Daughter of Josef Stalin and Nadezhda (Nadya) Alliluyeva; history graduate of Moscow State University, married to: (1) Grigory Morozov (1944–47), (2) Yury Zhdanov (1949–52), (3) Ivan Svanidze (1957–59), (4) Brajesh Singh (1960s), (5) American architect Wesley Peters (1970s). Legally changed name to Alliluyeva in 1957, defected to the United States in 1967, returned to the USSR 1984–86 before departing again; while in the United States, published memoirs that were critical of her father. Children: Joseph (1945), Ekaterina (1950), and Olga (1971).
Son of Russian peasants, a worker who joined the Bolsheviks in 1914. A candidate member of the Politburo from 1926 and a full member 1932–52. In charge of party Control Commission 1930–31 and 1939–52; railways 1931–35; and agriculture 1943–46. Central Committee secretary 1935–46; deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers 1946–53; post-1953 member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Married to Dora Khazan (1894–1961), a student with Nadya Alliluyeva at the Industrial Academy who later held a senior position in the textile industry. Had a son, Vladimir (1919), and daughter, Natalia (1921; married Vladimir Kuibyshev).
Childhood friend of Molotov, joined party in 1907. Involved in diplomatic work in 1920s, chairman of VOKS 1934–37. Arrested on 3 July 1937 and then shot. First wife, Olga Goppen, worked as a secretary to Polina Molotova; second wife, Gertrude Freund, was Czech. Daughter Olga (1925) became a well-known actress; wrote memoirs.
Georgian/Mingrelian, joined the Bolsheviks March 1917; left architecture studies to work in Cheka. Headed the Georgian GPU 1926–31, then was first secretary of Georgian and later Transcaucasian parties in 1930s; came to Moscow in 1938 to head the NKVD (later MVD) and remained in that position until 1946; subsequently retained supervisory role over security services. Candidate member of Politburo from 1939, full member from 1946; wartime member of GKO; ran Soviet atomic project from 1944. Active reformer during post-Stalin transition, arrested by colleagues June 1953, convicted of treason in a closed military court in December, and shot. Married to Nina Gegechkori (1905–91), a chemist; their son, Sergo (1924–2000), a physicist, married Gorky’s granddaughter Marfa Peshkova in 1947, and in later life wrote memoirs defending his father’s memory.
Russian, son of a merchant, joined the party in 1903 as a student. With Left Opposition in 1923, then switched to Stalin’s side; friend of Voroshilov’s. Was in charge of education in 1930s, then arrested and shot in Great Purges. Wife Olga Bubnova ran salon with Galina Egorova and was arrested in 1937.
Served in the Cossack regiments in the First World War and in the Red Army cavalry during the Civil War; with Stalin and Voroshilov in Tsaritsyn; joined the party in 1919. Promoted to marshal in 1935 but removed from frontline posts September 1941. Member of the party Central Committee 1939–52. Folk hero, known for handlebar moustache. Second wife, Olga Mikhailova, a singer at the Bolshoi Opera, ran a literary salon and was arrested in 1937.
Russian, son of teachers, joined the party as a student in 1906, and was an émigré in Europe and the United States before the revolution. Party theorist, admired by young Communist intellectuals in 1920s; a Politburo member 1924–29. Was personally close to Stalin in mid-1920s, headed Comintern 1926–29, and was editor of Pravda until June 1929, when he was removed from his posts as a Rightist. Headed a sector of the industrial ministry 1929–32 and was editor of Izvestia 1934–37. A defendant in the 1938 Moscow show trial, he was convicted and shot. Married to (1) Nadezhda Lukina; (2) Esfir Gurvich (daughter Svetlana born in 1924); and (3) Anna Larina (son Yury born in 1936).
Russian, son of an office worker, joined the party in 1917. With the Cheka, then an industrial manager in 1920s; chairman of the Moscow Soviet 1931–37. Deputy minister for defense under Stalin 1944, then minister from 1947. Full member of the Politburo from 1948. Replaced Malenkov as head of the Soviet government in 1955 and traveled internationally with Khrushchev. Close to the Anti-Party Group, though not publically condemned with them; forced to resign positions in 1958. His wife, Elena, née Korovina, was an English teacher; daughter Vera, a schoolmate of Svetlana Stalina, was a doctor and married the son of Admiral Kuznetsov 1955; son, Lev (1925), was a pilot and a friend of Vasily Stalin. Lived with de facto wife Lidia Ivanovna 1944–62.
Lawyer, head of the Central Committee’s personnel department 1942–45; president of the military collegium and deputy president of the Soviet Supreme Court, holding the rank of lieutenant general 1948–57. Presided as judge at the closed trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1952, he hesitated to convict the defendants. Career ended after Marshal Zhukov denounced him in 1956 for conviction of air force leaders on fabricated evidence ten years earlier.
Ukrainian, joined the party as a factory worker in 1907. Candidate member of the Politburo from 1926 and a full member 1935–38. Headed Ukrainian government 1923–34; from 1934 was deputy chairman of the Soviet council of ministers (Council of People’s Commissars) in Moscow. Briefly headed a cellulose combine in Solikamsk before arrest in 1938; was shot during the Great Purges. Wife, Alexandra (1903–38), graduated university in 1928, worked as a light industry consultant, and was arrested with husband and shot; they had two sons, Alexei (1929) and Vladimir (1933).
Writer and publicist with Stalinist and Russian nationalist orientation. Frontline heroism was the main theme of literary works. Interviewed Molotov extensively in the 1970s and 1980s, also Kaganovich.
Polish noble family, expelled from the Vilnius gymnasium for revolutionary activity; involved in the Russian social-democratic movement from 1895; a Bolshevik from 1917. Many years in prison under the tsar; had a reputation in the party as an incorruptible ascetic. Headed the GPU/OGPU 1922–26; from 1924 also headed the supreme economic council. Nonfactional in the mid-1920s but often supported Stalin’s group.
Russian, professional military man starting with the Imperial Army, then the Red Army in the Civil War. Joined the party in 1918, earlier in Socialist-Revolutionary (SR) Party. In the 1920s, a commander of forces in Ukraine, later Belorussia. Headed the General Staff 1935–38; marshal from 1935; first deputy minister of defense 1937–38. Arrested February 1938 and shot. Wife, film actress Galina Egorova, who ran a salon with Olga Bubnova in 1930s, was arrested in 1937.
Georgian, party member from 1898, secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (later called the Supreme Soviet) 1922–35; expelled from the party June 1935; shot during the Great Purges. Godfather of Nadya Alliluyeva.
Joined the party in 1917. Headed a Central Committee department from 1930 and the party Control Commission 1934–39; head of the NKVD 1936–38; was a candidate member of the Politburo from October 1937 and minister of water transport 1938–39. Arrested on 10 April 1939, he was shot February 1940. Married to Evgenia, née Feigen-berg, formerly Khayutin and Gladun (1904–38), who held a salon and committed suicide in 1938; had an adopted daughter, Natalia Khayutina (1932).
Moldavian, joined the party in 1904. During the Civil War, a political commissar with the Red Army, then a commander in Turkestan and the Southern Fronts. Succeeded Trotsky in charge of the military January 1925, becoming a candidate member of the Politburo at the same time; died after an operation (unconfirmed rumors that Stalin had him killed). His children Tatyana (born 1920) and Timur (1923–42) were adopted by the Voroshilovs after his death.
Jewish, joined the party as a student in 1916. Involved in party work in the Far East and Belorussia in the 1920s, then head of the Political Administration of the Red Army 1929–37. Committed suicide when threatened by arrest in the Tukhachevsky Affair, probably after a warning from his friend Mikoyan.
Russian writer, prerevolutionary financial supporter of the Bolsheviks. Defended the intelligentsia against the Cheka after the revolution, in emigration on Capri 1921–32, returned on Stalin’s invitation to live in the Soviet Union, where he was feted but also closely watched. Married 1896–1903 to Ekaterina Peshkova (1876–65), who was active in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, founded the Political Red Cross in 1917, and headed Aid to Political Prisoners 1922–37. In the 1930s, Gorky’s Moscow household included his son, Maxim Peshkov (1897–1934); Maxim’s wife Timosha (Nadezhda Vvedenskaya), who was courted by Yagoda; and their daughter, Marfa (Svetlana Stalina’s best childhood friend), who married Sergo Beria in 1947.
Jewish, born in Ukraine; joined the party as a worker in 1911. Political commissar in Voronezh and Turkestan during the Civil War. Candidate member of the Politburo from 1926 and a full member 1930–57. Headed the Ukrainian party 1925–30 and again in 1947. Central Committee secretary 1928–39 and concurrently first secretary of Moscow party 1930–35; in charge of railways 1935–37 and 1938–44, oil industry 1939–40, and supply 1948–52. First deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers 1953–57 and headed the committee on labor and wages. Branded a member of the Anti-Party Group, he was demoted and sent to work as an industrial manager in the Urals 1957–61. Married to Maria, née Privorotskaya, a trade union head. They had a daughter, Maya (1917), an architect, and an adopted son, Yury.
Elder brother of Lazar and a party member from 1905. Member of the party Control Commission 1927–34; deputy head of the heavy industry ministry with responsibility for aviation production 1932–36. Committed suicide under threat of arrest.
Russian, peasant-born, worker, joined the RSDLP in 1898 as a founding member. A policy moderate with populist appeal, he was titular head of the Soviet state 1919–46 (chairman of All-Union Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets until 1938 and of the Supreme Soviet from 1938). Married to Ekaterina Lorberg, Estonian fellow worker and revolutionary, who was arrested in 1938 and released after the war. Their children were Valery (1904, an engineer), Julia (1905), Alexander (1908, an engineer), Lidia (1912, a doctor), and Anna (1916, a doctor).
Jewish intellectual, RSDLP member from 1901, a Bolshevik from 1903, working mainly underground in Russia. Opposed October seizure of power. Was a Politburo member 1919–25, a leader with Zinoviev of the Left Opposition, and chairman of the Moscow Soviet in the 1920s. Expelled from the party December 1927, he was readmitted June 1928. Arrested January 1935 on accusation of complicity in Kirov’s murder, he was a defendant in the Moscow show trial in 1936, convicted, and shot. His wife Olga Kame-neva (1881–1941), Trotsky’s sister, was arrested in 1935 and shot, as were their sons Alexander (1906) and Yury (1921). His later partner, Tatyana Glebova, and their son, Vladimir (1929), were exiled.
Russian born in Ukraine, worker in youth, joined the party in 1918. Student at the Industrial Academy, active against Rightists in 1930, second secretary of Moscow party (under Kaganovich) 1932–35, then first secretary 1935–38. Headed the Ukrainian party 1938–47 and again 1948–49. Politburo (Presidium) candidate in 1938, full member 1939–64. Central Committee secretary 1949–53; also headed the Moscow party organization. First secretary of the party Central Committee 1953–64, also chairman of Council of Ministers 1958–64. Launched de-Stalinization campaign in 1956. Dismissed from posts October 1964. His second wife (from early 1920s) was Nina Kucharchuk. Their children were Rada (1929), a journalist married to journalist Alexei Adzhubei; Sergei (1935), an engineer, who immigrated to the United States in the 1990s and wrote extensively on his father; and Elena (1938), a lawyer. Khrushchev also had two children from his first marriage, Julia (1916) and Leonid (1917–43), a pilot and war casualty, whose wife was arrested in 1942.
Russian, joined the party in 1904, involved in party work in the Caucasus during the Civil War, befriending Ordzhonikidze and Mikoyan; in Baku as head of the Azerbaijan party committee 1921–26; head of Leningrad party committee 1926–34. Close friend of Stalin’s from the mid-1920s; knew Nadya from youth through her father. Candidate member of the Politburo from 1926 and a full member 1930–34; appointed Central Committee secretary in 1934. Assassinated December 1934. Married to Maria Markus; no children.
Polish-born, eldest of four brothers active in the revolutionary movement in Ukraine, joined the party as a worker in 1907. Was involved in party work in Siberia in the early 1920s, then Central Committee secretary in Moscow 1926–28. Candidate member of the Politburo in 1927 and a full member from 1930. General secretary of the Ukrainian party 1928–38; shot in Great Purges. Second wife, Elizaveta, was arrested with her husband and died in Gulag. Their children Vladimir (1922) and Mikhail (1924) were sent to an orphanage after their parents’ arrest. Vladimir died at the front in 1942.
Russian, working-class background, joined the party in 1927. Chairman of the Leningrad Soviet 1938–39; minister of the textile industry 1939–40. Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers 1940–53. Candidate and then full member of the Politburo (Presidium) 1946–53; at risk in the Leningrad Affair but survived. Candidate member of the Politburo again 1957–60, then back to full member 1960–80; also chairman of the Council of Ministers and no. 2 man to Brezhnev. His wife, Klavdia, was a cousin of Alexei Kuznetsov.
Lenin’s wife and a party member from 1898. Member of the party Control Commission 1924–27 and the Central Committee 1927–39. Held a senior position in the Russian education ministry 1917–29, when she resigned with colleagues after a policy disagreement. Close to the Zinoviev Opposition in the mid-1920s.
Russian, military family, joined the party in 1904. Candidate member of the Politburo 1921–24 and a full member 1927–35; Central Committee secretary in 1922; head of the party Control Commission 1924–26. Headed the supreme economic council 1926–30 and Gosplan 1930–34. He married (1) Praskovia Styazhkina, an Old Bolshevik; (2) Elena Kogan, also an Old Bolshevik, who held senior positions in the Moscow Party Committee and was shot in 1937; (3) Galina Troyanovskaya, daughter of Old Bolshevik diplomat Alexander Troyanovsky; and (4) Olga Lezhava (1901), daughter of Old Bolshevik Andrei Lezhava. His son Vladimir (1917) married Andreev’s daughter Natalia; his daughter Galina (1919) became an architect.
Russian, village-born, Komsomol activist promoted by Kirov, second secretary of the Leningrad party under Zhdanov from 1937, then first secretary 1945–46. Central Committee secretary and head of the cadres department 1946–49; mentioned with Vozne-sensky as a possible heir to Stalin. Arrested in the Leningrad Affair on 13 August 1949 and shot on 1 October 1950. His daughter Alla married Sergo Mikoyan in 1949.
Russian, sailor in the Civil War, joined the party in 1925, a military advisor in Spain 1936–37. Commander of the Pacific Fleet 1938–39, promoted to admiral in 1939, then minister for the navy throughout the war. Under a cloud in 1948 on suspicion of giving state secrets to foreigners. Returned from the Far East to Moscow as minister for the navy again 1951–56. Had a reputation for straight-talking. His son Viktor married Bulganin’s daughter Vera.
Russian, son of an inspector of schools who attained personal nobility; was a university student in Kazan when elder brother Alexander was executed for revolutionary activity in 1886. Involved in the Marxist revolutionary movement from the 1880s and founder of the Bolshevik Party. In emigration 1900–1905 and 1908–17, returning to Russia after the February Revolution in the famous “sealed train” through Germany. Sidelined by strokes from mid-1922. Politburo member from its foundation in 1919 and head of the government from October 1917 until his death. Married to Nadezhda Krupskaya (see separate entry).
Jewish, born in the Pale, a member of the RSDLP from 1898, and a Bolshevik from 1903; spent many years in emigration. A member of the party Central Committee 1934–41; deputy foreign minister 1921–30, then foreign minister 1930–39, and the Soviet representative at the League of Nations 1934–38. Deputy foreign minister to Molotov 1941–46, serving at the same time as ambassador to the United States 1941–43. His wife, Ivy (née Low, 1876–1951), was English; their son, Mikhail, a mathematician, was the father of Brezhnev-period dissident Pavel Litvinov; their daughter, Tatyana, was a translator.
Jewish, son of a rabbi, in the revolutionary movement from 1903, with the Bolsheviks from 1905 (but expelled 1914–17 after a clash with Lenin). Émigré in Switzerland and France 1908–17. Deputy minister of foreign affairs 1939–46; deputy head, then head of Soviet information and propaganda agency (Sovinformbiuro) under the Central Committee 1941–48, with supervisory responsibility for the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Defendant in JAC trial in 1952, convicted despite energetic rebuttal of accusations, and shot. Daughter, Vera Dridzo, personal secretary to Krupskaya 1919–39, married Mikhail Shamberg, a friend and colleague of Malenkov’s; their son, Vladimir Shamberg, married Malenkov’s daughter.
Ukrainian of peasant origins, agronomist, and opponent of geneticists. Although lauded by Stalin and Molotov in the late 1930s, he was despised by the intelligentsia. He survived a challenge from Yury Zhdanov in the late 1940s, and then another under Khrushchev, but lost political-scientific power in 1966.
Russian, from a noble family, a gymnasium graduate with a gold medal who joined the party in 1920. Studied engineering in the early 1920s, went to work in the Central Committee office in the mid-1920s before graduation. Was the head of the Central Committee department of party organizations 1934–39, then head of the personnel department and Central Committee secretary 1939–46 and again 1948–53. A candidate member of the Politburo from 1941 and a full member 1946–57. Head of the Soviet government March 1953–55. Ousted from power as member of the Anti-Party Group in 1957. Married to Valeria Golubtsova, rector of the Moscow Power Institute from 1942. Their children were Valentina (1925), an architect, who married Vladimir Shamberg in 1948 but divorced him on Malenkov’s instructions in 1949; Andrei (1937), a biologist, who later wrote a memoir that defended his father; and Egor (1938), a chemist.
Polish aristocrat, cosmopolitan intellectual, and a law graduate from Saint Petersburg University in 1898. Joined the RSDLP in 1902 and the Bolsheviks in 1903; in emigration 1907–17. Headed the OGPU 1926–34. Was seriously ill in his last years, leaving Yagoda effectively in charge.
Actor in Moscow Jewish Theater, took over as director in 1929. Head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1942 and traveled to the United States, Canada, and Britain to raise money from Jewish communities in 1943. Murdered in a fake car accident on Stalin’s orders January 1948; his theater closed July 1949. A cousin, Miron Semenovich Vovsi, was one of the Jewish doctors charged in the Doctors’ Plot in 1952.
Armenian, a party member from 1915, a survivor of the shooting of the 26 Baku Commissars in 1918, worked in Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov on the Don in the early 1920s. Was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1926 and a full member 1935–66. Headed the ministry of external and internal trade from 1926, then the ministry of supply from 1930, and the ministry of the food industry 1934–38. Was a member of the GKO during the war. After Stalin’s death, was again trade minister and headed the Commission on Rehabilitation. Supported Khrushchev in the clash with the Anti-Party Group. Headed the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet 1964–65. Married to Ashkhen, née Tumanyan (1896–1962), with sons Stepan (1922), an aviation constructor (like his uncle Artem Mikoyan); Vladimir (1924), a pilot, killed in the war; Alexei (1925); Ivan (1927), arrested and deported during the war, along with Sergo, in the “Kremlin children’s” affair; and Sergo (1929), an international relations specialist who married Alla Kuznetsova in 1949 and later helped his father write memoirs.
Russian, born in Vyatka Province, solid family, musical (but not related to composer who was his namesake), a student at Saint Petersburg before the war but didn’t graduate. Joined the party in 1906. Was Central Committee secretary 1921–30, a candidate Politburo member from 1922, and a full member 1924–57. Headed the Soviet government (chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars) 1930–41, then deputy chairman under Stalin 1941–42, and first deputy 1942–57. Negotiated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Was deputy chairman of the GKO during the war; foreign minister 1939–49, and again 1953–56 and 1941–45; minister for state control 1956–57. Ousted from the top leadership as member of the Anti-Party Group, then ambassador to Mongolia 1957–60, and head of the Soviet Atomic Energy delegation in Vienna 1960–62. Married to Polina, née Karpovskaia (party name Zhemchuzhina) (see separate entry); daughter Svetlana (1929) became a historian.
Georgian, joined the party in 1903, trained as a paramedic, was briefly a student at Lenin’s party school in France in 1911, member of Bolshevik Central Committee from 1912. Served in the Red Army in the Caucasus during the Civil War; was an ally of Stalin in his quarrel with Lenin over nationalities policy. Headed the party committee in Transcaucasia 1922–26, then, briefly, the Rostov committee. Chairman of the party Central Control Commission in Moscow 1927–34; candidate member of the Politburo from 1926, and a full member from 1930 until his death. Headed the supreme economic council 1930–32 and the ministry for heavy industry 1932–37. Committed suicide after a quarrel with Stalin February 1937. Married to Zinaida, née Pavlutskaya (1894–1960); adopted daughter Eteri (1923), a historian.
Born in Ukraine in a working-class family. Active in the social-democratic movement from 1897; elected a Bolshevik deputy to the Duma in 1912. Was a candidate member of the Soviet Politburo 1926–39, president of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet 1919–38, deputy chairman of the Presidium of the All-Union Supreme Soviet 1938–39, and deputy director of the Museum of the Revolution from 1940.
Joined the party in 1917. Worked with Stalin at the Central Committee secretariat in the 1920s, was head of the Central Committee’s Secret Department in the 1930s, and, from 1935, of Stalin’s personal secretariat. Dismissed by Stalin early in 1953. In 1934 married Bronislava Metallikova (1910–41), an endocrinologist, favorite of Stalin, and relative by marriage of Trotsky; she was arrested in 1939 and shot in 1941. There were two daughters, aged seven and one, at the time of her arrest.
Russian, son of an Ivanovo weaver, joined the party in 1904. Fought in Siberia and the Far East during the Civil War. In Ukraine as secretary of the Ukrainian Central Committee 1926–30; in Moscow as secretary of the (Soviet) Central Committee 1930–33; back to Ukraine as second secretary (though, in fact, the top man) 1933–37; candidate member of the Politburo 1934–38. Moved to Kuibyshev as first secretary March 1937, arrested February 1938, and shot February 1939. His wife, Tatyana Postolovskaya, a party activist and signatory of Nadezhda Alliluyeva’s death notice, was arrested with her husband. Their sons Leonid (1920) and Vladimir (1921) were also arrested; older son Valentin (1916) had died early.
Russian, son of a sugar factory owner in Ukraine, joined the party in 1910. Held planning and economic jobs in the 1920s and was named as one of the coming men in the party in Lenin’s “Testament.” A prominent member of the Left Opposition, expelled from the party in 1927, then reinstated in 1928 after renouncing Trotskyism. Was deputy minister of heavy industry from 1931. Arrested in 1936, he was a leading defendant in the 1937 Moscow show trial; convicted on 30 January 1937 and shot immediately.
Born in a Jewish family in Lvov (Lemberg; then in Austria-Hungary), joined the party in 1903. With Rosa Luxemburg, was active in the revolutionary movement in Warsaw, leading to his expulsion from the Russian Empire in 1907. Then a student in Leipzig and Berne, associated with the left wing of Germany’s Social-Democratic Party. The Bolsheviks’ German expert in the 1920s, he supported Trotsky in the faction fights, was expelled from the party in 1927, and exiled. He later recanted and was readmitted in 1930. Headed the Central Committee’s bureau of international information 1932–36. Arrested September 1936, he was a defendant in the 1937 Moscow show trial, receiving a ten-year sentence (all the rest got death), but died in prison.
Polish origin, a factory worker in Ukraine in his youth. A party member from 1914, member of the party Control Commission 1927–34. Head of the Ukrainian OGPU 1931–33, the Moscow regional OGPU/NKVD from 1933 to January 1938, and finally the Kazakhstan NKVD; arrested November 1938 and shot. Married to Anna Allilyueva, Stalin’s sister-in-law, who was sentenced to ten years as a spy in 1948. They had two sons: Leonid (1928), arrested with the Mikoyan boys in the “Kremlin children’s” affair in 1943, and Vladimir (1935).
Born to Polish/Belorussian parents; father, a railway inspector, was from the Polish nobility. Volunteered for the Imperial Army during World War I, then the Red Army in the Civil War; joined the party in 1919. Arrested August 1937 as a Polish spy, then released in 1940 after Timoshenko’s appeal to Stalin. Headed the Don army that captured Paulus at Stalingrad; promoted to marshal in 1944. Defense minister of the Polish People’s Republic 1949–56 (removed in the Polish uprising); deputy defense minister of the Soviet Union 1956–57 and again 1958–61.
Latvian, joined the party as a worker in 1904, became a professional revolutionary, and spent many years in prison before 1917. Served as a Central Committee secretary 1923–24; was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1923, a full member 1926–34, then a candidate again 1934–37. Was a deputy chairman of the government (Council of People’s Commissars) 1926–37, simultaneously heading the party’s Control Commission 1931–34. Arrested in the Tukhachevsky Affair in 1937 and shot. Had strong cultural interests (music, theater, and film) and friends in artistic circles.
Russian, a party member from 1899, a Politburo member from 1922 to December 1930, deputy head of the government (the Council of People’s Commissars) under Lenin, succeeding him as its chairman 1924–30. One of the leaders of the Right Opposition; later served as minister of communications 1931–36. Arrested February 1937, he was a defendant in the 1938 show trial in Moscow, convicted, and shot immediately. His wife, Nina Marshak (1884–1942), was arrested June 1937 and died in prison; daughter, Natalia (1916), was sent to Gulag. Rykov’s sister, Faina, was married to the brother of émigré Menshevik publicist Boris Nicolaevsky.
Working-class origin, joined the party in 1918. Studied at Sverdlov Communist University in the early 1920s, then at the Institute of Red Professors in the early 1930s. Worked in the Central Committee 1932–36, concurrently serving as secretary of the newly formed Writers’ Union under Gorky’s chairmanship from 1934; then party secretary in Leningrad, Irkutsk, and Donetsk. Was first secretary of the Moscow party 1938–45 and a candidate member of the Politburo from February 1941. Brother of Zhdanov’s wife. Died of a heart attack on the night of Victory Day.
A party member from 1905 and a Central Committee secretary 1926–27; first secretary of the Urals party committee 1927–29. Headed the trade unions 1929–44 and again 1953–56. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet 1944–46 and the party Control Commission 1956–66. Was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1939 and a Presidium (Politburo) member 1952–53 and 1957–66. Married Maria Belaya, a Ukrainian Old Bolshevik; their daughter, Ludmila (Lyusya) (1916), was the first woman graduate of the Zhukovsky military engineering academy, specializing in television technology.
Jewish intellectual, childhood friend of Bukharin, joined the party in 1905, then in emigration; earned an economics degree from the Sorbonne. Served as finance minister 1923–26, then worked in Gosplan. A candidate member of the Politburo 1924–25, he was removed as a member of the Zinoviev Opposition. Arrested July 1936, he was a defendant in the 1937 Moscow show trial, received a ten-year sentence, and died in prison. His third wife was the writer Galina Serebryakova.
Georgian, in the party from 1898 and with the Bolsheviks from 1903. Member of the Politburo from 1919; general secretary of the Central Committee from 1922 (“general” dropped from the title in 1934). From 1941 also headed the government as chairman of the Council of Ministers. First wife was Ekaterina Svanidze (d. 1907); their son, Yakov (1907–43), fell into German hands as a POW, leading to the arrest in 1941 of his wife, Julia Meltzner; he died in captivity. Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda (Nadya) Alliluyeva (1901–32), daughter of Old Bolshevik Sergei Alliluyev, was a student at the Industrial Academy in the late 1920s and died by suicide. They had a son, Vasily (1921–62), a pilot, whose second wife, Ekaterina Timoshenko, was the daughter of Marshal Timoshenko (see separate entry); and a daughter, Svetlana (see Alliluyeva), as well as an adopted son, Artem (Tomik) Sergeev (1921–2008), who became a major general of artillery.
Georgian (noble family), joined the party in 1901 and the Bolsheviks in 1904. Was well educated in Tiflis and Vienna and knew German and English. Close friend and brother-in-law of Stalin. Headed an export agency 1928–29; was a deputy trade representative in Germany 1930–31; ran the External Trade Bank 1931–35; and was deputy head of the State Bank in 1935. Arrested December 1937, he was shot in 1941. Married Maria Korona, a former opera singer, arrested with him; their son, John-Reed (Johnny) (1927–90) spent twenty years in prison and exile, returning to Moscow in 1956, where he was briefly married to Svetlana Alliluyeva (see separate entry).
Russian, from a white-collar family, joined the party in 1913 as a student in Saint Petersburg. Political commissar in the Red Army during the Civil War, then first secretary of the Siberian party organization 1926–29. Candidate member of the Politburo and head of the government of the Russian republic 1929–30, he lost favor when he was accused of plotting Stalin’s ouster as general secretary in the Syrtsov-Lominadze Affair (1930). He was arrested in 1937 and shot.
Born into a Ukrainian peasant family in Bessarabia. Served in cavalry divisions during World War I and in the Red Army during the Civil War (fought at Tsaritsyn with Voroshilov and Stalin); joined the party in 1919. A marshal from 1940 and defense minister (succeeding Voroshilov) 1940–41, then deputy minister 1941–43. One of the top frontline commanders in the Second World War. Wartime friend of Khrushchev. Daughter, Ekaterina, was married to Vasily Stalin 1946–49.
Russian, printer by trade, party member from 1904. Politburo member 1922–29, headed the central council of trade unions in the 1920s, and was one of the leaders of the Right Opposition. Deputy chairman of the industrial ministry, in charge of chemicals, from 1929, then headed the State Publishing House 1932–36. Committed suicide under threat of arrest. Wife Maria Efremova, an Old Bolshevik, was sentenced to ten years’ exile after husband’s death (her release was blocked by Molotov in 1954). Elder sons Mikhail and Viktor were arrested and shot in the late 1930s; Yury (1921) was arrested with mother and exiled.
Menshevik, joined the RSDLP in 1897 and the Bolsheviks June 1917. Hero of the revolutions of 1905 and October 1917; in emigration for many years. Member of the Politburo 1919–26 and war minister 1918–25. Creator of the Red Army in the Civil War; clashed with Stalin at Tsaritsyn. Known as a ruthless disciplinarian; advocated labor conscription 1920–21. Leader of the Left Opposition after Lenin’s death. Expelled from the party and deported to Kazakhstan in 1927; expelled from the country in 1929; in exile in Turkey and later Mexico, where he was assassinated by Soviet agents. Sister Olga was married to Kamenev. Second wife was Natalia Ivanovna Sedova; their elder son Lev (1906–38) was his father’s main assistant in Europe after expulsion.
Born in Smolensk, son of an impoverished noble. Had a gymnasium education, then cadet corps; was a junior officer during World War I. Served as a volunteer in the Red Army during the Civil War and joined the party in 1918. Commander of Leningrad military district 1928–31; from 1931 was deputy head of the Military Council. Active in army modernization, he was a theorist of tank warfare. A patron of musicians, including Shostakovich. Deputy defense minister under Voroshilov from 1934, then first deputy. Charged with treason June 1937 and shot.
Lithuanian peasant origin, attended university 1914–15, was a junior officer during World War I, joined the party in 1917. Fought in the Red Army during the Civil War. After being sent to Germany for higher military training 1927–28, he was deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council 1930–31, and then commander successively of the Belorussian and Central Asian military districts 1931–37. Friend of Mikoyan. Charged in the Tukhachevsky Affair and shot.
Russian, son of a priest. NCO in World War I; served in the Red Army during the Civil War; protégé of Voroshilov and student at Frunze Military Academy in the early 1930s. Joined the party in 1938 (earlier prevented by social origin). Fought in World War II, promoted to marshal in 1943; headed the general staff 1946–49. Was defense minister 1949–53, then deputy defense minister 1953–56.
Russian, born in Ukraine, son of a railway worker, Donbass miner in youth, joined the party in 1903. With Budenny, led the First Cavalry Army in the Civil War; at Tsaritsyn with Stalin; fought in the war with Poland in 1920. Defense minister 1925–40; full member of the Politburo 1925–60. Discredited as a military leader during the Finnish War and the near-fall of Leningrad in 1941. Out of favor with Stalin in the 1940s (“British spy” accusation). Headed the Soviet Control Commission in Budapest after the war, then was in arts administration. Was president of the Supreme Soviet in post-Stalin leadership. Married Ekaterina, née Golda Gorbman (1987–59); their adopted children were Petr (1914), and Frunze’s daughter Tatyana (1920, a chemist) and son Timur (1923–42), a pilot, killed in the war.
Russian, from a white-collar background, economist. Joined the party in 1919. In the 1920s, studied first at Sverdlov Communist University, then at the Institute of Red Professors, at which he taught after graduation. Received a doctorate in economics in 1935. Headed the Leningrad City Planning Commission 1935–37, then was deputy head of the State Planning Commission in Moscow from 1938. Became deputy chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1939, then first deputy March 1941; was a member of the GKO during World War II, a candidate member of the Politburo from February 1941, and a full member from 1947. Rumored to be under consideration by Stalin as a possible heir; was removed from all posts in connection with the Leningrad Affair March 1949, arrested in October, and shot on 30 September 1950.
Lawyer, Polish noble extraction, grew up in Baku, university graduate. Joined the party in 1920 (formerly a Menshevik). Prosecutor in Shakhty and three Moscow show trials; deputy prosecutor, then chief prosecutor of USSR 1931–39. After serving as first deputy foreign minister 1940–49, he replaced Molotov as minister in 1949 and remained in this position until Molotov took over again in 1953, when he reverted to first deputy. Headed the Soviet delegation to the United Nations in 1946 and was back in the United Nations after Stalin’s death.
Jewish, in the party from 1907 (other sources say 1917). Grew up in Nizhny Novgorod, was a relative of Old Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov, and knew writer Maxim Gorky from youth. Deputy head of the OGPU 1924–34, then head of its successor organization, the NKVD, 1935–36. Closer to the Rightists than to the Stalin team, also close to Gorky household after Gorky’s return (in love with his daughter-in-law). A defendant in the 1938 Moscow show trial, he was convicted and later shot. Married Ida, the niece of Sverdlov and brother of Leopold Averbakh (leader of militant Russian Association of Proletarian Writers [RAPP] in the 1920s).
Jewish, son of a pharmacist, studied at university in Basel and joined the party in 1917. Was in the Red Army in the Civil War and commander of the Ukrainian military district 1925–35. A friend of Kaganovich and Khrushchev, he was accused in the Tukhachevsky Affair, convicted, and shot. His wife, Sarra, publicly denounced him, presumably under pressure, then was sent to Gulag with their son, Petr, who became active in the dissident movement in the Brezhnev period.
Jewish, joined the party as a student in 1913, and worked with Molotov in the Saint Petersburg underground. After a stint in the Central Committee in the mid-1920s, he headed the Agriculture Ministry 1929–34 and the Agriculture Department of the Central Committee 1934–36; from 1936, he was first deputy chairman of the party Control Commission. Never a Politburo member, he was nevertheless a frequent Politburo attendee, as a Stalin favorite, in the 1930s. Arrested October 1937 and shot. His wife, Elena Sokolovskaya, director of Mosfilm, was arrested with him.
Russian, son of an inspector of schools, joined the party in 1915 as a student. Was party secretary in Nizhny Novgorod 1922–34 and then headed the Leningrad party organization 1934–44 (stayed in Leningrad during the blockade). Was a Central Committee secretary from 1934, a candidate member in the Politburo from 1935, then a full Politburo member 1939–48. Headed the Soviet Control Commission in Finland in 1945. Front man of cultural disciplinary campaign (zhdanovshina) after the war. Wife, Zinaida, was the sister of Alexander Shcherbakov; son, Yury (1919), a chemist, headed the Central Committee Science Department 1948–53, was married to Stalin’s daughter Svetlana 1949–52 (daughter, Ekaterina, born in 1950), and later became rector of Rostov University.
Daughter of a Jewish tailor, born in Ukraine, joined the party in 1918 (same year that her brother and sister emigrated to Palestine). Was a political commissar in the Red Army in the Civil War, met and married Molotov. Worked as secretary of a factory party cell in Moscow 1927–32; director of the cosmetics trust 1932–36; head of the cosmetics administration of Mikoyan’s Food Industry Ministry 1936–37, deputy minister, then minister for fisheries in 1939; then head of textiles in Ministry of Light Industry 1939–48. Candidate member of the Central Committee 1939–41. Arrested for Zionism in 1949 and in exile until March 1953.
Russian, professional military, Imperial Army conscript in 1915, then in the Red Army from 1918; joined the party in 1919. During World War II, he was both a leading frontline commander (promoted to marshal in 1943) and deputy to the Supreme Commander, Stalin. In charge of the Soviet occupation forces in Germany 1945–46. Demoted in 1946; headed Odessa and then Urals military districts. Was first deputy minister of defense from March 1953, then minister of defense 1955–57. Candidate member of the party Presidium 1956–57, then full member June–October 1957. A key participant in the arrest of Beria and routing of the Anti-Party Group.
Jewish, joined the RSDLP in 1901 and the Bolsheviks in 1903. Close to Lenin in emigration for many years before 1917. Opposed the October seizure of power. Headed the Petrograd (later Leningrad) party organization from 1918 and the Comintern from 1919, then lost both positions in 1926 as leader of the Left Opposition. Politburo member 1921–26. Arrested in 1935 on accusation of complicity in Kirov’s murder. Was a defendant in the 1936 Moscow show trial, convicted, and shot. His first wife, Zlata Lilina (1882–1929), headed the Leningrad Education Department in the 1920s, then was expelled from the party with Zinoviev in 1927. Their son, Stepan Radomylsky (1913–37), was arrested in 1936 and died in prison. His second wife, Sarra Ravich (1899–1957), was arrested in 1935 and sent to Gulag, then freed in 1954.