Russia

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 1

1870-1924 came from well-to-do professional family trained as a lawyer.

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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 2

Attracted by Marxism his activities brought him to the attention of the secret police exiled in Siberia when the new Social Democrat Party was launched in 1898, but he wrote a programme for it.

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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 3

After his release, he went into exile in Switzerland. 1902, produced the pamphlet, 'What is to be done?', where he argued that the Party needed to redirect the workers away from trade unionism towards revolution that would destroy tsarist autocracy.

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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 4

He founded revolutionary newspaper Iskra (Spark) helped develop a strong underground Party network. His harsh / uncompromising attitude led Social Democrats to split in 1903 into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) 5

Lenin remained in exile until 1917, except for a brief return to St Petersburg in October 1905.

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Karl Marx 1

(1818-83) German Jew wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848. Das Kapital published 1867 subsequently 1885 and 1894.

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Karl Marx 2

The first volume of his mammoth work, Das Kapital, was published 1867 and subsequent ones in 1885 and 1894. (The Communist Manifesto was translated into Russian in 1869, and the first volume of Das Kapital was published in Russia in 1872.)

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Karl Marx 3

At the time of his writing, he believed that Britain and Western Europe had reached stage 4 of his 'stage theory' of history. He suggested that stages 5 and 6 must inevitably follow.

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Julius Martov 1

1873–1920 came from a Jewish middle class background. He helped found the Emancipation of Labour and the Social Democrat movement.

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Julius Martov 2

He contributed to the Party journal Iskra and was editor from 1903 to 1905, after breaking with Lenin when he led the 'Mensheviks.

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Julius Martov 3

He favoured working through trade unions, cooperatives and soviets (workers' councils) to destroy the government. He was not invited to join the Bolshevik government after October 1917 and the Mensheviks were banned in 1918. Martov was exiled in 1920

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Aleksandr Kerensky 1

1881-1970 was a lawyer who became involved in radical politics. In 1905 he served four months in gaol for publishing a socialist newspaper. In 1912, he was elected to the State Duma and in February 1917 he joined the Social Revolutionaries.

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Aleksandr Kerensky 2

He became an SR representative in the Petrograd Soviet and Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government after the February Revolution. He became Minister of War in May and Prime Minister in July 1917.

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Aleksandr Kerensky 3

He was deposed by the Bolsheviks in October and fled to France. He finally moved to the USA where he wrote extensively on the Russian Revolution.

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Tsarina Alexandra 1

1872-1918 Princess Alix had a German father but her mother was the youngest child of Queen Victoria of England.

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Tsarina Alexandra 2

She abandoned her Protestant faith and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church when she married Nicholas, taking the Russian name, Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna.

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Tsarina Alexandra 3

She was a great comfort to Nicholas but lack of political understanding and devotion to Rasputin weakened his position. Distraught by Rasputin's murder, 1916 continued to urge Nicholas to stand up to the revolutionaries in February 1917.

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Tsarina Alexandra 4

She was shot, along with her family, in March 1918.

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Prince Lvov 1

1861–1925 Prince Georgi Yevgenyevich Lvov was a wealthy aristocratic landowner who began his career as a lawyer and in 1905 joined the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) and won election to the first Duma.

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Prince Lvov 2

He became chairman of the Union of Zemstva in 1914 and leader of Zemgor in 1915. He became the head of the Provisional Government of Russia, after the Tsar's abdication, from March to July 1917.

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Prince Lvov 3

Although later arrested by the Bolsheviks, he escaped and lived out his days in Paris.

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Mikhail Rodzianko 1

1859-1924 was a wealthy landowner who had joined the Octobrist party. He was elected chairman of the Fourth Duma, where he supported Russia's entry into the First World War and tried to serve the Tsar loyally.

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Mikhail Rodzianko 2

He was chosen as the head of the Duma's Provisional Committee, which set up the Provisional Government in 1917. He went into exile in November 1917.

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Aleksandr Ivanovich Guchkov 1

1862–1936 a wealthy Moscow businessman, became the leader of the Octobrist party. He became Minister of War and of the Navy in the Provisional Government of 1917

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Aleksandr Ivanovich Guchkov 2

Resigned when his policy of continuing war until victory was rejected by the Soviet in May. He supported the Whites in the Civil War and emigrated to Berlin in 1921.

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Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov 1

859–1943 was an academic historian who founded the Constitutional Democrat (Kadet) Party in 1905.

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Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov 2

He became Foreign Minister in the 1917 Provisional Government but, along with Guchkov, was forced out in May over his support for 'war to victory. He also supported the Whites in the Civil War, and emigrated to Paris when they were defeated.

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Leon Trotsky 1

1879–1940 Lev Davodovich Bronstein (Leon Trotsky) was exiled to Siberia in 1898, for his involvement in radical groups and studied the work of Marx and Lenin there. In 1902, he escaped (using a passport in the name of a prison guard - Trotsky).

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Leon Trotsky 2

He went to London, met Lenin and returned to found the St Petersburg Soviet in 1905. After 15 months in prison, he escaped in 1907, travelled, and was in the USA in 1917 at the time of the first revolution.

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Leon Trotsky 3

He returned to Russia in May, became a Bolshevik, chaired the Petrograd Soviet and organised the Military Revolutionary Committee which he used to plan the Bolshevik takeover in October. He became Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

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Leon Trotsky 4

In 1929, he was expelled from the party by Stalin and murdered by a Stalinist agent in Mexico in 1940.

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Aleksandra Kollontai 1

872–1952 came from an aristocratic background. She studied Marx, took part in the Bloody Sunday march in 1905 and joined the Bolsheviks in 1914. She was exiled but returned from USA in March 1917, only to be arrested after the July Days.

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Aleksandra Kollontai 2

In government, Kollontai fought for the simplification of marriage and divorce, losing some favour with Lenin, but she later became a prominent political figure under Stalin.

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Viktor Chernov 1

1873–1952 had been attracted to the Populist cause and became engaged in revolutionary activity as a teenager. In 1894 he joined People's Will and was arrested, spending some time in exile.

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Viktor Chernov 2

He travelled to Switzerland in 1899 and was to provide much of the intellectual input into the founding of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1901.

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Viktor Chernov 3

He went on to become the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries in the Second Duma of 1907 and was Minister of Agriculture in the Provisional Government of 1917. After the Bolsheviks came to power, he settled in the USA.

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Lev Borisovich Kamenev 1

883 - 1936 was the son of a Jewish railway engineer, who joined the Social Democrats in 1901. Arrested many times, he was deported to Siberia, where he met Stalin in 1915.

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Lev Borisovich Kamenev 2

He returned in April 1917 and edited Pravda, opposing Lenin's April Theses. With Zinoviev, he voted against an armed uprising in October 1917, preferring a coalition with the Socialists.

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Lev Borisovich Kamenev 3

Nevertheless he was made a Commissar in Lenin's government and joined Trotsky at the BrestLitovsk negotiations, making peace terms with the Germans in 1918. He was forced from power by Stalin, expelled from the party in 1932 and executed in 1936.

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Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvily 1

(Stalin) 1879-1953 the son of a Georgian cobbler, was one of the few leading Bolsheviks who could claim peasant roots. He had trained as a priest but was attracted by Social Democracy.

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Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvily 2

He was repeatedly arrested and exiled to Siberia, but he escaped several times, taking the name 'Stalin' (man of steel). He became a Bolshevik and helped raise money by robbing banks. He was in Siberia from 1912 to 1917 but returned in 1917.

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Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvily 3

He played only a minor role in the October Revolution but was made Commissar for Nationalities because of his background. He eventually took the leadership of Russia after Lenin's death and established himself as a dictator until his death.

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Nikolai Semyonovich Chkheidze 1

864-1926 was a Georgian Social Democrat politician who had been a member of the Fourth Duma and became President of Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet.

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Nikolai Semyonovich Chkheidze 2

He disagreed with Lenin and favoured the continuation of the war with Germany. He was forced into exile by the Bolsheviks in 1921 and committed suicide in 1926.

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Grigorii Zinoviev 1

1883–1936 was of Jewish origin. He joined the Social Democratic party in 1901 and was a member of the Central Committee from 1907 to 1927. He was close to Lenin in exile and returned with him in 1917 in the sealed train.

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Grigorii Zinoviev 2

However, he supported Kamenev against the October Revolution, favouring cooperation with other socialist groups. He became the head of the party's Petrograd organisation but was expelled from the party by Stalin and executed in 1936.

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Felix Dzerzhinsky 1

1877-1926 had joined the Social Democrats in 1895 and had spent much time in exile before 1917. His loyalty to Lenin and reputation for toughness led to his involvement with the Revolutionary Military Committee.

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Felix Dzerzhinsky 2

In December 1917 he was made the head of the Cheka - a new secret police force set up by Lenin. In this position he was to be responsible for the 'Red Terror of the 1920s.

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Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov 1

joined the Social Democrats as a young man and spent long periods in prison under the Tsarist regime. Returned from exile in 1917, elected to the Central Committee, became a close associate of Lenin, who recognised his excellent organisational skills

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Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov 2

He held the position of Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee until his early death, effectively acting as a 'Head of State.

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Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky 1

1893-1937 had served in the Imperial Army in the First World War and was an officer in the Red Army from 1918. He led the defence of Moscow, commanded forces that recaptured Siberia from Kolchak, and led Cossack troops against Denikin in 1920.

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Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky 2

Also took part in the Russian war with Poland (1920–1921) and the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion (1921).

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Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky 3

He led the modernisation of the Red Army prior to the Second World War and served as Chief of Staff (1925-1928) and Deputy Commissar for Defence from 1931. He was convicted and executed by Stalin in the purges of June 1937.

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Viktor Serge

1890-1947 Went to Petrograd in 1919 to join Bolsheviks, later worked for the Comintern, living in Berlin and Vienna. Returned to the USSR in 1925 and supported the Left Opposition. He was expelled from the Party in 1928. In 1933 he was put in a gulag

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Karl Radek 1

1885-1939 was a revolutionary socialist active in Poland and Germany before 1914. He joined the Bolsheviks and rose to become Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs under Trotsky.

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Karl Radek 2

Firmly believed in world revolution, became secretary to the Comintern. Joined the Left Opposition in support of Trotsky in 1923; but was removed from the Central Committee in 1924, expelled from the Party in 1927, and deported to Siberia in 1928.

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Georgy Chicherin 1

1872-1936 came from a noble background but joined the Bolsheviks in 1918. He specialised in foreign affairs and was Trotsky's deputy in negotiating the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

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Georgy Chicherin 2

Chicherin played a leading role in the first Comintern congress 1919; and was a key figure in the Soviet delegation at the Genoa conference and at the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922.

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Georgy Chicherin 3

He was chief Soviet negotiator at the Treaty of Berlin in 1926. He suffered from ill health and was replaced by his deputy, Maxim Litvinov, in 1930.

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Nikolai Bukharin 1

1888-1938 opposed making peace with Germany in 1918. During the Civil War, Bukharin backed war communism, but later supported the NEP. In the mid 1920s, Bukharin and Stalin were virtually joint rulers of the USSR.

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Nikolai Bukharin 2

Bukharin opposed Trotsky and supported Socialism in One Country, but later split with Stalin and became part of the Right opposition, with Tomsky and Rykov.

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Nikolai Bukharin 3

From 1928 Bukharin was outmanoeuvred by Stalin and his influence declined. In 1937, Bukharin was expelled from the Central Committee; in 1938 he was executed after a show trial.

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Alexei Rykov 1

1881-1938 was a moderate Bolshevik who supported the idea of a coalition with other Socialists in 1917. He was Commissar of the Interior in 1917-8 and a member of the Politburo.

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Alexei Rykov 2

Rykov was Lenin's successor as Head of Government (the Council of People's Commissars) between 1924 and 1930. He was briefly Stalin's ally against Trotsky, but then joined Bukharin's right-wing group and supported the NEP.

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Alexei Rykov 3

After Bukharin's downfall, Rykov was sacked from the Politburo and all other posts. He was executed in 1938 after a show trial.

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Mikhail Tomsky 1

1880-1936 was from a working-class background. He was in charge of the trade unions from 1920 but fell out with Lenin over the role of the unions under the NEP.

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Mikhail Tomsky 2

Later, Lenin rehabilitated him and he was elected to the Politburo in 1922; he was one of the pallbearers at Lenin's funeral. Tomsky was hostile to the Left and allied himself with Bukharin.

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Mikhail Tomsky 3

He was expelled from the Politburo in 1930. He committed suicide in 1936 to avoid being killed in Stalin's Great Terror.

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