Look at these famous Russians brought back to life by modern technology

If your social network feed has century-old photos, where subjects move, turn their heads, look around, blink and occasionally smile, then you may be familiar with Deep Nostalgia™ from the My Heritage website.

The new technology allows you to animate faces on century-old photographs, so that users can see their ancestors as if they were “alive”.

The feature uses deep learning technology that selects a suitable driver to animate faces on old photographs, in a particular sequence best suited for every individual case.

The company says this brings old photos to life, but admits results may sometimes be uncanny, as each is individually generated.

Nonetheless, the animation sequences used to bring old photos alive often look smooth and natural, as the blueprints are based on real human gestures performed by real human actors.

So, naturally, we ran some famous Russian historical figures through the system and got fascinating results. Enjoy!

Statesmen

Peter the Great, the first Russian Emperor and reformer

Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution

Nicholas II, Russia's last Emperor

Grigori Rasputin, mystic and self-proclaimed holy man

Joseph Stalin, dictator of the USSR

Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary

Andrei Gromyko, diplomat

Creative people

Boris Pasternak, writer

Leo Tolstoy, writer 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, writer

Vladimir Nabokov, writer

Joseph Brodsky, poet

Anton Chekhov, writer

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, writer

Mikhail Bulgakov, writer

Sergei Yesenin, poet

Vladimir Mayakovsky, poet

Feodor Chaliapin, opera singer

Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composer

Technology pioneers

Igor Sikorsky, aviation pioneer

Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, the first man in space

Andrei Sakharov, Nuclear physicist and activist

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, color photography pioneer

Sergei Korolev, spacecraft designer

Sergei Eisenstein, motion picture pioneer

Click here for the list of 10 of the MOST successful and famous people in Russian history.

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