People of the Revolution and the USSR
Political and party leadership
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
Marxism and communism
Clear all
GlossaryRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
- Leo Jogiches Leo Jogiches The revolution's underground organizer, always behind the scenes, until he had to lead
- Filipp Yeseyevich Makharadze ფილიპე იესეს ძე მახარაძე The Bolshevik elder removed by Stalin for trying to Sovietize Georgia gently
- Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Надежда Константиновна Крупская She built the Soviet school and library system from the shadow of her husband
- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Владимир Ильич Ленин The helmsman who changed course at every fork
- Leonid Borisovich Krasin Леонид Борисович Красин From revolutionary engineer to Soviet diplomatic architect, the only Bolshevik who could do business with Western capital
- Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai Александра Михайловна Коллонтай The first woman cabinet minister, who made women's liberation the revolution's business
- Inessa Fyodorovna Armand Инесса Фёдоровна Арманд The woman Bolshevik closest to Lenin: death saved her from the Purge
- Rozaliya Samoilovna Zemlyachka Розалия Самойловна Землячка The 'Demon' Underground and the Only Woman Vice-Chair of Sovnarkom
- Viktor Pavlovich Nogin Виктор Павлович Ногин First commissar to resign demanding a coalition, buried on Red Square
- Emelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky Емельян Михайлович Ярославский The Party's Chief Atheist, Called 'the Soviet Priest'
- Vladimir Viktorovich Adoratsky Владимир Викторович Адоратский IMEL director and the first Marxist philosopher to publicly anoint Stalin as a theorist
- Serafima Ilyinichna Gopner Серафима Ильинична Гопнер First woman to lead the Ukrainian Bolshevik party; delegate to all seven Comintern congresses
- Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev Платон Михайлович Керженцев Proletkult theorist who became architect of Stalin-era arts censorship
- Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev Григорий Евсеевич Зиновьев He opposed October, vouched for Stalin, and was shot by him
- Lev Borisovich Kamenev Лев Борисович Каменев The party’s licensed voice of caution: his warnings outlived him
- Olga Davidovna Kameneva Ольга Давыдовна Каменева Trotsky's sister and Kamenev's wife: the architect of Soviet cultural diplomacy with the West
- Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov Андрей Сергеевич Бубнов From October Revolution Politburo member to the Enlightenment Commissar who led the fight against illiteracy
- Alexandra Petrovna Kim Александра Петровна Ким The first Korean communist, who gave her life bridging the Russian Revolution and Korean liberation
- Alexander Fyodorovich Myasnikov Александр Фёдорович Мясников Lenin's periphery-builder who brought Soviet power to Belarus and Armenia
- Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze Григорий Константинович (Серго) Орджоникидзе Commander of the industrial front: he pulled the trigger himself
- Jānis Ernestovich Rudzutaks Ян Эрнестович Рудзутак Latvian Bolshevik who denounced NKVD case fabrication in court
- Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev Валериан Владимирович Куйбышев Planning official of the first Five-Year Plans
- Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin Николай Иванович Бухарин The “favourite of the whole party,” killed in its name
- Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov Григорий Яковлевич Сокольников The finance commissar of NEP stabilization
- Vilgelm Georgiyevich Knorin Вильгельм Георгиевич Кнорин Architect of Comintern propaganda and party history compiler
- Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov Вячеслав Михайлович Молотов “Stone-arse”: the man who never changed his mind
- Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar Влас Яковлевич Чубарь The economic administrator who led Ukraine's government for 11 years, caught between Stalin's demands and the famine