People of the Revolution and the USSR
Diplomacy and international organization
The revolutionary wave and the world war 1917–1945
Clear all
- Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau Radical French prime minister at the end of the First World War who pressed harsh terms on Hungary at the Paris Peace Conference
- Albert Apponyi Apponyi Albert Aristocratic statesman who led Hungary’s delegation to the Paris peace talks in 1920 and pleaded for revising Trianon at the League
- Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson US president whose Fourteen Points and League of Nations failed to win the Senate’s ratification
- George Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon Conservative viceroy of India and foreign secretary who gave his name to the Curzon Line and led the Allies at Lausanne
- Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Italian prime minister who led the country to victory after Caporetto but failed to win its territorial claims at the peace conference
- David Lloyd George David Lloyd George Liberal prime minister who led Britain in the later war and argued for moderation towards Germany at the peace conference
- Jan Smuts Jan Christian Smuts Soldier-statesman who was twice prime minister of the Union of South Africa and went to Budapest as the Entente’s envoy in April 1919
- Karl Renner Karl Renner Austrian Social Democratic leader who signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain and founded the Second Republic in 1945
- Gyula Károlyi Károlyi Gyula Conservative aristocrat who set up the counter-revolutionary government in Szeged in 1919 and was prime minister of Hungary in 1931–1932
- Cordell Hull Cordell Hull An American diplomat who pressed for free trade and international institutions
- Alexander Khatisian Ալեքսանդր Խատիսեան Dashnak foreign minister and prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia who signed the treaties of Batum and Alexandropol
- Mihály Károlyi Károlyi Mihály Liberal aristocrat who came to power in the Aster Revolution and was president of the First Hungarian Republic
- Fernand Vix Fernand Vix French officer who headed the Entente military mission in Budapest and delivered the Vix note in March 1919
- Ion Pelivan Ion Pelivan Veteran of the Bessarabian national movement who, as foreign minister of the Moldavian Democratic Republic, championed union with Romania
- Vasil Petrov Kolarov Васил Петров Коларов Co-founder of Bulgarian communism, from the Comintern to head of state
- Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer From syndicalism through the Comintern to the Fourth International: a French internationalist across a century of revolution
- Gustav Stresemann Gustav Stresemann Weimar chancellor who ended passive resistance in 1923 and, as foreign minister, concluded the Locarno treaties
- Kōki Hirota 廣田弘毅 A statesman caught between diplomacy and responsibility under military pressure
- Jan Sierada Ян Серада Veterinarian who chaired the First All-Belarusian Congress and, as chairman of the Rada, presided over the declaration of independence
- Piotra Krečeŭski Пётра Крэчэўскі Chairman of the Rada of the Belarusian People’s Republic from 1919 until his death, leading it in exile from Prague
- Jan Dąbski Jan Dąbski A peasant-movement diplomat who shaped the Riga peace
- Yosuke Matsuoka 松岡洋右 A diplomat who drove imperial Japan's continental diplomacy
- Vilmos Böhm Böhm Vilmos Social Democratic leader who was defence commissar and Red Army commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
- Walter Lyman Brown Walter Lyman Brown The relief administrator who turned aid into diplomacy
- Evgeni Gegechkori ევგენი გეგეჭკორი Menshevik politician who chaired the Transcaucasian Commissariat and became foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
- Georgi Mihaylov Dimitrov Георги Михайлов Димитров From Leipzig defendant to Comintern General Secretary
- Shigenori Tōgō 東郷茂徳 A diplomat who sought peace after failing to prevent war
- Naotake Satō 佐藤尚武 The last Japanese ambassador to the USSR, who received Molotov's declaration of war
- William Seeds William Seeds A British diplomat whose judgments narrowed as the Moscow negotiations closed in
- Vaclau Lastouski Вацлаў Ластоўскі Historian who headed the government of the Belarusian People’s Republic in exile, moved to Soviet Byelorussia and was executed
- Döme Sztójay Sztójay Döme Soldier-diplomat who pushed for the German alliance in Berlin and, as prime minister under occupation, sped up the Jewish deportations
- John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes British economist who left the Treasury in protest at the peace treaty and warned of the damage reparations would do
- Anton Luckievič Антон Луцкевіч Founder of the Hramada who, as prime minister of the Belarusian People’s Republic, sought its recognition at the Paris Peace Conference
- Mikhail Markovich Borodin Михаил Маркович Бородин Sun Yat-sen's political advisor, architect of the First United Front, and the Comintern's global emissary
- İsmet İnönü İsmet İnönü Officer who negotiated the Treaty of Lausanne and succeeded Atatürk as Turkey’s second president
- Aarno Sakari Armas Yrjö-Koskinen Aarno Armas Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen Finland’s diplomat in Moscow on the eve of war
- Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Latvia's first foreign minister, who won international recognition for its independence
- Mamoru Shigemitsu 重光葵 A diplomat of empire who became the defeated state's signatory
- Cafer Seydahmet Cafer Seydamet Crimean Tatar politician who ran the military and foreign affairs of the Crimean People’s Republic and led the national movement in exile
- László Bárdossy Bárdossy László Wartime prime minister who declared war on the Soviet Union over the Kassa bombing and approved the deportation of Jews
- Géza Lakatos Lakatos Géza General who as prime minister in August–October 1944 halted the Jewish deportations and prepared an armistice until the Arrow Cross coup
- Edward Raczyński Edward Raczyński An aristocratic diplomat who preserved Poland’s diplomatic continuity in exile
- Sumner Welles Sumner Welles US Under Secretary of State whose Welles Declaration of July 1940 refused to recognise the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states
- Joachim von Ribbentrop Joachim von Ribbentrop Nazi Germany’s foreign minister, he played a key role in negotiating the German-Soviet nonaggression pact.
- Grigory Naumovich Voitinsky Григорий Наумович Войтинский The Comintern's first envoy who midwifed the Chinese Communist Party
- Robert Daniel Murphy Robert Daniel Murphy The diplomat who read the danger in Berlin first
- Eljas Erkko Eljas Erkko Finnish foreign minister who dismissed Stalin's demands as a bluff and overruled Mannerheim's counsel to compromise
- Carl Lutz Carl Lutz Swiss vice-consul in Budapest who saved tens of thousands of Jews with protective letters and safe houses
- Kazys Škirpa Kazys Škirpa Lithuanian officer and envoy in Berlin who founded the Lithuanian Activist Front behind the June Uprising of 1941
- Dino Grandi Dino Grandi A Fascist power broker who helped bring down Mussolini