People of the Revolution and the USSR
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
Citizenship: Soviet Union
People of the Stalin era 1929–1953
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GlossaryRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
- Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin Михаил Иванович Калинин The long-serving formal head of state
- Maxim Maksimovich Litvinov Максим Максимович Литвинов The diplomat of collective security, removed in 1939
- Emelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky Емельян Михайлович Ярославский The Party's Chief Atheist, Called 'the Soviet Priest'
- Vladimir Viktorovich Adoratsky Владимир Викторович Адоратский IMEL director and the first Marxist philosopher to publicly anoint Stalin as a theorist
- Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky Соломон Абрамович Лозовский The Bolshevik who led the Profintern and was shot with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
- Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov Климент Ефремович Ворошилов Stalin’s marshal, sustained by loyalty more than command
- Alexander Antonovich Troyanovsky Александр Антонович Трояновский From tsarist artillery officer to Stalin's first ambassador to Washington: a Russian nobleman who crossed revolution and diplomacy
- Terenty Dmitriyevich Deribas Терентий Дмитриевич Дерибас The security viceroy of the Far East
- Aleksei Yegorovich Badayev Алексей Егорович Бадаев Official publisher of Pravda who rose from Duma deputy to nominal head of the Russian republic
- Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky Андрей Януарьевич Вышинский Stalin's Moscow-trial prosecutor who later carried hardline Soviet diplomacy to the UN
- Dmitry Zakharovich Manuilsky Дмитрий Захарович Мануильский ECCI secretary who carried out the Stalinist purges (1928–1943)
- Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky Иван Михайлович Майский From Menshevik to Soviet envoy to the British Empire: a convert and survivor who stood at the center of world-war diplomacy
- Yefim Afanasievich Shchadenko Ефим Афанасьевич Щаденко From 1st Cavalry Army commissar to the purge's personnel executioner
- Sergei Mironovich Kirov Сергей Миронович Киров The Leningrad organizer whose murder became the pretext for the Great Terror
- Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze Григорий Константинович (Серго) Орджоникидзе Commander of the industrial front: he pulled the trigger himself
- Jānis Ernestovich Rudzutaks Ян Эрнестович Рудзутак Latvian Bolshevik who denounced NKVD case fabrication in court
- Valerian Vladimirovich Kuibyshev Валериан Владимирович Куйбышев Planning official of the first Five-Year Plans
- Ivan Alekseyevich Akulov Иван Алексеевич Акулов Founder of the Soviet Procuracy, caught between state security and socialist legality
- Mikhail Moiseyevich Kaganovich Михаил Моисеевич Каганович Builder of Soviet defence industry in the shadow of his brother Lazar
- Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik Николай Михайлович Шверник Formal head of state in late Stalinism
- Stanislav Vikentyevich Kosior Станислав Викентьевич Косиор The Ukrainian party boss who denied the famine, felled by Stalin's bullet
- Vasily Vasilievich Ulrikh Василий Васильевич Ульрих Presiding judge of the Moscow show trials, Stalin's 'judicial guillotine'
- Daniil Yegorovich Sulimov Даниил Егорович Сулимов Worker-Bolshevik premier of the Russian Republic destroyed by the state he helped industrialize
- Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher Василий Константинович Блюхер “Order of the Red Banner No. 1”: Civil War hero and one of the first five marshals, extinguished in Lefortovo
- Vilgelm Georgiyevich Knorin Вильгельм Георгиевич Кнорин Architect of Comintern propaganda and party history compiler
- Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov Вячеслав Михайлович Молотов “Stone-arse”: the man who never changed his mind
- Evgeny Bronislavovich Pashukanis Евгений Брониславович Пашуканис The Marxist legal philosopher who argued the legal form corresponds to commodity exchange: the most radical critic of Soviet law from within
- Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar Влас Яковлевич Чубарь The economic administrator who led Ukraine's government for 11 years, caught between Stalin's demands and the famine
- Pyotr Ionovich Baranov Пётр Ионович Баранов Principal architect of the Soviet Air Force and aviation industry
- Mendel Markovich Khataevich Мендель Маркович Хатаевич The party secretary who warned Molotov that grain seizures would leave nobody to plant, shot four years later
- Valery Ivanovich Mezhlauk Валерий Иванович Межлаук A planner purged by the system he served
- Nikolai Kirillovich Antipov Николай Кириллович Антипов The control commissar who ran Stalin's personnel-appointment machinery