People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Ana Pauker Ana Pauker The world's first woman foreign minister and head of the Romanian party's "Muscovite faction", brought down by Gheorghiu-Dej's 1952 purge
- Vasile Luca Vasile Luca Finance minister of the "Muscovite faction", purged on the pretext of the 1952 currency reform and dead in Aiud prison, a Székely Hungarian communist
- Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Romania's first communist leader who turned the country from a Soviet satellite toward a semi-autonomous course
- Teohari Georgescu Teohari Georgescu The first communist interior minister, builder of the Securitate, purged in 1952 alongside Pauker and Luca for "shielding" them
- Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu Romania's leader who combined independent diplomacy with a cult of personality
- Elena Ceaușescu Elena Ceaușescu The regime insider who fused political power with scientific prestige
- Vasile Milea Vasile Milea Ceaușescu's last defence minister: his death on 22 December 1989 triggered the army's mass defection to the revolution
- Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu Ceaușescu's protégé who ordered his execution and led Romania's post-communist transition