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People
Activity
Affiliation
Position
Citizenship(set)
Background
Era
People of the Soviet Union
People of the wider world
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Vasily Iosifovich Stalin Василий Иосифович Сталин
Lieutenant general of aviation and founder of Soviet ice hockey, the leader's son
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–1962
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Vadim Stepanovich Tikunov Вадим Степанович Тикунов
Shelepin-network RSFSR interior minister who led Khrushchev-era policing
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–1980
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Nikolai Nikolayevich Inozemtsev Николай Николаевич Иноземцев
Intellectual architect of Brezhnev-era détente
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1921–1982
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Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров
He built the hydrogen bomb, then turned on the system
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–1989
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Vladimir Mikhailovich Vinogradov Владимир Михайлович Виноградов
Soviet Middle East diplomat who witnessed the 1973 war and the Iranian Revolution from inside
Diplomacy and international organization · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–1997
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Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov Виктор Георгиевич Куликов
Longest-serving Warsaw Pact supreme commander, who led its forces for twelve years
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–2013
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Anatoly Sergeyevich Chernyaev Анатолий Сергеевич Черняев
Gorbachev's pen and conscience: architect of New Thinking diplomacy
Diplomacy and international organization · Soviet Union state institutions
1921–2017
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Pyotr Stepanovich Pleshakov Пётр Степанович Плешаков
Architect of Soviet radio-electronic warfare
Industry and production · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–1987
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Georgi Nikitovich Bolshakov Георгий Никитович Большаков
The GRU officer who ran the secret backchannel between Khrushchev and the Kennedys
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–1989
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Viktor Grigoryevich Afanasyev Виктор Григорьевич Афанасьев
Longest-serving Pravda editor and gatekeeper of Brezhnev-era print orthodoxy
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–1994
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Muhammetnazar Gapurovich Gapurov Мухамедназар Гапурович Гапуров
16-year leader of Brezhnev-era Turkmenistan who integrated its cotton and gas economy into the Soviet center
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1922–1999
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Mikhail Ivanovich Semiryaga Михаил Иванович Семиряга
Soviet military historian who first broke the official silence on Winter War casualties, revealing 53,522 dead
Scholarship and theory
1922–2000
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Nikolai Gennadiyevich Basov Николай Геннадиевич Басов
Nobel-winning physicist who laid the foundations of the maser and laser, then extended quantum electronics into missile defense
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–2001
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Vadim Alekseyevich Kirpichenko Вадим Алексеевич Кирпиченко
KGB First Chief Directorate deputy who ran Soviet foreign intelligence for twelve years
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–2005
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Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky Олег Генрихович Ивановский
The engineer who turned early Soviet spacecraft designs into tested machines
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–2014
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Leonid Mitrofanovich Zamyatin Леонид Митрофанович Замятин
Information architect of the Brezhnev system
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1922–2019
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Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya Зоя Анатольевна Космодемьянская
The first woman Hero of the Soviet Union, the 18-year-old partisan who cried 'Stalin will come!' from the gallows
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1941
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Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov Виктор Михайлович Глушков
Father of Soviet cybernetics whose OGAS network envisioned real-time socialist planning decades before the internet
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1982
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Nikolai Vasilyevich Sutyagin Николай Васильевич Сутягин
The Soviet ace with MiG Alley’s highest score
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1986
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Sergei Fyodorovich Akhromeyev Сергей Фёдорович Ахромеев
The Soviet Marshal who forged the INF Treaty and could not outlive the USSR
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1991
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Alexander Ivanovich Koldunov Александр Иванович Колдунов
The top Yak ace of the war who rose to command the Air Defence Forces, and fell after a teenager landed on Red Square
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1992
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Pyotr Georgievich Lushev Пётр Георгиевич Лушев
The last supreme commander of the Warsaw Pact forces
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1997
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Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov Виктор Михайлович Чебриков
KGB chairman from late stagnation into perestroika
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–1999
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Vladimir Fyodorovich Utkin Владимир Фёдорович Уткин
Father of the SS-18 'Satan' and architect of the late Cold War nuclear balance
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2000
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Filipp Timofeyevich Yermash Филипп Тимофеевич Ермаш
The party functionary who ran Soviet cinema as a state Hollywood: blockbusters, Oscars, and ideological control
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2002
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Lev Nikolayevich Zaikov Лев Николаевич Зайков
The technocrat who rose from defense-plant apprentice to Politburo overseer of the military-industrial complex
Industry and production · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2002
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Boris Ivanovich Stukalin Борис Иванович Стукалин
Brezhnev-era chief of all Soviet publishing and censorship
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1923–2004
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Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev Александр Николаевич Яковлев
The architect of glasnost: the ideology chief who dismantled the ideology
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2005
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Boris Pavlovich Bugayev Борис Павлович Бугаев
Brezhnev's personal pilot who became Chief Marshal and the head of Soviet civil aviation
Economy, finance and planning · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2007
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Ivan Moiseevich Tretyak Иван Моисеевич Третьяк
Soviet air defence chief who ordered the KAL 007 shootdown
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2007
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Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov Григорий Васильевич Романов
From Leningrad to Moscow: the successor halted one step short
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1923–2008
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Mikhail Mitrofanovich Zaitsev Михаил Митрофанович Зайцев
GSFG Commander-in-Chief and Army General who oversaw Soviet operations in Afghanistan
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2009
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Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov Валентин Иванович Варенников
General who received the Victory Banner and stood alone in the coup dock
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2009
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Georgy Arkadyevich Arbatov Георгий Аркадьевич Арбатов
The USSR's preeminent Americanist who built a think-tank on Arbat Street, not in Akademgorodok, and designed détente
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1923–2010
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Sergei Iosifovich Manyakin Сергей Иосифович Манякин
The longest-serving regional party secretary in Soviet history, who led Omsk for 26 years
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1923–2010
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Aleksandr Nikolayevich Yefimov Александр Николаевич Ефимов
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Il-2 assault ace who rose to command the Soviet Air Force at its zenith
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2012
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Makhmut Akhmetovich Gareev Махмут Ахметович Гареев
A staff general who turned wartime experience into military theory
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2019
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Alexander Yakovlevich Sukharev Александр Яковлевич Сухарев
The last reform-era Procurator General of the USSR, who oversaw the legal rehabilitation of Stalin's victims during perestroika
Law and justice · Soviet Union state institutions
1923–2021
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Karl Genrikhovich Vaino Карл Генрихович Вайно
First Secretary of the Estonian Communist Party (1978–1988) who resisted perestroika and pushed Russification until Moscow replaced him.
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1923–2022
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Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov Эвальд Васильевич Ильенков
A Soviet European who excavated dialectical logic from Marx's Capital
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–1979
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Viktor Petrovich Makeyev Виктор Петрович Макеев
Founder of Soviet naval strategic rocketry, the man the CIA called 'the Ural Dragon'
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–1985
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Alexei Ivanovich Adzhubey Алексей Иванович Аджубей
Khrushchev's son-in-law and the editor who turned Izvestia into the most-read Soviet newspaper of the thaw
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–1993
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Tengiz Evgenyevich Abuladze თენგიზ ევგენის ძე აბულაძე
Georgian film director whose Repentance fired the cultural starting gun of glasnost
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1924–1994
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Mikhail Fyodorovich Reshetnev Михаил Фёдорович Решетнёв
The chief designer who built a Soviet satellite empire in the Siberian taiga
Science and technology · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–1996
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Georgy Khosroevich Shakhnazarov Георгий Хосроевич Шахназаров
Founder of Soviet political science and brains of perestroika's political reform
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1924–2001
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Vasily Aleksandrovich Dinkov Василий Александрович Динков
The gas and oil minister who made the USSR the world's largest gas producer
Industry and production · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–2001
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Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny Владимир Ефимович Семичастный
The KGB chairman during Khrushchev’s fall
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–2001
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Yuri Pavlovich Maksimov Юрий Павлович Максимов
General of the Army who commanded the Strategic Rocket Forces through the Afghan war and the dissolution of the USSR
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–2002
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Vladimir Leonidovich Govorov Владимир Леонидович Говоров
Son of a marshal who led the Chernobyl response and turned Soviet civil defence toward peacetime emergencies
Military command · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–2006
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Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov Владимир Александрович Крючков
The KGB chairman who designed the August coup
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union state institutions
1924–2007