People of the Revolution and the USSR
Soviet Union state institutions
Background: Ukraine
People of the thaw and the stagnation 1953–1985
Clear all
- Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky Родион Яковлевич Малиновский Marshal and Defence Minister, 1957–1967
- Kirill Semyonovich Moskalenko Кирилл Семёнович Москаленко The marshal who led Beria's arrest and called his subordinates 'enemies of the people'
- Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny Николай Викторович Подгорный Head of state in the Brezhnev-Kosygin collective leadership
- Pyotr Kirillovich Koshevoy Пётр Кириллович Кошевой Twice Hero of the Soviet Union who took Mount Sapun and stormed Königsberg
- Sergei Pavlovich Korolev Сергей Павлович Королёв From the Gulag to space. The designer whose name was a state secret
- Boris Yevstafyevich Butoma Борис Евстафьевич Бутома Architect of the nuclear submarine fleet who led Soviet shipbuilding for 19 years
- Roman Andreyevich Rudenko Роман Андреевич Руденко Chief Soviet prosecutor at Nuremberg, the longest-serving head of the Soviet procuracy
- Petro Grigoryevich Grigorenko Пётр Григорьевич Григоренко Soviet major general who turned dissident to defend human rights and deported nations
- Georgy Karpovich Tsinev Георгий Карпович Цинёв Brezhnev's other pair of eyes inside the KGB
- Arkhip Mikhailovich Lyulka Архип Михайлович Люлька The designer who opened the Soviet jet age without copying a single German engine
- Valentin Petrovich Glushko Валентин Петрович Глушко Founder of Soviet liquid rocketry: his engines carried Sputnik, Gagarin, and Buran
- Ivan Grigoryevich Pavlovsky Иван Григорьевич Павловский The ground forces commander who invaded Czechoslovakia and opposed Afghanistan
- Pavel Fyodorovich Batitsky Павел Фёдорович Батицкий The marshal who built Soviet air defence and personally executed Beria
- Pyotr Stepanovich Neporozhny Пётр Степанович Непорожний The longest-serving energy minister who built the Unified Energy System
- Vladimir Fyodorovich Tolubko Владимир Фёдорович Толубко The SRF commander who brought Soviet missile forces to strategic parity with the United States
- Alexander Pavlovich Lyashko Александр Павлович Ляшко The Donetsk-born Soviet economic manager who led Ukraine's government for 15 years through the Brezhnev era
- Stepan Vasilievich Chervonenko Степан Васильевич Червоненко Soviet ambassador for 24 years across the Sino-Soviet split, Prague Spring, and détente
- Semyon Kuzmich Tsvigun Семён Кузьмич Цвигун Brezhnev's watcher planted beside Andropov
- Dmitry Stepanovich Polyansky Дмитрий Степанович Полянский Brezhnev-era official across agriculture and government
- Grigory Vasilyevich Kisunko Григорий Васильевич Кисунько Soviet military scientist who designed the world's first operational anti-ballistic missile defense system
- Grigory Fyodorovich Grigorenko Григорий Фёдорович Григоренко Architect of Soviet counterintelligence for 40 years, from SMERSH radio games to chief of the KGB Second Chief Directorate
- Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk Виталий Васильевич Федорчук The brief KGB chairman after Andropov
- Ivan Pavlovich Kazanets Иван Павлович Казанец From Ukrainian premier to USSR steel minister: a Dnieper-born technocrat who ran Soviet ferrous metallurgy for twenty years
- Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina Борис Евдокимович Щербина The Chernobyl commander who built Siberia's oil empire
- Boris Pavlovich Bugayev Борис Павлович Бугаев Brezhnev's personal pilot who became Chief Marshal and the head of Soviet civil aviation
- Georgy Markovich Korniyenko Георгий Маркович Корниенко Gromyko's point man on America who ran arms-control talks, opposed the Afghan invasion, and demanded truth over KAL 007
- Pavel Romanovich Popovich Павел Романович Попович Cosmonaut No. 4, Vostok 4 pilot of the first simultaneous crewed spaceflight
- Valery Ilyich Khodemchuk Валерий Ильич Ходемчук The first victim of Chernobyl, standing in the pump hall when the reactor exploded, his body never recovered
- Vladimir Nikolayevich Shashenok Владимир Николаевич Шашенок A commissioning engineer caught in the Chernobyl disaster