A Red by Any Other Name

Wondering what to call your newborn?

Poster, Govorkov V.I., 1936



Vladimir Alexandrovich Bazarov

Born Vladimir Alexandrovich Rudnev. Bolshevik Party member known for pioneering economic planning. The pseudonym Bazarov comes from the main character of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons.

Willy Brandt

The young socialist Herbert Ernst Carl Frahm took the name Willy Brandt in 1933 to avoid detection by Nazi agents. In 1969, he became the first social-democratic German chancellor since the Weimar Republic.

Alexander Bogdanov

A doctor who became an early Bolshevik, he was born Alyaksandr Malinovsky. Malinovsky took his party name from the middle name of his wife, Natalya Bogdanovna Korsak.

Sorry, but this article is available to subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.