Top Ten Most Evil Dictators of All Time (in order of kill count)
Some people make horrible decisions, others are just bad presidents, a few are bloodthirsty, many are extremists, a couple are warmongers, and all of these guys are a mix. Ten of our political leaders in the last 130 years have been the architects of the most horrific genocides, systematic murders, blockades, brutal wars, and policy reforms history has ever recorded.
Where to begin? Maybe an icebreaker for you next dinner party? Did you know the word “genocide” was coined in 1943 to describe when the Armenians were slaughtered haphazardly by Turkish leader Ismail Enver? Until then there was no specific word for it in our language. It makes me think about how much more cognizant we’ve become in this last century to these events. So, a quick toast between you and I to a more peaceable future where less of what follows below is allowed to happen. Sit back, but don’t relax.
10. Yakubu Gowon (1.1 million deaths)
Breakdown: 1 million civilians on the wrong side of a blockade caused by a war of secession in Nigeria and 100,000 soldiers who died in that war.
It starts as many sad stories do with precious beautiful oil. It had been found in the Niger delta where tensions were already high between the Eastern region (led by Ojukwu) and the rest of the country (governed by Yakubu). A dummy agreement was signed between them called the “Aburi Accord”, but it meant nothing to either leader. Yakubu started to put pressure on the region, and tested how much sway he had in the area versus Ojukwu. Well Ojukwu being no slouch declared secession from the rest of Nigeria and became the “Republic of Biafra”. This began a war that caused the deaths of 100,000 soldiers, and much worse, a blockade on the region which starved 1 million civilians.
9. Mengistu Haile Mariam (400,000 – 1.5 million deaths)
Breakdown: As president of Ethiopia and colonel of “the Derg” (communist militia) Mengitsu systematically killed those against him in the “Red Terror” campaign.
Mengistu Haile Mariam is (as in still alive) a politician who presided over Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. The way he got into power was by smothering the previous president Haile Selassie although he has denied those rumors. His biggest claim to fame is the Ethiopian Red Terror which was a campaign of repression led by the Derg (communist militia in Ethiopia).
In his introductory speech Mengitsu yelled, “Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!” Then he took three bottles filled with blood and threw them to the ground.
It was an auspicious beginning to say the least. Thousands were killed and found dead on the streets in the years that followed. Much of the murdering can be attributed to the friendly neighborhood watch there known as “Kebeles”. As if killing innocents wasn’t enough they would then charge the family a tax to return the dead body to them. The tax was aptly named “the wasted bullet”! Are you serious Mengitsu? However there was an even more gruesome fate of being left on the street where wild hyenas would fight over the dead. The campaign has been described as one of the worst mass murders ever in Africa. Mengitsu is even known to have garroted people to death.
8. Kim Il Sung (1.6 million deaths)
Breakdown: Unpopular among his people Kim used the U.S. as a scapegoat and forced the country to believe in his delusion or else.
Before our very own Kim Jong-Il was his murderous father Kim Il Sung who led North Korea in a terrible direction. He fought for a command economy that allowed the government to make all decisions for the country. For various reasons the people never seemed to love the man, and so his hold on power was tenuous at best. Like most crazies he blamed somebody else, in this case the USA, and said they had spread disease throughout its population. He also pulled a Stalin, and had large-scale purges. His underlying reason was that it would scare people into believing he was telling the truth. Kim’s purge was a little different than Stalin’s though in that there were no trials. During his tenure prison camps sprung up all over the country to contain the ever growing masses of people against Kim Il Sung.
7. Pol Pot (1.7 million deaths)
Breakdown: Forced city folk to relocate to farms and forced them into hard labor.
Pol Pot was the leader of the communist movement in Cambodia. He attempted to “cleanse” the country and it resulted in the death of an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million people. There was an interesting policy going around called agrarian collectivization which he put into practice in the late 1970′s. Basically it forced city folk to head out to the farms to do some labor and vice versa for farmers. As you might guess, and hindsight is 20/20, neither group was very good at their new jobs. Pol didn’t stop at enslaving his own people though. He also didn’t feed them well, gave them little medical care, and executed many of them. The net result was killing off approximately 1/5 of the Cambodian population!
6. Ismail Enver Pasha (2.5 million deaths)
Breakdown: 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks (1916-22) + 500,000 Assyrians (1915-20)
He began his career as a Turkish military officer and leader in the Young Turk revolution. Eventually he rose to power and led the Ottoman Empire in both Balkan Wars and World War I. As a war minister Enver was not very useful, and was defeated over and over. His crushing loss at the Battle of Sarikamish needed a scapegoat, and that’s when he decided to blame Armenians for the failure. That is what began what is now known as the Armenian Genocide. The word “genocide” was coined to describe this event.
Etymology from Wikipedia:
Coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, to describe what the Turkish government (ca 1915–18) perpetrated against the Armenian people, now called the Armenian Genocide. From the stem of Ancient Greek (génos), “race, kind” or Latin “tribe, clan” (-cide).
5. Hideki Tojo (5 million deaths)
Breakdown: Waged unprovoked wars against China, USA, Netherlands, and France.
Hideki Tojo was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He assumed the position of Prime Minister and held Army Minister concurrently. As if that wasn’t enough he also held other major positions like Home Minister, Foreign Minister, Education Minister, and Commerce Minister. His major contributions to education were teaching militaristic and nationalist indoctrination. His version of homeland security was approving eugenics measures which essentially made a distinction between pure blood and mixed blood Japanese families.
During World War II Tojo started winning battles and the public loved him for it. He really bought into the Nazi Kool-aid, and held steadfastly with Germany. When the tide turned, and he began losing, it was devastating. Eventually he went into seclusion. He was tried for war crimes and found guilty of waging wars of aggression, wars in violation of international law, and waging unprovoked war against many countries. Not to mention ordering, authorizing, and permitting inhumane treatment of Prisoners of War.
4. Leopold II of Belgium (2-15 million deaths)
Breakdown: Created a colony called the “Congo Free State”, enslaved its people, and forced them into labor plants.
Leopold II was the King of the Belgians, and believed in colonialism. He thought acquiring colonies overseas was essential to a great country and was always scheming. The problem was Belgium really didn’t care, and so Leopold went into business for himself. He started a company that seemed like it was doing good called the International African Society. A year later he used that company to travel to Congo, laid claim to a plot of land 14 times the size of Belgium, and made 14 countries agree (USA included) that he was free to rule it with his own private militia. He then forced the indigenous populations into forced labor, created a bustling rubber industry, and abused his workers grievously.
Missionary John Harris on returning from Congo said:
“I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable.”
Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million which could all have been avoided if 14 countries didn’t hand him the keys to the car!
3. Adolf Hitler (17 million deaths)
Breakdown: Concentration camps and civilians in WWII.
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. He was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945. He gained support by promoting values like German nationalism and anti-semitism. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933 and began the Third Reich. Hitler was power hungry as all hell, hated the shit out of Jews (and others), and wanted hegemony in Europe. The militarization that was needed to complete such a lofty goal led to the outbreak of World War II. Nazi forces engaged in the systematic murder of as many as 17 million civilians, an estimated six million of whom were Jews, and 1.5 million Romanis.
2. Jozef Stalin (23 million deaths)
Breakdown: The great purges and Ukraine’s famine.
Jozef Stalin was the first Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 – 1953. After Lenin’s death in 1924, he became the leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin didn’t take long in launching a new economy that screwed up food production across the country so bad it caused massive famine. Between 1922-23 it reached such catastrophic proportions everything went to shit. In Ukraine this dark period is known as Holodomor. Its widely believed that Soviet policies caused the famine there and was designed as an attack on Ukrainian nationalism. Estimates on the total number of casualties within Soviet Ukraine range from 2.6 million to 10 million! During the late 1930s Stalin launched another wonderfully titled initiative called the Great Purge (also known as the “Great Terror”). It was a paranoid campaign to kill off the people who opposed him, and his targets were often executed.
In 1939 Stalin agreed to a non-aggression pact with the Nazis. Eventually Germany violated the pact, the Soviet Union joined the allies, and they racked up 23.9 million deaths (the largest death toll in the war).
1. Mao Zedong (49-78 million deaths)
Breakdown: Policy reforms like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist, and communist leader who led the People’s Republic of China. Mao, while controversial, is still widely considered a savior of the nation. I did a semester abroad in China in 2001 after falling in love with its history, and was surprised in my conversations that many people thought Mao had done 70% – 80% good things. During his first five years from 1949 – 53 he is said to have systematically killed between 4 to 6 million people by sentencing them to die or by sending them to “reform through labor” camps. He organized mass repressions, established execution quotas, and defended his actions in these early years as necessary for securing power for “The People’s Republic of China”.
His social programs the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are two of the most ill-fated, poorly named, initiatives ever. The first was an effort to rapidly industrialize China. His focus was on making China a premier exporter of steel, and to this end he asked everybody to make it. The problem was it got many citizens to make smelting shops in their backyards. Not only was the steel of little value, but it was made from everything lying around the house including their own cooking supplies! Without the tools to make food, no money coming in from the steel, and no money to survive ~ a lot of people starved to death. The estimates on this program alone are 20 million deaths! Think about that number. Really think about it. Then ask yourself… why would you EVER let someone back into power after such an insanely bad decision.Well, they took the reigns away from him for a short time.
In the interim Mao started the socialist education movement. He aimed the concept at young ones who would eventually wrest the power away from the older guard. By 1964 this movement was renamed the “four cleanups movement” whose goal was cleansing politics, economics, ideas, and organization of “reactionaries”. This led to the formation of the “Red Guards” who were organized to punish intellectuals and take out Mao’s political adversaries. The Cultural Revolution was now underway, and its overriding mission was to abolish: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Something Mao fervently believed in was that destruction and chaos could bring re-birth. So he told his followers to destroy buildings, sacred objects, talk back to ones elders, punish them, turn them in, and kill those who did not agree. By 1968 things were starting to look pretty good for Mao all over again, and so he put into place the decade long “Down to the Countryside Movement” which forced young intellectuals to move out to the country to become farmers. Sadly, the people he pushed out there were the same Red Guards who had helped him get power. Estimates of the death toll are between 40,000 – 7 million depending on who you ask.
Finally, there is the 100 flowers movement which just needs an abbreviated mention here. Mao asked people to come forth and tell him how he should govern China. Intellectuals and liberals bit at the chance to tell him what they really thought, and were encouraged by the Communist party to do so. Then in a sudden change of heart, or an incredibly crafty mission to out his haters, the government persecuted 500,000 of them who were considered to be “dangerous thinkers”.
Mao is essentially like that girlfriend/boyfriend who keeps on taking a shit on you, but is so damn charming you hardly notice. His policies and political purges from 1949 to 1976 caused the deaths of 49 to 78 million people.
The moral of the story is ~
Let’s stop allowing evil political dictators to take office. And if we do have someone bad in office we can find better ways to get them out than murdering them, wars, and aggressive confrontations.
Wow Juan! Not only was this awesome (awe inspiring) but also killer (superior AND deadly).
Who knew Stalin killed more than Hitler! I watched Everything is Illuminated, whole towns disappeared but I didn’t know it was that many people! To put it in perspective, New York State has a pop. of 19.5mil people, Texas has 24.7mil, and California has 34.9mil (thank you wikipedia). Stalin eliminated Texas and Mao took out more than NY and CA combined. WOW!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for not including graphic photos.
What about the two million Vietnamese killed by the USA? Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon should be considered a triple threat. Just because some one is elected some where, shouldn’t let them kill on sovereign soil.
Why did you leave out Bus? the list is incomplete without him.
holy shit mao killed 49 to 79 million people!
i dont understand how people can do be so evil. they have no empathy but for themselves! and what about our world leaders today huh? they've become smarter now, they're killing people and we don't even know it! when you think about its because of these world leaders that there are famines and all that crap…they don't wanna fix…they love power and chaos…evil is as evil does…
your right nixon also tried to make peace number one tyrant mao
What about innocent youths killed in kenya by Kibaki leadership In the name of MUNGIKI
what about USA killing many million ppl in vietnam, libya, sodan, iraq, afghanistan, pakistan. list goes on n on.
What about the 11th dictator, Barak Hussein obama, muslim, infiltrator, usurper of the american people? He should be on this list!
Excluding some obviously madmen, this list is a nice PROPAGANDA… Exposing “murderers” to the whole wide world and letting people know their numerous murders and their psychopethic vision… WHY DON’T YOU TRY SPEAKING FOR AMERICA? WHY DON’T YOU MENTION THAT THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN KILLED, ASSASSINATED, POLLUTED, RAPED etc BY THE AMERICAN ARMY-NAVY-AIR FORCES ARE FAR MORE NUMEROUS, EVEN IF YOU PUT THE KILL COUNT OF ALL THE “Top Ten Most Evil Dictators of All Time” TOGETHER?!! THE ALL-TIME GLOBAL MASSACRE (CHINA, VIETNAM, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, SUDAN, YUGOSLAVIA, NICARAGUA, PAKISTAN, LIBYA, VENEZUELA, RUSSIA, PALESTINE, NIGERIA, PANAMA, MEXICO etc etc etc…….) THAT THE AMERICAN FORCES HAVE DONE CANNOT BE COMPARED TO ANY DICTATOR/POLITICAL LEADER!!!
@peter brauer it says top ten most evil DICTATORS . kennedy and all the other american PRESIDENTs where not DICTATORS
Anybody who slanders america should remember all the good we have done. Did you count how many people America has freed from dictators/terrorists. How many countries. we have helped with medical care, food ,etc. If it were not for America hitler would have wiped out every country , religions,non white non blue eyed person on this planet. What about our technological and medical breakthroughs and education. This world would be in the dark ages without us. When countries are in trouble who do they count on? China, Iran, Pakistan , Egypt , Russia , I don’t think so. They count on us . So think about that next time you anti Americans slander us and our great free nation. Remember sad am Hussein .
@Dimitrios – Why don’t you go write that article. I admit it would have been a nice twist.. Top ten dictators of all time by kill count – Hitler, Stalin, Mao, ALL THE AMERICANS FORCES COMBINED FROM EVERY GENERATION!!! DUN DUN DUN. Oh hold on. Maybe because its called the top ten worst individual DICTATORS of all time? Moron.
@Dimitrios T.
Typing in all caps sure does get your fucking misleading point across.
And I don’t think all of the casualties added up from every war America was involved in can compare to half of the death toll from the “Mao Zedong” era.
lol, uneducated fucks.
To @Dimitrios, Raja, Bauer,
America is number one and you are all fascist swine
fuck them all.dictators
jeez, put up a list of people and a number of people they killed and somehow someone got their feelings hurt and felt it was better to brag about america’s wars… great idea
You forgot to include Obama. He is no different than Adolf Hitler, as well, Obama is a Islamic Trojan Horse that is now creating wars and attempting to totally destroy the United States.
I thought 3. Adolf Hitler was the worst
the details are not true for instatance menigistu was a general and haileselassie was not a president, he was a king still considered as God by rastafarian and there was no evidence that he actually died…
“When I was in Iraq, most of the population there loved Americans and the freedom that we represent and never want to be under a dictator again.
While there, I made good friends with an Iraqi Captain, it turned out that he is probably one of the most intelligent people that I have ever had the privilege to meet. I remember a quote this man told me, I’ll forever remember this and pass it on for the rest of the years I’m on this good Earth, the quote is this; “Ignorance is the sharpest tool the ‘Great Deceiver’ has in his arsenal for Armageddon and will be the downfall of man”. This saying holds true for many different debated ideals, the time he told me of this, we were agreeing that both the Muslim and Christian religions need to look at one another with opened minds and realize how similar they are and quit the squabbling on who loves God, or Allah the most . But, in this case, this outstanding quote goes to, Dimitrios T, RAJA, Peter Brauer, Korshattghenee, and all the other people out there with the same mind set (or whom I’d rather call ‘sheeple’) because if it was not for the sheeple such as yourselves and your complete ignorance, these dictators would never have come to power. (Sheeple asking the wolf, “What’s for supper”) Of course, these dictators convince you sheeple that the U.S.A. is a horrible place, because the U.S.A. is a thorn in their side and an obstacle for them to enslave sheeple such as yourselves. The U.S.A. has always been the beacon of hope for the oppressed and will continue as long as there are schmucks like me to go and get there asses blown up to defend your right to free speech and the freedom for sheeple, such as yourselves, to stay in your iron-clad bubbles and be dumb asses.
God Bless the U.S.A. and my brothers and sisters who defend her, and by all means, if this offends you in anyway, go ahead and get yourself a big ‘ole helping of, “Shut the fuck up”, and please get seconds on, “Kiss my ass”.
usa is no 1 evil country in the world top ten president from should be in this list
WTF? So America gets blamed for all of the wars? What we didn’t lose any lives in any of those wars? It’s this type of Anti-American sentiment that pisses me off the most. To ALL of the Anti-American assholes out their, America has and will always stand out as a shining beacon of Democracy. We give more aid and military assistance than any other nation in history. Also to ALL the Anti-Americans in America “GET THE FUCK OUT!” Go live elsewhere where “U” believe it is better.
Holy mother fuckers bitch shit up into that fucking hells poop ass! HOW ON THIS FUCKING WORLD
DO YOU FUCKIING MOTHER FUCKING MANAGE TO FUCKING CRAP FUCKING HELLS CRAP FUCK UP KILL MOTHER SHIT FUCKING 60 MILLION STUPID MICHAEL JACKSON FUCKING BITCH SUCING FUCKING HELLS CHINEESE FUCKING PEOPLE! FUCK THAT FUCKING SHIT TOO THAT FUCKING HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
….Kill maybe 78 million?????????? WHATA……………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What about Henry Kissinger?
Now dmitrio and others are starting a war. I wonder how many will be killed in that one. Also, napoleon bonaparte caused 6 million 500 thousand death’s. Where is he?
I read something about being the architect of brutal wars. Where’s Bush?
It is not a fair statistics. Hitler and Stalin kill the peopole in world war II. As you know briatain, US and italy was also in the war and they help stalin in the war. How you calculate the people which are dead in this war? Are they killed by Hitler or Stalin? Roosevelt and Cherchil were angels? what about Dresden? Hiroshima? Nakazaki? all of them killed by US and axis.
uk and usa always think and claim that russia and china are devil. just because russia and china are thier enemy, but how did the evident come up?most of the information and the statics are
are made by uk and usa. in facts uk and usa made most devil things to this world. they pollute the enviroment by bad industry. they made wars everywhere. as thier
agressive and wild behaviour, billions of asian and afracian people died or live very poor. if there have god i hope it will judge the uk and usa.
This is great! To all responders: not only can people not spell but nobody seems to know the difference between GENOCIDE and WAR….. lol It’s absolutely amazing how your blatant ignorance flows from your half-dead brains into your fingertips and spews bullshit all over the internet. I can at least rest assured knowing that you will get an A for effort. However, next time you want to say something stupid, you might want sit back and reflect upon the fact that you know absolutely nothing about the subject.
Oh, and by the way. You can’t stop an evil dictator by shunning him and telling him that he’s been a bad boy.
10 ten fo realz. bai.
i really love it . it has good structure to what its all about . i needa poo and take a wee aswell . and pick my nose .
what about uday hussein? he killed for fun !
wat about ur ma spiting out my cum – that killed around 50 – 250 million mini mes
all AMERICANS are stupid
Duck and cover, for the ride is nasty, brutish and mercifully short.
The USA is a disgusting country in so many ways. The Vietnam death count was from war not from some fucked up purge by a dictator. Still though fuck America. Europe is so much better !
What a bunch of dickheads… What aout all the people america killed in japan with the atomic bomb an what about all the women and children in vietnam countless people in iraq.
America went a put a name on what Adolf Hitler done but really he was doing right by the world clensing the world of unnessary needs.
So if what hitler done is genocide then what the hell is what america done to every other country.
What is the word for that. Seige hail seige hail… hail hitler…. white power white power white power
why you dont talk about afghanistan’s human crimes research such as
Ahmad shah masoud who that destroy Beauty KABUL and killed many people ?
Did u know that USA is the country that have killed the most people after WWII?
i guess at the end of the day every peice of land on earth every dictator or Governed states have a negative side to them…lets stop focusing on the negative & bring about the positive, im pretty sure these ficks that are doing dirt on earth are gonna get theres even if there is no god & jesus gets to be white even though hes egyptian & america is a big lie stolen from the moors…theres karma. and she exist its a proven fact the negative & positive energy returns to where it came from so ppl seperate yourself from earth stare at the sunsets & sunrise dont be bias nor ignorant be happy & positive your most likely half dead already…meditation.
You stupid ass holes quit blaming America for everything. We try to help INNOCENT people from TERRORIST like you who hate freedom!
@Brad “Did u know that USA is the country that have killed the most people after WWII?”
Almost this whole list is after WWII… Inventing statistics only makes you look stupid.
Look Mao killed a shit loada people but look the US destroys evreything it touches look at the Fucking NATO and US forces bombing the shit outa LIBYA the US dosent care about democracy thats bull shit! They care about oil and are there for Gadaffi’s tresure trove of oil. I know the US did all that good stuff like ending slavery and kicking HITLER in the balls but just look at whats happening now. The US are not the patriots the fighters of freedom they once were, Theyre even begging to old mao for cash! And maybe if you hadn’t been so rude to mao he would give u a couple of pennies.
Wow dosent any body know that most americans now are ignorant and stupid fat bitches. NOT all of em but the majority its like 70% of them a complete fuck heads. Obama quoting from Martin Luther King bull shit obama is just another bush!
The US was asked by the UN to intervene in Libya, plus it’s a war, and we’re talking about dictators. I love how at every chance they get, they jump at the opportunity to mock Americans.
Why don’t you just crawl back into your little shed and start looking up your motherfucking facts:
1. American is a democracy
2.Please, as if they needed Libya’s oil. They already purchase form Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, plus its faithful ally Israel.
3. Please…dosent isn’t an actual word. And you call everoyne else stupid
4. The list is about dictators
I think I just about killed all of the statements against America here with a less than 3 minutes of research on Encarta and Wikipedia!
The #6 is WRONG !!!!!!
You should investigate the history rather than relying on hearsay. History as a science does not support that claim for #6.
Did we forgot ferdinand marcos in the philippines?
The difference between us (US) and them is that our leaders aren’t have mass exterminations here @ home. As an American I truly wish we would leave the world alone. Let all you ungrateful fucks attempt to grow your own food, fight your own wars and destroy each other. When WW3 breaks out, don’t even look our way. Go fuck yourselves.
Guys, we all know what America does but don’t miss the point, this is “Top Ten Most Evil Dictators of All Time ” not countries or whatver, ya’ll are looking for fame.
People this is Top Ten Most Evil Dictators of All Time not America.
You people saying America sucks and we are warmongers need to shut up. Yeah America is not perfect but no country is. In fact wasn’t it European countries who started the two bloodiest conflicts in history? And isn’t it European countries who came crying to America for help? In fact most of you grandparents would have died from starvation if America had not have sent food over after ww 2. So think next time you say “America is evil or America sucks.” cause the truth is if it was not for America, Europe would not be the “great place” you people say it is today.