Top 10 Most Brutal European Dictators
Some of the names will be obvious: Stalin, Hitler, etc. However, I would like to shed some light on the lesser-known ones afterward.Leaders will be ranked by a combination of total control, lives lost under their regime, and actions that affected other nations.
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 The only reason I put Hitler over Stalin is that Hitler started WWII.
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.
Nicolae Ceaușescu (26 January 1918 - 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He served as the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and was the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was also the country's head of state from 1967,... read more Under his rule, Romania was a totalitarian state, similar to North Korea. In fact, he even visited North Korea.
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
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.
Enver Halil Hoxha was an Albanian communist politician who served as the head of state of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. Hoxha's Albania was like the North Korea of the Balkans.
Josip Broz (7 May 1892, Kumrovec – 4 May 1980, Ljubljana), commonly known as Tito, was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement... read more
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until he was ousted in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship... read more
Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko is the first, and so far the only President of Belarus, having been in office since 20 July 1994. Before launching his political career, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm and spent time with the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army... read more
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.The Newcomers
Slobodan Milošević was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician and the President of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000.
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician, as well as one of the best known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror... read more
Leopold II (9 April 1835 - 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. He was also the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Leopold II was the King of the Belgians (1865-1908) and was a strong believer in colonialism. The problem was that Belgium itself wasn't particularly interested in pursuing colonies, so Leopold went into business for himself. He founded a company that appeared to have noble intentions, called the International African Society. A year later, he used this company to travel to the Congo, where he claimed a plot of land 14 times the size of Belgium. He managed to get 14 countries (including the USA) to agree that he could rule this territory with his own private militia.
Leopold then forced the indigenous population into labor, created a lucrative rubber industry, and grievously abused his workers. Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million people, which could have been avoided if those 14 countries hadn't handed him the keys to the car.
Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain.
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist dictator who led the Ustaše movement and the Independent State of Croatia, established in parts of occupied Yugoslavia during World War II with the support of both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
Ion Antonescu (1882-1946) was a Romanian soldier and authoritarian politician who served as Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II. He led two successive wartime dictatorships and was convicted of war crimes and executed after the war.
Antonescu was antisemitic and sympathized with far-right and fascist groups like the National Christian Party and the Iron Guard throughout the interwar period. Unlike many other Holocaust perpetrators, Antonescu independently enforced policies responsible for the deaths of as many as 400,000 people, most of whom were Bessarabian, Ukrainian, and Romanian Jews, as well as Romanian Romani.
