People of the Revolution and the USSR
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Background: Russia
People of the Stalin era 1929–1953
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GlossarySoviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
- Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin Владимир Петрович Потёмкин The diplomat who pronounced Poland dead, then became education commissar
- Mikhail Fyodorovich Vladimirsky Михаил Фёдорович Владимирский Old Bolshevik who watched over the Party's books for a quarter-century
- Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin Михаил Иванович Калинин The long-serving formal head of state
- Nikolai Nilovich Burdenko Николай Нилович Бурденко Founder of Soviet neurosurgery and Chief Surgeon of the Red Army
- Stanislav Gustavovich Strumilin Станислав Густавович Струмилин The economist who designed socialism in numbers
- Alexander Andreyevich Svechin Александр Андреевич Свечин “The Russian Clausewitz”. Theorist of strategy and operational art
- 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
- Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev Дмитрий Михайлович Карбышев The Soviet Union's greatest fortification scientist, who chose martyrdom at Mauthausen over collaboration with the Nazis
- Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov Василий Алексеевич Дегтярёв Founder of Soviet firearms design, creator of the DP-27, DShK, and PTRD
- Abram Fyodorovich Ioffe Абрам Фёдорович Иоффе The 'Papa Ioffe' who reared all of Soviet physics
- Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov Климент Ефремович Ворошилов Stalin’s marshal, sustained by loyalty more than command
- Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov Борис Михайлович Шапошников The only officer Stalin addressed by name and patronymic, author of The Brain of the Army
- 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
- Alexander Ilyich Yegorov Александр Ильич Егоров The Southern Front commander who broke Denikin: the last of the first five marshals whose name was erased
- Aleksei Yegorovich Badayev Алексей Егорович Бадаев Official publisher of Pravda who rose from Duma deputy to nominal head of the Russian republic
- Matvei Fyodorovich Shkiryatov Матвей Фёдорович Шкирятов The eraser poised over party rolls for thirty years
- Fyodor Vasilyevich Gladkov Фёдор Васильевич Гладков Classic writer of socialist realism who pioneered the Soviet industrial novel with Cement
- Ivan Ivanovich Korotkov Иван Иванович Коротков From party control to the art museum: an icon-painter Bolshevik
- Sergei Mironovich Kirov Сергей Миронович Киров The Leningrad organizer whose murder became the pretext for the Great Terror
- Pavel Petrovich Postyshev Павел Петрович Постышев Stalin's famine envoy and terror executor called the 'hangman of Ukraine', executed in 1939
- 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
- Moisei Iosifovich Kalmanovich Моисей Иосифович Калманович Revolutionary-turned-banker who led Gosbank through collectivization
- Mikhail Moiseyevich Kaganovich Михаил Моисеевич Каганович Builder of Soviet defence industry in the shadow of his brother Lazar
- Ivan Terentyevich Golyakov Иван Терентьевич Голяков Chairman of the USSR Supreme Court through the Great Terror and war
- Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik Николай Михайлович Шверник Formal head of state in late Stalinism
- Moisei Lvovich Rukhimovich Моисей Львович Рухимович The industrial builder Lenin trusted; first People's Commissar for Defence Industry
- Lazar Iosifovich Kogan Лазарь Иосифович Коган The Gulag's first chief and builder of Belomor
- Lev Zakharovich Mekhlis Лев Захарович Мехлис From Stalin's personal secretary to the Red Army's purge enforcer, nicknamed 'the Inquisitor of the Red Army'
- Boris Mironovich Feldman Борис Миронович Фельдман One of the eight Tukhachevsky-trial defendants; his confession under torture started the chain reaction that consumed the Red Army
- 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
- Leib Moiseyevich Kvitko Лев Моисеевич Квитко A Yiddish poet who gave voice to Soviet Jewish culture
- 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
- Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda Генрих Григорьевич Ягода The NKVD chief who expanded the Gulag and became a purge defendant
- Mikhail Alexandrovich Chernov Михаил Александрович Чернов The commissar who ran agriculture through the second Five-Year Plan, from grain procurement to VDNKh
- Yefim Georgiyevich Yevdokimov Ефим Георгиевич Евдокимов Architect of the Shakhty case and boss of the North Caucasus
- Alexander Nikolayevich Poskrebyshev Александр Николаевич Поскрёбышев Stalin's shadow: secretary who filtered all information, drafted the 1936 Constitution & Short Course, ran the Special Sector for 25 years
- Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov Александр Васильевич Горбатов The army general who survived Kolyma, took Berlin, and testified to Stalin-era repression
- Pyotr Ionovich Baranov Пётр Ионович Баранов Principal architect of the Soviet Air Force and aviation industry
- Mikhail Iosifovich Litvin Михаил Иосифович Литвин Yezhov's personnel chief who purged 14,000 Chekists
- Sergei Yakovlevich Zhuk Сергей Яковлевич Жук Stalin's chief hydraulic engineer who designed the Gulag canal network
- Andrei Vasilyevich Khrulev Андрей Васильевич Хрулёв The invisible commander who moved the war, the only supply general Stalin toasted as architect of victory
- Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev Иван Владимирович Тюленев The cavalry general who bolted the Caucasus gate, witness to three wars
- Boris Mikhailovich Hessen Борис Михайлович Гессен The Marxist historian of science who revealed the socio-economic roots of Newton's mechanics; first dean of MSU physics
- Karl Viktorovich Pauker Карл Викторович Паукер The operations chief who guarded Stalin