Tomsky, Mikhail Pavlovich (1880-1936). First Soviet chief of trade unions, until 1929; suicide in Stalin purges.
Trotsky (Bronshtein), Lev (Leon) Davidovich (1879-1940). Associate of Lenin; first Soviet Defense Commissar, until 1925; expelled from Party in 1927; deported to Turkey in 1929; slain in Mexico City by a Soviet agent.
Trubetskoi, Sergei Petrovich (1790-1860). One of the Decembrists; death sentence commuted to exile; amnestied in 1856.
Tsvetayeva, Marina Ivanovna (1892-1941). Poet; lived abroad 1922 to 1939; a suicide two years after return to Soviet Union.
Tukhachevsky, Mikhail Nikolayevich (1893-1937). Soviet military leader; shot in 1937 on trumped-up treason charges.
Tut Brothers. Pen names of two playwrights and authors of spy stories: Leonid Davydovich Tubelsky (1905-1961) and Pyotr Lvovich Ryzhei (1908-).
Tynyanov, Yuri Nikolayevich (1895-1943). Soviet writer and literary scholar.
Ulrikh, Vasily Vasilyevich (1889-1951). Supreme Court justice; presided over major trials of 1920’s and 1930’s.
Ulyanov, Aleksandr Ilyich (1866-1887). Lenin’s older brother; executed after unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Alexander III in 1887.
Ulyanova (Yelizarova-Ulyanova), Anna Ilyinichna (1874-1935). Lenin’s sister; journalist and editor.
Uritsky, Moisei Solomonovich (1873-1918). Revolutionary; chairman of the Petrograd Cheka; his assassination by an SR set off Red Terror.
Utyosov, Leonid Osipovich (1895-). Soviet orchestra leader and variety-stage star.
Valentinov (Volsky), Nikolai Vladislavovich (1879-1964). Journalist and philosopher; former Bolshevik turned Menshevik; emigrated 1930.
Vasilyev-Yuzhin, Mikhail Ivanovich (1876-1937). Revolutionary; secret police and justice official.
Vavilov, Nikolai Ivanovich (1887-1943). Prominent plant geneticist; Director of Institute of Applied Botany (1924-1940) and Institute of Genetics (1930-1940); arrested 1940; died in imprisonment.
Vereshchagin, Vasily Vasilyevich (1842-1904). Painter noted for battle scenes.
Vladimir II Monomakh. Ruler of Kievan Russia, 1113-1125.
Vladimirov (Sheinfinkel), Miron Konstantinovich (1879-1925). Early Soviet official in agriculture, finance and economic management.
Vlasov, Lieut. Gen. Andrei Andreyevich (1900-1946). Red Army officer; captured by Germans in 1942; led Russian forces against Soviet Union; handed over by Allies after war and executed.
Voikov, Pyotr Lazarevich (1888-1927). Bolshevik revolutionary; Soviet representative in Warsaw, 1924-1927; assassinated by an émigré.
Voloshin, Maksimilian Aleksandrovich (1878-1932). Symbolist poet and watercolorist; opposed Bolsheviks.
Voroshilov, Kliment Yefremovich (1881-1969). Close associate of Stalin; long Defense Commissar; Soviet President, 1953-1960.
Vysheslavtsev, Boris Petrovich (1877-1954). Philosopher; exiled in 1922.
Vyshinsky, Andrei Yanuaryevich (1883-1954). Lawyer and diplomat; former Menshevik turned Bolshevik; chief state prosecutor in show trials, 1936-1938; Deputy Foreign Commissar and Minister, 1939-1949 and 1953-1954; Foreign Minister, 1949-1953.
Wrangel, Pyotr Nikolayevich (1878-1928). Tsarist military commander; led anti-Bolshevik forces in South in 1920 after Denikin.
Yagoda, Genrikh Grigoryevich (1891-1938). Secret police official; People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, 1934-1936; shot after 1938 show trial.
Yakubovich, Pyotr Filippovich (1860-1911). Poet; translated Baudelaire; wrote memoirs about his Tsarist exile.
Yaroshenko, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1846-1898). Painter.
Yenukidze, Avel Safronovich (1877-1937). Bolshevik official; Secretary of Central Executive Committee, 1918-1935; shot in purges.
Yermilov, Vladimir Vladimirovich (1904-1965). Soviet literary critic.
Yesenin, Sergei Aleksandrovich (1895-1925). Imagist poet; suicide.
Yezhov, Nikolai Ivanovich (1895-1939). Secret police official; People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, 1936-1938.
Yudenich, Nikolai Nikolayevich (1862-1933). Tsarist military commander; led anti-Bolshevik forces in Estonia, 1918-1920.
Zalygin, Sergei Pavlovich (1913-). Soviet writer.
Zamyatin, Yevgeny Ivanovich (1884-1937). Writer; returned 1917 from abroad, but opposed Bolsheviks; emigrated in 1932; his novel We, published in London in 1924, influenced Huxley, Orwell.
Zasulich, Vera Ivanovna (1849-1919). Revolutionary; acquitted after attempt to assassinate Mayor of St. Petersburg; emigrated 1880; returned 1905; became Menshevik.
Zavalishin, Dmitri Irinarkhovich (1804-1892). One of the Decembrists; sentenced to 20 years’ Siberian exile; worked as journalist after 1863.
Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich (1896-1948). Close associate of Stalin; shaped cultural policy after World War II.
Zhebrak, Anton Romanovich (1901-1965). Soviet geneticist.
Zhelyabov, Andrei Ivanovich (1851-1881). Revolutionary; executed after his assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
Zhukov, Marshal Georgi Konstantinovich (1896-). World War II leader.
Zinoviev (Apfelbaum), Grigory Yevseyevich (1883-1936). Associate of Lenin; expelled from Party in 1927; shot after 1936 show trial.
INSTITUTIONS AND TERMS
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. See VTsIK.
April Theses. A programmatic statement issued by Lenin in April, 1917, calling for end of war with Germany and transfer of power to the Soviets.
Basmachi. Name given to anti-Bolshevik forces in Central Asia after 1917 Revolution.
Black Hundreds. Armed reactionary groups in Tsarist Russia; active from about 1905 to 1917 in pogroms of Jews and political assassinations of liberal personalities.
Butyrki. A major Moscow prison, named for a district of Moscow; often known also as Butyrka.
Cadet. See Constitutional Democratic Party.
Chechen. Ethnic group of Northern Caucasus; exiled by Stalin in 1944 on charges of collaboration with German forces.
Cheka. Original name of the Soviet secret police, 1917-1922; succeeded by GPU.
Chinese Eastern Railroad. A Manchurian rail system built (1897-1903) as part of original Trans-Siberian Railroad. Jointly operated by Chinese and Soviet authorities until 1935 (when it was sold to Japanese-dominated Manchukuo government) and again in 1945-1950. Russian acronym: KVZhD.
Codes. The 1926 Criminal Code and the 1923 Code of Criminal Procedure were repealed in 1958 with the adoption of new Fundamental Principles of Criminal Legislation and Criminal Procedure; in 1960 these were embodied in a new Criminal Code and a new Code of Criminal Procedure.
Collegium. Governing board of Soviet government departments and other institutions.
Comintern. Acronym for Communist International, the world organization of Communist parties that existed from 1919 to 1943.
Committee of the Poor, also known by the Russian acronym Kombed. A Bolshevik-dominated organization of poor peasants (1918).
Constituent Assembly. A multiparty legislative body with large anti-Bolshevik majority, elected in November, 1917, after the Bolshevik Revolution. It met in January, 1918, but was broken up when it refused to adopt Bolshevik proposals.
Constitutional Democratic Party. Founded in 1905 under the Tsars, advocating a constitutional monarchy; played a conservative role after overthrow of Tsar; members were known as Cadets, from a Russian acronym for the party.
Council of People’s Commissars. Name given the Soviet cabinet (government) before 1946, when it became the Council of Ministers; also known by Russian acronym Sovnarkom.
Crimean Tatars. Exiled by Stalin to Central Asia in 1944 on charges of collaboration with Germans.