Passion or Profession: Revolutionary, General

Period: 1885–1926

Frunze was a follower of Vladimir Lenin and commanded the forces that occupied the Kremlin during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He served as a general during the Russian Civil War, leading troops of the Bolshevik Red Army to victory in Siberia and the Caucasus. He replaced Leon Trotsky as war commissar in 1925. Frunze died during a medical operation in 1926, after which his home city of Pishpek was renamed Frunze. In 1991, it became Bishkek.