Short biographies

Afghanistan

Name (birth & death)Position (dates held)
Hafizullah AMIN (1929-1979)Afghan minister of foreign affairs, 1978-1979; president, September-December 1979 (assassinated),
Yury ANDROPOV (1914-1984)KGB chairman, 1967-1982; CPSU Secretary general, 1982-1984
Willy BRANDT (1913-1992)Mayor of West Berlin, 1957-1966; West German Chancellor, 1969-1974; SPD leader, 1964-1987; president of Socialist International, 1976-1992
Leonid BREZHNEV (1906-1982)CPSU Secretary general, 1964-1982
Fidel CASTRO (1926-2016)Cuba, first secretary Cuban CP, 1965-2011
Victor CHEBRIKOV (1923-1999)KGB chairman, 1982-1988
Mikhail GORBACHEV (b. 1931)1st Secretary Stavropol CP, 1970-1978; Central Committee secretary, 1978-1984; Politburo (candidate) 1978; CPSU Secretary general, 1985-1991
?Sergei GORELOV (1920-2009)Colonel Soviet air-force, Hero of the Soviet Union
Andrei GROMYKO (1909-1989)Soviet foreign minister, 1957-1985
Erich HONECKER (1912-1994)Secretary general, Socialist Unity Party (GDR), 1971-1989
A.N. KOSYGIN (1904-1980) Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers (i.e. Soviet “prime minister”) 1964-1980
Vladimir KRYUCHKOV (1924-2007)Head of KGB First Directorate, 1974-1988; KGB chairman, 1988-1991
Boris PONOMAREV / Ponomaryov (1905-1995)Central Committee International Department, 1957-1986 (Central Committee secretary, 1961-1986; Politburo (candidate), 1972-1986)
Alexander M. PUZANOV (1906-1998)from 1957 to 1972 Soviet ambassador to North Korea, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria;
Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan, 1972-1979 (
SHAH MOHAMMED DOSTAfghan foreign minister, 1979-1986
SHAH WALIAfghan foreign minister, 1979
Edouard SHEVARDNADZE
(1928-2014)		1st secretary, Georgian CP, 1972-1985;
Soviet foreign minister, 1985-1990
Kalevi SORSA (1930-2004)Finnish prime minister and foreign minister several times in the 1970s and 1980s; Social Democrat Party chairman 1957-1987; vice-president of Socialist International from mid-1970s
Fikrat TABEYEV (1928-2015)Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan, 1979-1986
Nur Mohammed TARAKI
(1917-1979)		Afghan president and prime minister, 1978 to September 1979 (assassinated)
Semyon TSVIGUN (1917-1982)KGB 1st deputy chairman, 1967-1982 (suicide)
Dmitry USTINOV (1924-2020)Soviet defence minister, 1976-1984
Dmitry YAZOV (1924-2020)Soviet defence minister, 1987-1991
Lev ZAIKOV (1923-2002)1st secretary, Leningrad Region CP, 1983-1985; Central Committee secretary 1985-1990, 1st secretary Moscow CP, 1987-1989; Politburo, 1986-1990