People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Aleksander Zawadzki Aleksander Zawadzki A communist leader who helped shape postwar Poland's state
- Władysław Gomułka Władysław Gomułka The national communist who returned in the Polish October of 1956 to test a 'Polish road to socialism'
- Adam Rapacki Adam Rapacki A diplomat who widened room for negotiation amid East-West tension
- Piotr Jaroszewicz Piotr Jaroszewicz The premier of technocratic growth
- Józef Cyrankiewicz Józef Cyrankiewicz A resistance survivor who became a guardian of the system
- Roman Fidelski Roman Fidelski The minister whose broken promise sparked the Poznań Uprising
- Marian Rybicki Marian Rybicki A legal functionary who defined order against a workers’ revolt
- Józef Światło Józef Światło Deputy head of Poland’s security Department X whose 1953 defection and broadcasts exposed the ministry’s torture and purges
- Mieczysław Zygmunt Jagielski Mieczysław Jagielski A party official who contained crisis through concessions
- Czesław Jan Kiszczak Czesław Jan Kiszczak Poland's interior minister who imposed martial law then co-chaired the Round Table