People of the Revolution and the USSR
Political and party leadership
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
People of the thaw and the stagnation 1953–1985
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GlossarySoviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
- Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev Никита Сергеевич Хрущёв He opened the coffin lid, and became the first leader to die in bed
- Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin Николай Александрович Булганин The uniformed premier pushed aside by Khrushchev
- Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan Анастас Иванович Микоян The man who built the Soviet table, and the negotiator “from Ilyich to Ilyich”
- Anna Mikhailovna Pankratova Анна Михайловна Панкратова Leading historian of the working class who drove destalinization in scholarship: first woman full academician in Soviet historical studies
- Pyotr Nikolayevich Pospelov Пётр Николаевич Поспелов The historian who wrote Stalin's biography, then dismantled his myth
- Nikolai Grigoryevich Ignatov Николай Григорьевич Игнатов The man who saved Khrushchev and then helped destroy him
- Nikolai Nikolayevich Organov Николай Николаевич Органов RSFSR formal head of state who once sat on an NKVD execution troika
- Olga Grigoryevna Shatunovskaya Ольга Григорьевна Шатуновская Khrushchev's chief investigator who traced Stalin's crimes to the end
- Zhumabay Shayakhmetovich Shayakhmetov Жумабай Шаяхметович Шаяхметов Kazakh SSR figure who chaired the Soviet of Nationalities
- Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov Михаил Андреевич Суслов The Kremlin's Grey Cardinal
- Antanas Juozovich Sniečkus Antanas Sniečkus The communist who ruled Soviet Lithuania for 34 years
- Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny Николай Викторович Подгорный Head of state in the Brezhnev-Kosygin collective leadership
- Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov Дмитрий Трофимович Шепилов Khrushchev’s theoretician who became “Shepilov who joined them”
- Nikolai Alexandrovich Tikhonov Николай Александрович Тихонов The conservative premier of late Brezhnevism
- Johannes Gustavovich Käbin Иван Густавович Кэбин A pragmatic national communist who navigated between Moscow and Estonia for 28 years
- Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev Леонид Ильич Брежнев The man whose statecraft was not rocking the boat
- Dmitry Fyodorovich Ustinov Дмитрий Фёдорович Устинов The defence-industry man who became defence minister
- Nikolai Semyonovich Patolichev Николай Семёнович Патоличев The man who ran Soviet foreign trade for 27 years, holder of eleven Orders of Lenin
- Petro Yefimovich Shelest Пётр Ефимович Шелест The republic first secretary removed for investing in Ukrainian culture
- Gennady Ivanovich Voronov Геннадий Иванович Воронов The RSFSR premier who never stopped speaking bluntly to Brezhnev
- Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko Константин Устинович Черненко The last General Secretary of the Brezhnev order
- Aleksei Pavlovich Shitikov Алексей Павлович Шитиков From Khabarovsk party boss to Chairman of the Soviet of the Union: the institutional face of federal legislation in the Brezhnev era
- Dinmukhamed Akhmetuly Kunaev Дінмұхамед Ахметұлы Қонаев The republic-builder who led Kazakhstan for 24 years as Brezhnev's partner, whose dismissal sparked the Zheltoksan uprising
- Jabbor Rasulovich Rasulov Джабар Расулович Расулов Agronomist who led Tajikistan for 21 years, a communist of ascetic modesty and incorruptibility
- Mikhail Sergeyevich Solomentsev Михаил Сергеевич Соломенцев Brezhnev-era industrial technocrat who ran the Russian republic for 12 years
- Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov Юрий Владимирович Андропов The paradox: a reformer’s patron inside the KGB
- Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov Кирилл Трофимович Мазуров Belarusian partisan leader who rose to Brezhnev's Politburo and served as USSR First Deputy Premier for thirteen years
- Augusts Eduardovich Voss Augusts Voss Latvian party boss turned Soviet of Nationalities chairman
- Sharaf Rashidovich Rashidov Шараф Рашидович Рашидов Writer turned leader who drove Uzbekistan's industrialization and cultural revival for 24 years, later tied to the Cotton Affair
- Tikhon Yakovlevich Kiselyov Тихон Яковлевич Киселёв Belarus's premier for nearly 20 years who rose to First Secretary and candidate Politburo member, then died of cancer two years later
- Dmitry Stepanovich Polyansky Дмитрий Степанович Полянский Brezhnev-era official across agriculture and government
- Pyotr Mironovich Masherov Пётр Миронович Машеров Belarus's partisan-hero leader for 15 years who transformed an agrarian republic into an industrial powerhouse - his death a legend
- Vladimir Vasilyevich Shcherbitsky Владимир Васильевич Щербицкий The Brezhnev-era republic-builder who led Ukraine for 17 years, linchpin of the Dnepr clan
- Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin Александр Николаевич Шелепин The Komsomol boss who took over the KGB
- Ivan Ivanovich Bodiul Иван Иванович Бодюл The republic first secretary who ruled Moldavia for nearly 20 years as Brezhnev's close ally
- Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin Анатолий Фёдорович Добрынин The ambassador whose 24 years in Washington made him the hidden circuit of Soviet–American diplomacy
- Turdakun Usubalievich Usubaliev Турдакун Усубалиевич Усубалиев The builder who transformed Kirghizia from an agrarian to an industrial republic across the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era
- Alexander Mikhailovich Rekunkov Александр Михайлович Рекунков Soviet Procurator General who served from Brezhnev to Gorbachev and personally delivered Sakharov's exile decree
- Nikolai Nikolayevich Inozemtsev Николай Николаевич Иноземцев Intellectual architect of Brezhnev-era détente
- Muhammetnazar Gapurovich Gapurov Мухамедназар Гапурович Гапуров 16-year leader of Brezhnev-era Turkmenistan who integrated its cotton and gas economy into the Soviet center
- Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev The KGB general who rose from Baku to the Kremlin and founded independent Azerbaijan
- Fyodor Mikhailovich Burlatsky Фёдор Михайлович Бурлацкий Architect of Khrushchev's reforms and pioneer of Soviet political science
- Alexander Yevgenyevich Bovin Александр Евгеньевич Бовин Brezhnev's foreign-affairs speechwriter who put détente into prose, then became its sharpest television commentator
- Boris Sarkisovich Kevorkov Բորիս Սարգսի Կևորկով The Armenian party functionary who enforced Baku's control over Nagorno-Karabakh
- Karen Serobovich Demirchyan Карен Серобович Демирчян Modernized Soviet Armenia over 14 years, sacked for siding with Karabakh, returned and assassinated in parliament