People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Надежда Константиновна Крупская She built the Soviet school and library system from the shadow of her husband
- Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin Владимир Петрович Потёмкин The diplomat who pronounced Poland dead, then became education commissar
- Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky Анатолий Васильевич Луначарский Russian revolutionary, first People's Commissar of Enlightenment, and literary critic
- Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov Андрей Сергеевич Бубнов From October Revolution Politburo member to the Enlightenment Commissar who led the fight against illiteracy
- Anton Semyonovich Makarenko Антон Семёнович Макаренко Educator who raised street children through labour and self-rule: one of UNESCO's four great 20th-c. pedagogues
- Vyacheslav Petrovich Yelyutin Вячеслав Петрович Елютин Longest-serving Soviet minister, shaped higher education for 31 years
- Mikhail Alekseyevich Prokofyev Михаил Алексеевич Прокофьев The scientist-minister who led Soviet education for 18 years
- Yuri Andreyevich Zhdanov Юрий Андреевич Жданов Stalin's son-in-law who criticized Lysenko, recanted, then built Rostov University over 31 years as rector