The atlas / People
The people behind the ideas.
Meet the leaders, thinkers, and activists who shaped political life. Explore their perspectives—and the ideas, places, and people closest to them.
449 profiles
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- Business
Rong Yiren
A Chinese industrialist known as the “Red Capitalist,” Rong cooperated with the regime after 1949, founded state-owned CITIC to attract foreign capital and became China's vice president during the market reforms.
- Political theory
Rudolf Rocker
German theorist of anarcho-syndicalism, Rocker championed revolutionary unions and free federations of communes in place of the state, and in Nationalism and Culture attacked nationalism and centralized power as enemies of cultural creation.
- Religion
Ruhollah Khomeini
Leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Khomeini created the Islamic republic and instituted the rule of the religious jurist, fusing theocracy and state and transforming Iran into a revolutionary power of Shia Islam.
- Intellectual life
Rui Barbosa
Jurist and senator, Rui Barbosa drafted Brazil's first republican constitution, championed federalism, habeas corpus and civil liberties, argued for the equality of nations at The Hague and led the Civilian Campaign against militarism.
- Activism
Rui Costa Pimenta
A journalist who founded Brazil's PCO party in 1995, Pimenta advocates proletarian revolution, nationalizing banks and privatized firms, disbanding riot police and popular gun ownership, pairing economic radicalism with criticism of the left's identity politics.
- Philosophy
Russell Kirk
An American political philosopher and historian, Kirk influenced postwar conservatism with The Conservative Mind (1953). He championed tradition, historical continuity, political prudence, local communities, and a moral order rooted in religion.
- Politics
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike
Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1956 to 1959, he converted to Buddhism, founded the Freedom Party, nationalized ports and buses, made Sinhala the official language, pursued non-alignment and was assassinated by a Buddhist monk.
- Politics
Saddam Hussein
Dictator of Iraq for over two decades, Saddam Hussein led the Baath Party, fought the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War after invading Kuwait, violently repressed Kurds and Shiites, and was overthrown by the US-led invasion in 2003 and executed in 2006.
- Religion
Saint Paul (Paul of Tarsus)
The apostle who carried Christianity into the Greco-Roman world, Paul established salvation by grace rather than Mosaic law, waived circumcision for gentiles and preached submission to constituted authority.
- Politics
Saladin
Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin united Egypt and Syria, defeated the Crusaders at Hattin and retook Jerusalem in 1187, becoming a symbol of jihad against the Crusades and of chivalry recognized even by his enemies.
- Politics
Salvador Allende
A Chilean statesman, Allende was the first democratically elected Marxist president in Latin America, seeking to build socialism by peaceful means until he was overthrown by Pinochet's military coup in 1973.
- Intellectual life
Salvador Dalí
Catalan surrealist painter, Dalí was expelled from the surrealist group over his ambiguous sympathies for fascism, publicly backed Franco and the monarchy and, from 1949 on, embraced a Catholic nuclear mysticism fusing faith and science.
- Business
Sam Altman
Chief executive of OpenAI, Altman led the mainstreaming of generative artificial intelligence, argues for international regulation of the field and funds universal basic income experiments as an answer to automation.
- Politics
Samora Machel
Guerrilla leader and first president of Mozambique after independence from Portugal, Machel led FRELIMO toward a single-party Marxist-Leninist state, with agrarian collectivization, Soviet support, and opposition to colonialism and regional apartheid.
- Political theory
Samuel Edward Konkin III
An American libertarian theorist, Konkin created agorism, advocating the replacement of the state through free, parallel markets and counter-economics, using informal activity to erode state power.
- Politics
Santiago Peña
Former IMF economist and president of Paraguay for the Colorado Party since 2023, backed by Horacio Cartes. He keeps taxes low, ties with Taiwan and alignment with Trump and Israel, and champions agribusiness and the traditional family.
- Intellectual life
Santos Dumont
Aviation pioneer who flew the 14-bis in Paris in 1906 and left his inventions in the public domain. Distressed by the military use of aircraft, he asked the League of Nations to ban airplanes from warfare.
- Political theory
Satoshi Nakamoto
Symbolic statue
Pseudonymous author of the Bitcoin whitepaper and original Bitcoin software. The proposal described peer-to-peer electronic payments using cryptographic proof and distributed consensus; the author’s real identity remains unknown.
- Political theory
Sayyid Qutb
Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Qutb wrote Milestones, which declared modern Muslim societies to be in jahiliyya and called for a vanguard to establish God's sovereignty. He was executed by Nasser's government in 1966.
- Philosophy
Seneca
Roman Stoic philosopher and statesman, Seneca advised Nero and wrote about clemency, virtue, and mastery of the passions; his proximity to power and great wealth stand in tension with his counsel of simplicity.
- Politics
Sergei Melikov
A Russian National Guard general and Putin ally, Melikov headed Dagestan from 2020 to 2026, a period marked by war mobilization, the antisemitic airport pogrom, and jihadist attacks, and in 2026 became a senator for Bryansk.
- Politics
Sergio Mattarella
President of Italy since 2015, re-elected in 2022, Mattarella comes from left-wing Christian Democracy and guards the Constitution, Europeanism, NATO and support for Ukraine, against the Mafia that killed his brother.
- Politics
Sérgio Moro
A former federal judge, Moro led Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato), Brazil's biggest corruption probe, targeting state oil giant Petrobras, then served as justice minister under Bolsonaro before resigning; now running for governor of Paraná in 2026.
- Economics
Sidney Webb
Co-founder of the Fabian Society and the London School of Economics, Webb advocated a gradual parliamentary and administrative transition to socialism, drafted Clause IV of the British Labour Party, and praised Soviet planning in his old age.
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