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People of the Revolution and the USSR
Activity
Affiliation
Position
Citizenship
Background
Era(set)
People of the Soviet Union
People of the Chinese revolution and the People’s Republic
People of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era
People of the wider world
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Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Jaruzelski
Poland's leader between martial law and the Round Table
Political and party leadership · Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
1923–2014
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Kuan Yew Lee 李光耀
Singapore’s founding prime minister, who led the city-state through independence and its early development
Government and administration
1923–2015
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Rezső Nyers Nyers Rezső
A party leader who pushed market reform within socialism
Political and party leadership · Hungary
1923–2018
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José Ramón Álvarez Fernández José Ramón Fernández Álvarez
Cuban revolutionary commander credited with defeating the 1961 Bay of Pigs landing (Brigade 2506)
Government and administration · Cuba
1923–2019
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Henry Alfred Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger
The architect of détente who used 'linkage' to build the first framework for superpower arms control, the face of American realism
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1923–2023
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Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Cabral
From agronomist to master theorist of African liberation
Political and party leadership · African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC)
1924–1973
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Radovan Richta Radovan Richta
Czech Marxist philosopher who coined the phrase "socialism with a human face"
Scholarship and theory · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
1924–1983
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Mieczysław Zygmunt Jagielski Mieczysław Jagielski
A party official who contained crisis through concessions
Economy, finance and planning · Poland
1924–1997
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Agostinho André Mendes de Carvalho Agostinho André Mendes de Carvalho
Angolan nationalist and writer 'Uanhenga Xitu', a nursing auxiliary turned minister
Literature and arts · Independent activity
1924–2014
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George H. W. Herbert Walker Bush George H. W. Bush
The US president who declared the Cold War over with Gorbachev at Malta, yet whose caution nearly let history slip away
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1924–2018
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Lubomír Štrougal Lubomír Štrougal
Husák's right hand who ran the normalization cabinet for eighteen years, then fell backing Gorbachev's perestroika
Government and administration · Czechoslovakia
1924–2023
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Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter
The 39th U.S. president whose administration marked both the peak and the end of détente
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1924–2024
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Frantz Fanon Frantz Fanon
The psychiatrist who diagnosed colonialism itself as the disease
Scholarship and theory · National Liberation Front (FLN, Algeria)
1925–1961
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Patrice Lumumba Patrice Lumumba
Congo's first prime minister: one speech made him the empire's target
Political and party leadership · Congolese National Movement (MNC)
1925–1961
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Robert F. Francis Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy
The president's brother and attorney general who engineered the secret settlement of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Law and justice · United States state institutions
1925–1968
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Ruth First Ruth First
The investigative journalist who exposed apartheid, the communist revolutionary who endured 117 days of solitary confinement
Literature and arts · African National Congress (ANC)
1925–1982
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Pramoedya Ananta Toer Pramoedya Ananta Toer
The Buru Island novelist who composed a tetralogy by mouth, eight-time Nobel nominee
Literature and arts
1925–2006
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Ramiz Alia Ramiz Alia
Albania after Hoxha
Political and party leadership · Party of Labour of Albania
1925–2011
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Czesław Jan Kiszczak Czesław Jan Kiszczak
Poland's interior minister who imposed martial law then co-chaired the Round Table
Security, intelligence and policing · Poland
1925–2015
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Brent Scowcroft Brent Scowcroft
A cautious strategist at the Cold War's end
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1925–2020
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Pavel Auersperg Pavel Auersperg
The ideology cadre who drafted the Action Programme, then served normalization to the end
Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia
1926–1987
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Mieczysław Franciszek Rakowski Mieczysław Franciszek Rakowski
Poland's last communist prime minister, rejected by voters in the 1989 election
Political and party leadership · Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
1926–2008
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Ludvík Vaculík Ludvík Vaculík
The Czech writer who declared 'not one human question has been solved in twenty years' and authored the 'Two Thousand Words' manifesto
Literature and arts · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
1926–2015
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Fidel Castro Fidel Castro
Leader of the hemisphere's first socialist revolution: forty-seven years against imperialism
Government and administration · Cuba
1926–2016
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Nuon Chea នួន ជា
Deputy Secretary of the CPK, 'Brother Number Two'
Political and party leadership · Democratic Kampuchea
1926–2019
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Nguyễn Thị Bình Nguyễn Thị Bình
PRG foreign minister, the only woman to sign the Paris Peace Accords, and later vice president of Vietnam
Diplomacy and international organization · Vietnam
1927–
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Vasile Milea Vasile Milea
Ceaușescu's last defence minister: his death on 22 December 1989 triggered the army's mass defection to the revolution
Military command · Romania
1927–1989
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Peter Fryer Peter Fryer
A communist journalist who chose the scene over the party line
Literature and arts · Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)
1927–2006
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Richard Heyser Richard Heyser
The U-2 pilot whose six-minute, 928-photo run over Cuba on 14 October 1962 revealed Soviet missiles and ignited the Cuban Missile Crisis
Military command · United States state institutions
1927–2008
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Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Catholic intellectual of Solidarity who became the Eastern Bloc's first non-communist prime minister
Government and administration · Poland
1927–2013
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Stanisław Kania Stanisław Kania
A party leader who lost power while seeking compromise
Political and party leadership · Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
1927–2020
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Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara
The internationalist icon who traded a stethoscope for a rifle
Military command · 26th of July Movement
1928–1967
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Stanisław Matyja Stanisław Matyja
The carpenter who became the unofficial leader of Poznań June
Social movements and organizing
1928–1985
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Ted Sorensen Ted Sorensen
Kennedy's speechwriter whose pen chose 'quarantine' over airstrikes at the nuclear brink
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1928–2010
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Victor Atanasie Stănculescu Victor Atanasie Stănculescu
The Romanian general who switched sides on the morning of the revolution and brought down a dictator
Military command · Romania
1928–2016
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Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński
Carter's National Security Advisor who drew the Soviet Union into the Afghan trap
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1928–2017
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Hafizullah Amin حفیظالله امین
Khalq strongman who engineered the Saur Revolution and fell to Soviet guns three months after seizing power
Political and party leadership · Afghanistan
1929–1979
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Babrak Karmal ببرک کارمل
The Parcham leader installed by the Soviet invasion who presided over seven years of war but never won legitimacy
Political and party leadership · People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
1929–1996
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Anna Walentynowicz Anna Walentynowicz
From fired shipyard worker to 'mother of independent Poland'
Social movements and organizing · Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZ)
1929–2010
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Günter Schabowski Günter Schabowski
The East German Politburo spokesman whose mistake brought down the Berlin Wall
Ideology and propaganda · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1929–2015
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Jack Foust Matlock Jack Matlock
Reagan's NSC Soviet expert who assembled the 'Soviet 101' briefing papers and the last US ambassador to the USSR
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1929–
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Vang Pao ວ່າງປາວ
Royal Lao Army general who led the CIA-backed Hmong army
Military command · Laos
1929–2011
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Lúcio Lara Lúcio Lara
Ideologue of Angolan liberation, MPLA founding member
Political and party leadership · Angola
1929–2016
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Albert Tévoédjrè Albert Tévoédjrè
Writer and economist, rapporteur of Benin's National Conference
Ideology and propaganda · Benin
1929–2019
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Milan Kundera Milan Kundera
The Czech novelist who insisted the Prague Spring was a universal attempt to reconcile socialism with freedom
Literature and arts · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
1929–2023
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Arnaldo Tomás Ochoa Sánchez Arnaldo Tomás Ochoa Sánchez
Cuban general of the African expeditionary campaigns
Military command · Cuba
1930–1989
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James Baker James Baker
The pragmatic diplomat who engineered the Cold War's final transition
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1930–
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Károly Grósz Grósz Károly
Hungary's last old-guard party chief, caught between reform and retreat and overtaken by both
Political and party leadership · Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSzMP)
1930–1996
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Zdeněk Mlynář Zdeněk Mlynář
A reform communist who sought to democratize socialism
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
1930–1997
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Helmut Josef Michael Kohl Helmut Kohl
The chancellor who seized the initiative on the German question with a ten-point unification plan days before Malta
Political and party leadership · Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
1930–2017