People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin Михаил Иванович Калинин The long-serving formal head of state
- Avel Safronovich Yenukidze Авель Сафронович Енукидзе Stalin's close friend and the 17-year organizational backbone of the Soviet state, the first fall that opened the Great Purge
- Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik Николай Михайлович Шверник Formal head of state in late Stalinism
- Mikhail Alekseyevich Yasnov Михаил Алексеевич Яснов The 20-year formal head of state of the Russian republic under Brezhnev
- Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev Геннадий Иванович Янаев First and only Vice President of the USSR and the face of the August 1991 coup
- Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov Руслан Имранович Хасбулатов The Supreme Soviet chairman who stood with Yeltsin against the coup, then fell to Yeltsin's tanks