People of the Revolution and the USSR

Soviet Union Soviet communism 1923–2009 ○ Died of illness, Moscow

General who received the Victory Banner and stood alone in the coup dock

In June 1945 Captain Varennikov, as chief of the honour guard, received the Victory Banner when it arrived at Moscow's central airfield; hours later that banner led the Victory Parade across Red Square.

Soviet and Russian general of the army, veteran of the Great Patriotic War and the Afghan War. He received the Victory Banner at the head of the honour guard in 1945 and, from 1984 to 1989, headed the Defence Ministry control group in Afghanistan, where the Hero of the Soviet Union title came for commanding Operation Magistral in 1988, not for the withdrawal. Not a member of the State Committee on the State of Emergency, he supported the August 1991 coup as its military representative; in 1994 he alone refused amnesty, and the Supreme Court acquitted him for acting on a superior's order. Prominent in the KAL 007 shoot-down order and the January 1991 events in Vilnius. State Duma deputy from 1995, later an inspector general of the defence ministry. Died in Moscow in 2009.

Soviet Union Soviet communism 1935–2000 ○ Heart attack

Second human to orbit Earth and builder of Soviet military space systems

"Once you have your arms and legs arranged properly, space sleep is fine... I slept like a baby." — the first human to sleep in orbit, Vostok 2, August 1961.

Soviet cosmonaut and military space commander. On 6 August 1961, aboard Vostok 2, he became the second human to orbit Earth; his 17-orbit, 25-hour flight, the first long-duration mission, proved humans could eat, sleep, and work in space. At 25, he remains the youngest orbital pilot in history. He was the first to manually pilot a spacecraft, the first to film Earth from orbit, and the first to experience space sickness. After his flight he led cosmonaut training for the Spiral orbital spaceplane, and from 1979 to 1991 served as First Deputy Chief of GUKOS/UNKS, the USSR Ministry of Defence space directorate, overseeing military space systems including the Marshal Nedelin-class tracking ships. Elected to the Russian State Duma as a CPRF member (1993–2000).