There is a Russian proverb “It is better to be born happy than pretty.” Bolshoi Prima Ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, 26, is lucky enough to be both. And young to boot.

NIKoil’s success is due to its 41-year-old president, Nikolai Tsvetkov. Tsvetkov is not what they call here a “golden boy,” someone who had life served up to him on a silver platter: special schools and jobs made from patronage. Instead, Tsvetkov is a self-made man, Russian-style.

The 38-year-old Alexei Svistunov is the head of PARI agency, an independent company which seeks to spread the word about Russian records which the rest of the world ignores.

The motto of Emeritus Jurist of Russia Sergei Pashin is encapsulated in a quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Let us enter the court with the realization that we too are at fault.”

Vyacheslav Nikonov, 45, boasts a rather impressive academic and political career. In 1989 he became the youngest doctor of history ever in the USSR.

Puchezh District Mayor Alexander Klimov is admired both at home and abroad. US Representative Charles Taylor assessed the work of Klimov’s administration with just one short phrase: “This is the way to Russia’s prosperity.” 

At first glance, Svetlana Khorkina would seem an unlikely choice for Russian Life’s list of rising stars. After all, her star began rising long ago by modern gymnastics standards.

A journalist from Moskovsky Komsomolets once quoted a female Italian soccer fan as saying: “Oh, Izmaylov ... Izmaylov is my love.” The word play on Marat Izmaylov’s last name (“Is-my-love”) was surely accidental, but the sympathy was nonetheless sincere.

At the Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) Medical School Anna and Vera Zeitlin’s schoolmates would often mix up the twin sisters. But it quickly became apparent  that the twin sisters (Anna is profiled on the opposite page) more than just looked alike.

Pavel Fomenko was the first Russian to receive the title “Hero of the Planet,” awarded by TIME with the support of the Ford Foundation.

Mikhail Butov's novel Svoboda (Liberty) won the 1999 Smirnoff-Booker prize. It is a generational novel—telling the story of Russia’s first “liberated” generation.

Breaststroker Roman Sludnov has been practicing hard all the 300 days which passed since he had to resign to a bronze medal  at the Sydney Olympics. For he and his mother-coach Natalia Roschina  believe  there  is only one place on the pedestal worth fighting for - the #1 spot.