Tsar Mikhail (1596–1645), the first in the Romanov dynasty
Ivan Susanin, the peasant who saved Tsar Mikhail, as portrayed by the bass Ossip Petrov, in a photograph
The composer Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857), whose opera
The second Romanov on the throne, Tsar Alexei (1629–1676)
Peter the Great (1672–1725), Tsar Alexei’s famous and controversial son
The poet and diplomat Antioch Kantemir (1709–1744), Tsar Peter’s apologist
The multitalented Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765)
Ivan Barkov (c. 1732–1768), the Russian Francois Villon
Catherine the Great (1729–1796) who was vilified in Soviet times as a “depraved and criminal woman”
The state minister Gavrila Derzhavin (1743–1816), Catherine’s most esteemed poet
Alexander I (1777–1825), Napoleon’s nemesis
Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826), Alexander’s court historian
Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837), Russia’s greatest poet
The poet Vassily Zhukovsky (1783–1852), Pushkin’s mentor and protector
The popular fabulist Ivan Krylov (1769–1844)
Nicholas I (1796–1855), who called Pushkin “the wisest man in Russia”
The poet Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841), Pushkin’s heir
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), in a drawing by his friend Alexander Ivanov
The painter Alexander Ivanov (1806–1858), Gogol’s protege
The painter Karl Briullov (1799–1852), Nicholas I’s favored artist
The progressive critic Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848), Gogol’s early advocate and later foe
The poet Fedor Tyutchev (1803–1873), Nicholas I’s unofficial spokesman
Alexander Herzen (1812–1870), the rebel and literary innovator
