Stalin

Nikolai Baibakov, Russia's last commissar, died last week at 98, and Yakup Satar, the last WWI veteran of the Ottoman Empire, died at 110.

If the phrase "Soviet commissar" has a vaguely old-fashioned ring -- like "icebox," "suffragette," or "antimacassar" -- then "Ottoman foot-soldier" has a near-ancient one. The two deaths this week consign both categories to history, and give an occasion for reflection on the passing of two eras.