Rich Serbian Bachelor

About

Rich Serbian Bachelor, also known as Russian King, is the nickname given to a mysterious man whose online dating profile became widely circulated and mocked online for its cringeworthy qualities, in similar vein to the I Kiss You Guy and the Asian Prince.

Origin

As early as April 2009, a profile page was created on the Russian dating website Mamba.ru^[5] for a man who calls himself “Igor Russia,” which features several photographs of himself among gold-plated furniture in and around his lavish home. According to the profile description, the man is searching for a female aged 16-20 years old to live with him in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

Igor: Russia, St. Petersburg; Age: 39

Looking for: a young lady, aged 16-20

Who I’m looking for: My kingdom is getting larger, but no worthy Cinderella yet (without harmful habits, with good physical attributes and a presence of intellect), for transformation into a princess, capable of devotion, loyalty and love (without any intimate past, knowing what honor is from a young age). DO NOT WRITE: If you are a megalomaniac who considers herself to be the last ass on the planet; sad losers; defective items from the marriage market; PEOPLE WITH NONTRADITIONAL ORIENTATION; jealous idiots, whose discussions, advice, questions no one here needs. Don’t leave comments; I am not interested. I am not just selling my body, for I am picky. Serious inquiries only, other verbal diarrhea will not be read.

Goal: Marriage, family.^[7]

Spread

On April 15th, 2009, the dating profile began spreading across Livejournal^[4] after user Katoga reposted the photographs on her personal blog, which was soon picked up by the Russian culture blog Read Russia^[6] on May 1st in an article about the increasing visibility of the photographs on Livejournal. On August 13th, the Internet humor site Full Dhamaal^[3] highlighted several of the photos, referring to the man as "Russian King." On May 12th, 2012, the Texan visual arts blog Glasstire^[1] posted an article titled “Found Art: Serbian Groom Trolls for Bride,” which claimed to have found the photographs in emails that had been circulating among Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian internet users for several years. On May 25th, the photographs were reposted on the viral content site BuzzFeed^[9] and Gawker.^[8] On October 11th, 2013, The Daily Mail^[11] published an article about the "Serbian bachelor." On October 14th, Redditor Chris-P submitted an Imgur gallery of Milisav's photos to the /r/cringepics^[2] subreddit, where it received over 1,200 up votes and 190 comments in the first week.

Identity

On October 15th, the pop culture blog Animal New York^[7] published an article reporting that the man in the photographs was Icelandic cult leader Vilhelm Ulfar Vilhelmsson Rasputin (shown below).^[10] Three days later, Animal New York^[12] published a correction that the man was not the Icelandic cult leader and was actually a Russian furniture factory owner discovered by the Russian news site Komsomolskaya Pravda^[13] in August of 2009.

Search Interest

External References