Vyacheslav Molotov

"There is no alternative to class struggle." (c) Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (real family name Skryabin) was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik, and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin. Molotov served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956. Skryabin took the pseudonym "Molotov", derived from the Russian word molot (sledgehammer) since he believed that the name had an "industrial" and "proletarian" ring to it.