Skip to content
People of the Revolution and the USSR
Activity(set)
Affiliation(set)
Position
Citizenship
Background
Era
People of the Soviet Union
People of the wider world
GlossarySoviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks→
-
Alexander Serafimovich Александр Серафимович
The Don Cossack's son who gave the revolution its epic
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1863–1949
-
Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr Николай Яковлевич Марр
Creator of the Japhetic theory who, as the sole Imperial academician to join the Communist Party, dominated Soviet linguistics for decades
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1865–1934
-
Julian Józefowicz Marchlewski Julian Marchlewski
A Pole who passed through the German and Russian revolutions and tried to bring revolution home
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1866–1925
-
Maria Fyodorovna Andreyeva Мария Фёдоровна Андреева
Actress turned Bolshevik financial agent whom Lenin called 'Comrade Phenomenon'
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1868–1953
-
David Borisovich Riazanov Давид Борисович Рязанов
Founder of the Marx-Engels Institute and independent Marxist who never stopped disagreeing
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1870–1938
-
Nikolai Ernestovich Bauman Николай Эрнестович Бауман
The 'Rook' who flew across borders building the Iskra network, and the revolution's first martyr
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1873–1905
-
Ivan Vasilyevich Babushkin Иван Васильевич Бабушкин
The worker-organizer Iskra trusted most: archetype of the Bolshevik worker
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1873–1906
-
Christian Georgievich Rakovsky Христиан Георгиевич Раковский
From Balkan revolutionary to head of Soviet Ukraine: the diplomat who became an opposition theorist
Government and administration · Soviet Ukraine
1873–1941
-
Yuri Mikhailovich Steklov Юрий Михайлович Стеклов
First Soviet editor of Izvestia, architect of the Soviet constitution
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1873–1941
-
Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova Елена Дмитриевна Стасова
The early Secretariat’s practical organizer
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1873–1966
-
Semyon Ivanovich Balashov Семён Иванович Балашов
Bolshevik leader of Ivanovo-Voznesensk who built the first soviet alongside Frunze during the 1905 general strike
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1874–1925
-
Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд
Creator of biomechanics, the architect of theatre who staged revolution on stage
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1874–1940
-
Mikhail Fyodorovich Vladimirsky Михаил Фёдорович Владимирский
Old Bolshevik who watched over the Party's books for a quarter-century
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1874–1951
-
Vasily Nikolayevich Kayurov Василий Николаевич Каюров
Vyborg Bolshevik organizer who turned the Women's Day protest into the February Revolution
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1876–1936
-
Boris Mikhailovich Eltsin Борис Михайлович Эльцин
A physician of the Left Opposition who shares a name with the first president of Russia
Science and technology · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1876–1937
-
Nikolai Ivanovich Muralov Николай Иванович Муралов
The revolutionary soldier who founded Post No. 1 at Lenin's Mausoleum
Military command · Soviet Union
1877–1937
-
Alexander Andreyevich Svechin Александр Андреевич Свечин
“The Russian Clausewitz”. Theorist of strategy and operational art
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1878–1938
-
Evgenia Bogdanovna Bosch Евгения Богдановна Бош
First woman to lead a Soviet government, between revolution and terminal illness
Government and administration · Soviet Ukraine
1879–1925
-
Zinovy Yakovlevich Litvin-Sedoy Зиновий Яковлевич Литвин-Седой
Organizer of Presnya’s workers’ fighting squads
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1879–1947
-
Ivan Nikitich Smirnov Иван Никитич Смирнов
The Siberian Bolshevik of the Left Opposition
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1881–1936
-
Lidia Aleksandrovna Fotieva Лидия Александровна Фотиева
Lenin's personal secretary and conduit of his final political struggle
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1881–1975
-
Kamo Симон Тер-Петросян
The Bolsheviks' legendary expropriator, the revolutionary who feigned madness and survived four death sentences
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1882–1922
-
Aleksei Kapitonovich Gastev Алексей Капитонович Гастев
From proletarian poetry to the science of labour: founder of Soviet social engineering who trained half a million workers
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1882–1939
-
Zigmas Angarietis Zigmas Angarietis
Interior commissar of Soviet Lithuania, a Lithuanian communist leader killed in the Great Terror
Security, intelligence and policing · Lithuania state institutions
1882–1940
-
Sofia Sigizmundovna Dzerzhinskaya Софья Сигизмундовна Дзержинская
Polish Social Democrat who forged an independent revolutionary path from the SDKPiL underground to the Comintern
Social movements and organizing · Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL)
1882–1968
-
Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky Николай Николаевич Крестинский
An early Bolshevik responsible secretary later put in the dock
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1883–1938
-
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko Владимир Александрович Антонов-Овсеенко
He arrested the Provisional Government in 1917; Stalin arrested him in 1937
Military command · Soviet Union
1883–1938
-
Ivan Dmitrievich Chugurin Иван Дмитриевич Чугурин
Vyborg worker-Bolshevik who handed Lenin his party card
Industry and production · Soviet Union
1883–1947
-
Matvei Fyodorovich Shkiryatov Матвей Фёдорович Шкирятов
The eraser poised over party rolls for thirty years
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1883–1954
-
Fyodor Vasilyevich Gladkov Фёдор Васильевич Гладков
Classic writer of socialist realism who pioneered the Soviet industrial novel with Cement
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1883–1958
-
Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich Михаил Михайлович Лашевич
Bolshevik military leader of 1917 and the Civil War
Military command · Soviet Union
1884–1928
-
Grigory Yeremeyevich Evdokimov Григорий Еремеевич Евдокимов
Zinoviev's right hand who saved Petrograd, then vanished at Stalin's first show trial
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1884–1936
-
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin Евгений Иванович Замятин
The architect of a forbidden future
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1884–1937
-
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov Яков Михайлович Свердлов
The organizer who linked party and state after October
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1885–1919
-
Eino Rahja Eino Rahja
Petrograd Finnish Bolshevik who helped Lenin escape to Finland in 1917 and sat on the Red Guards’ three-man command in 1918
Military command · Communist Party of Finland (SKP)
1885–1936
-
Alexander Gavrilovich Shlyapnikov Александр Гаврилович Шляпников
Leader of the Workers' Opposition, defeated by Lenin, devoured by the Purge
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1885–1937
-
Sergei Pavlovich Medvedev Сергей Павлович Медведев
The metalworker who co-led the Workers' Opposition, defeated by the party machine, consumed by the Purge
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1885–1937
-
Karl Berngardovich Radek Karol Radek
The polemicist who survived trial only to die in prison
Diplomacy and international organization · Comintern
1885–1939
-
Ivan Ivanovich Korotkov Иван Иванович Коротков
From party control to the art museum: an icon-painter Bolshevik
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1885–1949
-
Sergei Mironovich Kirov Сергей Миронович Киров
The Leningrad organizer whose murder became the pretext for the Great Terror
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1886–1934
-
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Uglanov Николай Александрович Угланов
The Right Opposition's institutional anchor in Moscow
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1886–1937
-
Yevgeni Alexeyevich Preobrazhensky Евгений Алексеевич Преображенский
The theorist of primitive socialist accumulation
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1886–1937
-
Yuri Khrisanfovich Lutovinov Лутовинов, Хрисанфович Юрий
Bolshevik revolutionary and metalworker from Lugansk, a leader of the Workers' Opposition
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1887–1924
-
Innokenty Nikolayevich Stukov Иннокентий Николаевич Стуков
A revolutionary who consistently pursued the intra-party left line, from Left Communism to the United Opposition
Economy, finance and planning · Soviet Union
1887–1936
-
Timofei Vladimirovich Sapronov Тимофей Владимирович Сапронов
Leader of the 'Democratic Centralists' who demanded inner-party workers' democracy
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1887–1937
-
Vladimir Mikhailovich Smirnov Владимир Михайлович Смирнов
From Moscow uprising artillery commander to Left Communist and Democratic Centralist
Economy, finance and planning · Soviet Union
1887–1937
-
Pavel Petrovich Postyshev Павел Петрович Постышев
Stalin's famine envoy and terror executor called the 'hangman of Ukraine', executed in 1939
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1887–1939
-
Sergei Yakovlevich Bagdatev Сергей Яковлевич Багдатьев
A Bolshevik praktik who pushed the movement's radical edge
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1887–1949
-
Irina Konstantinovna Kakhovskaya Ирина Константиновна Каховская
Left SR who organised the 1918 assassination of the German field marshal Eichhorn in Kiev and spent decades in Soviet prisons and exile
Social movements and organizing · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1887–1960
-
Yakov Moiseevich Fishman Яков Моисеевич Фишман
Revolutionary who went from Left SR leader to architect of Soviet chemical warfare
Political and party leadership · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1887–1961