Stefan Vojislav (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Војислав; 1000-1043) was the Prince of Duklja from 1040 to 1043. He had since 1018 been a toparch in Byzantine vassalage, and in 1034 he led an unsuccessful revolt that resulted in his incarceration at Constantinople, he however, managed to escape and return, this time successfully gaining independence of his statelet, which he would rule as Prince of the Serbs, a title signifying supreme leadership among Serbs.

He is the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljević dynasty.

The contemporary writers call him a Serb, but do not mention his geneaology, while a later, dubious source, calls him a cousin to previous ruler Jovan Vladimir (r. 990-1016).

Having reached its pinnacle during the long reign of emperor Basil II, the Byzantine empire entered, following his death in 1025, a steady decline. This was particularly evident in the Balkans. There, the elimination of the perennial Bulgarian threat, combined with insensitive taxation policy reversals, helped spur liberation movements.

Jovan Vladimir or John Vladimir (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Владимир; died 22 May 1016) was ruler of Duklja, the most powerful Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. He ruled during the protracted war between the Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire. His close relationship with Byzantium did not save Duklja from the expansionist Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, who conquered the principality in around 1010 and took Jovan Vladimir prisoner. A medieval chronicle asserts that Samuel's daughter, Theodora Kosara, fell in love with Vladimir and begged her father for his hand. The tsar allowed the marriage and returned Duklja to Vladimir, who ruled as his vassal.

Vladimir was acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler. He took no part in his father-in-law's war efforts. The warfare culminated with Samuel's defeat by the Byzantines in 1014; the tsar died soon afterward. In 1016 Vladimir fell victim to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon recognized as a martyr and saint; his feast day is celebrated on 22 May. His widow, Kosara, reburied him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court in southeastern Duklja. In 1381 his remains were preserved in the Church of St Jovan Vladimir near Elbasan, and since 1995 they have been kept in the Orthodox cathedral of Tirana, Albania. The saint's remains are considered relics, and attract many believers, especially on his feast day, when the relics are taken to the church near Elbasan for a celebration.

Vojislav Šešelj, JD (Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ, pronounced [ʋǒjislaʋ ʃěʃeʎ]) (born 11 October 1954, Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party. He was a member of the Serbian parliament.

Šešelj is on trial for alleged war crimes and is suspected of being involved in crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He surrendered voluntarily in February 2003 but his trial did not begin until November 2007.

In February 2009, the prosecution had presented 71 witnesses against Šešelj. With seven hours left in the prosecution, his trial was suspended because of alleged witness intimidation. The trial was resumed on 12 January 2009, and Šešelj does not plan to call any witnesses in his defense, stating that there is no need since the prosecution has not presented a single worthy witness. On 24 July 2009, he was sentenced to a further 15 months in custody for disrespecting the court. As of April 2012 the trial was still under way as Šešelj has spent a total of more than nine years in custody. Of all ICTY indictees, Šešelj spent the longest time without a verdict being delivered. This is partly due to a hunger strike, his decision to not appear for his opening statement (he was self represented), and the aforementioned witness intimidation. In September 2011, the ICTY rejected Šešelj’s bid to have his long-running trial discontinued. In his submission to the court, Šešelj stated that his right to be tried in a reasonable amount of time has been violated, and called the current situation “incomprehensible, scandalous and inappropriate”. However, the bench found that “there is no predetermined threshold with regard to the time period beyond which a trial may be considered unfair on account of undue delay” and also argued that Šešelj “failed to provide concrete proof of abuse of process”.

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов) (Russian pronunciation: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej rɐxˈmanʲɪnəf]; 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.

Rachmaninoff was born on 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 in Semyonovo, near Great Novgorod, in north-western Russia into a family of the Russian aristocracy, originally of partly Tatar descent, which had been in the service of the Russian tsars since the 16th century. His parents were both amateur pianists. When he was four, his mother gave him casual piano lessons, but it was his paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich Rachmaninoff, who brought Anna Ornatskaya, a teacher from Saint Petersburg, to teach the 9 year old Sergei in 1882. Ornatskaya remained for two or three years, until the family's house in Semyonovo had to be sold to settle debts and the Rachmaninoffs moved to Saint Petersburg.