People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Stepan Karapetovich Pogosyan Ստեփան Կարապետի Պողոսյան The last leader of Armenia's Communist Party before the Soviet collapse
- Qahhor Makhkamovich Mahkamov Қаҳҳор Маҳкамович Маҳкамов The last Communist leader of Tajikistan in the Soviet era
- Oleg Dmitriyevich Baklanov Олег Дмитриевич Бакланов Last surviving GKChP member who led the Soviet space industry
- Vitold Pavlovych Fokin Вітольд Павлович Фокін From Soviet economic planner to independent Ukraine’s first prime minister
- Kamran Mammad oglu Baghirov Kamran Məmməd oğlu Bağırov Heydar Aliyev's successor who crumbled before the Karabakh crisis
- Absamat Masaliyevich Masaliyev Абсамат Масалы уулу Масалиев Party leader of late Soviet Kyrgyzstan
- Vladimir Migranovich Movsisyan Վլադիմիր Միգրանովիչ Մովսիսյան The last Communist Party first secretary of Soviet Armenia
- Anatoly Aleksandrovich Malofeyev Анатолий Александрович Малофеев A Belarusian party organizer who sought continuity as the Union dissolved
- Alexander Sergeyevich Dzasokhov Александр Сергеевич Дзасохов A politician who linked internationalism with regional rule
- Alfrēds son of Pēteris Rubiks Alfrēds Pētera dēls Rubiks A steadfast defender of Latvia's Communist Party at the Soviet Union's end
- Grigore Isidorovich Eremei Grigore Isidorovici Eremei The final head of Soviet Moldavia's Communist Party
- Stanislav Ivanovich Gurenko Станислав Иванович Гуренко Last First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party on the eve of the Soviet dissolution
- Boris Karlovich Pugo Борис Карлович Пуго From Latvian KGB chief to USSR interior minister, a guardian of order shattered in the coup he backed
- Viktor Petrovich Polyanichko Виктор Петрович Поляничко A field enforcer of the Soviet Union's final crisis
- Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev Геннадий Иванович Янаев First and only Vice President of the USSR and the face of the August 1991 coup
- Yegor Semyonovich Stroev Егор Семёнович Строев Gorbachev's last agriculture Politburo member: operational chief of perestroika farm policy
- Yuri Dmitrievich Maslyukov Юрий Дмитриевич Маслюков The last Gosplan generation
- Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov An authoritarian state-builder who made sovereignty his political principle
- Jumber Ilyich Patiashvili ჯუმბერ ილიას ძე პატიაშვილი The Georgian First Secretary who asked Moscow for troops, then resigned after 21 died
- Romualdas Ozolas Romualdas Ozolas The Sąjūdis philosopher who launched the 2-million-signature campaign demanding Red Army withdrawal
- Yuri Anatolyevich Prokofyev Юрий Анатольевич Прокофьев A Moscow party organizer at the Soviet Union's end
- Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев Kazakhstan's thirty-year ruler, defender of the union to its last day
- Pyotr Luchinsky Petru Lucinschi A politician who moved from Soviet party leadership to Moldova's presidency
- Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov Saparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow A Turkmen leader who turned late-Soviet rule into personal rule over an independent state
- Lembit Annus Lembit Annus An Estonian communist leader who chose to preserve the Soviet Union
- Anatolijs Gorbunovs Anatolijs Gorbunovs The Communist Party secretary who led Latvia's Supreme Council through the restoration of independence
- Askar Akayevich Akayev Аскар Акаевич Акаев Scientist-president who moved from reformist promise to prolonged rule
- Enn-Arno Augustovich Sillari Enn-Arno Augustovich Sillari The last Soviet-aligned communist leader of Estonia amid a party split
- Givi Grigorievich Gumbaridze Гиви Григорьевич Гумбаридзе A Georgian party official at the edge of Soviet collapse
- Jahangir Movsum oglu Muslimzade Cahangir Mövsüm oğlu Müslümzadə The Sumgait party boss handed a flag and photographed at the head of the mob
- Mikhail Semyonovich Surkov Михаил Семёнович Сурков A party cadre who moved from army organization to the late Soviet Politburo
- Dzhumgalbek Beksultan uulu Amanbayev Жумгалбек Бексултан уулу Аманбаев A Kyrgyz party leader at the Soviet Union's end
- Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy Александр Владимирович Руцкой Russia's only vice president: stood with Yeltsin against the coup, then fell to Yeltsin's tanks
- Dainis Īvāns Dainis Īvāns The journalist who saved the Daugava River and led the Latvian Popular Front
- Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov Леонид Петрович Серебряков The Left Opposition secretary whom Lenin called a 'brilliant worker'