People of the Revolution and the USSR
- 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
- Alexander Georgiyevich Beloborodov Александр Георгиевич Белобородов NKVD chief who signed the Romanov execution and joined the Left Opposition
- 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
- Ivar Tenisovich Smilga Ivars Smilga The young oppositionist of the Revolutionary Military Council
- Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskolnikov Фёдор Фёдорович Раскольников From Volga flotilla commander to exile critic: the diplomat who wrote Stalin an open letter
- Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky Владимир Владимирович Маяковский The revolution’s megaphone and satirist
- Nestor Apollonovich Lakoba Нестор Аполлонович Лакоба Stalin's closest friend turned Beria's first victim: the red prince of Abkhazia
- Mendel Markovich Khataevich Мендель Маркович Хатаевич The party secretary who warned Molotov that grain seizures would leave nobody to plant, shot four years later
- Vladimir Ivanovich Polonsky Владимир Иванович Полонский Bolshevik Orgotdel chief and trade-union officer purged in 1937
- 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
- Semyon Petrovich Uritsky Семён Петрович Урицкий GRU chief who expanded Soviet military intelligence, then fell to the Great Purge
- Semyon Grigoryevich Roshal Семён Григорьевич Рошаль The 21-year-old commissar who brought Kronstadt sailors to the revolution
- Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov Леонид Петрович Серебряков The Left Opposition secretary whom Lenin called a 'brilliant worker'