People of the Revolution and the USSR
Security, intelligence and policing
Marxism and communism
The Cold War and decolonization 1945–현재
Clear all
- Ferenc Münnich Münnich Ferenc Hungarian communist who backed Soviet intervention with Kádár in 1956 and became prime minister after the revolution was crushed
- Václav Nosek Václav Nosek Czechoslovak interior minister whose purge of non-communist police in February 1948 triggered the government crisis and communist takeover
- Wilhelm Zaisser Wilhelm Zaisser First East German Minister for State Security, purged in 1953 after trying to replace Ulbricht
- Ernst Wollweber Ernst Wollweber Communist who ran an anti-fascist sabotage network before the war and headed the Stasi from 1953 to 1957
- Rudolf Herrnstadt Rudolf Herrnstadt Editor of Neues Deutschland who helped draft the 1953 New Course, moved against Ulbricht and was purged as a “faction”
- Anton Ackermann Anton Ackermann German communist who drafted the KPD’s 1945 appeal and argued for a “special German road to socialism”
- Gábor Péter Péter Gábor Founder of Hungary's secret police, and its prisoner
- Erich Fritz Emil Mielke Erich Mielke East Germany's 'Master of Fear': the Stasi chief who ruled state security for 32 years
- Teohari Georgescu Teohari Georgescu The first communist interior minister, builder of the Securitate, purged in 1952 alongside Pauker and Luca for "shielding" them
- László Rajk Rajk László Interior minister who built the ÁVH secret police, then fell as the first major victim of Stalinist show trials in Eastern Europe
- Aleksandar Ranković Александар Ранковић Tito's third man, who directed the Cominform purges
- Koçi son of Dhimitër Xoxe Koçi Xoxe Albania's postwar interior minister and deputy premier
- Józef Światło Józef Światło Deputy head of Poland’s security Department X whose 1953 defection and broadcasts exposed the ministry’s torture and purges
- Viliam Šalgovič Viliam Šalgovič The deputy interior minister who arrested Dubček and handed him to the Soviets
- Hussein Kulmiye Afrah Xuseen Kulmiye Afrax Leadership of Somalia’s revolutionary council
- Markus Wolf Markus Wolf A long-serving architect of Cold War intelligence
- Czesław Jan Kiszczak Czesław Jan Kiszczak Poland's interior minister who imposed martial law then co-chaired the Round Table