Bolsheviks

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili; 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and political leader who governed the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He served as both General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he ultimately consolidated power to become the Soviet Union's dictator by the 1930s. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism while his own policies are known as Stalinism.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein (7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1879 – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky (), was a Russian revolutionary, political theorist and politician. Ideologically a communist, he developed a variant of Marxism known as Trotskyism.

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (Russian: Георгий Константинович Жуков, 1 December 1896 – 18 June 1974) was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He also served as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence, and was a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party (later Politburo). During World War II, Zhukov oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny (Russian: Семён Миха́йлович Будённый, Semyon Mikháylovich Budyonnyy, ; 25 April [O.S. 13 April] 1883 – 26 October 1973) was a Russian and Soviet cavalryman, military commander during the Russian Civil War, Polish–Soviet War and World War II, and politician, who was a close political ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (Russian: Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд, Vsévolod Èmíl'evič Mejerkhól'd; born German: Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyerhold; 9 February [O.S. 28 January] 1874 – 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre. During the Great Purge, Meyerhold was arrested, tortured and executed in February 1940.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (15 April [O.S. 3 April] 1894– 11 September 1971) was a Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War as the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and as chairman of the Council of Ministers (or premier) from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov (Russian: Пётр Захарович Ермаков) (13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1884 – 22 May 1952) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, notable as one of several men responsible for the execution of the Romanov family, including the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, their children, and their retinue.

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 [O.S. 26 December 1901] – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who succeeded Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union, holding this position from 1953 to 1955.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский; 19 July [O.S. 7 July] 1893 – 14 April 1930) was a Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, artist, and actor.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (Russian: Надежда Константиновна Крупская, 26 February [O.S. 14 February] 1869 – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and the wife of Vladimir Lenin.