- Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice (born November 14 1954) is the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush to hold the office. Rice is the first African American woman, second African American (after Colin Powell, who served before her from 2001 - 2005), and second woman (after Madeleine Albright who served from 1997 to 2001, before Colin Powell) to serve as Secretary of State.
- Che Guevara
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled rough throughout South America, bringing him into direct contact with the impoverished conditions in which many people lived.
- Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (also "Mao Tse-tung" in Wade-Giles;) was a Chinese Marxist military and political leader and philosopher, who led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Mao is also recognized as a poet and calligrapher. Regarded as one of the most important figures in modern world history, …
- Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first man in space and the first to orbit the Earth. He also received many medals from his home country for his pioneering tour in space.
- Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of extreme anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He was noted for making unsubstantiated claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government.
- Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (May 21 1921 – December 14 1989) was an eminent Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
- Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer is a United States-born chess Grandmaster who in 1972 became the only US-born chessplayer to become the official World Chess Champion. In 1974 he officially resigned the title when FIDE, the international chess federation, refused to accept his conditions for a title defense. He is a regular candidate in considerations of the greatest chess player of all time.
- Golda Meir
Golda Meir (born Golda Mabovitz on 3 May 1898, died December 8, 1978, also known as Golda Myerson from 1917-1956), was one of the founders of the State of Israel. Meir served as the Minister of Labour, Foreign Minister, and then as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969, to June 3, 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher.
- Pavel Tsatsouline
Pavel Tsatsouline is a fitness instructor and former nationally ranked kettlebell competitor from the former Soviet government. He is heavily involved with the evolving field of martial arts fitness and is a major proponent of the traditional Russian fitness tool, the kettlebell, as an exercise and strengthening tool. Tsatsouline is a former physical training instructor for the Soviet special forces. Currently he is a subject matter expert to the U.S. Marine Corps, …
- Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (February 9, 1984) was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU from November 12, 1982 until his death just fifteen months later.
- Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films "Strike", "Battleship Potemkin" and "Oktober". His work vastly influenced early film makers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage.
- Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906. Years after his death, he remains one of the most important figures in 20th-century classical music and one of the most controversial. Under pressure from Soviet authorities, he compromised his art. At least that was how it seemed. (09/25/2006)
- Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor (born February 18, 1980) is a Russian-born American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village.
- Maxim Gorky
Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (June 18, 1936), better known as Maxim Gorky (Максим Горький), was a Soviet/Russian author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. From 1906 to 1913 and from 1921 to 1929 he lived abroad, mostly in Capri, Italy; after his return to the Soviet Union he accepted the cultural policies of the time, although he was not permitted to leave the country.
- John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy. He has been hailed as the 'Dean of Cold War Historians' by the The New York Times. He is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th century statesman George F. Kennan. He is best known for his critical analysis of the strategies of containment employed by the United States of America during the Cold War, …
- Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905, Budapest - March 3, 1983, London) was a Hungarian polymath who became a naturalized British subject. He wrote journalism, novels, social philosophy, and books on scientific subjects. In 1931, he joined the Communist Party of Germany, but left the party seven years later, after emigrating to the United Kingdom. By the late 1940s, he was one of the most recognized and outspoken British anti-communists, …
- Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet film director, opera director, writer, and actor. He is generally regarded as the foremost important and influential filmmaker of the post-war Soviet era in Russia and one of the greatest in the history of cinema.
- Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev born in Sontsovka, Ukraine of the Russian Empire on April 27 (April 15<small><sup>1<;/sup></small> O.S.), 1891-March 5, 1953 was a Russian and Soviet composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. (Alternative transliterations of his name include Sergey or Serge, and Prokofief, Prokofieff, …
- Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to the 1950s, when he was dismissed from office by Nikita Khrushchev. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and the Molotov cocktail was named after him.
- Andrei Gromyko
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (July 2, 1989) was a Soviet politician and diplomat. He served as Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Soviet Union (1957-1985) and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985-1988).
- Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was a rebel leader in Angola who founded the UNITA movement in 1966, and ultimately proved a central figure in 20th century Cold War politics. With support from the governments of the United States, China, South Africa, Israel, several African leaders (Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, King Hassan II of Morocco and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia), and foreign mercenaries from Portugal, Israel, South Africa, …
- Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937), is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and was the first woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She was born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a small village in the Yaroslavl Oblast. After school she worked in a coat factory, and then studied engineering. She also trained in parachuting at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on 21 May 1959.
- Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (b. December 30 1942) is a notable former Soviet political dissident, author and an activist. He was one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the USSR. He spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and in psikhushkas, forced-treatment psychiatric hospitals used by the regime as special prisons.
- Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU who led the Soviet Union from February 13, 1984 until his death just thirteen months later on March 10, 1985. Chernenko was also Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from April 11, 1984, until his death.
- Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, (March 15, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and intellectual, and later a Soviet politician.
- Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ride (born May 26 1951) is an American former astronaut who in 1983 became the first American woman to reach outer space. She was preceded by two Soviet women, Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). She was also the youngest American to enter outer space. She was married for a time to NASA Astronaut Steve Hawley. Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, the oldest child of Dale and Joyce Ride.
- Isaac Deutscher
Isaac Deutscher (3 April 1907 - 19 August 1967), British journalist, historian and political activist of Polish-Jewish birth, became well-known as the biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs.
- Harvey Klehr
Harvey E. Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University; he is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with John Earl Haynes). He was born in Newark, New Jersey. He received his undergraduate degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1967, and his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971.
- Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore (born 1965) is a British journalist and historian of Jewish origin specializing in Russian History. He wrote "Potemkin", a biography of Catherine the Great's lover and political partner. More recently, in 2004, he published a lengthy biography of one of the twentieth century's most powerful leaders, "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar".
- Babrak Karmal
Babrak Karmal (January 6, 1929 - December 3, 1996) was the third President of Afghanistan (1979 - 1986) during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is best known of the Marxist leadership. Having been restored to power with Soviet support, he was unable to consolidate his power and, in 1986, he was replaced by Dr. Mohammad Najibullah. He left Afghanistan for Moscow, but returned to Kabul in 1989. He died in Moscow.
- John Earl Haynes
John Earl Haynes is an American historian who is a specialist in 20th century political history in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress; he is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist and anti-Communist movements, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with Harvey Klehr). He received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University in 1966, …
- Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (born July 18, 1933) is a Russian poet. He also directed several films.
- Guy Maddin
Over the course of a career that has spanned nearly two decades and 25 films, both short and feature, filmmaker Guy Maddin has provided his viewers with more than their fair share of unique, cinematic moments.
- John Milius
John Milius (born April 11, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. A former student at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, Milius started his movie career in a student film contest in 1967, for which he won first prize on his entry "Marcello I'm Bored". Milius wrote, co-wrote and/or directed popular and critically acclaimed films such as "Apocalypse Now", …
- Vasily Grossman
Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (first name alternatively spelled as Vassily or Vasiliy,), December 12 1905 - September 14 1964, was a prominent Soviet-era writer and journalist.
- David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh was a Jewish Soviet violinist who made many recordings and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works. His recordings and performances of Shostakovich's concerti are particularly well known, but he was also a performer of classical concerti. He worked with orchestras in Russia, and also with musicians in Europe and the United States.
- Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (March 3 1922-January 23, 2004) was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of "The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West", a massive account of Soviet intelligence operations based on copies of material from the archive. Work on the second volume, "The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World", …
- Daniel Fried
Daniel Fried took the oath of office as Assistant Secretary of State on May 5, 2005. Before taking the helm of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Ambassador Fried served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council since January 22, 2001. Ambassador Fried was Principal Deputy Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States from May 2000 until January 2001.
- Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garyevich Schnittke (Russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, November 24, 1934 Engels - August 3, 1998 Hamburg) was a Russian and Soviet composer.
- Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (November 22, 1893-July 25, 1991) was a Soviet politician and administrator and a close associate of Joseph Stalin.