People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Andor Jaross Jaross Andor Hungarian minority leader in Czechoslovakia who, as interior minister in Sztójay’s cabinet in 1944, organised the deportation of Jews
- László Baky Baky László Gendarmerie officer turned National Socialist who as state secretary for the interior in 1944 ran the deportation of Jews with László Endre
- Ernst Wollweber Ernst Wollweber Communist who ran an anti-fascist sabotage network before the war and headed the Stasi from 1953 to 1957
- István Dobi Dobi István Smallholder turned titular head of state
- Fritz Selbmann Fritz Selbmann East German heavy-industry minister who faced the striking workers outside the House of Ministries on 16 June 1953
- Justas Ignovich Paleckis Justas Paleckis A face of Soviet Lithuania
- Erich Ollenhauer Erich Ollenhauer Exiled SPD functionary who succeeded Schumacher as SPD leader and leader of the West German opposition
- Mikhail Alekseyevich Yasnov Михаил Алексеевич Яснов The 20-year formal head of state of the Russian republic under Brezhnev
- Souphanouvong ສຸພານຸວົງ Pathet Lao and the first presidency
- Robert Havemann Robert Havemann East German chemist who survived a Nazi death sentence and later, expelled from the SED, became a dissident under house arrest
- Vitālijs Petrovich Rubenis Виталий Петрович Рубен The Latvian who chaired the Soviet of Nationalities for a decade under Brezhnev
- Yadgar Sadykovna Nasriddinova Ядгар Садыковна Насриддинова Uzbek SSR figure who chaired the Soviet of Nationalities
- Arnold Rüütel Arnold Rüütel The agronomist who pushed a sovereignty declaration through the Soviet system and led Estonia out of the empire
- Elmira Mikayil qızı Kafarova Elmira Qafarova A Soviet republican leader who asserted institutional authority in crisis
- Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk Леонід Макарович Кравчук The communist propagandist who became Ukraine's first president and signed the Soviet Union out of existence
- Stanislav Stanislavovich Shushkevich Станіслаў Станіслававіч Шушкевіч The nuclear physicist who demanded Chernobyl truth, hosted the meeting that dissolved the USSR, and called Gorbachev to tell him
- Valentyna Semenivna Shevchenko Валентина Семенівна Шевченко Ukrainian SSR head of state during Chernobyl who pushed the evacuation of 526,000 children from Kyiv against Moscow's resistance
- Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev Геннадий Иванович Янаев First and only Vice President of the USSR and the face of the August 1991 coup
- Anatolijs Gorbunovs Anatolijs Gorbunovs The Communist Party secretary who led Latvia's Supreme Council through the restoration of independence
- Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov Руслан Имранович Хасбулатов The Supreme Soviet chairman who stood with Yeltsin against the coup, then fell to Yeltsin's tanks