November 20, 2023

What's in a Fame?


What's in a Fame?
Russia, kind of. A.Savin, WikiCommons.

There aren't many surprises on Pantheon.world's ranking of the most famous people from Russia. Save the #1 spot.

In the top ten are names like Peter the Great, Boris Yeltsin, and Yuri Gagarin. In the top five are Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Putin, and Lenin.

And at the top spot?

Immanuel Kant. German (not Russian) philosopher, mathematician, and thinker of the Enlightenment, best known for his categorical imperative.

This phenomenon is due to a quirk in Pantheon's data methodology. Pantheon groups nationalities based on birth location. Kant was born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1724. Since 1945, "Königsberg" has been part of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, a chunk of Baltic shoreline bordered by Lithuania and Poland.

So was Kant born in Russia?

Sort of.

Is he the most famous person from Russia?

Apparently.

You Might Also Like

Of War and Yachts
  • August 29, 2023

Of War and Yachts

Despite Russia's War on Ukraine and ongoing sanctions, the Russian state spent $32 million on a yacht linked to Vladimir Putin.
A Very Russki Cinco de Mayo
  • May 05, 2016

A Very Russki Cinco de Mayo

Or, whatever the Russian version of margaritas, mariachis, and misunderstood military history might involve.
Kaliningrad
  • February 28, 2017

Kaliningrad

Alexander Podgorchuk takes us to Russia's westernmost city, Kaliningrad.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955