Curated playlist
Russian communists
- Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev spent four hours in 1956 tearing down Stalin's reputation. He had helped carry out Stalin's purges.
- Anton ChekhovAnton Chekhov's body traveled to Moscow in a railway car meant for oysters. The detail offended his friend Maxim Gorky.
- 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.
- Yuri AndropovYuri Andropov saw officers strung up from Budapest lampposts. Historian Christopher Andrew says it haunted him.
- Vladimir LeninLenin's name came from no person, and the N in N. Lenin stood for nothing. One theory points to the Lena River.
- Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky escaped Siberia hidden in a load of hay. He later built the Red Army.
- Peter KropotkinAnarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin refused a cabinet seat in Russia's Provisional Government.
- Yevgeny ZamyatinYevgeny Zamyatin smuggled his banned novel We out of the Soviet Union. He wrote to Stalin and left in 1931.