Non Russian important Soviet politicians

HavingCrack

I've always found people automatically associate the USSR with Russia alone even though lots of other republics existed within it. As a result I've always been interested in what non-Russian figures rose to power in the Soviet Union.

The one's that I am aware of are obviously Stalin and Beria who were both Georgian and Brezhnev who was Ukranian. I also know a bit about Anastas Mikoyan (became head of the Politburo) who was Armenian. If anyone knows any others I'd be interested to hear about them.

Edit:Mods if this is in the wrong forum feel free to move

man1

Wasn't Kaganovich AKA "Iron Lazar" a Ukrainian Jew. He was a very close ally of Stalin despite being a jew.

man1

Trotsky was Ukrainian too.

donaghs

Eduard Shevardnadze was Georgian. Trotsky wrote his nationality as "Jewish" on party membership cards, etc, but did grow up in Ukraine.

jonniebgood1

One that would spring to my mind as fitting in your description; Konstantin Rokossovsky was one of the best generals, becoming Marshal, in the Soviet army. He was actually Polish and this may have been the reason he was not allowed lead the Russians into Berlin.
His career is very interesting both before, after and during WWII. After a term in post-war Poland he returned to USSR to a partly political role in defense replacing his long term rival Zhukov.

HavingCrack

Thanks to everyone who has answered so far, keep them coming, I'm really interested .

donaghs wrote: »

Eduard Shevardnadze was Georgian. Trotsky wrote his nationality as "Jewish" on party membership cards, etc, but did grow up in Ukraine.

Was Judaism regarded as a separate nationality in the USSR?? I would have thought Soviet atheism would have tried to destroy any religious affiliation. I'm curious as to why Trotsky would have identified as Jewish rather than Ukranian.

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

One that would spring to my mind as fitting in your description; Konstantin Rokossovsky was one of the best generals, becoming Marshal, in the Soviet army. He was actually Polish and this may have been the reason he was not allowed lead the Russians into Berlin.
His career is very interesting both before, after and during WWII. After a term in post-war Poland he returned to USSR to a partly political role in defense replacing his long term rival Zhukov.

Never heard of him before, his career looks very interesting.

losthorizon

HavingCrack wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who has answered so far, keep them coming, I'm really interested .


Was Judaism regarded as a separate nationality in the USSR?? I would have thought Soviet atheism would have tried to destroy any religious affiliation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast

Denerick

This seems to be a broader question. Plenty of countries had formative politicians who weren't fully of that nationality. Take Connolly in Ireland (Also that half breed Pearse!) Napoleon was Corsican, Paine was English... I'm sure there are plenty more.

man1

DeValera being the obvious one!! Bloody Yank!!:D

ejmaztec

man1 wrote: »

DeValera being the obvious one!! Bloody Yank!!:D

Had his father not died young, De Valera might have been more interested in Cuban affairs, and had them dancing at the crossroads instead of the poor people here.:(

Manach

I'm sure Cuba could hardly be a a worst position that it is with even with Dev's talents.
On topic - Historically Russian seems to have had no issue with non-Russians ruling it, as per Catherine the Great, so long as some pretence was had to the Slavic tradition of strong rulers.

Soldie

That people mainly associate the USSR with Russia probably has much to do with the intensive Russification that took place under Soviet rule. The fact that Russia was the largest constituent member of the USSR (and had the biggest population, too) also helped.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Denerick wrote: »

This seems to be a broader question. Plenty of countries had formative politicians who weren't fully of that nationality. Take Connolly in Ireland (Also that half breed Pearse!) Napoleon was Corsican, Paine was English... I'm sure there are plenty more.

IT cannot be altogether an accident that nationalists of the more extreme and romantic kind tend not to belong to the nation that they idealize. Leaders who base their appeal on la patrie, or ‘the fatherland’, are sometimes outright foreigners, or else come from the border countries of great empires. Obvious examples are Hitler, an Austrian, and Napoleon, a Corsican, but there are many others. The man who may be said to have been the founder of British jingoism was Disraeli, a Spanish Jew, and it was Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian, who tried to induce the unwilling English to describe themselves as Britons. The British Empire was largely built up by Irishmen and Scotsmen, and our most obstinate nationalists and imperialists have frequently been Ulstermen. Even Churchill, the leading exponent of romantic patriotism in our own day, is half an American. But not merely the men of action, but even the theorists of nationalism are frequently foreigners. Pan-Germanism, for instance, from which the Nazis later took many of their ideas, was largely the product of men who were not Germans: for instance, Houston Chamberlain, an Englishman, and Gobineau, a Frenchman. Rudyard Kipling was an Englishman, but of a rather doubtful kind. He came from an unusual Anglo-Indian background (his father was curator of the Bombay Museum), he had spent his early childhood in India, and he was of small stature and very dark complexion which caused him to be wrongly suspected of having Asiatic blood. I have always held that if we ever have a Hitler in this country he will be, perhaps, an Ulsterman, a South African, a Maltese, a Eurasian, or perhaps an American —but, at any rate, not an Englishman.

-GEORGE ORWELL.