Born February 25, 1890
Kukarka, Nolinsk region,
Vyatka province, Russia
Died November 8, 1986
Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union

Soviet revolutionary,
politician, and statesman

Vyacheslav Molotov was the closest friend and loyal aide of Joseph Stalin (1879–1953; see entry) throughout Stalin's reign as leader of the Soviet Union. Won over to communism as a teenager, Molotov never strayed from the strict party line and always viewed Stalin's policies, however terror-filled, as correct. Molotov's talks with Western powers in the years following World War II (1939–45) helped fuel the Cold War (1945–91). The Cold War was an intense political and economic rivalry from 1945 to 1991 between the United States and the Soviet Union, falling just short of military conflict.

Young revolutionary

Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Scriabin was born to...