Andrei Yanuarovich Vyshinsky
(b. Odessa, 11 Dec. 1883; d. New York, 22 Nov. 1954)Russian; Chief Procurator of the USSR 1935–9, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1949–53 Vyshinsky was of Polish extraction, the son of middle-class ...
Bolshevism
Political theory and practice of the Bolshevik Party which, under Lenin, came to power during the Russian Revolution of October 1917. The Bolshevik (meaning ‘majority’) radical communist faction ...
Comintern
(Communist International)Organization of national communist parties for the propagation of communist doctrine with the aim of bringing about a world revolution. It was established by Lenin (1919) in ...
Great Purge
(1936–8,USSR)After coming to power in 1924 against Lenin's wishes, Stalin confirmed his position as leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union by using terror against his opponents, through ...
Joseph Stalin
(born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (1879–1953) Soviet statesman, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR (1922–53). Born in Georgia, he joined the Bolsheviks under Lenin in 1903 ...
Leon Trotsky
1879–1940)Russian revolutionary leader who, from the October Revolution to the death of Lenin, was the second most powerful man in the Soviet Union. He lost ground to Stalin after Lenin's death and ...
Lev Borisovich Kamenev
(22 July 1883, d. 25 Aug. 1936).Soviet politicianBorn Lev Borisovich Rosenfeld in Moscow, he was forced to abandon his law degree at Moscow University in 1902 owing to his political activities. He ...
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov
(b. 1895, d. 1939?).Head of Soviet Secret Police Born in St Petersburg, he joined the Bolsheviks in April 1917 and took part in the Russian (October) Revolution of 1917. During the Russian Civil War, ...
Sergei Mironovich Kirov
(b. 27 Mar. 1886, d. 1 Dec. 1934).Russian Communist revolutionaryBorn in Urzhum in the Vyatka province, he moved to St Petersburg, where he became an effective Bolshevik organizer in the Russian ...
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Preobrazhensky
(b. Bolkhoz, Central Russia, 1886; d. 1937)Russian; ‘Old Bolshevik’ and political theorist Preobrazhensky was the son of an Orthodox priest, and was a revolutionary sympathizer by the time he left ...
