Lenin Peace Prize

The International Lenin Peace Prize (Russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, romanized: mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira) was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among comrades". It was founded as the International Stalin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples, but was renamed the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples (Международная Ленинская премия «За укрепление мира между народами», Mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya "Za ukrepleniye mira mezhdu narodami") as a result of de-Stalinization. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize was usually awarded to several people a year rather than to just one individual. The prize was mainly awarded to prominent communists and supporters of the Soviet Union who were not Soviet citizens. Notable recipients include W. E. B. Du Bois, Fidel Castro, Lázaro Cárdenas, Salvador Allende, Mikis Theodorakis, Seán MacBride, Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Niemeyer, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Abdul Sattar Edhi, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, CV Raman, Mihail Sadoveanu, Nelson Mandela and Kwame Nkrumah. As of 2026, the only living prize laureate is Angela Davis.

History