Ataturk
Also known as: Mustafa Kemal - the term Ataturk means "father of the Turks"
1881 – 1938
Turkish

General and president of Turkey. He successfully defended Gallipoli against a British and Australian assault force during World War I, one of the pivotal battles of world history, in that Turkish failure might have ended the Great War or at least resupplied the Russians and thus prevented the Bolshevik revolution. Later he saved Turkey from invading Greek armies and subsequently westernized and secularized Turkey by decree and force. Overnight Turks had to learn and adopt a new Western alphabet and dress and accept the emancipation of women and much else, but the reforms succeeded, and Ataturk died a revered figure. Today Turkey largely follows Ataturk's political and cultural blueprint, but the idea of westernization and secularization still remains controversial.

Contemporaries
1918–2008Alexander Solzhenitsyn
1921–1989Andrey Sakharov
1912–1978John Paul II
1892–1975József Mindszenty
1883–1957Nikos Kazantzakis
1860–1904Theodor Herzl
1821–1881Fyodor Dostoevsky
1872–1929Sergei Diaghilev
1923–1977Maria Callas
1888–1938Nikolay Bukharin
1923–2011Yelena Bonner
1831–1891Helena Blavatsky
1909–1997Sir Isaiah Berlin