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Curated playlist

Heroes of Socialist Labour

  • Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev spent four hours in 1956 tearing down Stalin's reputation. He had helped carry out Stalin's purges.
  • Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin once trained to be a Russian Orthodox priest. He later led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death.
  • Alexei KosyginHenry Kissinger once mistook Alexei Kosygin for the real leader of the Soviet Union.
  • Mikhail SuslovA box of index cards with Lenin quotes launched Mikhail Suslov's Soviet career. Stalin promoted him in 1937.
  • Leonid BrezhnevIn a 2013 Levada Center poll, Russians named Leonid Brezhnev their favorite 20th-century leader.
  • Vyacheslav MolotovFinns named the Molotov cocktail after Vyacheslav Molotov, who called bombing raids food deliveries.
  • Valentin GlushkoValentin Petrovich Glushko was born on the 2nd of September 1908 in Odesa, and by the age of fourteen he was thinking about flight. Novels by Jules Verne had pulled him toward aeronautics. In 1923 he wrote a letter to Konstantin…
  • Yuri AndropovYuri Andropov saw officers strung up from Budapest lampposts. Historian Christopher Andrew says it haunted him.
  • Konstantin ChernenkoSoviet leader Konstantin Chernenko's obituary ran on page two. Page one celebrated his successor, Gorbachev.
  • Lavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy Beria walked out on Stalin's paralyzed body and told everyone not to panic. No doctor came for twelve hours.
  • Alexei LeonovAlexei Leonov's spacesuit swelled in space until he could not fit back inside. He let air out through a valve.
  • Kliment VoroshilovKliment Voroshilov once smashed a platter of food on Stalin's table. He blamed Stalin's purges for Winter War losses.
  • Dmitri ShostakovichStalin walked out of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera in 1936, and the next day Pravda attacked it.
  • Sergei KorolevSergei Korolev stepped out of a black ZIS 110 limousine with his coat collar turned up and his hat brim pulled low. The cosmonaut Alexei Leonov watched from a window and could not make out the visitor's face. He saw only a man a little…
  • Andrei SakharovAndrei Sakharov built the Soviet Union's most devastating weapon, then spent his life trying to limit its damage.
  • Nikolai PodgornySoviet artists erased Nikolai Podgorny from a 1977 painting of the country's leaders. He had been its head of state.
  • Lev LandauPhysicist Lev Landau was jailed in 1938 over a leaflet comparing Stalinism to Nazism. A letter to Stalin freed him.
  • Lev YashinLev Yashin is the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or. The Soviet keeper took the award in 1963.
  • Alexander ProkhorovWhile studying ruby in 1957, physicist Alexander Prokhorov realized it could serve as a laser's active medium.
  • Trofim LysenkoTrofim Lysenko, a peasant who learned to read at 13, came to rule Soviet biology. He denied that genes exist.
  • Sergey MikhalkovSergey Mikhalkov wrote a friendly giant policeman for children, then anthems for two countries.
  • Georgy SviridovMillions of Soviet viewers heard Georgy Sviridov's music every evening without knowing his name.

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