People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Lev Nikolayevich Zaikov Лев Николаевич Зайков The technocrat who rose from defense-plant apprentice to Politburo overseer of the military-industrial complex
- Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev Александр Николаевич Яковлев The architect of glasnost: the ideology chief who dismantled the ideology
- Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov Владимир Александрович Крючков The KGB chairman who designed the August coup
- Vitaly Ivanovich Vorotnikov Виталий Иванович Воротников The last RSFSR premier who tried not to break Russia away
- Gennady Vasilyevich Kolbin Геннадий Васильевич Колбин The unknown Russian party functionary whose appointment to Kazakhstan ignited the Zheltoksan uprising
- Konstantin Fyodorovich Katushev Константин Фёдорович Катушев Late Soviet foreign-economic official
- Viktor Petrovich Nikonov Виктор Петрович Никонов Gorbachev's agriculture successor who became his last internal critic
- Ivan Timofeyevich Frolov Иван Тимофеевич Фролов The philosopher who gave perestroika its humanist foundations: from defending genetics to founding the science of Man
- Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov Евгений Максимович Примаков The Arabist premier who turned his plane around over the Atlantic
- Vadim Andreyevich Medvedev Вадим Андреевич Медведев The last ideology secretary who dismantled ideology opened the spetskhran and abolished party orthodoxy
- Anatoly Ivanovich Lukyanov Анатолий Иванович Лукьянов Gorbachev's classmate turned critic: the last speaker of the Soviet parliament
- Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin Борис Николаевич Ельцин The man who climbed onto the tank
- Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв He set out to repair the system, and ended it
- Oleg Dmitriyevich Baklanov Олег Дмитриевич Бакланов Last surviving GKChP member who led the Soviet space industry
- Alexander Sergeyevich Dzasokhov Александр Сергеевич Дзасохов A politician who linked internationalism with regional rule
- Stanislav Ivanovich Gurenko Станислав Иванович Гуренко Last First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party on the eve of the Soviet dissolution
- Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev Геннадий Иванович Янаев First and only Vice President of the USSR and the face of the August 1991 coup
- Valentin Alexandrovich Kuptsov Валентин Александрович Купцов The last-generation secretary who rebuilt the Russian Communist Party
- Viktor Petrovich Polyanichko Виктор Петрович Поляничко A field enforcer of the Soviet Union's final crisis
- Yegor Semyonovich Stroev Егор Семёнович Строев Gorbachev's last agriculture Politburo member: operational chief of perestroika farm policy
- Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin Виктор Степанович Черномырдин Last Soviet gas minister who turned his ministry into Gazprom
- Yuri Anatolyevich Prokofyev Юрий Анатольевич Прокофьев A Moscow party organizer at the Soviet Union's end
- Alexander Mitrofanovich Obolensky Александр Митрофанович Оболенский The engineer who became the first person in Soviet history to run against a sitting General Secretary
- Mikhail Semyonovich Surkov Михаил Семёнович Сурков A party cadre who moved from army organization to the late Soviet Politburo
- Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy Александр Владимирович Руцкой Russia's only vice president: stood with Yeltsin against the coup, then fell to Yeltsin's tanks
- Grigory Alekseyevich Yavlinsky Григорий Алексеевич Явлинский Architect of the 500 Days Program: perestroika economist who drafted a rapid transition from planned economy to market