- Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist and human rights activist well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and the Putin administration. She held Russian and US citizenship. She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on 7 October 2006. Politkovskaya made her name reporting from Chechnya for Russia's liberal newspaper, "Novaya Gazeta". The BBC described her writing as "often polemical, …
- Nicholas II of Russia II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia (Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov) ("Nikolay II") was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917. Nicholas proved unable to manage a country in political turmoil and command its army in World War I. His rule ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which he and his family were executed by Bolsheviks.
- Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian Romantic author who is considered to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems and plays, creating a style of storytelling-mixing drama, romance, and satire-associated with Russian literature ever since and greatly influencing later Russian writers. Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fourteen, …
- Genrikh Yagoda
Genrikh Grigor'evich Yagoda (born Yenokh (Enoch) Gershonovich Ieguda ; ; 1891 - March 15 1938) was the head of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, from 1934 to 1936. Yagoda was born in Rybinsk in a Jewish family, and joined the Bolsheviks in 1907. After the October Revolution of 1917, he rose through the ranks of the "Cheka" (the NKVD's predecessor), becoming Felix Dzerzhinsky's second deputy in September 1923.
- Sidney Reilly
Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC (c. March 24, 1873? - November 5, 1925), famously known as the "Ace of Spies", was a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations. His notoriety during the 1920s was owed in part to his friend, British diplomat and journalist Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, …
- Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Of Russia
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaievna of Russia (Tatiana Nikolaievna Romanova, (May 29 (O.S.)/June 10 (N.S.), 1897 - July 17, 1918), was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last autocratic ruler of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was better known than her three sisters and headed Red Cross committees during World War I. She nursed wounded soldiers in a military hospital from 1914 to 1917, …
- Galina Starovoitova
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia. She was shot to death in her apartment building in 1998.
- Sheikh Abdul Halim
Abdul-Halim Salamovich Sadulayev was the fourth Chechen rebel president to be killed in 12 years of separatist warfare in the southern Russian region. In their wars against Russia the Chechens have traditionally elected leaders who held some kind of formal religious position, including Sheikh Mansur and Imam Shamil. Sadulayev was the first Chechen leader to spread the conflict outside Chechnya, as he had won pledges of loyalty not only from Chechen separatists, …
- Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic who is perceived as having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the "Mad Monk", while others considered him a "strannik" (or religious pilgrim) and even a starets (ста́рец, "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be a psychic and faith healer.
- Christian Rakovsky
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, …
- Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Of Russia
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, full title: Heir, Tsarevich and Grand Duke (July 17, 1918), of the House of Romanov, was Tsarevich - the heir apparent - of Russia, being the youngest child and the only son of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Fyodorovna. His mother's reliance on the starets Grigori Rasputin to treat Alexei's haemophilia helped bring about the end of Imperial Russia.
- Adam Tepsurgayev
Adam Tepsurgayev was a 24-year-old Chechen freelance cameraman murdered in the village of Alkhan-Kala on November 21, 2000.
- Malika Umazheva
Malika Umazheva was the former head of the of the pro-Moscow administration of the Chechen village Alkhan-Kala, who was murdered by a Russian servicemen on the night of November 29-30, 2002. Umazheva was an outspoken and courageous critic of unlawful raids that Russian forces conducted in her village and had had several confrontations with Russian federal officers during the months prior to her death. She had worked closely with the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
- Ramzan Khadzhiev
Ramzan Khadzhiev was chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television (ORT). Photo
- Vladislav Listyev
Vlad(islav) Nikolayevich Listyev (May 10, 1956-March 1, 1995) was a Russian journalist and head of the ORT TV Channel (now government-controlled Channel One).
- Vladimir Zhitarenko
Colonel Vladimir Zhitarenko was a military correspondent for the Russian armed forces daily "Krasnaya Zvezda" (Red Star).
- Lev Kamenev
"'"' (– August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly the nominal head of the Soviet state in 1917 and a founding member (1919) and later chairman (1923-1924) of the ruling Politburo. Kamenev was born in Moscow, the son of a Jewish railway worker and a Russian Orthodox housewife.
- Nina Yefimova
Nina Yefimova was a reporter for "Vozrozhdeniye" ("Revival"), a local Russian language newspaper in the Chechen capital Grozny. She was the 18th journalist to be killed in Chechnya since fighting escalated in December 1994. On May 9 1996, Nina Yefimova, 25-year-old, was found dead from a shot to the back of the head. Her 73-year-old mother was also killed, after they were both abducted from their apartment on the outskirts of Grozny.
- Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, (November 3 (O.S.)/November 15 (N.S.) 1895 – July 17, 1918), was the eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last autocratic ruler of the Russian Empire, and of Empress Alexandra of Russia. During her lifetime, Olga's future marriage was a matter of great speculation within Russia. Matches were rumored with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, Crown Prince Carol of Romania, …
- Movladi Baisarov
Movladi Baisarov (Baysarov) was a Chechen warlord and former Federal Security Service (FSB) special-task unit commander. Baisarov was murdered on the street in central Moscow by members of the Chechen extra-agency guard on November 18, 2006.
- Nadezhda Chaikova
Nadezhda Chaikova was a correspondent for the Russian weekly "Obshchaya Gazeta".
- Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Of Russia
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, (June 14 (O.S.)/June 26 (N.S.), 1899 – July 17, 1918) was the third daughter of Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია, Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия; 29 March, 1899 – 23 December, 1953) was a Soviet politician and chief of the Soviet security and police apparatus. Beria is now remembered chiefly as the executor of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s and 1940's, …
- Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian poet, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Futurism.
- Fanny Kaplan
Fanya Yefimovna Kaplan, also known as Fanny Kaplan and as Dora Kaplan), was a Russian political revolutionary and an attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin. There is a confusion as to her born name. Vera Figner in her memoirs, "At Women's Katorga" gives the name Feiga Chaimovna Roytblat-Kaplan Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат-Каплан.
- Sergey Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov (December 1, 1934) was a prominent early Bolshevik leader whose assassination sparked a terrible purge of the Soviet government.
- False Dmitriy I
False Dimitriy I was the Tsar of Russia from July 21 1605 until his death on May 17 1606 under the name of Dimitriy Ioannovich (Cyrillic Димитрий Иоаннович). He was one of three impostors who claimed during the Time of Troubles to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, tsarevitch Dmitriy Ivanovich, who had supposedly escaped a 1591 assassination attempt.
- Nadezhda Alliluyeva-Stalina
Nadezhda Sergeyevna Alliluyeva (1901 - November 9, 1932) was the second wife of Joseph Stalin. Nadezhda was the daughter of revolutionary Sergei Alliluyev and his wife Olga. She first met Stalin as a child when her father, Sergei Alliluyev, sheltered him after one of his escapes from Siberian exile in 1911. After the revolution, Nadezhda worked as a confidential code clerk in Lenin's office.
- Igor Talkov
Igor Vladimirovich Talkov was a Russian singer-songwriter. His music and beliefs were very reminiscent of the career of another Russian singer and songwriter of that time, Viktor Tsoi, who, according to Talkov's diaries, was one of his best friends. Talkov's songs also have much in common - particularly from a lyrical perspective - with Russian bard music. While Igor Talkov is mostly remember for his beautiful songs above love and fate, …
- Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician well known for his uncompromising struggle for democracy, rapid free market economic reforms, and higher human rights standards in Russia. He was assassinated on April 17, 2003, just hours after registering his political party to participate in the December 2003 parliamentary elections.
- Anatoly Trofimov
Anatoly Trofimov was a retired deputy director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who was assassinated in April 2005 by unidentified gunmen while driving near his north Moscow home. Trofimov's wife was also in the car and later died from wounds received during the attack; their four-year-old daughter was also present but survived. As a deputy head of the Soviet KGB investigation department, Trofimov supervised all cases of dissidents including Sergei Kovalyov, …
- Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev was a 25 year old Chechen man, who was forcibly dissappeared in February 2000 after being filmed in the company of Russian Army general ordering him taken away and shot. To this date, his body has not been found. In 2006 Yandiyev's mother sued Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for failing to adequately investigate the case.
- Maria Spiridonova
Maria Spiridonova was a figure in Russian revolutionary circles at the beginning of the 20th century. She joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party during her training to became a nurse. In January, 1906, Spiridonova assassinated Police Inspector General G.N. Luzhenovsky who had ordered the brutal police suppression of peasant uprising during Russian Revolution of 1905.
- Rasul Makasharipov
Rasul Makasharipov was a Dagestani Islamist rebel leader. He led a pro-Chechen group Shariat Jamaat, which sought to unite Caucasian Muslims under Islamic rule, until he was killed during a shootout with the Russian troops on July 6, 2005.
- Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov
Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov was a Russian soldier and politician. Bobrikov became an officer in the Russian army in 1858 after which he served in the Kazan military district and as divisional chief-of-staff in Novgorod. He became a colonel in 1869. A year later he was transferred to Saint Petersburg for special duties in the Imperial guard. This gave Bobrikov access to the Imperial court. In 1878 he became a Major General.
- Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov
Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov, was the head of NKGB from February to July 1941, and again from April 1943 to March 1946. He was a member of the so-called "Georgian mafia" of Lavrenti Beria, head of the NKVD. In 1913, Merkulov graduated from the Tiflis Gymnasium with the gold medal and became a student at St. Petersburg University, Department of Physics and Mathematics. From 1921-1922, he worked as a detective at the Transportation Unit of the Cheka in Georgia.
- Paul Tatum
Paul Tatum (1955-1996) was an American businessman who was killed in a sensational Mafia hit on November 3, 1996, in a Moscow metro station close to his hotel. Tatum was operating a Hotel Joint Venture with a Chechen businessman named Umar Dzhabrailov. Tatum founded the American Business Centre and became part-owner of the Radisson Slavyankaya Hotel, an upscale hotel in Moscow, which catered to foreign businessmen and high-end guests.
- Victor Kravchenko
Victor Andreevich Kravchenko, (11 October 1905 Yekaterinoslav - 25 February 1966) was a Soviet defector who wrote up his experiences of life in the Soviet Union and as a Soviet official, especially in his 1946 book "I Chose Freedom". Born into a family of revolutionaries, Kravchenko became an engineer and worked in the Don basin region. He joined the Communist Party in 1929.
- Zura Bitiyeva
Zura Bitiyeva was a Chechen human rights activist who was murdered by a group of unidentified Russian special forces servicemen on May 21 2003, in her home together with three other members of her family.
- Andrey Kozlov
Andrei Andreyevich Kozlov (January 6, 1965 – September 14, 2006) was the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation from 1997 to 1999 and again in 2002 to 2006. Kozlov was fluent in Russian, German, and English. He was married, and had three children. Kozlov died on September 14, 2006, in Hospital No. 33 in Moscow from gunshot wounds he sustained the night before.