People of the Revolution and the USSR
Social movements and organizing
Marxism and communism
People of the thaw and the stagnation 1953–1985
Clear all
- Jānis Eduardovich Kalnbērziņš Ян Эдуардович Калнберзинь Founding leader of Soviet Latvia and the longest-serving republican First Secretary among the Baltic republics
- Arvīds Yanovich Pelše Арвид Янович Пельше Brezhnev-era guardian of party discipline and Latvian-born Politburo member
- Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov Георгий Максимилианович Маленков The first loser of the age when losers stopped dying
- Vasil Pavlovich Mzhavanadze Васил Павлович Мжаванадзе The Georgian boss who ruled nineteen years, and godfathered a shadow economy
- Nikolai Ilyich Belyaev Николай Ильич Беляев Khrushchev loyalist who defended him in 1957, undone by the Temirtau riots
- Averky Borisovich Aristov Аверкий Борисович Аристов Presidium member born a fisherman's son, party cadres chief who loved to fish
- Alexei Nikolayevich Leontiev Алексей Николаевич Леонтьев Founder of activity theory who laid the institutional foundations of Marxist psychology
- Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov Павел Алексеевич Черенков The Soviet Nobel physicist who discovered the Cherenkov effect
- Ivan Vasilyevich Spiridonov Иван Васильевич Спиридонов Khrushchev-era Leningrad party boss who proposed removing Stalin's body from the Mausoleum and stumbled over the apparatus's loyalty test
- Vladimir Nikiforovich Malin Владимир Никифорович Малин 11-year keeper of the party's central document flow
- Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko Андрей Павлович Кириленко Brezhnev-era senior secretary for cadres
- Frol Romanovich Kozlov Фрол Романович Козлов The second secretary whose stroke opened the Brezhnev era
- Aleksey Illarionovich Kirichenko Алексей Илларионович Кириченко Khrushchev-era secretary for party appointments
- Vladimir Fyodorovich Promyslov Владимир Фёдорович Промыслов The 23-year mayor who built the Brezhnev-era face of Moscow
- Konstantin Viktorovich Rusakov Константин Викторович Русаков Brezhnev's secretary who ran party-to-party diplomacy with the socialist bloc
- Aleksandr Petrovich Rudakov Александр Петрович Рудаков Heavy-industry secretary in Khrushchev's bifurcated industrial Secretariat
- Georgy Sergeyevich Pavlov Георгий Сергеевич Павлов Brezhnev's 18-year steward of the party treasury and 'party gold'
- Mikhail Timofeyevich Yefremov Михаил Тимофеевич Ефремов From Volga orphanage boy to Kosygin's deputy premier: a party cadres specialist who ran three obkoms
- Leonid Nikolayevich Yefremov Леонид Николаевич Ефремов The party man who handed Stavropol to Gorbachev, then called him a renegade
- Nikolai Romanovich Mironov Николай Романович Миронов The party's overseer of the power ministries who organized Khrushchev's removal
- Sergei Mitrofanovich Kovalev Сергей Митрофанович Ковалёв Soviet ideologue who codified the Brezhnev Doctrine in the pages of Pravda
- Nikolai Ivanovich Savinkin Николай Иванович Савинкин The personnel gatekeeper of the Soviet power ministries for 19 years under Brezhnev
- Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin Виктор Васильевич Гришин The face of the Brezhnev era who ran Moscow for eighteen years and died while re-applying for his pension
- Aleksei Mikhailovich Shkolnikov Алексей Михайлович Школьников The apparatchik who ran three oblasts under Khrushchev and rose to People's Control
- Ivan Vasilyevich Kapitonov Иван Васильевич Капитонов The personnel chief who ran the nomenklatura for 21 years under Brezhnev
- Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov Александр Михайлович Прохоров Nobel-winning laser co-inventor who helmed the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for three decades
- Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg Виталий Лазаревич Гинзбург From the H-bomb's 'second idea' to the Nobel Prize: a century-spanning theoretical physicist
- Vasily Sergeyevich Tolstikov Василий Сергеевич Толстиков Leningrad party leader during the Thaw who became ambassador to China
- Nuritdin Akramovich Mukhitdinov Nuritdin Akramovich Muhitdinov First Central Asian in the Presidium, nationalities-policy practitioner
- Fyodor Davydovich Kulakov Фёдор Давыдович Кулаков Agriculture secretary seen as a Brezhnev successor whose sudden death opened the seat for Gorbachev
- Fyodor Konstantinovich Mortin Фёдор Константинович Мортин Sakharovsky's 13-year right hand and the short-lived PGU chief of early détente
- Viktor Mikhailovich Bushuyev Виктор Михайлович Бушуев CC department head who directed the Soviet chemical industry
- Georgy Emmanuilovich Tsukanov Георгий Эммануилович Цуканов The quiet gatekeeper who controlled Brezhnev's paper flow
- Nikolai Grigoryevich Yegorychev Николай Григорьевич Егорычев The Moscow party boss who challenged Brezhnev and was exiled to diplomacy
- Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov Григорий Васильевич Романов From Leningrad to Moscow: the successor halted one step short
- Sergei Iosifovich Manyakin Сергей Иосифович Манякин The longest-serving regional party secretary in Soviet history, who led Omsk for 26 years
- Yakov Petrovich Ryabov Яков Петрович Рябов Yeltsin's political patron and CPSU defence secretary who forced the T-72 tank through against Ustinov's opposition
- Yevgeny Mikhailovich Tyazhelnikov Евгений Михайлович Тяжельников The model Brezhnev-era youth-cadre pipeline apparatchik
- Sergei Pavlovich Pavlov Сергей Павлович Павлов The anti-thaw Komsomol chief who delivered the Moscow Olympics
- Yuri Nikolayevich Khristoradnov Юрий Николаевич Христораднов Party chief who led the Gorky region for 14 years and the last Soviet overseer of religious affairs
- Merab Konstantinovich Mamardashvili Мераб Константинович Мамардашвили The philosopher who spoke consciousness aloud
- Viktor Sergeyevich Makarenko Виктор Сергеевич Макаренко Crimean party administrator who helped protect Massandra
- Boris Nikolayevich Pastukhov Борис Николаевич Пастухов The last Komsomol heavyweight who ran the Soviet publishing empire