Today the whole world celebrates the birthday of Rudolf Nureyev — the great dancer of the twentieth century. His official birth date was 17 March 1938. 

The youngest of four children, he was the only boy. The family were Tartars, coming of peasant stock in the Soviet republic of Bashkir, but his father, Hamet, seizing the opportunities brought to ordinary people by the Russian Revolution, become a political education officer in the Red Army, advancing to the rank of major. Because Rudolf’s mother Farida was travelling with her daughters to join Hamet when her son arrived slightly sooner than expected, he was born in a train on the trans-Siberian railway, somewhere near Lake Baikal. 

The legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) spent his childhood and youth in the city of Ufa. Here he started his creative career. From the age of seven he had folk dance classes. From the age of 11 he took classical dance lessons of the former soloist of the Diaghilev Ballet A.I. Udaltsova, then of Y.K.Voitovich, who previously performed in the corps de ballet of the Kirov Theatre. Rudolf Nureyev danced in the corps de ballet of the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theatre from the age of 15, at the age of 16 he was invited to the theatre’s company.

Self-reliance and a constant drive directed Nureyev's energy into a performing schedule around the world that only Anna Pavlova (1885–1931) could equal. His guest performances were slightly cut back with his assumption (the act of taking for oneself) of a three-year directorship of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983. A rapidly changing character—shrewd, cunning, charming, and passionate—Nureyev demonstrated a commitment and a savage power equaled by no other dancer in his day. His last stage appearance was for a curtain call at the Palace Garner after the production of his dance La Bayadere had been performed. He succumbed to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; a disease that attacks the body's immune system) in Paris on January 6, 1993.

Nureyev became well known as Dame Margot Fonteyn’s favourite partner. Dancing with her, he interpreted such roles as Albrecht in Giselle, Armand in Marguerite and Armand, and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. 

Bashkir Choreographic College is named after Rudolf Nureyev.