Curated playlist
Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize
- Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela wore a Springbok shirt to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. He gave the trophy to an Afrikaner captain.
- Pablo PicassoA German officer in occupied Paris asked Picasso if he painted Guernica. "No," Picasso replied. "You did."
- Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev spent four hours in 1956 tearing down Stalin's reputation. He had helped carry out Stalin's purges.
- Fidel CastroFidel Castro's yacht carried eighty-one men toward Cuba, but only nineteen safely reached the mountains.
- Indira GandhiParty bosses chose Indira Gandhi as prime minister because they thought she was weak.
- Leonid BrezhnevIn a 2013 Levada Center poll, Russians named Leonid Brezhnev their favorite 20th-century leader.
- W. E. B. Du BoisW. E. B. Du Bois died in Ghana the day before the March on Washington. He was 95 and had renounced his U.S. citizenship.
- SukarnoYouth leaders took Sukarno from his house by force to make him declare independence.
- Urho KekkonenOpponents once removed the chimney from a photo of Urho Kekkonen's birthplace. They wanted him to look poor.
- Angela DavisAngela Davis was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, then acquitted by an all-white jury.
- Linus PaulingLinus Pauling left high school without a diploma. He later won two unshared Nobel Prizes, a first in history.