According to popular wisdom, all idealists on the throne inevitably become tyrants or dreamers. Vladimir is a remarkable example of both unhappy fates, hence none of those under his rule live calmly and quietly, especially at his house-parties (see the faces below). His life goal, however, is to sublimate the Society into a state of beatific purity. But all his futile attempts to lift the CU Russian Society up just result in its going down, because of his passion for Vodka. The same Vodka which has saved Russia throughout all its history, and now will save Cambridge.

Yulia comes from Chelyabinsk, the great city in the Ural Mountains. Despite, or perhaps because of her unusual 12pm-4am daily schedule, she is well known at Newnham for introducing unassuming friends to the delights of Russian vodka. Yulia spends her night hours studying how to connect climate change scientists and normal people – no easy feat as you can imagine. Her many qualities include: abundant artistic ability, with a specialism in hand-painted images of pancakes (available by commission only); a personal matchmaking service offered to Russians and non-Russians alike, with a success rate of 100%; and, much more than that, the warmth of a firm handshake and a sincere smile.

Mikhail is pretending to be a second year economist while in fact he was sent to Cambridge to investigate how much a human being can survive without a decent sleep. He is up for world record now. As you can imagine he needs a lot of activities to keep himself busy and the Russian Society proved to be the best in this regard. As the vice-president Mikhail does a bit of everything from teaching people Russian (which would probably amaze his own teachers) to drawing posters and serving food. However, as you can see from the other profiles on this page CURS is not that much about work.

Olya is a first year undergraduate doing Natural Sciences (lovely subject, but 9am lectures on Saturdays are a torment). Despite that she is always very optimistic and full of energy, especially if she had a coffee. She loves Russian science-fiction, so if you do have any books by Frai, Belyanin or Bulychev, sharing them with her is the shortcut to eternity from gratitude from her. Olya enjoys her parties and stays until the light come. Her drink of choice is carrot juice (Doctor, is it true that carrots help you to see well? – Of course! Have you ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses?). Even with her busy schedule, Olya manages to find time for her favourite thing in Cambridge – CURS :)

Roma was born in Moscow and stayed there for a day before going to his hometown, Sergiev Posad, where he lived for 13 years and learned some Russian. Before coming to the UK, he dropped by Belgium, where he lived for 4 years and learned some English. This is where (while hanging out with residents of Russian Embassy), he discovered his everlasting and undying love for Russian Vodka, which he carried all the way throughout to Uni. So now in the spare time between reading Economics and smoking shisha, he is secretly investigating ways of smuggling the precious drink into this lager-obsessed country.

Mathias is a PhD student at the Centre of International Studies working on relations between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine. When he spent half a year in Moscow as an exchange student, he loved it so much that he went back there after graduating to take up his first job in Russia. Since then, he has been visiting Eastern Europe as often as possible and is regularly trying to make his department fund ‘research activities’ focusing on Russian nightlife. Originally from the windy plains of North-West Germany, his life goal is to travel to all regions of Russia and the former Soviet Union with some stopovers in the Caribbean.

Having studied dead Germanic languages, modern European literature, classic economics, and why developing countries are still behind, Olya ended up doing a PhD on Russian forestry. However, her life seems to be more about event management, meeting and connecting people, sports (anything from tae bo to skiing), discovering brilliant pieces of fiction and movies. Her plans? Yes, North Pole and Far East are certainly there!