Julius Martov or L. Martov ("Ма́ртов", real name Yuli Osipovich Zederbaum was born in Istanbul in 1873. The son of Jewish middle class parents, he became the leader of the Mensheviks in early twentieth century Russia. Forced to leave Russia and with other radical political figures living in exile, Martov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). At the Second Congress of the RSDLP in London in 1903, …

Inessa Armand was a French-born Communist who spent most of her life in Russia. She was rumored to have had an affair with Vladimir Lenin. She was born in Paris as the daughter of Théodore Stéphane, an opera singer, and Nathalie Wild, a comedienne. Her father died when she was only five and she was brought up by an aunt living in Moscow. At the age of nineteen she married Alexander Armand, the son of a wealthy Russian textile manufacturer.

Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (December 11, 1856 - May 30, 1918; "Old Style:" November 29 1856 - May 17 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia. Plekhanov contributed many ideas to Marxism in the area of philosophy and the roles of art and religion in society. In his political activities he adopted the nom de guerre of Volgin, after the Volga River.

Karl Berngardovich Radek was a Bolshevik and an international Communist leader. He was born in then Lemberg (now L'viv in Ukraine, then in Austro-Hungary), as Karol Sobelsohn, to a Jewish family. He took the name "Radek" from a favourite character in a book (perhaps "Syzyfowe prace" by Stefan Żeromski). A member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) since 1898, he participated in the 1905 Revolution in Warsaw.

Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov, born Yankel Movshevich Eiman ; known under pseudonyms "Andrey", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" (March 16 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of pre-Soviet Union Soviet Russia. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod to Jewish parents, his father being an engraver. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902, and then the Bolshevik faction, supporting Vladimir Lenin. He was involved in the 1905 revolution.

Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian-born socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist. Rakovsky's political career took him throughout the Balkans and into France and Imperial Russia; for part of his life, he was also a Romanian citizen. A lifelong collaborator of Leon Trotsky, he was a prominent activist of the Second International, …

Fedor Il'ich Dan was born to a Jewish family in St Petersburg. His original surname was Gurvitch. While still a young man he joined the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. He was arrested in 1896 and exiled in Oryol for three years. On his return he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and went to London for their Second Congress in 1903. Dan aligned himself with Julius Martov who wanted to have a larger party of activists, …

Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. He was born in the town of Cherkasy, Ukraine, to a Jewish family. His father, a merchant, died when Moisei was little. Moisei's mother raised her son in a Jewish religious environment that was discriminated by Russian authorities. Moisei studied at the University of Kiev.

Noe Zhordania (also transliterated as Jordania was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role in the Social Democratic revolutionary movement in Imperial Russia, and later chaired the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from July 24 1918 until March 18 1921, when the Soviet Russian Red Army invasion of Georgia forced him into exile to France where he led the government-in-exile until his death in 1953.

Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky (born Efremov, sometimes transliterated as Yefremov, October 31 1880 – August 22, 1936) was a factory worker, trade unionist and Bolshevik leader. He was the Soviet leader of the All Russian Central Council of Trade Unions. Tomsky attempted to form a trade union at his factory in St. Petersburg resulting in his dismissal.

Noe Ramishvili (his name is also transliterated as "Noah" or "Noi") (1881 - December 7, 1930) was a Georgian politician and one of the leaders of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was also known by his party noms de guerre: "Pyotr", and "Semyonov N". He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902 and soon became a prominent spokesman of the Mensheviks.

Nikoloz Chkheidze (Georgian: ნიკოლოზ ჩხეიძე; transliterated Russian: Nikolay Semyonovich Chkheidze, commonly known as Karlo Chkheidze; 1864 - June 13, 1926) was a Georgian Menshevik politician who helped to introduce Marxism to Georgia in the 1890s and played a prominent role in the Russian and Georgian revolutions of 1917 and 1918. Chkheidze was born into an aristocratic family in Puti, …

Evgeni Gegechkori (1881-1954) was a Georgian politician and Social Democratic revolutionary. He first entered the leftist student movement in 1903 during his studies at the Moscow University and soon joined the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was involved in the 1905 revolution in Georgia and was elected a member to the Third State Duma for the Kutais Governorate from 1907 to 1912.

Jukka Rahja was a Russian-Finnish bolshevik who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903. He was also active in the Finnish labour youth movement. Rahja fled to Soviet Russia after the Finnish Civil War and became a founding member of the Finnish Communist Party (SKP). Rahja was murdered in Petrograd by the opposition communists led by Aku Paasi in 1920. The so called "murder opposition" consisted mainly of students of the Petrograd Red Officer School.

Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina ; 1897 - 1970) was the wife of Vyacheslav Molotov. Born Pearl Karpovskaya (the word "pearl" in Russian is "жемчужина") to the family of a Jewish tailor in the village of Pologi, in the Yekaterinoslav region (today Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine), she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of Bolsheviks in 1918 and served as a propaganda commissar in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War.

Lev Grigoriyevich Deich, also known as Leo Deutsch was a Russian revolutionary, member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and one of the leaders of the Mensheviks. The son of a Jewish merchant, after converting to Marxism, he spent his time distributing propaganda in southern Russia. His actions let to his arrested in 1875 but escaped from custody and over the next few years attempted to organize a peasant insurrection.

Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky (1886-1937) was an Old Bolshevik, an economist and a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik faction and, its successor, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Born in Orel, he was member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party since 1903. In 1904-05, he was member of Ural provincial bureau of the Party; from autumn 1909 in Irkutsk. From March 1917 a delegate on the Chitinskogo Soviet.

Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher (also spelled Blücher, Blukher, Bliukher etc, Russian: Василий Константинович Блюхер) (November 9, 1938), Soviet military commander, was among the prominent victims of Stalin's Great Purge of the late 1930s. Blyukher was born into a peasant family in village Barschinka, now in Yaroslavl Oblast.

Grigoriy Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, generally known as Sergo Ordzhonikidze was a member of the Politburo, and close friend to Stalin. Ordzhonikidze, Stalin and Anastas Mikoyan comprised what was jokingly referred to as the "Caucasian Clique". Born in Kharagauli, Western Georgia, Ordzhonikidze became involved in radical politics in 1903, and after graduating as a doctor from the Mikhailov Hospital Medical School in Tiflis, …

Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov (March 23, 1883 - January 12, 1940) was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia, and member of the Left Opposition. Andrei Bubnov was born in Ivanovo-Voznesensk (now Ivanovo) on 23rd March 1883. He studied at the Moscow Agricultural Institute and while a student joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He supported the Bolshevik faction and over the next few years was arrested thirteen times.

Ivan Platonovich Kalyayev (July 6, 1877 - May 23, 1905) was a Russian poet, terrorist and member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who assassinated Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and was subsequently hanged. Kalyaev was born in Warsaw into the family of a police inspector. He attended Saint Petersburg University from (1897), but soon became involved in student protests, was briefly imprisoned, …

Ivan Nikitich Smirnov was a Communist Party activist. In 1899, Smirnov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and became a Bolshevik. He led his party activity in Moscow, Petersburg, Vyshniy Volochok, Rostov, Kharkov, and Tomsk. Smirnov was subject to repeated arrests. In 1916, he was called up for the military service in a reserve regiment in Tomsk, where Smirnov conducted revolutionary activity.

Fedor Raskolnikov (Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskol'nikov, real name Fyodor Ilyin) (28 January 1892, Saint Petersburg, Russia -12 September 1939, Nice, France) was a Bolshevik, participant in the October Revolution, commander of Red fleets on the Caspian and the Baltic during the Russian Civil War, later a Soviet diplomat.

Vladimir “Valiko” Jugheli (January 1, 1887 -January 9, 1924) was a Georgian politician and military commander. He was involved in the Marxist movement in Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia) at the beginning of the 20th century. After the split within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, to which he was a member, Jugheli sided with the Bolsheviks, but later defected to the Menshevik faction and became its influential member.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Zof was a Soviet military figure and a statesman of Czech nationality. Zof joined the revolutionary movement in 1910. Three years later he became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). During the World War I, Zof worked as a fitter at an arms factory in Sestroretsk, where he was in charge of the Bolshevist underground.

Ivan Mikhaylovich Maysky (1884-1975) was a Soviet diplomat, historian, and politician, notable as that country's ambassador to London during much of World War II. He is represented on one of the iconic portraits of the 20th century (illustrated, to the right). Ivan Maysky was born "Jan Lachowiecki" to a Russified Polish family living in Imperial Russia. Shortly after graduating from the historical faculty of the Moscow university, …

Prokopius Aprasionovich Dzhaparidze or Japaridze (1880-1918) was a Georgian Communist activist, one of the Red Army and Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution. Educated at the Aleksandrovsk Teachers Institute in Tbilisi, Dzhaparidze joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. He was one of the founders of "Gummet" organization, set up to do political work amongst Muslims, …

Mamia Orakhelashvili ("Ivan (Mamia) Dmitrievich Orakhelashvili") (1883-1937) was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet politician energetically involved in the revolutionary movement in Russia and Georgia. Born at Kutaisi, Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia, in the family of a landlord, he studied medicine at the University of Kharkov and St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy.

Tinatin Mgvdliashvili (1879-1981) was a Georgian poet and dissident. His career as a poet has three phases; socialist, pastoral, and finally religious. Although Mgvdliashvili came from a moderately religious family after he moved to Russia for education he embraced atheism and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. After hearing of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP he joined the Menshevik side.

Yakov Samuilovich Agranov — prominent member of the Cheka, forerunner of the Soviet KGB. Was born in Jewish family in Checherskaja village, Gomel province of Russian Empire. In 1912 he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and in 1915 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1918 Yakov Agranov became secretary of Sovnarkom. At this time he was taking orders directly from Vladimir Lenin and Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Yakov Davidovich Zevin was a Jewish Communist activist, one of the Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution. Zevin was born in Krasnopol’’e, a town in nowadays Mahilyow Voblast, Belarus. He became a member of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904 and he was arrested several times for conducting revolutionary activities. He was a delegate in the 6th (Prague) conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1912, …

Ivan Timofeevich Fioletov (1884-1918) was a Russian Communist activist, one of the Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution. Fioletov was born into a poor peasant family in Borisoglebsk, a town in nowadays Voronezh Oblast, Russia. In 1890 his family moved to Baku where he worked as a metalworker.

Arkady Yakovlevich Kots (alias - A.Danin, A.Bronin, A.Shatov) (1872-1943) was a Russian proletarian poet of Jewish descent. Arkady Kots graduated from a mining school in Gorlovka and worked at the Moscow and Donets Coal Basins. In 1897-1902, Kots resided in Paris, where he graduated from a mining institute and established contact with the revolutionary emigres.

Pavel Petrovich Postyshev (September 18, 1887 Ivanovo-Voznesensk - February 26, 1939, Kuibyshev) was a Soviet politician, seen as a man, who presented Soviet children with New Year tree in the Soviet Union and Russia and as one of the people responsible for the Holodomor. Postyshev was a member or Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party since 1904, then member of Communist Party (Bolshevik) in Siberia.

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (June 3, 1946) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician

Irakli Tsereteli (also spelled Irakly Tsereteli) commonly known as Kaki Tsereteli was a Georgian politician, one of the leaders of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party and the Georgian Mensheviks. Born to a family of the esteemed Georgian writer, Giorgi Tsereteli, he studied law at Moscow University where he became involved in the reform movement. After taking part in a student demonstration he was sentenced to five years exile in Siberia.

Josef Vissarionovich Stalin Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich (né Djugashvili ) (1879-1953). Along with Hitler and Mao Tse-tung , Stalin was one of the three genocidal monsters of the 20th century. Soviet dictator and war leader, supreme commander in the 1941-5 ‘Great Patriotic War’ and one of the ‘big three’ with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill . In 1945 he appointed himself generalissimus (general of generals), a title only previously awarded to the great Suvorov .