Vladimir Vasiliev is the director and chief instructor of the Toronto School of Russian Martial Arts located in Thornhill, Ontario, where he teaches Ryabko's Systema as the top student of Mikhail Ryabko. He was born in Tver, Russia and joined the army as a young man and soon after he was inducted into one of the Special Operations Units. He has 10 years of extensive military and special operations service, including regular high-risk covert assignments and missions.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia ("Olga Alexandrovna Romanova") (June 13, 1882-November 24, 1960) was the last Grand Duchess of Imperial Russia under the reign of her elder brother, Czar Nicholas II. Her father was the 19th century reformer of Russia, Alexander III; her mother was the daughter of Christian IX of Denmark, Maria Feodorovna, formerly titled Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Raised at the Gatchina Palace of St. Petersburg, Russia, …

Lila Kedrova (October 9, 1918 - February 16, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning Russian-born actress in French cinema. Born in Petrograd, Russia, Kedrova spent most of her life in France. In 1932, she joined the Moscow Art Theatre touring company. Then her film career began, mostly in French films, until her first English appearance in 1964 as Mme Hortense in "Zorba the Greek". Her performance won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Igor Yakimov is a world Judo champion, as well a world sport sambo champion and a medallist at the Combat Sambo world championships. He is the author of the widely acclaimed "Russian Judo" video series and for his "Sambo Leglocks" video series.

Alexander Hrennikoff (1896-December 31 1984) was a Russian-Canadian Civil Engineer, a founder of the Finite Element Method. Alexander was born in Russia, graduated from the Institute of Communication Engineers in Moscow, received his M.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia (1933), and his D.Sc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941. From 1933 until his death in 1984 he worked as a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia,.

Andrew Donskov, is professor of Modern languages at the University of Ottawa, and world-renowned Leo Tolstoy expert. Donskov was named the University of Ottawa Distinguished University Professor in 2004. He is the author of many books and articles dealing with nineteenth-century Russian literature. Andrew Donskov's professional career spans more than 30 years, and his research has been recognized by the Russian Academy of Sciences, …

Igor Ryjenkov MW is a Toronto resident and Canada's only certified Master of Wine, and one of only 278 living MWs in the world. He is currently employed as a Product Consultant for the LCBO at the historic Summerhill branch in the former North Toronto Train Station.

Vasily Vasilievich Balabanov (January 30, 1873, Bakhmut, Ukraine Balabanov - January 27, 1947, Vancouver, Canada) was an administrator and Provincial Governor of Imperial Russia. Vasily Balabanov went to the University of Moscow, graduated in 1894, married and took care of the family estate in Bakhmut until 1905 when under the Government of Russia he went to Turkistan on a fact finding mission.

Jakub (Jacob) Egit was a Zionist leader and Soviet soldier. In 1945, Egit began an experiment to relocate 50,000 Jews in the town of Dzierżoniów (formerly Reichenbach a recovered territory from the Third Reich) near Wrocław in Silesia, Poland. Initially Egit was supported by the communists in his endeavour to ensure that "here in this land, which Germans had cultivated for so many years, …

Sergei M. Plekhanov was born in 1946 in Moscow. Holds B.A. and M.A. in International relations from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (1968) and a Ph.D. in History from Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada, Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1988 to 1993 - Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada. Dr. Plekhanov has taught as Visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Occidental College (Los Angeles), …

Igor Tikhomirov (born 4 May, 1963) is a Canadian (former Soviet) épée fencer. He competed for the USSR at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the epée team competition. During the Soviet part of his career he trained at Dynamo in Moscow. Tikhomirov won the bronze medal at the épée 2006 World Fencing Championships after he lost 15-6 to Wang Lei in the semi final.

Dimitry Pospielovsky (b. 1935) (Dmitry Pospelovsky) is a historian, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Western Ontario. Pospielovsky is a prominent researcher in the history of the Russian Orthodoxy. He also published a number of articles, in English and Russian, on other issues of Russian history, in particular, on workers' movement at the times of Russian Revolutions and on Russian nationalism.