize was established to honor outstanding young goalkeepers who have shown their worth at World Championships.

December 16

Viktor Yakovlevich Bunyakovsky (Russian: Ви́ктор Я́ковлевич Буняко́вский; December 16 [O.S. December 4] 1804, Bar, Russian Empire – December 12 [O.S. November 30] 1889, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian mathematician, member and later vice president of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

He worked in theoretical mechanics and number theory (see: Bunyakovsky conjecture), and is credited with an early discovery of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, proving it for the infinite dimensional case in 1859, many years prior to Hermann Schwarz's works on the subject.

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky /kænˈdɪnski/ (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский, Vasiliy Vasil’yevich Kandinskiy, Russian pronunciation: [vaˈsʲilʲɪj kɐnˈdʲinskʲɪj]; 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 – 13 December 1944) was an influentialRussian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—he began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.

In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbe's private school and then at the Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. Kandinsky was unsympathetic to the official theories on art in Moscow, and returned to Germany in 1921. There, he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France where he lived the rest of his life, became a French citizen in 1939, and produced some of his most prominent art. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.

Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; IPA: [ɐnˈton ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ dʲɪˈnʲikʲɪn]; December 16 [O.S. December 4] 1872 – August 8, 1947) was Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian Army (1916) and one of the foremost generals of the White movement in the Russian Civil War.

Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (Russian: Родио́н Константи́нович Щедри́н, Scientific transliteration: Rodion Konstantinovič Ščedrin, Russian pronunciation: [rə̥dʲɪˌon kə̥nstɐnˌtʲinə̥vʲɪ̥ʨ ɕːɪ̥dˈrʲin]; born December 16, 1932) is a Russian composer and pianist. Winner of the Lenin (1984), USSR State Prize (1972) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992). A member of the Interregional Deputy Group (1989–1991).

December 15

Russian Air Force Radio Troops Day

Russian Air Force Radar Troops - are the major source of information on enemy aircraft and special air force subdivision, intended to use its radar surveillance systems, monitoring and compliance with aviation aircraft flight area rules of all agencies, using the air space of the Russian Federation.

Russian Air Force Radar Troops  were formed on  December 15, 1951 ( by Council of Ministers of the USSR "on the establishment of early warning and detection of aircraft off-ground  attacks"). This day is considered to be the birthday of the Russian Air Force Radar Troops.

Russian Air Force Radar Troops give an advance information about the start of the air attack of the enemy, the combat information for air defense missile forces and for Air Defense Agencies,   as well as  providing information to control units of air defense.

December 14

Nikolay Popov (December 14, 1931 – February 4, 2008)

was a Russian engineer; he was chief designer of the T-80 tank, which was first built by the Soviet Union during the 1970s.

Popov was born at Ust-Labinsk. He died at the age of 76 on February 4, 2008, after a long illness.

Nikolay Nikolayevich Serebryakov (; 14 December 1928, Leningrad - 9 August 2005, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian director of animated films and a People's Artist of Russia 

Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov ( 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the development of laser and maser, Basov shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Alexander Prokhorov and Charles Hard Townes.

December 13

Birthdays

Sergei Viktorovich Fedorov

Sergei Viktorovich Fedorov (born 13 December 1969) is a retired Russian professional ice hockey centre, who also occasionally played winger or defenceman. Fedorov currently serves as the General Manager of HC CSKA Moscow. Fedorov currently serves as the General Manager of HC CSKA Moscow.

Murat Nasyrov

Murat Ismailovich Nasyrov (December 1969, Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union – 19 January 2007, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian pop singer of Uyghur ethnicity.