People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Government and administration 1 Legislature and state representation 1 Science and technology 1
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 162 Soviet Unionstate 127 Russian Federation state institutionsstate 8 Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) 8 Lithuania state institutionsstate 3 United Russia 3 Estonia state institutionsstate 2 Latvia state institutionsstate 2

All 20 affiliations

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan state institutionsstate 1

Belarus

Belarus state institutionsstate 1

Estonia

Estonia state institutionsstate 2 Popular Front of Estonia (Rahvarinne) 2

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan state institutionsstate 1

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan state institutionsstate 1

Latvia

Latvia state institutionsstate 2 Popular Front of Latvia 1

Lithuania

Lithuania state institutionsstate 3 Sąjūdis (Reform Movement of Lithuania) 2

Moldova

Moldova state institutionsstate 1

Russia

Russian Federation state institutionsstate 8 Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) 8 United Russia 3 Our Home – Russia 2

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 162 Soviet Unionstate 127

Ukraine

Ukraine state institutionsstate 1

United States

United States state institutionsstate 1

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan state institutionsstate 1
Position
Any Socialist-bloc reform leader 1
Citizenship
Any Estonia 2
Background
Any Estonia 2
Era(set)
Any

People of the Soviet Union

People of the Stalin era1929–1953 1 The last generation1985–1991 2

People of the wider world

The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 4
Estonia state institutions (state) The last generation 1985–1991 Clear all

Arnold Rüütel

Arnold Rüütel
Estonia state institutions Estonia Estonia 1928–2024 ○ Natural causes

The agronomist who pushed a sovereignty declaration through the Soviet system and led Estonia out of the empire

Lukyanov warned him of a ten-year sentence for 'anti-constitutional activity.' Rüütel stood his ground: 'We will convene the Supreme Council and put the Declaration of Independence to a vote,' inadvertently saying 'Independence' instead of 'Sovereignty,' as he later recalled.

An agricultural economist from the Estonian island of Saaremaa, Rüütel rose through the Soviet system: rector of the Estonian Agricultural Academy, Communist Party functionary, and finally chairman of the Presidium of the Estonian SSR Supreme Soviet in 1983. On 16 November 1988, defying Moscow's threat of imprisonment, he pushed the Estonian sovereignty declaration through the legislature, opening the first crack in the Soviet edifice; in 1990, as chairman of the Supreme Council, he declared Soviet rule illegal and initiated the transition to restored independence. After independence he was elected president in 2001 and served until 2006, steering Estonia into NATO and the European Union.

Career timeline
  • 1949–1950Senior agronomist, Saaremaa Executive Committee agricultural department
  • 1955–1957Teacher, Tartu School of Agricultural Mechanization
  • 1957–1963Senior zootechnician and director, experimental farm of the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Research Institute
  • 1963–1969Director, Tartu Reference State Farm
  • 1969–1977Rector, Estonian Academy of Agriculture
  • 1977–1979Secretary for agriculture, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia
  • 1979–1983First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR
  • 1983–1990Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR
  • 1990–1992Chairman, Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia
  • 2001–2006President of the Republic of Estonia

Endel Teodorovich Lippmaa

Endel Teodorovich Lippmaa
Estonia state institutions Socialist-bloc reform leader Estonia Estonian 1930–2015 ○ Died, aged 84

The Estonian scientist who blocked phosphorite mining from inside the system

He stood out in TV debates by carrying a portfolio of documents and smoothly pulling out the relevant one to prove his point whenever opponents challenged him.

Estonian chemical physicist and politician. After studying oil-shale technology at Tallinn Polytechnic, he built the Soviet bloc's first NMR spectrometer and became a pioneer of high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy. As a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, he led scientists in exposing the environmental and demographic dangers of planned phosphorite mines in 1987, providing the intellectual foundation for the 'Phosphorite War,' a catalyst for mass resistance and the independence movement. As a USSR People's Deputy, he unearthed and publicised the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, demolishing the legal basis for the Baltic annexation; after independence he served twice as a government minister.

Career timeline
  • 1953Graduated from Tallinn Polytechnic, oil-shale technology
  • 1956PhD in chemistry
  • 1969DSc in physics and mathematics, USSR Institute of Chemical Physics
  • 1972Elected Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
  • 1975Full Academician, Estonian Academy of Sciences; board member until 2014
  • 1980Founded and directed the Institute of Chemical and Biological Physics
  • 1989–1991USSR People's Deputy; exposed the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Pact
  • 1990–1991Minister for Eastern Affairs, Republic of Estonia
  • 1995–1996Minister of European Affairs, Republic of Estonia
  • 1996–1999Member of the Riigikogu (parliament)