Vyacheslav Molotov

March 9, 1890 – November 8, 1986

Born Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin, the son of a butter churner, Stalin’s foreign minister would adopt the name “Molotov” (hammer) after joining the Bolshevik movement as a teenager. He first met Stalin while working for Pravda, and later became Stalin’s Second Secretary when Stalin took over as General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party in 1922. Molotov was responsible for the implementation of the Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plan, the rapid collectivization and industrialization of the Soviet Union, which led to famine (the Holodomor) and the deaths of millions. In 1939, Molotov became the Soviet foreign minister, and it was for his signature on the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact—the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact—that he became best known. (Though many remember his name because of the “Molotov Cocktail,” a term coined by the Finns during World War II, when he claimed the Soviets were not bombing Finnish civilians, but rather dropping food. In reality, the Soviets were dropping incendiaries, which the Finns called “Molotov Bread Baskets.” The Finns named their own homemade bombs aimed at advancing Soviet tanks “Molotov Cocktails.”) One of the quick-witted Stalin’s favorite pastimes was teasing Molotov, who had absolutely no sense of humor. He did, however, have a passion for music and enjoyed playing the violin (for which Stalin also teased him).

Photograph: Wikimedia commons, public domain