People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Vitaly Ivanovich Vorotnikov Виталий Иванович Воротников The last RSFSR premier who tried not to break Russia away
- Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov Николай Иванович Рыжков Premier during perestroika’s economic crisis
- Vitold Pavlovych Fokin Вітольд Павлович Фокін From Soviet economic planner to independent Ukraine’s first prime minister
- Vyacheslav Frantsevich Kebich Вячаслаў Францавіч Кебіч Belarus's first prime minister; co-signed the Belovezh Accords and later testified the Russian delegation alone arrived with a plan
- Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov An authoritarian state-builder who made sovereignty his political principle
- Ayaz Niyazi oghlu Mutalibov Ајаз Нијази оғлу Мүтәллибов The last Soviet leader caught between a renewed union and independence
- Pyotr Luchinsky Petru Lucinschi A politician who moved from Soviet party leadership to Moldova's presidency
- Andrei Serafimovich Grachev Андрей Серафимович Грачёв An insider witness to the collapse of reform
- Anatolijs Gorbunovs Anatolijs Gorbunovs The Communist Party secretary who led Latvia's Supreme Council through the restoration of independence
- Alexander Mitrofanovich Obolensky Александр Митрофанович Оболенский The engineer who became the first person in Soviet history to run against a sitting General Secretary