List of Famous people named Yakov

Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was the eldest of Joseph Stalin's three children, the son of Stalin's first wife, Kato Svanidze, who died 9 months after his birth. His father, then a young revolutionary in his mid-20s, left the child to be raised by his late wife's family. In 1921, when Dzhugashvili had reached the age of fourteen, he was brought to Moscow, where his father had become a leading figure in the Bolshevik government who eventually became head of the Soviet Union. Disregarded by Stalin, Dzhugashvili was a shy, quiet child who appeared quite unhappy and tried to commit suicide several times as a youth. Married twice, Dzhugashvili had three children, two of whom reached adulthood.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, was a Bolshevik party administrator and chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee from 1917 to 1919. He is sometimes regarded as the first head of state of the Soviet Union although it was not established until 1922, three years after his death.

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky was a Russian Old Bolshevik and a Soviet Revolutionary. He was best known as the chief executioner of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family, and four retainers on the night of 17 July 1918.

Yakov Hanecki, real name Jakub Fürstenberg (Fuerstenberg) also known as Kuba was a prominent Polish communist and close associate of Vladimir Lenin, famous as one of the financial wizards who arranged, through his close working relationship with Alexander Parvus, the secret German funding that helped the Bolsheviks seize power in the October Revolution of 1917 - after which he served as a middle ranking Soviet official until his arrest.

Yakov Beniaminovich Brand was a Russian cardiac surgeon and television presenter.

Yakov Grigoryevich Blumkin was a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, a Bolshevik and an agent of the Cheka and the State Political Directorate (GPU).

Yakov Springer was a wrestler and a weightlifting coach and judge, but is best known as one of the victims of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchov (Яков Александрович Слащёв; was a leading commander of Baron Wrangel's Crimean army who reconciled to the Soviets and returned from Constantinople to Moscow in 1921. He was killed in his Moscow apartment by a Jew named Lazar Kalenberg, apparently in revenge for the execution of his brother.

Yakov Saulovich Agranov was the first chief of Soviet Main Directorate of State Security and a deputy of NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda. He is known as one of main organizers of Soviet political repressions and Stalinist show trials in 1920s and 1930s. He fabricated the "Tagantsev conspiracy" case and Moscow trials, including Trial of the Twenty One and Industrial Party Trial, as well as mass arrests and executions in Saint Petersburg during Stalin's Great Purge.

Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer was a Soviet field commander.