Communist Leon Trotsky helped ignite the Russian Revolution of 1917, and built the Red Army afterward. He was exiled and later assassinated by Soviet agents.

Golda Meir was best known as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and the first woman to hold the title.

Film and television actress Mila Kunis came to fame on the sitcom 'That '70s Show.' In film, she's co-starred in such hits as 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 'Black Swan' and 'Bad Moms.'

Igor Sikorsky was a Russian aeronautics engineer and inventor known for crafting the first four-engine plane and the first working helicopter.

Ukranian figure skater Viktor Petrenko won a gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Ukrainian actress, model and singer Milla Jovovich is best known for playing a zombie hunter in the Resident Evil action movie series.

Andrei Chikatilo was a former school teacher who murdered more than 50 young people in the Soviet Union.

Viktor Yushchenko is a Ukrainian politician who served as his country's president from 2005 till 2010.

Ukrainian athlete Oksana Baiul won the 1994 Olympic gold in women’s figure skating.

Simon Wiesenthal was a survivor of the Holocaust who worked as an author and Nazi hunter, wishing to ensure that what befell his community would be remembered.

Theater director Lee Strasberg co-founded the Group Theatre, where he directed experimental plays, and later became artistic director of the Actors Studio.

Musician, Isaac Stern was a famous violinist and was responsible for discovering Yo-Yo Ma.

Wilhelm Reich was a psychiatrist who developed psychoanalysis that concentrated on overall character structure rather than on individual symptoms.

Vladimir Horowitz was a Ukrainian-born, American classical pianist who is considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

Writer Joseph Conrad is remembered for novels like Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, which drew on his experience as a mariner and addressed profound themes of nature and existence.

Leonid Brezhnev was a Soviet statesman and Communist Party official who was, in effect, the leader of the Soviet Union for 18 years.

After her impressive 2006 debut, professional dancer Karina Smirnoff went on to star in six more seasons of Dancing with the Stars.

Theodosius Dobzhansky was a 20th century scientist, professor and author who did pioneering work in genetics and evolution.

Jewish-Ukrainian Isaak Babel, whose tales of the Russian army and ghetto life made him a famous author in the 1920s, was discredited by the Soviet authorities and put to death in 1940.

Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol's best-known work is the 1842 novel Dead Souls. A fanatical priest convinced him to burn the second volume in 1852.

Russian zoologist and microbiologist Élie Metchnikoff received a Nobel Prize for his discovery of phagocytosis, amoeba-like cells engulfing foreign bodies.