Top 10 Most Evil Leaders in History

I want the worst of the worst. Give me the most evil, heartless, and inhumane leaders in history.
The Top Ten
1 Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945) was a German politician of Austrian descent who served as the leader of the Nazi Party since 1921, Chancellor of Germany since 1933, and Führer of Nazi Germany since 1934. As dictator of Nazi Germany, he reversed the Treaty of Versailles, initiated World... read more

In my time reading about history, I've come up with the term "superdictator." This term implies that the dictator in question committed so many atrocities that they earn a title above dictator. Besides Stalin, Hitler perfectly fits this term. Not only was he responsible for the humiliation and later slaughter of 11 million innocent lives, but he also started a pointless conflict driven by his own anger. I'm glad Germany has made a clean slate ever since the Third Reich, because they deserve it after such a horrific leader.

2 Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian dictator, and was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state.

This man is an absolute nightmare for killing over 40 million people. One may argue that Hitler literally wiped out the entire Jewish state, but Stalin takes the cake for being one of the most brutal leaders to ever exist. His reign of terror didn't only rely on famine to make the "USSR" great but also on his paranoia and fear that people would murder him. Millions suffered under him. His inhumanity earns him a throne of skulls and an ocean filled with the blood of the innocent, including his own wife and son, because he was unwilling to "negotiate with fascists."

3 Mao Zedong Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949, until his death in 1976... read more

Historians argue about the number of deaths to attribute to Mao, but the number is most likely 70 million. Mao killed people just to solve China's problems. He did not talk badly about them or even care about them. On the other hand, Hitler was all about eliminating the less desirable people from his Germany. The world knew but did not really stop him. Mao just straight killed people through famine, labor, or execution. He was cunning. I wish more people would learn about him and see that he was just straight-up evil.

4 Pol Pot Pol Pot, born Saloth Sar, was a Cambodian revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until 1997. From 1963 to 1981, he served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

He takes my number 1 spot, simply due to the fact that no one under his control was safe. The life expectancy at one point under his regime was only 18 years old. He ordered the slaughter of anyone he saw as "intellectual". This included people who wore glasses, artists, and others. He forced every citizen to wear black clothes, and you can imagine how he accomplished that. Not to mention how he oversaw the profoundly violent genocide of the Cham people of Cambodia. He didn't kill as many people as Hitler or other evil leaders, but since he was in charge of far fewer people, he is proportionally far worse.

5 Osama bin Laden Osama Bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born stateless terrorist. He was a founder of al-Qaeda, the organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets worldwide... read more

I wonder why this one is seventh. Surely his evilness level is equal to, if not more than, Hitler? And why is Obama 3rd? He might not be a good president, but he's definitely not as evil as Hitler or bin Laden, who were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people. A moron such as Laden should be in the top 3.

He started everything Americans, Middle Easterners, and Europeans see today as terrorism, hate, and disaster. Without him, the likelihood of a random girl in a Hijab being called a terrorist would be nearly incomprehensible. ISIS's creation wouldn't have come close to starting. Iconic parts of the U.S. would still be here. And millions of people from around the globe would still be alive.

6 Vlad the Impaler Vlad III (Known as "Vlad the Impaler" or "Vlad Dracula", born 1431) was a Romanian monarch. He was the ruler of Wallachia a total of three times before his death in 1476/7. He is most famous for his reputation as a dictator and his gruesome torture methods and executions, in which he has served as an... read more

This man was not a terrible monster in the way most of these crazy, power-hungry people were. He was a sad, sad man bent on revenge for his treatment after witnessing the atrocities of war and valiantly saving his people from slaughter. Coming home crippled his battle-torn mind.

Think of this: we have soldiers today coming back from war scarred for life without physical injury, and we use weapons that either blow people up or tear through them from a distance. Now, imagine having to go into battle with the weapons of that time and the mental damage that would cause after war with no morals. He also had almost no crime during his reign.

7 Hirohito Emperor Hirohito was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 25 December 1926, until his death on 7 January 1989. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Akihito. In Japan, he is now referred to primarily by his posthumous name, Emperor Shōwa.
8 Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (born Yuri Irsenovich Kim; 16 February 1941 - 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim Il-sung,... read more

Way more evil than his son. He had hundreds of innocent people executed to set a warning for those who he feared might revolt against his Jucheist ideas. Not to mention, he ruined the economy and did nothing about the Korean famine.

At least his nephew executed him so now there is one less stupid baby instead of two.

I am from South Korea and I hate him. I always wondered why he is even trying to fight with the whole world. He is idiotic enough to try to fight 1 on 1000000.

9 Muhammad Muhammad ibn Abdullah (570 AD - 632 AD) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of the world religion of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet, divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets... read more

For a prophet giving the perfect word of God, he still had great faults: slavery, ethnic discrimination, age of consent, women's rights, and engaging in a war of conquest. All these things can be explained by the context of time and place, making him just an effective leader. However, he claimed to be the last prophet and did not live up to the perfect standard.

The creator of Islam, the most dangerous ideology ever, was a mass murderer, an assassin, a slaver, a sex slaver, a rapist and a pedophile, etc. The horrible Islamic law Sharia is so barbaric that orders cruel punishments for people who doesn't live their lives exactly as this man wanted them to live.

10 Leopold II

Ignoring suffering or being willingly ignorant of things done in your name. It's all the same in the end. Leopold is responsible for so much pain it places him in evil. If nothing else, Leopold made the idea of evil plundering imperialism a fact. Something that was best left a hyperbolic phrase.

Devastated the people of the Congo by enslaving and exploiting a free people. Easily as evil as Hitler and caused the death of millions. Cut off children's hands and tormented the women so that the men would work harder. King Leopold was brutal.

The Contenders
11 Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region—which... read more

Saddam may not have killed as many as Stalin or Hitler did, but when he killed people, he asked his mercenaries to do it in the most brutal ways. Burn, bury them alive, acid pools, throw them off the third floor. Besides, when you commit a "sin" against the great leader, not only will you be executed, but your father and uncles will suffer the same fate.

Actually, Saddam didn't have nukes. Read a newspaper, geez! While he didn't have WMDs, he did use gas attacks, under the guise of testing them, in an attempt to wipe out the Kurdish people who populate northern Iraq. He was a monster, and I'm glad he's dead.

12 Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then Tsar of All Rus' until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors.

The worst leader of Russia. Unlike Stalin, Ivan actually killed people for no reason other than he was bored. As a child, he threw puppies off towers for fun. Now, he is known as a terrible man, even by Russians. This just goes to show how sadistic this monster was.

He was terrible. He beat his pregnant daughter-in-law, causing a miscarriage. When his son heard of this, he confronted Ivan, but Ivan killed him. He also invaded the city called Novgorod and ordered 500 to 1000 people to be tortured to death in front of him each day. This included being skinned, disemboweled, boiled, fried, and beaten to death. 60,000 people were killed, not to mention the thousands of people that were killed on other occasions. He forced hundreds of parents to watch their children be tortured and killed.

13 Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (born 8 January 1983) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui. He is a grandson... read more

Kim Jong-un destroyed his own economy and spreads propaganda throughout his country as if it were hot news. He executes defectors and people who make the slightest mistakes. He forced people to cry at his father's funeral and assassinated his older brother, fearing that his brother would take the heir instead of him. He compelled people to believe that he is a god who can control everything based on his moods. He also formed a "pleasure squad" where he forced 2000 attractive women to have sex with him and his top officials. Additionally, he made his people believe that the US is the poorest country in the world, named his country the "Hermit Kingdom," and much more.

14 Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870–21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration,... read more

Some people seem to act like Lenin was just this chill dude and Stalin was a good man. Lenin was just as much of a s-o-b as Stalin. The Red Terror, repressing uprisings over insane, authoritarian farming collectivization measures, the 1921 famine as a result of his mismanagement - because he requisitioned grain and goods from peasants to support the Red Army and urban populations - and suppressing various other measures, all point to his tyranny.

Lenin was almost as bad as Stalin, and should not be overglorified for bringing down one tyrant. Tyranny with a red flag is still tyranny.

15 Attila the Hun Attila, frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453.
16 Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada was a Ugandan politician and military officer. He was the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin was born either in Koboko or Kampala to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother. In 1946 he joined the King's African Rifles of the British Colonial Army.

This guy would chop up his enemies/people he'd punished, keep their remains in his fridge as trophies, and laugh at them. If anything, he should be up there next to Vlad the Impaler.

This man was truly Satanic. He even ate the meat of his victims. Can you just imagine the way those people were tormented by being treated as animals for food?

Executed people live and stored their bodies in fridges so he could laugh at them. Not to mention, he was also a cannibal, had no regard for the Ugandan people, and executed at least 500,000 people during his brutal reign.

17 Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African-American president of the United States... read more

At least Stalin had the decency not to pretend to rule with an iron fist. Anybody who knows about how economics really work will tell you that he was the worst at actually leading this country. His only claim to fame is being president while Osama got killed. But let me ask you this: what would have happened to his chances of being re-elected if we found out he let bin Laden get away? At least Bush didn't blame Clinton for his failures. Obama can't even go one day without blaming his failures on everybody. As a typical Democrat, he'll get away with it all and be called great for screwing our country, economy, and freedoms.

18 Genghis Khan Genghis Khan c. 1162 – August 18 1227, born Temüjin, was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.

How is this absolute menace to society ranked less bad than Muhammad, who was literally just a controversial religious figure.

He slaughtered more people than Hitler. When he was attacking the Shaw tribe, there was a moat around their castle his horses could not get around, so he made a bridge of his drowned captives.

He killed people using the lead sprinkler, which involved pouring molten metal or silver in the victims' eyes or ears.

19 Hideki Tojo Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, the leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and the 27th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from October 17, 1941, to July 22, 1944. As Prime Minister, he was responsible for ordering the attack on Pearl Harbor,... read more

He is the real leader of Japan. All the blame is put on the emperor, but it was really the prime minister who gave all the orders to the soldiers like in the war against China.

20 Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, television personality, politician, and the 45th President of the United States. Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Donald J. Trump received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968... read more

This evil man has done everything in his power to undermine almost everything the United States stands for, according to our Constitution. He has encouraged racism and racist behavior. He views immigrants and poor people as non-entities. His concern seems only for the rich and his wealthy friends. This is not what the United States was founded upon. He aims to dismantle Medicare, Social Security, the Endangered Species Act, and any and all environmental protections. He sold nuclear arms to the Saudis. The Saudis were responsible for the attack on the building in NYC. Trump is a traitor.

21 Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the current President of Syria, holding the office since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Regional Secretary of the party's branch in Syria.
22 Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, known as Fidel Castro (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016), was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Politically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he... read more

Castro has to be one of the best liars in history, like Trump, but much more skilled at convincing others to ignore the evidence at hand. He killed some 18 percent of the population to take power (getting rid of another 4% by exiling them) and had any book that promoted freedom of thought burned. A true monster, based on his actions.

This guy enslaved Cubans, lied to America every way possible, and was not a good ally to Nikita Khrushchev either. He managed to fail a lot of Khrushchev's tasks, and the FBI tried to assassinate him over 600 times! You know Castro's a monster if his assassination attempts are over 100.

23 Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008. He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012... read more

He orders the Russians to occupy countries (like Georgia) and threatens countries that Russia could conquer them in two days (I know he said this about Poland and Romania). Very terroristic state he rules.

Vladimir Putin is an empire-building narcissist that needs to be taken out. He is a shining example of why the world suffers. Condemn his war on Ukraine and the suffering he has caused.

Brutal dictator, pointlessly killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians in a war of vanity and choice.

24 Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney, generally known as Dick Cheney is an American politician and businessman who was the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009, under President George W. Bush.

He pushed for war with his own agenda and let Bush take the heat for it. He manipulated Bush like a puppet and made millions from selling arms to the US military.

Talk about conflict of interest, he is and always will be an enemy to the freedom of people everywhere, including the constitution of the US. Manipulated Bush and the Military-Industrial Complex to his own design.

25 Nero Nero was the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius and became Claudius' heir and successor. Like Claudius, Nero became emperor with the consent of the Praetorian Guard.

This guy was almost as bad as Caligula. He was ruthless and murderous. And you must be evil to kick your pregnant wife to death and try to kill your own mother. In fact, he was so evil that he crucified Christians and burned them alive. Now, that's just evil! He would not think twice about killing someone or beating them to a bloody pulp!

He killed innocent people! Mother flipper, he was a no-good, dirty bastard that should have been burned at the stake, twice!

Why is he only #30? He's basically Hitler before the existence of the actual Hitler.

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