From Azerbaijani Enlightener to a Head of the Soviet State
When oil magnate Taghiyev tried to silence him at the 1906 Teachers' Congress, Narimanov renounced his scholarship and declared: "I will not be silenced for despicable metal while comrades shed blood against the tsarist yoke."
A teacher, physician, and writer, Narimanov opened a public reading room in Baku and produced some of the earliest works of Azerbaijani realist literature. After joining Hummet in 1905, he entered revolutionary politics, led the government of Soviet Azerbaijan from 1920, and later became a co-chairman of the USSR Central Executive Committee. His attempt to join national emancipation to socialism brought him into tension with centralizing nationalities policy; after his death in 1925, he was interred in the Kremlin Wall.
Career timeline
1890Teacher in Kizil-Ajili village, Borchaly district
1891–1902Teacher at Baku private progymnasium; founded and ran the 'Narimanov Reading Room' (1894)
1895–1899Published plays and fiction incl. Bahadur and Sona (1896) and Nadir Shah (1899); translated and staged Gogol's The Government Inspector (1896)
1905Joined the Muslim Social Democratic organisation Hummet
1908Graduated from Novorossiysk University medical faculty, licensed physician
1909–1914Arrested and exiled to Astrakhan for 5 years; practised medicine, organised Muslim theatre, chaired the Council of People's Universities
1917Member of the Baku Bolshevik committee, editor of the newspaper Hummet
1918Commissar for Municipal Economy, Baku Council of People's Commissars
1919Head of the Near East Department, RSFSR People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
1920–1922Chairman of the Azerbaijani Revolutionary Committee and Council of People's Commissars; concurrently People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (1920–1921)
1922Chairman of the Union Council, ZSFSR (Mar–Dec); member of the Soviet delegation to the Genoa Conference
1922–1925Chairman of the USSR Central Executive Committee — one of the formal heads of the Soviet state
1923–1925Candidate member, Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
The communist propagandist who became Ukraine's first president and signed the Soviet Union out of existence
It was a long road we walked to Belavezha. It was not by accident; it was our deliberate choice because we had no other option.
A party man who spent three decades climbing the propaganda and ideology apparatus of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Kravchuk pivoted to 'national communism' after becoming chairman of the Supreme Soviet in 1990. At the Novo-Ogaryovo negotiations he insisted on a confederation, not a federation, and delayed the signing of the new Union Treaty until September; after the August 1991 coup collapsed, he presided over Ukraine's Declaration of Independence on 24 August. Elected Ukraine's first president on 1 December 1991, he signed the Belavezha Accords with Yeltsin and Shushkevich a week later, formally ending the Soviet Union. His presidency saw the surrender of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal and a deep economic slump, but he stepped down after a peaceful electoral defeat and remained active in politics as a deputy.
Career timeline
1958–70From political-economy teacher to head of agitation and propaganda, Chernivtsi region
1970–80Rose through CC CPU agitation and propaganda department
1980–88Head of CC CPU agitation and propaganda department
1988–89Head of CC CPU ideology department
1989–90.6CC CPU secretary, Politburo member, second secretary
1990.7–1991.8Chairman of Supreme Soviet of Ukraine; presided over independence declaration
1991.12–1994.7First President of Ukraine; signed Belavezha Accords; lost to Kuchma
1994–2006People's Deputy, parliamentary leader of SDPU(o)
First and only Vice President of the USSR and the face of the August 1991 coup
To KGB chairman Kryuchkov during the August 1991 coup: 'Understand my character—if even one person dies, I won't be able to live.'
After serving as First Secretary of the Gorky Oblast Komsomol and chairman of the USSR Committee of Youth Organizations (1968–1980), Yanayev became VTsSPS chairman, a Politburo member and CC Secretary in 1990. That December Gorbachev forced through his election as the USSR's first vice president. In August 1991, as the face of the GKChP, he declared himself acting president citing Gorbachev's 'illness'. The coup failed within three days and he was arrested. Amnestied in 1994, he published the memoir Last Battle for the USSR and spent his remaining years in academia.
Career timeline
1959–1963Mechanised-agriculture detachment chief → Selkhoztekhnika branch manager, Gorky Oblast
1966–1968First Secretary, Gorky Oblast Komsomol
1968–1980Chairman, USSR Committee of Youth Organizations
