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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
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Elizabeth Flynn
"East Side Joan of Arc": from the IWW's Rebel Girl to first woman chair of the CPUSA
Social movements and organizing · Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
1890–1964
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Ho Chi Minh Hồ Chí Minh
He took on France, Japan and America in turn to win Vietnam's independence
Political and party leadership · Vietnam
1890–1969
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Ahmet-Zaki Validi Әхмәтзәки Вәлиди
Leader of the Bashkir national movement who proclaimed Bashkir autonomy, commanded the Bashkir Army and took it over to the Soviet side
Military command · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1890–1970
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James P. Cannon James P. Cannon
The labor organizer who read Trotsky's critique in Moscow and founded the American Trotskyist movement
Political and party leadership · Socialist Workers Party (United States)
1890–1974
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Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov Вячеслав Михайлович Молотов
“Stone-arse”: the man who never changed his mind
Diplomacy and international organization · Soviet Union
1890–1986
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Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci
The brain a prison was meant to stop: theorist of hegemony
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Italy / Italian Communist Party (PCdI/PCI)
1891–1937
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Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar Влас Яковлевич Чубарь
The economic administrator who led Ukraine's government for 11 years, caught between Stalin's demands and the famine
Government and administration · Soviet Union
1891–1939
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Arkadi Maslow Аркадий Маслов
The pianist-turned-revolutionary who drove the KPD's ultra-left turn, and became the anti-Stalinist left's perpetual dissident
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1891–1941
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Earl Russell Browder Earl Russell Browder
The CPUSA leader who declared Communism was 20th-century Americanism, and then dissolved his own party
Political and party leadership · Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
1891–1973
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Zdeněk Fierlinger Zdeněk Fierlinger
Pro-Soviet Social Democrat and first post-liberation premier who sided with the Communists in 1948 and merged his party into theirs
Government and administration · Czechoslovakia
1891–1976
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Andreu Nin Andreu Nin
The Marxist who linked the Russian and Spanish revolutions, founder of the POUM
Political and party leadership · Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM)
1892–1937
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Ivar Tenisovich Smilga Ivars Smilga
The young oppositionist of the Revolutionary Military Council
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1892–1937
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Mirsaid Khaydargalievich Sultan-Galiev Мирсаид Хайдаргалиевич Султан-Галиев
The architect of Islamic socialism and national communism who became Stalin's first ideological purge victim
Political and party leadership · Soviet Union
1892–1940
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Nurija Pozderac Nurija Pozderac
A Bosnian politician who embodied a multi-ethnic resistance coalition
Political and party leadership · Communist Party / League of Communists of Yugoslavia (KPJ/SKJ)
1892–1943
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Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko Степан Максимович Петриченко
The sailor who led the Kronstadt rebellion, became a Soviet spy, and died in a camp
Political and party leadership · Kronstadt Provisional Revolutionary Committee
1892–1947
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Bolesław Bierut Bolesław Bierut
Stalin's most trusted East European proxy, architect of Poland's Stalinist system and guardian of the Oder–Neisse border
Political and party leadership · Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)
1892–1956
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Juan Negrín Juan Negrín
The physiologist trained in Leipzig who sent the Republic's gold to Moscow and chose to fight to the end as its last prime minister
Government and administration · Spanish Republic
1892–1956
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Mátyás Rákosi Rákosi Mátyás
Architect of Hungary's Sovietization who built one-party rule through 'salami tactics'
Political and party leadership · Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP)
1892–1971
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Max Fechner Max Fechner
First East German justice minister, dismissed and imprisoned in 1953 after opposing the prosecution of striking workers
Law and justice · East Germany
1892–1973
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Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito
Yugoslavia's partisan leader who chose non-alignment
Political and party leadership · Yugoslavia
1892–1980
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Sanzo Nosaka 野坂参三
International communist who founded the JCP, ran the Comintern's Pacific networks, and led the party for 24 years
Political and party leadership · Japanese Communist Party (JCP)
1892–1993
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Sükhbaatar Сүхбаатар
Military leader of Mongolia's 1921 revolution, posthumously canonized as its 'father'
Military command · Mongolia
1893–1923
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Sergei Ivanovich Syrtsov Сергей Иванович Сырцов
The RSFSR premier who turned against Stalin from Siberia
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1893–1937
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Hermann Göring Hermann Göring
A Luftwaffe chief who organized Nazi war and plunder
Political and party leadership · Nazi party and regime
1893–1946
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Nikola Dimitrov Petkov Никола Димитров Петков
Agrarian leader who opposed communist rule and was hanged after a show trial
Political and party leadership
1893–1947
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Wilhelm Zaisser Wilhelm Zaisser
First East German Minister for State Security, purged in 1953 after trying to replace Ulbricht
Security, intelligence and policing · East Germany
1893–1958
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Ana Pauker Ana Pauker
The world's first woman foreign minister and head of the Romanian party's "Muscovite faction", brought down by Gheorghiu-Dej's 1952 purge
Political and party leadership · Romania
1893–1960
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Palmiro Togliatti Palmiro Togliatti
'Il Migliore': the strategist who led Western Europe's largest communist party for forty years
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Italy / Italian Communist Party (PCdI/PCI)
1893–1964
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Hermann Matern Hermann Matern
SED Politburo member and chairman of the Central Party Control Commission who stood by Ulbricht in 1953
Political and party leadership · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1893–1971
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Walter Ulbricht Walter Ulbricht
German communist leader who built the GDR and erected the Berlin Wall
Political and party leadership · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1893–1973
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Mao Zedong 毛泽东
He rewrote the grammar of revolution for a peasant country
Political and party leadership · People’s Republic of China
1893–1976
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Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄
Sun Yat-sen’s widow who stayed with the Kuomintang left and became a vice-chair of the People’s Republic
Social movements and organizing · Communist Party of China
1893–1981
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José Carlos Mariátegui José Carlos Mariátegui
The autodidact who rewrote Marxism for the Andes
Political and party leadership
1894–1930
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Nikolai Matveyevich Goloded Николай Матвеевич Голодед
The decade-long head of Byelorussia's government who signed the Academy purge, then stood in the same dock
Government and administration · Soviet Union
1894–1937
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Kyuichi Tokuda 徳田球一
First JCP chairman who endured 18 years in imperial prisons
Political and party leadership · Japanese Communist Party (JCP)
1894–1953
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Otto Grotewohl Otto Grotewohl
The Social Democrat who led a divided state into being
Government and administration · East Germany
1894–1964
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Herbert Vere Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt
Australia's Foreign Minister who led the small and medium powers' fight against the great-power veto at San Francisco
Political and party leadership · Australian Labor Party (ALP)
1894–1965
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Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev Никита Сергеевич Хрущёв
He opened the coffin lid, and became the first leader to die in bed
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1894–1971
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Friedrich Ebert Jr. Friedrich Ebert junior
A social democrat who moved from municipal politics into state power amid Germany's division
Political and party leadership · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1894–1979
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Rudolf Hess Rudolf Hess
Nazi Party leader and Hitler’s deputy, sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg trials.
Political and party leadership · Nazi party and regime
1894–1987
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Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky Григорий Наумович Каминский
First USSR People's Commissar for Health, a founder of Soviet preventive medicine
Agriculture and land policy · Soviet Union
1895–1938
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Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov Николай Иванович Ежов
The Bloody Dwarf, an executor of the Great Terror shaped by the party personnel apparatus
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union
1895–1940
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José Díaz José Díaz
From baker to General Secretary: the leader who steered Spanish communism through the Popular Front and Civil War
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Spain (PCE)
1895–1942
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Choibalsan Чойбалсан
Mongolian revolution and consolidation
Political and party leadership · Mongolia
1895–1952
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Kurt Schumacher Kurt Schumacher
SPD leader who survived ten years in Nazi camps and, after the war, refused the merger with the Communists
Political and party leadership · Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
1895–1952
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Mir Jafar Abbasovich Bagirov Мир Аббасович Джафар Багиров
Stalin-era party boss who ruled Azerbaijan for two decades
Political and party leadership · Soviet Union
1895–1956
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Marceau Pivert Marceau Pivert
The Socialist left's tribune who wrote 'Everything is possible', the Popular Front's left frontier
Political and party leadership · French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO)
1895–1958
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Ruth Fischer Ruth Fischer
First woman to lead a major European communist party, and its sharpest anti-Stalinist apostate
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1895–1961
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Erich Gniffke Erich Gniffke
SPD organiser in the Soviet zone who signed the merger with the KPD, then left the SED in 1948 and fled west
Social movements and organizing · Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
1895–1964
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Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin Николай Александрович Булганин
The uniformed premier pushed aside by Khrushchev
Government and administration · Soviet Union
1895–1975