A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate.

"White émigré" is a political term mostly used in France, the United States, and the UK. A less politically oriented term used in the same countries by the immigrants themselves and by the native population is First wave émigré (Эмигрант первой волны). In the USSR in 1920s–1980s the term White émigré (Белоэмигрант) generally had negative connotations. Since the end of the 1980s the term "first wave émigré" has become more common in Russia.

Many white émigrés were participants in the White movement or supported it, although the term is often broadly applied to anyone who may have left the country due to the change in regimes (some of them, like Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, were opposed to the Bolsheviks but had not supported the White movement; some were just apolitical), as well as to the descendants of those who left and still retain a Russian Orthodox Christian identity while living abroad. The term "white émigrés" (белоэмигранты, белая эмиграция) was much more often used in the Soviet Union, where it had a strong negative connotation, than by the émigrés themselves, who preferred to call themselves simply "Russian émigrés" (русская эмиграцiя) or "Russian military émigrés"(русская военная эмиграцiя) if they participated in the White movement.

Sacha Distel (29 January 1933 – 22 July 2004) was a French singer and guitarist who had hits with a cover version of the Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" (originally recorded by B. J. Thomas), "Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was born in Paris.

Sacha Distel, born Alexandre Distel, was a son of Russian White émigré Leonid Distel. Sacha's uncle, Ray Ventura, was a prominent jazz promoter. In the 1930s Ventura promoted and participated in the development of swing in France. When his uncle settled in Paris with his orchestra, “Les Collégiens”, Distel gave up his piano for the guitar.

In 1948, Ventura invited Distel to listen to Dizzy Gillespie perform with his orchestra, along with Bruno Coquatrix, Paul Misraki and André Hornez. Distel's efforts led to the orchestra's split, which gave birth to two rival bands: Guy Wormser's New Orleans die-hards and the cool jazz and bebop aficionados led by Distel. After meeting Hubert Damisch, a saxophone player, Sacha founded the band that would allow him to be up with the leaders. With help from Jean Marie Ingrand (bass), Mimi Perrin (piano) and Jean Louis Viale (drums), the band won the Coliseum's Night of Jazz “Meilleur Petit Orchestre Moderne” award, with Damisch and Distel winning prizes as musicians on the same night. Distel became a professional jazz guitarist. Over his career he worked alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Tony Bennett and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1950s after establishing himself as a French crooner.

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson (born 18 April 1964) is a British historian. His speciality is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.

Ferguson, who was born in Glasgow, is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University. He was educated at the private Glasgow Academy in Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Ferguson's books include Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and Civilization: The West and the Rest, all of which he has also presented as Channel 4 television series.

In 2004 he was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He is currently^[when?] a contributing editor for Bloomberg Television and a columnist for Newsweek. He is currently^[when?] working on the official biography of Henry Kissinger to whom he has been granted unprecedented access.

Ferguson was born the son of a doctor father and a physics teacher mother in Glasgow on 18 April 1964, and lived for a time near Ibrox Park. He attended The Glasgow Academy.^{[citation needed]}

Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko (Russian: Пётр Константинович Лещенко; 2 June 1898 – 16 July 1954), a singer in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, is universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically known for his rendition of "Serdtse"—a tango song not in the Spanish language. He was born as a citizen of the Russian Empire in Isayevo village of the Kherson Governorate (now part of Odessa Oblast, Ukraine) into a poor and illiterate peasant family. During the First World War, his mother and stepfather moved to Kishinev (Bessarabia Governorate), which was later annexed by Romania (today's Moldova). He was proficient in numerous languages Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and others.

In his early childhood he sang in a church choir and learned how to play the guitar and the balalaika.

After the war, Pyotr, who had never learned a real trade, worked at various restaurants, serving, dish-washing and performing small theatrical acts. He had a soft baritone voice.

Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes ( /ˈreɪf ˈfaɪnz/; born 22 December 1962) is an English theatre and film actor. A noted Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage in the Royal National Theatre. Since then, he has portrayed characters such as Nazi war criminal Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, Count Almásy in The English Patient, and Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show. He also starred in The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, Red Dragon, Onegin, and The End of the Affair, among others. He is also well known for playing Lord Voldemort in five Harry Potter movies (of eight).

In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, in which he also played the titular character. Fiennes won a Tony Award for playing Hamlet on Broadway and has been nominated twice for the Academy Award.

Ralph Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes was born in Ipswich on 22 December 1962, the eldest child of Mark Fiennes (1933–2004), a farmer and photographer whose father was industrialist Sir Maurice Fiennes (1907–1994), and Jennifer Lash (1938–1993), a writer of English and Irish descent. His surname is of Norman origin.