People of the Revolution and the USSR
Social movements and organizing
Marxism and communism
The revolutionary generation 1917–1940
Clear all
- Alexander Serafimovich Александр Серафимович The Don Cossack's son who gave the revolution its epic
- 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
- Maria Fyodorovna Andreyeva Мария Фёдоровна Андреева Actress turned Bolshevik financial agent whom Lenin called 'Comrade Phenomenon'
- Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Надежда Константиновна Крупская She built the Soviet school and library system from the shadow of her husband
- Alexander Nikolayevich Vinokurov Александр Николаевич Винокуров The Bolshevik physician who built the USSR Supreme Court and led it for fourteen years
- David Borisovich Riazanov Давид Борисович Рязанов Founder of the Marx-Engels Institute and independent Marxist who never stopped disagreeing
- Mykola Oleksiyovych Skrypnyk Микола Олексійович Скрипник Architect of Ukrainization: the cultural revolutionary who turned the gun on himself
- Gleb Maksimilianovich Krzhizhanovsky Глеб Максимилианович Кржижановский Early architect of electrification and planning
- Yuri Mikhailovich Steklov Юрий Михайлович Стеклов First Soviet editor of Izvestia, architect of the Soviet constitution
- Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova Елена Дмитриевна Стасова The early Secretariat’s practical organizer
- Semyon Ivanovich Balashov Семён Иванович Балашов Bolshevik leader of Ivanovo-Voznesensk who built the first soviet alongside Frunze during the 1905 general strike
- Sergei Ivanovich Gusev Сергей Иванович Гусев Architect of the Red Army's political apparatus, Old Bolshevik who opposed Trotsky's military line
- Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд Creator of biomechanics, the architect of theatre who staged revolution on stage
- Konkordia Nikolayevna Samoilova Конкордия Николаевна Самойлова Founder of Rabotnitsa and organizer of Russia's first International Women's Day
- Rozaliya Samoilovna Zemlyachka Розалия Самойловна Землячка The 'Demon' Underground and the Only Woman Vice-Chair of Sovnarkom
- Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova Мария Ильинична Ульянова Lenin's youngest sister who edited the revolution with a pencil: press organizer in her own right
- Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин The leader born to a poor Georgian family who came to dominate party and state
- Gleb Ivanovich Bokii Глеб Иванович Бокий Father of Soviet signals intelligence and founder of the Cheka Special Department
- Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Karpinsky Вячеслав Алексеевич Карпинский Lenin's trusted Bolshevik publicist and a 68-year party veteran
- Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky Григорий Иванович Котовский The Bessarabian 'Red Robin Hood' who rose from Tsarist outlaw to legendary Soviet Civil War commander
- Lidia Aleksandrovna Fotieva Лидия Александровна Фотиева Lenin's personal secretary and conduit of his final political struggle
- Kamo Симон Тер-Петросян The Bolsheviks' legendary expropriator, the revolutionary who feigned madness and survived four death sentences
- 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
- Abram Yakovlevich Belenky Абрам Яковлевич Беленький Cheka founding member who guarded Lenin personally
- Sofia Sigizmundovna Dzerzhinskaya Софья Сигизмундовна Дзержинская Polish Social Democrat who forged an independent revolutionary path from the SDKPiL underground to the Comintern
- Fyodor Andreyevich Sergeyev Фёдор Андреевич Сергеев Founder and head of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, close friend of Stalin and Kirov
- Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky Николай Николаевич Крестинский An early Bolshevik responsible secretary later put in the dock
- Ivan Dmitrievich Chugurin Иван Дмитриевич Чугурин Vyborg worker-Bolshevik who handed Lenin his party card
- Grigory Yeremeyevich Evdokimov Григорий Еремеевич Евдокимов Zinoviev's right hand who saved Petrograd, then vanished at Stalin's first show trial
- Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin Евгений Иванович Замятин The architect of a forbidden future
- Mullanur Vakhitov Мулланур Вахитов Tatar revolutionary who led the Kazan Muslim Socialist Committee and became the first head of the Soviet Muslim Commissariat
- Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov Яков Михайлович Свердлов The organizer who linked party and state after October
- Nikolai Aleksandrovich Uglanov Николай Александрович Угланов The Right Opposition's institutional anchor in Moscow
- Zmicier Zhylunovich Зміцер Жылуновіч Worker-poet known as Tsishka Hartny who headed the first Soviet government of Byelorussia
- Sergei Yakovlevich Bagdatev Сергей Яковлевич Багдатьев A Bolshevik praktik who pushed the movement's radical edge
- Yakov Moiseevich Fishman Яков Моисеевич Фишман Revolutionary who went from Left SR leader to architect of Soviet chemical warfare
- Veli Ibraimov Вели Ибраимов Crimean Tatar national communist who pressed Crimean Tatar interests as head of the Crimean ASSR and was executed
- Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov Григорий Яковлевич Сокольников The finance commissar of NEP stabilization
- Ivan Pavlovich Tovstukha Иван Павлович Товстуха Stalin's first secretary, keeper of his archive and author of his first biography
- Alexandra Vasilievna Artyukhina Александра Васильевна Артюхина The only woman on the Orgburo and Secretariat, who led the Zhenotdel at its peak
- Martemyan Nikitich Ryutin Мартемьян Никитич Рютин Right Oppositionist who authored the 'Ryutin Platform': the last organized intra-party call to remove Stalin
- Alexander Yakovlevich Arosev Александр Яковлевич Аросев The revolutionary who ordered the Kremlin shelled, and the proletarian writer who published thirty books
- Dmitry Andreyevich Furmanov Дмитрий Андреевич Фурманов The commissar-writer who turned Chapaev into a Soviet myth
- Maria Akimovna Volodicheva Мария Акимовна Володичева Lenin's duty secretary, recorder of his final dictations
- Asja Ernestovna Lācis Asja Lācis Proletarian children's theatre pioneer who led Walter Benjamin to Marxism and Brecht
- Andrei Klyushnikov Андрей Клюшников Comintern agent known as Nenin who built revolutionary committees in southern Bessarabia and led the Tatarbunary Uprising
- Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondratiev Николай Дмитриевич Кондратьев The agrarian economist who discovered long economic waves
- Mirsaid Khaydargalievich Sultan-Galiev Мирсаид Хайдаргалиевич Султан-Галиев The architect of Islamic socialism and national communism who became Stalin's first ideological purge victim
- Mykola Hryhorovych Khvylovy Микола Григорович Хвильовий Founder of modern Ukrainian Soviet prose
- Vladimir Ivanovich Polonsky Владимир Иванович Полонский Bolshevik Orgotdel chief and trade-union officer purged in 1937