# List of people from Tambov

This is a list of notable people who were born or have lived in Tambov, Tambov Oblast, Russia.

## Born in Tambov
### 18th century
#### 1701–1800

* Alexander Bezobrazov (1783–1871), Russian statesman
* Nikolay Gamalei (1795–1859), Russian statesman, Vitebsk governor, served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs

### 19th century
#### 1801–1900

* Boris Chicherin (1828–1904), Russian jurist and political philosopher
* Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903), Russian Orthodox Christian philosopher, who was part of the Russian cosmism movement and a precursor of transhumanism
* Ivan Minayev (1840–1890), the first Russian Indologist
* Constantin Fahlberg (1850–1910), Russian chemist
* Nikita Galakhov (1864–1912), inventor of the elliptical springs for the railroad carriages
* Vladimir Shchuko (1878–1939), Russian architect
* Sophia Satina (1879-1975), Russian botanist
* Nikolai Cholodny (1882–1953), Soviet influential microbiologist
* Vasily Agapkin (1884–1964), Russian and Soviet military orchestra conductor, composer, and author of the well-known march "Farewell of Slavianka" (written 1912)
* Maria Spiridonova (1884–1941), Russian socialist revolutionary
* Alexey Selezniev (1888–1967), Russian chess master and chess composer
* Vasili Vanin (1898–1951), Russian stage and film actor of the Soviet era
* Lev Kuleshov (1899–1970), Russian and Soviet filmmaker and film theorist

### 20th century
#### 1901–1920

* Zoia Gaidai (1902–1965), Soviet Ukrainian opera soprano
* Andrey Kolmogorov (1903–1987), Russian mathematician
* Vera Faddeeva (1906–1983), Russian mathematician
* Valentin Avrorin (1907–1977), Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
* Ida Kar (1908–1974), photographer
* Ivan Dzerzhinsky (1909–1978), Russian composer
* Olga Ivinskaya (1912–1995), Russian poet and writer
* Valery Zhelobinsky (1913–1946), Russian composer and pianist
* Vladimir Svetilko (1915–1995), Russian lightweight weightlifter
* Victor Merzhanov (1919–2012), Russian pianist
* Pavel Bliznetsov (1913–1989), Russian Eastern Catholic priest and author

#### 1921–1950

* Vladimir Teplyakov (1925–2009), Russian experimental physicist
* Victoria Barbă (1926–2020), Moldovan animated film director
* Vladimir Bolotin (1926–2008), Russian Mechanical engineer
* Vitaly Galkov (1939–1998), Soviet-born Russian sprint canoer
* Aleksandr Dokhlyakov (born 1942), Soviet cyclist
* Svetlana Babanina (born 1943), Soviet swimmer
* Yury Chernavsky (born 1947), Russian producer, composer and songwriter
* Oleg Betin (born 1950), Russian politician; governor of Tambov Oblast

#### 1951–1980

* Victor Krylov (born 1952), Russian-born British academic
* Ludmila Engquist (Narozhilenko; born 1964), Soviet/Russian/Swedish athlete; champion sprinter
* Svetlana Nageykina (born 1965), Soviet/Russian cross-country skier
* Aleksandr Khalzov (born 1965), Russian professional footballer
* Sergey Kuznetsov (born 1966), Russian professional football coach and a former player
* Alexei Kovalev (born 1973), Russian football referee
* Aleksandr Malin (born 1973), Russian professional football coach and a former player
* Ruslan Sviridov (born 1973), Russian classical pianist, pedagogue
* Aleksandr Kudryashov (born 1974), Russian professional footballer
* Igor Neuchev (born 1974), Russian professional footballer
* Kyrylo Pospyeyev (born 1975), Ukrainian former professional cyclist
* Yekaterina Nesterenko (born 1976), Russian alpine skier
* Vladislav Frolov (born 1980), Russian sprint athlete

#### 1981–2000

* Sergei Lebedkov (born 1981), Russian professional football player
* Anastasia Rodionova (born 1982), Russian-born Australian professional tennis player
* Aleksey Mikhalyov (born 1983), Russian professional football player
* Yuri Zhirkov (born 1983), Russian footballer
* Pavel Kushnir (1984-2024), Russian pianist, writer, and political activist
* Bella Igla (born 1985), Israeli female chess player
* Viktor Tolstykh (born 1985), Russian professional football player
* Arina Rodionova (born 1989), Russian-born Australian professional tennis player

## Born in Tambov Governorate
### 18th century
#### 1701–1800

* Nikolai Arkharov (1742–1814), Russian statesman
* Afanasy Grigoriev (1782–1868), Russian Neoclassical architect, took part in the reconstruction of Moscow after the War 1812
* Paisi Kaysarov (1783–1844), Russian general who served during the Napoleonic Wars
* Yevgeny Baratynsky (1800–1844), Russian poet

### 19th century
#### 1801–1850

* Natalia Goncharova (1812–1863), A. S. Pushkin's wife. She was born in the village Karian-Zagryazhskoye of the Tambov province.
* Andrei Karelin (1837–1906), Russian artist, photographer of the Academy of Arts
* Alexander Lodygin (1847–1923), one of the founders of the electrothermy, author of almost 400 inventions including a tungsten filament lamp. He was born in the village of Stenshino of the Tambov province.
* Flavian Flavitsky (1848–1917), Russian chemist
* Yevgeny Lanceray (1848–1886), well-known Russian sculptor

#### 1851–1900

* Maksim Dmitriyev (1858–1948), Russian photographer
* Vladimir Arnoldi (1871–1924), Russian botanist
* Konstantin Igumnov (1873–1948), Russian pianist-virtuoso, professor of Moscow Conservatory
* Anastasius (Gribanovsky) (1873–1965), hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and the second First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
* Benjamin (Fedchenkov) (1880–1961), Bishop of the Russian Church, Orthodox missionary and writer
* Lev Ilyin (1880–1942), Russian architect, in 1925–1938 the main architect of Leningrad
* Aleksandr Gerasimov (1881–1963), Soviet painter
* Nikolay Annenkov (Kokin) (1899–1999), patriarch of the Moscow Maly Theatre

### 20th century
#### 1901–1937

* Yevgeny Krinov (1906–1984), Soviet Russian astronomer and geologist
* Igor Levkoev (1909–1978), Russian chemist-photographer
* Alexei T. Sergeev (1919–1998), bass singer; one of the Alexandrov Ensemble soloists, People's Artist of the USSR
* Nikolay Basov (1922–2001), Soviet physicist and educator
* Vsevolod Bobrov (1922–1979), Soviet Russian athlete, who excelled in football, bandy and ice hockey
* Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923–1941), Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union
* Sergei Filatov (1926–1997), Olympic equestrian champion
* Ivan Kalita (1927–1996), Soviet equestrian and Olympic champion

## Born in Tambov Oblast
### 1938–2000

* Igor Uporov (born 1965), Russian advocate
* Alexandr Potapov (born 1985), most popular designer and producer

## Lived in Tambov

* Matvei Bashkin (16th century), Russian boyar's son, the first martyr of the Russian Molokan faith
* Roman Boborykin (17th century), Russian statesman
* Feofil (Rayev) (1738–1811), Bishop of Tambov
* Gavrila Derzhavin (1743–1816), Russian poet
* Michael Lunin (1787–1845), Russian political philosopher, revolutionary, Mason, Decembrist
* Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841), well-known Russian poet
* Theophan the Recluse (Georgy Govorov; 1815–1894), Bishop of Tambov; saint in the Russian Orthodox Church
* Aleksey Zhemchuzhnikov (1821–1908), Russian poet, dramatist, essayist and literary critic
* Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (1855–1935), plant breeder
* Maxim Gorky (Alexei Peshkov) (1868–1936), Russian and Soviet writer and public figure, a founder of socialist realism literature
* Luka (Voyno-Yasenetsky) (1877–1961), Doctor of Medicine and surgeon
* David Burliuk (1882–1967), Russian poet and painter
* Alexander Antonov (1888–1922), leader of the Tambov peasant revolt (1920–1921)
* Konstantin Fedin (1892–1977), Russian writer
* Leonid Dyomin (1897–1973), Doctor of Geographical Sciences, professor
* Alexander Levshin (1899–1982), producer
* Fiodor Dubovitsky (1907–1999), Doctor of Chemical Sciences, professor
* Lev Dyomin (1926–1998), Russian cosmonaut
* Yury Artyukhin (1930–1998), Soviet Russian cosmonaut and engineer
* Nikolay Bochkov (1931–2011), Russian scientist