Soviet Heros

* Alexander Marinesko – the most successful Soviet submarine commander in terms of gross register tonnage (GRT) sunk, with 42,000 GRT to his name - awarded posthumously.
* Alexander Matrosov posthumously awarded for blocking an enemy machine-gun with his own body.
* Alexi Inauri – Chief of Georgian KGB.
* Aliya Moldagulova – posthumously awarded for leading her brigade and dying by gunshot.
* Andrei Durnovtsev – pilot who dropped the Tsar Bomba
* Anna Yegorova – World War II ground-attack Il-2 pilot.
* Arnold Meri – decorated World War II (1941).
* Boris Yegorov – First physician in space.
* Dmitry Loza – An Armor officer during World War II, he fought in the Vienna Offensive and in the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation - awarded for his leadership of a tank battalion in the Vienna Offensive.
* Dmitriy Ustinov – Marshal of the Soviet Union and Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1976 until his death in 1984.
* Ekaterina Mikhailova-Demina – Saved hundreds of lives during World War II
* Endel Puusepp – Soviet World War II bomber pilot.
* Fyodor Okhlopkov – Yakut sniper during the Great Patriotic War. 2nd best sniper in the Soviet Union.
* Habibullah Huseynov – was Colonel of the Red Army and posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of Soviet Union.
* Hamazasp Babadzhanian – led a brigade in the retaking of the river Dniester during World War II.
* Ivan Golubets – saved lives aboard the Soviet ship SK-0121 in 1942.
* Ivan Isakov – Navy Admiral.
* Ivan Panfilov – Soviet general. Killed in action during the Battle of Moscow. The 8th Guards Rifle Division of the Red Army was named in his honor.
* Ivan Sidorenko – One of the top snipers of World War II, with over 500 kills. Was also a highly regarded sniper trainer.
* Israfil Mammadov – was an Azeri military commander and the assistant commander of a platoon commander of the Soviet 42nd Infantry Regiment during World War II.
* Joseph Stalin – General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922–1953) and Head of Government as Prime Minister of the USSR (1941–1953).[*citation needed*]
* Ivan Kharchenko – neutralized more than 50,000 explosive items during and after World War II
* Konstantin Krasavin – World War II flying ace
* Alexander Krivets – participant in the Soviet partisan movement during World War II, commander of the Shchors partisan detachment.
* Leen Kullman – Soviet spy (1965).
* Leonid Telyatnikov – Head of the fire department at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
* Lydia Litvyak – World War II fighter pilot and the world's top female ace, posthumously awarded.
* Lyubov Shevtsova – resisted Nazi occupation in World War II.
* Lyudmila Pavlichenko – Prolific female sniper in the Red Army's 25th Rifle Division, credited with 309 kills before retirement. She also became the first Soviet citizen to be received by a U.S. President when Franklin Roosevelt welcomed her at the White House.
* Mariya Borovichenko
* Mariya Oktyabrskaya – Female Tank commander integral to the success of the Battle of Kursk[10]
* Matvey Kuzmin – Led a Nazi division to an ambush in Malkino. He was 83 years old and is the oldest person awarded.
* Mehdi Huseynzade – an Azerbaijani guerrilla and scout during World War II.
* Michael Tsiselsky – Soviet naval pilot during World War II (1945).
* Mikhail Devyataev – escaped from a forced-labor camp at Peenemünde with crucial intelligence on German rocket programs.
* Mikhail Potapov – commander of artillery battery that destroyed 10 German tanks at the Battle of Kursk; killed in the battle.
* Natalya Meklin – Female Bomber pilot in Great Patriotic war. She completed 980 missions during the war as a Soviet Air Force officer.
* Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov – A Soviet naval officer and People's Commissar of State for the Navy during World War II. Also Commander in Chief and Flag Officer of the Soviet Navy, made Fleet Admiral in July 1945 and Fleet Admiral of the Soviet Union in July 1955 and again (posthumously) in 1988 due to his wartime and postwar roles in the Navy.
* Nikolai Kuznetsov – intelligence officer responsible for the kidnappings and assassinations of several high-ranking Nazis.
* Nikolay Pukhov – Colonel General in World War II and the first commander of the 8th Tank Army.
* Nikolai Melnik – Soviet pilot known for placing radiation sensors at the Chernobyl's Nuclear Power Plant, Reactor 4, during the 1986 explosion.
* Nina Onilova – woman machine-gunner killed in the Battle of Sevastopol in World War II.
* Noah Adamia – Soviet sniper credited with over 200 kills and two tanks knocked out during the Battle of Sevastopol; he trained over 80 snipers.
* Otto Schmidt – scientist and explorer of the Arctic.
* Oleg Babak – lieutenant of the 21st Brigade of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of USSR. He is the last hero of the Soviet Union.
* Pavel Grachev – Military Leader, division commander in Afghanistan, Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
* Pinkhus G. Turjan – during World War II he led the 269th battalion crossing of the Dnieper river.
* Pore Mosulishvili – Soviet Soldier and member of the Italian resistance.
* Pyotr Shirshov, Evgeny Fedorov, Ernst Krenkel and Ivan Papanin – Scientists who worked on the first drifting ice station.
* Rakesh Sharma – former Wing Commander Indian Air Force. Sharma was the first Indian national to travel in space.
* Richard Sorge – Soviet spy, reported from Japanese information the exact date that Operation Barbarossa would begin, and the fact that the Japanese would not attack Russia in 1941. This led Georgy Zhukov to move several Siberian divisions from the Far East to Moscow, contributing to the Soviet victory at the Moscow counteroffensive. Awarded posthumously.
* Sergei Anohkin – Soviet Test Pilot.[11]
* Valentina Tereshkova – cosmonaut and the first woman to fly in space.
* Valentin Kotyk – Youngest recipient (age 14). Posthumously awarded after being killed in combat during the Great Patriotic War
* Vasily Zaytsev – sniper who killed 225 at the Battle of Stalingrad; his achievements are dramatized in the film *Enemy at the Gates*.
* Vasilij Kvachantiradze – one of the top deadliest snipers of the Soviet Union alongside Sidorenko and Okhlopkov. Almost single-handedly halted a German assault.
* Viktor Kibenok – Firefighter during the Chernobyl disaster
* Viktor Zholudev – posthumously awarded for leadership during Operation Bagration
* Vladimir Konovalov – was a submarine commander; sank the German ship Goya.
* Vladimir Pravik – firefighter who died in the Chernobyl disaster.
* Yakov Pavlov – commanded the defenders of the building named after him during the Battle of Stalingrad.
* Yuri Gagarin – cosmonaut and the first human to fly in space.
* Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya – the first wartime female recipient (posthumously); demonstrated bravery during her capture and execution by the Nazis.
* Zhambyl Tulaev – soviet sniper, killed 313 German soldiers. He was an ethnic Buryat.

### Rewarded 2 Times:

* Aleksandr Ivanchenkov – Russian Cosmonaut
* Aleksandr Vasilevsky – Marshal of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of State for Defense during World War II.
* Aleksei Leonov – cosmonaut who made the world's first spacewalk in 1965.
* Alexander Molodchy – famous World War II pilot of the Soviet Long Range Aviation.
* Amet-Han Sultan – World War II-era fighter and test pilot.
* Boris Safonov – World War II fighter ace and commander of the Soviet Naval Aviation 2nd Guards (2 GSAP-SF).
* Andrei Grechko – General, Marshal of the Soviet Union and Defense Minister
* Hazi Aslanov – Major General of armored troops during World War II; he participated in the 1944 Soviet offensives in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries.
* Issa Pliyev – military commander.
* Ivan Baghramian – military commander; he took part in the great 1944 Soviet offensive in Belarus and Lithuania (Operation Bagration).
* Ivan Konev – Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander of the First Ukrainian Front.
* Ivan Yakubovsky – tank commander during World War II. Made Marshal of the Soviet Union, First Deputy Minister of Defense, and Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact in 1967.
* Kliment Voroshilov – Marshal of the Soviet Union, awarded the honor twice, on his seventy fifth birthday in 1956, as well as in 1968 during the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces.
* Konstantin Rokossovsky – Marshal of the Soviet Union, Commander of the First Belorussian Front, Marshal of Poland and Polish Minister of National Defense,[12] Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of the Transcaucasian Military District, Chief Inspector of the Soviet Ministry of Defense.
* Mikhail Katukov – Marshal of the Soviet Union, 1st Guards Tank Army Commander.
* Nelson Stepanyan – World War II dive bomber pilot.
* Oleksiy Fedorov – organized underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
* Pavel Popovich – cosmonaut (Vostok 4 and Soyuz 14)[13]
* Rodion Malinovsky – Marshal of the Soviet Union, Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s
* Semyon Timoshenko – military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army, Marshal of the Soviet Union and People's Commissar of State for National Defense.
* Sergey Gritsevets – fighter pilot with 40 credited kills.
* Sydir Kovpak – partisan leader in Ukraine.
* Vasily Chuikov – A General responsible for the victory at Stalingrad and attacking Berlin. Made Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1955.
* Vasily Petrov (ru) – Guards Artillery Major during the second World War, for Dnepr crossing 1943 (No. 3504) where he lost both hands, and defense of an Oder bridgehead 1945 (No. 6091).
* Viktor Leonov – Soviet Naval Scout (Commando), fought in both European and Pacific Theatres in World War II.
* Vladimir Kokkinaki – Famous test pilot and record breaker.
* Vladimir Komarov – Pilot cosmonaut (Voskhod 1 and Soyuz 1)
* Vladimir Solovyov – Cosmonaut, former director of Mir and last man on Salyut 7.
* Ziya Bunyadov – Ziya Bunyadov was awarded the Soviet Union's highest military honor, the Hero of the Soviet Union, for his action in the battle over Pilitsa bridge in Poland on January 14, 1945, resulting in 100 enemy fatalities and 45 enemy prisoners taken. He received his second award while being in the Shtrafbat, a Soviet penal battalion.

### Rewarded 3 Times:

* Alexander Pokryshkin – World War II fighter pilot.
* Ivan Kozhedub – highly decorated World War II fighter pilot; he is considered the World War II Allied "Ace of Aces" with 62 victories, more than any other Allied pilot of the 1939-1945 war.[14]
* Semyon Budyonny – Military Commander, 1st Cavalry Army in the Civil War and later of the Army Cavalry Commands, also Marshal of the Soviet Union and from 1937 to 1940, Commanding Officer, Moscow Military District.

### Rewarded 4 Times:

* Georgy Zhukov — Military commander and politician credited with many of the most significant Soviet victories of World War II, Commander of the First Belorussian Front and Marshal of the Soviet Union.
* Leonid Brezhnev — First Secretary, later General Secretary, of the CPSU (1964–82), and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1964–82), also awarded one Hero of Socialist Labour; this last feat was the subject of numerous Russian jokes. Also Marshal of the Soviet Union.

### Forgien Nations:

* [1] Abdel Hakim Amer – Egyptian military officer and political leader
* [2] Gamal Abdel Nasser – president of Egypt (1954–1970)
* [3] Abdul Ahad Mohmand – the first Afghan cosmonaut
* [4] Ahmed Ben Bella – the first president of Algeria
* [5] Zahari Zahariev – International Brigades pilot under Pseudonym Turk Halil Ekrem awarded #22 30 December 1936[15]
* [6] Georgi Ivanov – The first Bulgarian Cosmonaut
* [7] Todor Zhivkov – Communist president of Bulgaria
* [8] Aleksandar Panayotov Aleksandrov – The second Bulgarian Cosmonaut
* [9] Vladimir Zaimov – Soviet spy in Bulgaria, awarded on the 30th anniversary of his death in 1972
* [10] Fidel Castro – leader of the Cuban communist government
* [11] Arnaldo Tamayo – the first Hispanic and Cuban cosmonaut
* [12] Josef Buršík – for heroism during the liberation of Kiev, awarded on December 21, 1943, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia he gave the award back
* [13] Otakar Jaroš – for heroism in the Third Battle of Kharkov, awarded in memoriam on April 17, 1943 as the first foreign soldier
* [14] Ján Nálepka (Slovak) – awarded in memoriam on May 2, 1945
* [15] Vladimír Remek – the first Czech in space and the first cosmonaut who wasn't a citizen of USSR or USA
* [16] Antonín Sochor – for heroism during the liberation of Kiev, awarded on December 21, 1943
* [17] Ludvík Svoboda – communist president of Czechoslovakia and army general, commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps
* [18] Gustáv Husák (Slovak) – communist president of Czechoslovakia
* [19] Stěpan Vajda (Rusyn) – for heroism during the liberation of Poland, awarded in memoriam on August 10, 1945
* [20] Richard Tesařík – for heroism during the liberation of Kiev, awarded on December 21, 1943
* [21] Jean-Loup Chrétien the first French kosmonaut (also later NASA-astronaut)
* [22] Marcel Albert – decorated World War II fighter pilot (Normandie-Niemen)
* [23] Jacques André – decorated World War II fighter pilot (Normandie-Niemen)
* [24] Roland de La Poype – decorated World War II fighter pilot (Normandie-Niemen)
* [25] Marcel Lefèvre – decorated World War II fighter pilot (Normandie-Niemen)
* [26] Sigmund Jähn – the first German cosmonaut
* [27] Walter Ulbricht – East German leader
* [28] Erich Honecker – East German leader
* [29] Erich Mielke – East German head of the Stasi
* [30]Fritz Schmenkel - German Communist who deserted to Soviet troops in November 1941 and became a partisan, killed 15 February 1944, posthumously awarded 1964[16]
* [31] Bertalan Farkas – the first Hungarian cosmonaut
* [32] János Kádár – Hungarian politician
* [33] Rakesh Sharma – the first Indian cosmonaut
* [34] Primo Gibelli - Italian communist and Spanish Republican Air Force aviator, posthumously[17]
* [35] Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa – the first Mongolian cosmonaut
* [36] Władysław Wysocki – Polish officer from the battle of Lenino
* [37] Juliusz Hibner – Polish communist and officer from the battle of Lenino
* [38] Aniela Krzywoń – Polish soldier
* [39] Mirosław Hermaszewski – the first citizen of Poland to travel into space
* [40] Dumitru Prunariu – the first Romanian cosmonaut
* [41] Ramón Mercader – assassinated Leon Trotsky in 1940
* [42] Rubén Ruiz Ibárruri – son of the Spanish communist leader Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, killed in the Battle of Stalingrad while fighting for the Red Army
* [43] Muhammed Faris – the first Syrian cosmonaut
* [44] Phạm Tuân – the first Vietnamese cosmonaut