People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Kim Tu-bong 김두봉 Independence activist, linguist, and Yan'an faction leader who served as the first head of state of the DPRK
- Kim Won-bong 김원봉 Heroic Corps founder who evolved from anarchist bombings to DPRK cabinet, lone figure spanning the Korean revolutionary spectrum
- Choe Yong-gon 최용건 The Manchurian guerrilla who became the KPA's first commander and the DPRK's nominal head of state
- Kim Il Sung 김일성 The founder of North Korea returned from the Soviet Far East
- Ch'oe Ch'ang-ik 최창익 Yan'an faction leader who drove the 1946 New People's Party merger and was purged in the August Faction Incident