Extraordinary Beauty: World Famous Russian Women - 08.03.2018, Sputnik International

The first "National Woman's Day" was organized on February 28, 1909 in New York by the Socialist Party of America.

In subsequent years the idea spread to European countries, namely to Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, after participants of a 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, inspired by their US associates proposed the establishment of an annual Women's Day.

Women's Day in Russia

Russian women went further and their march in 1917 in the capital of the then Russian Empire, Petrograd was the beginning of the February Russian Revolution. A strike for "Bread and Peace": the end of World War I, end of food shortages in the country, and the end of czarism led to mass strike and the czar's later demise.

After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin and Alexandra Kollontai proclaimed this day an official holiday in the Soviet Union.

The United Nations started celebrating International Women's Day in International Women's Year in 1975. Two years after, the United Nations General Assembly urged member states to declare March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.

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Founder of the Naked Heart Foundation, top model Natalia Vodianova during the ceremony of preliminary drawing for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Konstantinovsky Palace in Russia's Strelna.

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Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Yelena Isinbayeva at the 15th ceremony of the National Award for Cinematography and Television Award "Golden Eagle" in 2016.

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Julia Efimova (Russia), who won a gold medal in swimming competitions for the 200 m breaststroke among women at the XVII World Aquatics Championships in Budapest.

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Russian supermodel Irina Shayk poses near the press wall for the film "Shining" at the 70th Cannes International Film Festival.

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Tennis star Anna Kournikova poses at the BAFTA Brits to Watch dinner Saturday, July 9, 2011, at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles.

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Sasha Pivovarova attends the 2017 Guggenheim International Gala, hosted by Dior, at the Guggenheim Museum on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, in New York.

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Maria Sharapova arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Battle of the Sexes" on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, in Los Angeles.

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Russian ballerina Ulyana Lopatkina, the prima of the St.Petersbourg Mariinsky Theatre during the set of the New Year program of the TV channel "Russia K" "New Year" Dream station "with Yuri Bashmet."

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Model Vlada Roslyakova presents a creation by Indian designer Manish Arora for Paco Rabanne during the Spring/Summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection show, on October 4, 2011 in Paris.

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t.A.T.u members Julia Volkova, left, and Elena Katina, from Russia, perform at the "You And I" film party at the 61st International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Friday, May 16, 2008.

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Russian supermodel Natalia Polevshchikova (Natasha Poli) on the red carpet at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

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Russian designer Ulyana Sergeyenko at the exhibition of photographs by Karl Lagerfeld and Karin Roytfeld "The Little Black Jacket: Chanel's Classic Revised by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld" at the Artplay Design Center.

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Ballerina Diana Vishneva, the prima of the American Ballet Theatre, during the rehearsal as part of the opening of the 3rd international festival of contemporary choreography "Context. Diana Vishneva" on the stage of the Mossovet Theatre in Moscow.

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Actress Svetlana Khodchenkova at the premiere of the film "Dovlatov" by Alexei German Jr. in the main program of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival "Berlinale - 2018".

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Opera singer Anna Netrebko and Vladimir Spivakov, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Philharmonic of Russia and the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra during a concert at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.

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Actress Ksenia Rappoport on the red carpet before the closing ceremony of the 28th Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi.

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