People of the Revolution and the USSR
Political and party leadership
Marxism and communism
The revolutionary generation 1917–1940
Clear all
- Filipp Yeseyevich Makharadze ფილიპე იესეს ძე მახარაძე The Bolshevik elder removed by Stalin for trying to Sovietize Georgia gently
- Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya Надежда Константиновна Крупская She built the Soviet school and library system from the shadow of her husband
- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Владимир Ильич Ленин The helmsman who changed course at every fork
- Leonid Borisovich Krasin Леонид Борисович Красин From revolutionary engineer to Soviet diplomatic architect, the only Bolshevik who could do business with Western capital
- Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai Александра Михайловна Коллонтай The first woman cabinet minister, who made women's liberation the revolution's business
- Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky Моисей Соломонович Урицкий The Petrograd Cheka chairman who resisted the terror, and became its trigger
- Inessa Fyodorovna Armand Инесса Фёдоровна Арманд The woman Bolshevik closest to Lenin: death saved her from the Purge
- Konkordia Nikolayevna Samoilova Конкордия Николаевна Самойлова Founder of Rabotnitsa and organizer of Russia's first International Women's Day
- Filipp Isayevich Goloshchyokin Филипп Исаевич Голощёкин The revolutionary who led Kazakhstan's 'Little October'
- Rozaliya Samoilovna Zemlyachka Розалия Самойловна Землячка The 'Demon' Underground and the Only Woman Vice-Chair of Sovnarkom
- Viktor Pavlovich Nogin Виктор Павлович Ногин First commissar to resign demanding a coalition, buried on Red Square
- Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин The leader born to a poor Georgian family who came to dominate party and state
- Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky Григорий Иванович Петровский Worker-Bolshevik who gave his name to Dnipropetrovsk and led Soviet Ukraine for two decades
- Yakov Stanislavovich Ganetsky Яков Станиславович Ганецкий The Polish revolutionary who ran Lenin's financial pipeline from Kraków to Stockholm
- Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht Иосиф Станиславович Уншлихт From Cheka deputy to civil aviation: the revolution's all-weather organizer
- Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Karpinsky Вячеслав Алексеевич Карпинский Lenin's trusted Bolshevik publicist and a 68-year party veteran
- Serafima Ilyinichna Gopner Серафима Ильинична Гопнер First woman to lead the Ukrainian Bolshevik party; delegate to all seven Comintern congresses
- Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev Платон Михайлович Керженцев Proletkult theorist who became architect of Stalin-era arts censorship
- Vladimir Mikhailovich Zagorsky Владимир Михайлович Загорский Revolutionary organizer who led the Moscow party and pioneered early Soviet diplomacy
- Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev Григорий Евсеевич Зиновьев He opposed October, vouched for Stalin, and was shot by him
- Lev Borisovich Kamenev Лев Борисович Каменев The party’s licensed voice of caution: his warnings outlived him
- Nikolai Kakurin Николай Какурин Red Army commander who was chief of staff of the Tambov suppression and became a historian of the Civil War
- Olga Davidovna Kameneva Ольга Давыдовна Каменева Trotsky's sister and Kamenev's wife: the architect of Soviet cultural diplomacy with the West
- Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov Андрей Сергеевич Бубнов From October Revolution Politburo member to the Enlightenment Commissar who led the fight against illiteracy
- Alexander Fyodorovich Myasnikov Александр Фёдорович Мясников Lenin's periphery-builder who brought Soviet power to Belarus and Armenia
- Yakov Moiseevich Fishman Яков Моисеевич Фишман Revolutionary who went from Left SR leader to architect of Soviet chemical warfare
- Veli Ibraimov Вели Ибраимов Crimean Tatar national communist who pressed Crimean Tatar interests as head of the Crimean ASSR and was executed
- Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin Николай Иванович Бухарин The “favourite of the whole party,” killed in its name
- Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov Григорий Яковлевич Сокольников The finance commissar of NEP stabilization
- Akaki Vissarionovich Kabakhidze Акакий Виссарионович Кабахидзе An Old Bolshevik of the Georgian Affair
- Oleksandr Yakovlevich Shumsky Александр Яковлевич Шумский Pioneer of Ukrainian national communism, the original 'Shumskyism'
- Mirsaid Khaydargalievich Sultan-Galiev Мирсаид Хайдаргалиевич Султан-Галиев The architect of Islamic socialism and national communism who became Stalin's first ideological purge victim
- Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky Григорий Наумович Каминский First USSR People's Commissar for Health, a founder of Soviet preventive medicine
- Semyon Grigoryevich Roshal Семён Григорьевич Рошаль The 21-year-old commissar who brought Kronstadt sailors to the revolution
- Akmal Ikramovich Ikramov Акмаль Икрамович Икрамов First ethnic Uzbek to head the CP of Uzbekistan, who drove collectivization and cotton monoculture before the Great Purge destroyed him
- Jan Ernestovich Sten Ян Эрнестович Стэн Marxist philosopher who went from Stalin's Hegel tutor to Right Opposition conspirator