Skip to content
People of the Revolution and the USSR
Activity(set)
Affiliation
Position
Citizenship
Background
Era
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
-
Nikolai Nikolayevich Shatalin Николай Николаевич Шаталин
Malenkov's cadres chief: party organizer who oversaw the security organs after Stalin's death, then sidelined by Khrushchev
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Union
1904–1984
-
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov Павел Алексеевич Черенков
The Soviet Nobel physicist who discovered the Cherenkov effect
Science and technology · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1904–1990
-
Kim San 김산
Internationalist socialist who fought across the Korean independence movement and the Chinese Revolution, subject of Song of Arirang
Social movements and organizing · Communist Party of China
1905–1938
-
Zoltán Schönherz Schönherz Zoltán
Underground Communist leader who organised anti-war demonstrations through the Independence Committee and was executed in 1942
Social movements and organizing · Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP)
1905–1942
-
Aris son of Dimitrios Velouchiotis Άρης Βελουχιώτης
Organizer of a mass partisan war against occupation
Military command · Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS)
1905–1945
-
Alexei Alexandrovich Kuznetsov Алексей Александрович Кузнецов
Postwar No. 2 in the Party Secretariat, purged in the Leningrad Affair
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1905–1950
-
Henri Frenay Henri Frenay
A Resistance organizer who moved from Vichy sympathies to opposition
Social movements and organizing
1905–1988
-
Ivan Vasilyevich Spiridonov Иван Васильевич Спиридонов
Khrushchev-era Leningrad party boss who proposed removing Stalin's body from the Mausoleum and stumbled over the apparatus's loyalty test
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1905–1991
-
Nikolai Mikhailovich Pegov Николай Михайлович Пегов
Cadres chief pushed from late-Stalin Secretariat into diplomacy
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1905–1991
-
Ferenc Rózsa Rózsa Ferenc
Communist who was the first editor of the underground Szabad Nép and died in custody after his arrest in 1942
Ideology and propaganda · Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP)
1906–1942
-
Wang Shiwei 王实味
The writer whose “Wild Lilies” criticised privilege at Yan’an and made him the rectification movement’s first victim
Literature and arts · Communist Party of China
1906–1947
-
Rezső Kasztner Kasztner Rezső
Zionist lawyer who negotiated with Eichmann to send 1,684 Jews to Switzerland on what became known as the Kasztner train
Social movements and organizing
1906–1957
-
Lev Romanovich Sheinin Лев Романович Шейнин
The Stalin-era chief investigator who pioneered the Soviet detective story
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1906–1967
-
Georgy Mikhailovich Popov Георгий Михайлович Попов
The Moscow party boss who rebuilt the postwar capital and fell in the succession struggle
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1906–1968
-
Juan Modesto Juan Guilloto León
A field commander of the defeated Republic
Military command · Spanish Republic
1906–1969
-
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович
The composer who scored the Soviet century, and walked through two official annihilations
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1906–1975
-
Vladimir Nikiforovich Malin Владимир Никифорович Малин
11-year keeper of the party's central document flow
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1906–1982
-
Edward Mieczysław Ochab Edward Mieczysław Ochab
The transitional First Secretary of 1956 who turned Khrushchev's Secret Speech into a mass document and then yielded power to Gomułka
Political and party leadership · Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
1906–1989
-
Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko Андрей Павлович Кириленко
Brezhnev-era senior secretary for cadres
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1906–1990
-
Ho Ka-i Алексей Хегай
Principal organizer of the Workers' Party of Korea and leader of its early Soviet faction
Political and party leadership · Workers' Party of Korea (WPK)
1908–1953
-
Frol Romanovich Kozlov Фрол Романович Козлов
The second secretary whose stroke opened the Brezhnev era
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1908–1965
-
Aleksey Illarionovich Kirichenko Алексей Илларионович Кириченко
Khrushchev-era secretary for party appointments
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1908–1975
-
Teohari Georgescu Teohari Georgescu
The first communist interior minister, builder of the Securitate, purged in 1952 alongside Pauker and Luca for "shielding" them
Security, intelligence and policing · Romania
1908–1976
-
Vladimir Fyodorovich Promyslov Владимир Фёдорович Промыслов
The 23-year mayor who built the Brezhnev-era face of Moscow
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1908–1993
-
Iosif Mikhailovich Turko Иосиф Михайлович Турко
A Kuznetsov appointee to the Yaroslavl obkom who was sentenced to 15 years instead of death in the Leningrad Affair
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1908–1994
-
Konstantin Viktorovich Rusakov Константин Викторович Русаков
Brezhnev's secretary who ran party-to-party diplomacy with the socialist bloc
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1909–1993
-
Aleksandr Petrovich Rudakov Александр Петрович Рудаков
Heavy-industry secretary in Khrushchev's bifurcated industrial Secretariat
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1910–1966
-
Olga Fyodorovna Berggolts Ольга Фёдоровна Берггольц
The radio voice of the besieged city
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1910–1975
-
Raya Dunayevskaya Raya Dunayevskaya
From Trotsky's secretary to founder of Marxist Humanism
Social movements and organizing · Socialist Workers Party (United States)
1910–1987
-
Georgy Sergeyevich Pavlov Георгий Сергеевич Павлов
Brezhnev's 18-year steward of the party treasury and 'party gold'
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1910–1991
-
Carlos Marighella Carlos Marighella
From congressman to urban guerrilla theorist: the military dictatorship's enemy number one
Social movements and organizing · Brazilian Communist Party (PCB)
1911–1969
-
Todor Hristov Zhivkov Тодор Христов Живков
The Eastern Bloc's longest-serving leader, 35 years as Moscow's most loyal Balkan ally
Political and party leadership · Bulgaria
1911–1998
-
Mikhail Timofeyevich Yefremov Михаил Тимофеевич Ефремов
From Volga orphanage boy to Kosygin's deputy premier: a party cadres specialist who ran three obkoms
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1911–2000
-
Leonid Nikolayevich Yefremov Леонид Николаевич Ефремов
The party man who handed Stavropol to Gorbachev, then called him a renegade
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1912–2007
-
Nikolai Romanovich Mironov Николай Романович Миронов
The party's overseer of the power ministries who organized Khrushchev's removal
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1913–1964
-
Sergei Mitrofanovich Kovalev Сергей Митрофанович Ковалёв
Soviet ideologue who codified the Brezhnev Doctrine in the pages of Pravda
Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union
1913–1990
-
Nikolai Ivanovich Savinkin Николай Иванович Савинкин
The personnel gatekeeper of the Soviet power ministries for 19 years under Brezhnev
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1913–1993
-
Aimé Césaire Aimé Césaire
Co-founder of Négritude, pioneering critic of colonialism
Literature and arts · French Communist Party (PCF)
1913–2008
-
Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin Виктор Васильевич Гришин
The face of the Brezhnev era who ran Moscow for eighteen years and died while re-applying for his pension
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1914–1992
-
Aleksei Mikhailovich Shkolnikov Алексей Михайлович Школьников
The apparatchik who ran three oblasts under Khrushchev and rose to People's Control
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1914–2003
-
Claudia Jones Claudia Jones
The Black feminist Marxist who pioneered intersectional analysis, and created the Notting Hill Carnival
Social movements and organizing · Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
1915–1964
-
Ivan Vasilyevich Kapitonov Иван Васильевич Капитонов
The personnel chief who ran the nomenklatura for 21 years under Brezhnev
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1915–2002
-
Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs
From first translator of Marx's 1844 Manuscripts to philosopher of Detroit's revolution
Social movements and organizing
1915–2015
-
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov Александр Михайлович Прохоров
Nobel-winning laser co-inventor who helmed the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for three decades
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1916–2002
-
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg Виталий Лазаревич Гинзбург
From the H-bomb's 'second idea' to the Nobel Prize: a century-spanning theoretical physicist
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1916–2009
-
Tony Cliff Tony Cliff
The Trotskyist theorist who defined the USSR as bureaucratic state capitalism and built Britain's Socialist Workers Party
Social movements and organizing
1917–2000
-
Vasily Sergeyevich Tolstikov Василий Сергеевич Толстиков
Leningrad party leader during the Thaw who became ambassador to China
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1917–2003
-
Nuritdin Akramovich Mukhitdinov Nuritdin Akramovich Muhitdinov
First Central Asian in the Presidium, nationalities-policy practitioner
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Union
1917–2008
-
Fyodor Davydovich Kulakov Фёдор Давыдович Кулаков
Agriculture secretary seen as a Brezhnev successor whose sudden death opened the seat for Gorbachev
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1918–1978
-
Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu
Romania's leader who combined independent diplomacy with a cult of personality
Political and party leadership · Romania
1918–1989