People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Mikhail Semyonovich Surkov Михаил Семёнович Сурков A party cadre who moved from army organization to the late Soviet Politburo
- Vladislav Alekseyevich Achalov Владислав Алексеевич Ачалов Soviet airborne forces commander and deputy defence minister in the August 1991 coup
- Dzhumgalbek Beksultan uulu Amanbayev Жумгалбек Бексултан уулу Аманбаев A Kyrgyz party leader at the Soviet Union's end
- Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev Павел Сергеевич Грачёв The airborne commander who held the coup's key and handed it to Yeltsin
- Pavel Ruslanovich Palazhchenko Павел Русланович Палажченко The interpreter who mediated summit diplomacy
- Vladimir Ivanovich Shcherbakov Владимир Иванович Щербаков The last Gosplan chairman who presided over the dissolution of Soviet planning
- Alexander Ivanovich Lebed Александр Иванович Лебедь The airborne deputy commander who, sent against the White House, switched sides and helped break the August coup
- Artyom Mikhaylovich Tarasov Артём Михайлович Тарасов The first legal Soviet millionaire, whose 90,000-ruble party dues payment forced the cooperative law to be amended twice
- Viktor Imantovich Alksnis Виктор Имантович Алкснис Leader of the Soyuz faction who nearly turned a parliamentary session into a constitutional coup
- Valentin Bodiul Valentin Bodiul The Cricova winery chief who testified to the vineyard destruction of Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign
- Igor Nikolayevich Gräzin Igor Nikolayevich Gräzin An Estonian legal scholar who challenged the Soviet official narrative in the language of law
- Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov Александр Фёдорович Акимов Soviet nuclear engineer and Unit 4 shift supervisor who directed the response and died of radiation exposure
- Sergei Vladimirovich Yevdokimov Сергей Владимирович Евдокимов The Tamanskaya Division battalion chief of staff who turned ten tanks to defend the White House during the August coup
- Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov Леонид Фёдорович Топтунов The 25-year-old senior reactor control engineer who pressed the AZ-5 button at Chernobyl's Unit 4
- Volodymyr Pavlovych Pravyk Володимир Павлович Правик The first firefighter at Chernobyl, who climbed onto the roof of Unit 3 without being told of the radioactive danger