Idi Amin (1923–16–28 August 2003) – 3rd President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979 His rule is characterized by human rights violations, political repression, ethnic persecution, severe economic recession, extrajudicial executions, corruption, etc. According to estimates made after the overthrow of Amin, about 500,000 (from 19,000,000) Ugandan citizens became victims of his repression, of which at least 2 thousand he killed with his own hands. Amin was also a cannibal and one of the most curious and shocking people of the 20th century. So, in 1974, he proposed moving the UN headquarters to Uganda, motivating this decision by the fact that his country is the "geographical heart of the planet."

Attila is the last and most powerful ruler of the Huns, who ruled from 434 until his death in 453. Under his leadership, the united Turkic, Germanic and other tribes became the biggest threat to the eastern and western Roman Empire. Although the power of Attila died with him, he became a legendary figure in history. In Western Europe, I perceive him as a symbol of cruelty, greed and wild barbarism, bringing nothing but destruction, while in some countries, such as Hungary and Turkey, Attila is considered the greatest ruler.

Eighth place in the list of the most cruel rulers in history is Genghis Khan (1155 or 1162-August 25, 1227) - the commander, the founder of the Mongol Empire, one of the largest in history. He united all the Mongol tribes and created a powerful all-Mongolian army, distinguished by brilliant discipline and tactics, thanks to which he conquered China, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, thereby forming one of the greatest empires in history. In modern Mongolia and China, he is considered a national hero and the "father of the Mongolian nation."

Pol Pot (April 15-1925, 1998) - statesman and politician, as well as Prime Minister of Cambodia, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1979, leader of the Khmer Rouge. According to many researchers, Pol Pot is the creator of the most cruel forms of totalitarianism in the history of mankind. His reign was accompanied by mass repressions, executions, poor medical care, starvation, the destruction of the intelligentsia and other "bourgeois enemies", which led to the death, according to various estimates, of about 25% of the entire population of Cambodia. In general, from 1 to 3 million people.

In sixth place in the list of the most cruel rulers in the history of mankind is Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476 / 77) - the ruler and governor of Wallachia in 1448, 1456-1462 and 1476. He was distinguished by extreme cruelty in reprisals against enemies and subjects, whom he impaled. He led a policy of systematic cleansing of society from "asocial elements". The court was simple and quick: vagrants and thieves were waiting for a fire or block. The same waited for gypsies, unreliable people and horse thieves. It was Vlad Tepes who became the prototype of the protagonist in the famous novel by Bram Stoker "Dracula" published in 1897.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by the nickname Caligula (August 31, 12 - January 24, 41) - princeps and Roman emperor. According to ancient Roman historians, Caligula was distinguished by cruelty, sadism, extravagance and sexual perversion. He is often described as a crazy tyrant. So, once he appointed his horse to the post of consul, arranged a brothel in his own dwelling, declared himself the personification of all the gods and often appeared before his subjects in costumes of not only male, but also female deities. He is also credited with sexual intercourse with his sisters (incest) and murders for entertainment purposes.

Otto Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) - Gestapo officer, one of the main organizers of the mass extermination of Jews (the Holocaust). In August 1944 he presented a report in which he reported on the destruction of 4 million people. His crimes against the Jewish people included the arrest of millions of Jews, concentrating them in certain places, sending them to death camps, killing and confiscation of property. After Eichmann's arrest, the indictment dealt not only with crimes against the Jewish people, but also with crimes against representatives of other peoples: the deportation of millions of Poles, the arrest and sending to death camps of tens of thousands of Gypsies, the sending of 100 children from the Czech village of Lidice to the Lodz ghetto and their destruction. Eichmann was sentenced to death and hanged on June 1, 1962 in a prison in the Israeli city of Ramla.

Leopold II (April 9 - December 17, 1835, 1909) - King of the Belgians from 1865 until his death in 1909. Known for his activities to seize the Congo Basin and form the Congo Free State, which, together with its inhabitants, is the personal possession of the king (and not the state). Here, on the orders of Leopold II, various commercial companies for the extraction of ivory and rubber were organized, which cruelly exploited the local population (up to genocide). He justified the atrocities in the region by the fact that tribes practicing cannibalism live on the territory of the Congo Free State. The population in the colonial region is estimated to have dropped from 20 million to 10 million during the reign of Leopold II.

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (9 (21) December 5-1879 March 1953) - statesman, political and military leader of the USSR. His reign was accompanied by the establishment of a dictatorial regime, the violation of human rights and freedoms, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the creation of a system of mass repressions, as well as the genocide of the Ukrainian people and the forcible deportation of peoples to the USSR, which were accompanied by numerical human losses. According to various sources, from 11-12 million to 38-39 million people became victims of Stalin's political terror.

The most cruel ruler in history is Adolf Hitler (April 20, April 30-1889, 1945) - German politician, leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany, Fuhrer of Germany (1934-1945). According to most historians, Hitler is responsible for the policy of racial Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the death of millions of people who died during his reign. His aggressive foreign policy is considered the main reason for the outbreak of World War II, which resulted in the deaths of about 50 million people.

Throughout the history of planet Earth, there have been many rulers, from friendly kings to aggressive dictators. Here is a list of the greatest monarchs in history - those rulers who made the life of their people better.

Monarch Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire

Suleiman I, also known as Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, he ruled for 69 years. His reign marked the beginning of a golden age in the Ottoman Empire. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire covered most of the Middle East and Southeast Europe.

Monarch James I of Great Britain

James I, also known as "the wisest fool in Christendom", was the King of England and Scotland. During his reign, these two kingdoms were united. Literature and fine arts flourished under his rule. He also wrote many books and poems himself.

Monarch Jan III Sobieski in Poland and Lithuania

Reign: 1674–1696

Jan III Sobieski, also known as Leo Lehistan, was a military and political genius. During his reign, Poland and Lithuania became stable, prosperous states. Nicknamed Lion Lehistan Jan received after defeating the Turks at the Battle of Vienna.

Emperor Meiji of Japan

Meiji became Emperor of Japan at the age of 14, when it was a primitive and isolated country. However, thanks to Meiji, towards the end of his reign, Japan became a great industrial power.

Monarch Gustav II Adolf in Sweden

Gustav II was king of Sweden for 21 years. During his reign, Sweden became a major European power. Gustav II led his army against the Protestant Catholic army of France and Spain. After his death in battle, Sweden became a prominent military power.

Augustus Caesar in Rome

Augustus Caesar, was Emperor of Rome for 41 years. During this time, Augustus improved Rome's infrastructure and military strength. He also reformed taxation. His reign is called the Pax Romana, or Roman peace, because diplomacy flourished during this period.

Monarch Cyrus II of Persia

Reign: 559 BC e.–530 BC e.

Cyrus II, also known as Cyrus the Great, ruled Persia for 30 years. During his reign, the Persian Empire covered most of the Middle East, including Iran, Israel, and Mesopotamia. During the reign of Cyrus, human rights and military strategy were greatly improved.

Monarch Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II, also known as Frederick the Great, ruled Prussia for 46 years. During his reign, the borders of Prussia were greatly expanded and the infrastructure improved.

Queen Victoria in the UK

Victoria has been on the throne for over 63 years - more than any other British monarch. The Victorian era coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the greater rise of the British Empire. The multiple dynastic marriages of her children and grandchildren cemented ties between the royal dynasties of Europe and increased England's influence on the continent (she was called the "Grandmother of Europe"). Her birthday is still considered a holiday in Canada.

Monarch Louis XIV of France

King of France and Navara from May 14, 1643. He reigned for 72 years - longer than any other European king in history. The reign of Louis is a time of significant consolidation of the unity of France, its military power, socio-political weight, intellectual prestige and the flourishing of culture, this time went down in history as the Great Age.

Louis was a firm believer in the divine right of kings, once saying he was like the sun and his courtiers and France should revolve around him like planets.

Throughout human history, many evil and infamous leaders have fought for power. While many politicians wanted to improve the lives of the people, others pursued only their own interests.

Their selfish goals led to gross abuses of power that resulted in the death of many people. We present to your attention the 25 most brutal dictators in the history of mankind.

1. Herod the Great

Herod the Great is the same Herod mentioned in the Bible. He slaughtered many male children when he learned that the messiah was born into the world - Jesus Christ, who was named king. Herod could not stand the competition, so he ordered the babies to be killed, but Jesus was not among them.

The ancient historian Josephus recorded his other sinful deeds, including the murder of his three sons, his most beloved of 10 wives, the drowning of a priest, the murder of his legitimate mother, and, as the legend says, many Jewish leaders.

When the Roman emperor Nero came to power after the death of his stepfather, he gradually orchestrated the carnage. First, he killed his mother, Agrippina the Younger, and then he killed two of his wives. Finally, he decided to burn the whole of Great Rome just to watch it burn and then rebuild it. After things calmed down, he blamed the fire on the Christians and they were persecuted, tortured and killed. In the end, he committed suicide.

3. Saddam Hussein

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ruled the country with an iron fist. During his reign, he deliberately invaded Iran and Kuwait. By the time Saddam became president, Iraq was a booming country with one of the highest living standards in the Middle East. But the two wars that the new leader provoked brought the Iraqi economy into a state of acute crisis and decline. By his order, all his friends, enemies and relatives were killed. He gave orders to kill and rape the children of his competitors. In 1982, he murdered 182 Shia civilians. On October 19, 2005, the trial of the former Iraqi president began. Especially for him, the death penalty was reintroduced in the country.

4. Pope Alexander VI

The Vatican papacy showed us long ago that some popes are very evil and cruel rulers, but the most evil of them was Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). He was not a devout Catholic, but only a secular pope who used power to achieve his goals.

In his youth, he did not constrain himself with vows of chastity and celibacy. He had many mistresses. And with one of them, the rich Roman woman Vanozza dei Cattanei, he was in touch for many years and had four children from her, the most famous of which are Cesare Borgia and Lucrezia - ambitious, unprincipled, power-hungry and voluptuous young people. By the way, the Pope cohabited with his beautiful daughter Lucretia and, according to rumors, it was he who was the father of her son.

He staged orgies and confiscated money from the rich to finance his riotous lifestyle. On August 18, 1503, the Pope died in terrible agony from poison.

5. Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi did everything he could while he was the political leader of Libya. He liquidated all political opposition, declaring it illegal. Banned entrepreneurship and freedom of speech. All books that did not suit him were burned. Despite the huge economic potential of Libya, many economic experts have recognized the decline of the country, as Gaddafi squandered most of the funds. His reign is considered one of the most brutal and totalitarian eras in North African history.

Muammar Gaddafi was killed on October 20, 2011 near the city of Sirte. His convoy, while trying to leave the city, came under attack from NATO aircraft.

6. Fidel Castro

Before the reign of Fidel Castro, Cuba was a prosperous country with a rich economy, but as soon as Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959, all this collapsed under the yoke of despotic communist rule. Over 500 political opponents were shot in two years. According to experts, during the 50 years of Fidel Castro's rule, thousands of people were executed. Newspapers were not printed at that time. Priests, homosexuals and other people objectionable to the new government served time in camps. Freedom of speech has been abolished. The people had no rights. 90% of people lived below the poverty line.

7. Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar or Caligula, whose name has become synonymous with cruelty, madness and evil, is known throughout the world. He declared himself God, slept with his sisters, had many wives, which he was very proud of, and did many other immoral things. Caesar was spending money on luxurious things while his own people were starving. Caligula terrorized ancient Rome with his unbridled madness, talked to the moon and tried to appoint his horse as a consul. The biggest evil he did was to give the order to saw innocent people in half during one of his sumptuous feasts.

8. King John

King John the Landless is considered one of the worst kings in British history. He is best known for being first landless and then a king without a kingdom. Sensual, lazy, lustful, cruel, treacherous, immoral - this is his portrait.

When his enemies came to him, John threw them into the castle and starved them to death. In order to build a huge army and navy, he taxed England heavily, took land from the nobles and imprisoned them, and tortured the Jews until they paid him the right amount. The king died of a terrible fever.

9. Empress Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian is one of the few female leaders in ancient history and history in general. Her life is very remarkable. Becoming the emperor's concubine at the age of 13, she eventually became empress herself. After the death of the emperor, the heir to the throne, realized that he could not do without the faithful Wu Zetian and introduced her to his harem, which became a sensation for that time. Some time passed, and in 655 Gaozong officially recognized Wu Zetian as his wife. This meant that now it was she who was the main wife.

She was a mean schemer. On her orders, they killed, for example, her husband's uncle. Anyone who dared to go against her was immediately killed. At the end of her life, she was overthrown from the throne. She was treated better than she herself had dealt with her enemies, and was allowed to die a natural death.

10. Maximilian Robespierre

The architect of the French Revolution and the author of The Reign of Terror, Maximilian Robespierre, constantly spoke of the overthrow of the king and the uprising against the aristocracy. Elected to the Committee of General Salvation, Robespierre unleashed a bloody terror, which was marked by many arrests, the murder of 300,000 alleged enemies, of which 17,000 were executed by guillotine. Soon the Convention decided to prosecute Robespierre and his supporters. They tried to organize resistance in the Paris City Hall, but were captured by troops loyal to the Convention, and executed a day later.

11. Go Amin

General Idi Amin deposed elected official Milton Obote and declared himself President of Uganda in 1971. He imposed a brutal regime on the country that lasted eight years, expelled 70,000 Asians, slaughtered 300,000 civilians, and ultimately brought the country to economic ruin. He was overthrown in 1979 but never answered for his crimes. Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia on 16 August 2003 at the age of 75.

12. Timur

Born in 1336, Timur, known to many as Tamerlane, became a tyrant and bloodthirsty conqueror of Asia in the Middle East. He was able to conquer some corners of Russia and even occupied Moscow, led an uprising in Persia, being several thousand kilometers away. He did all this by destroying cities, exterminating the population and building towers from their corpses. In India or Baghdad, wherever he was, everything was accompanied by massacres, destruction and thousands of people killed.

Genghis Khan was a ruthless Mongol warlord who was successful in his conquests. He ruled one of the largest empires in history. But, of course, he paid a high price for this. He was responsible for the deaths of 40 million people. His battles reduced the world's population by 11%!

14. Vlad Tepes

Vlad Tepes is better known by a different name - Count Dracula. He notoriously became famous for his sadistic torture of enemies and civilians, among which the most terrible is the piercing of the anus. Dracula impaled living people. Once he invited a lot of vagabonds to the palace, locked them in the palace and set them on fire. He also nailed caps to the heads of the Turkish ambassadors, which they refused to take off in front of him.

The grandson of Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible brought Russia to Unity, but during his reign he received the nickname the Terrible for the many reforms and terrors carried out. From childhood, Ivan had a bad temper, he really liked torturing animals. After becoming king, he carried out a series of peaceful political reforms. But when his wife died, he fell into a deep depression, and then the era of the Great Terror began. He seized land, created a police force to fight dissent. Many nobles were blamed for the death of his wife. He beat his pregnant daughter, killed his son in a fit of rage, and blinded the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral.

Attila - the great leader of the Huns, who highly valued gold. All his raids were accompanied by robberies, destruction and rape. Desiring absolute power, he killed his own brother Bled. One of the great invasions of his army is the city of Naisus. It was so terrible that for many years the corpses blocked the road to the flow of the Danube River. Once Attila stabbed deserters through the rectum and ate two of his own sons.

17. Kim Jong Il

Kim Jong Il is one of the most "successful" dictators along with Joseph Stalin. When he came to power in 1994, he was left with an impoverished North Korea with a starving population. Instead of helping his people, he spent all his money on building the world's fifth largest military base, while millions of people were starving to death. He deceived the United States by not giving them his nuclear developments. According to him, he has created a unique nuclear weapon and is terrorizing South Korea with threats. Kim Jong Il supported the American bombing of Vietnam, where many South Korean officials were killed and civilians were massacred.

18. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Lenin was the first leader of revolutionary Soviet Russia, adhering to the ideology of overthrowing the monarchy and turning Russia into a totalitarian state. His Red Terror - a set of punitive measures against class social groups - is known throughout the world. Among the social groups there were many repressed peasants, industrial workers, priests who opposed the Bolshevik government. In the first months of terror, 15,000 people died, many priests and monks were crucified.

Leopold II, King of the Belgians, was nicknamed the Butcher of the Congo. His army captured the Congo Basin and terrorized the local population. He himself had never been to the Congo, but on his orders 20 million people were killed there. He often showed his military the hands of the rebellious workers. The period of his reign was marked by the devastation of the state treasury. King Leopold II died at the age of 75.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge movement, is put on a par with Hitler. During his reign in Cambodia, which is less than four years, more than 3,500,000 people were killed. His policy was as follows: the path to a happy life lies through the rejection of modern Western values, the destruction of cities that carry a pernicious infection, and the re-education of their inhabitants. This ideology marked the beginning of the creation of concentration camps, the destruction of the local population in the regions and their actual eviction.

21. Mao Zedong

The head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, took over China with the help of the army of the USSR, founding the PRC, and until his death was its leader. He carried out many land reforms, which were accompanied by the theft of large plots of land from landowners through violence and terror. Critics always came across his path, but he quickly cracked down on dissent. His so-called "Great Leap Forward" led to a population famine from 1959 to 1961 that killed 40 million people.

22. Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is one of the most notorious terrorists in human history. He was the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, which carried out a number of attacks on the United States. These included the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya, where 300 civilians were killed, and the September 11 air attacks on the World Trade Center in America, which killed 3,000 civilians. Many of his orders were carried out by suicide bombers.

23. Emperor Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito was one of the bloodiest rulers in Japanese history. His most important crime against humanity is the massacre in Nanjing, which took place in the second Sino-Japanese war, where thousands of people were killed and raped. In the same place, the emperor's troops carried out monstrous experiments on people, as a result of which more than 300,000 people died. The emperor, despite his power, never stopped the bloody lawlessness of his troops.

24. Joseph Stalin

Another controversial figure in history is Joseph Stalin. During his reign, all large land plots were under his control. Millions of farmers who refused to give up their plots were simply killed, which led to a great famine throughout Russia. During the era of his totalitarian regime, a secret police flourished, calling on citizens to spy on each other. As a result of this policy, millions of people were killed or sent to the Gulag. More than 20,000,000 people were killed as a result of his brutal tyrannical rule.

25. Adolf Hitler

Hitler is the most famous, evil and destructive leader in human history. His speeches full of anger and hatred, his senseless invasion of European and African countries, the genocide of millions of Jews, his murder and torture, rape and execution of people in concentration camps, plus countless other known and unknown atrocities, make Hitler the most cruel ruler of all times and peoples. . In all, historians attribute the deaths of the Nazi regime to more than 11,000,000 people.

Let's choose the best ruler of Russia over the past 100 years.

No, I'm serious. It is important. After all, every nation has exactly those rulers that it deserves. And a hundred years in the modern world is more than enough time to eliminate the factor of chance and bad luck. Consequently, according to our leaders, it will be possible to draw conclusions about our entire God-bearing people.

Again, many note the amazing portrait resemblance between Nikolai Romanov and Dmitry Medvedev. I'm sure it's not a coincidence either.

So, in chronological order.

1. Nicholas II (ruled for 23 years)

Pros: noble origin.

2. Vladimir Lenin (ruled for 7 years)

Pros: conducted an important scientific experiment, advanced political science, sociology and mummy studies.
Cons: plunged the country into a state of civil war, which, however, he won. He was ill a lot, because of which he could not normally govern the country.

3. Joseph Stalin (reigned for 29 years)

Pros: won the Great Patriotic War. Significantly expanded our territory. He restored the economy, destroyed by wars and revolutions. Created the atomic bomb.
Cons: created an inhuman "vertical" that has ground many millions of destinies into blood.

4. Nikita Khrushchev (ruled for 11 years)

Pros: launched Gagarin into space.
Cons: almost started the third world war. He showed himself to be an ignorant homophobe.

5. Leonid Brezhnev (ruled for 17 years)

Pluses: for the first time in the entire thousand-year history of Russia, he raised the standard of living of ordinary citizens to a really high level. He patched up relations with the West, thereby removing the threat of a world war.
Cons: the second half of the term was seriously ill, thereby driving the country into an economic dead end.

6. Andropov (ruled for 1 year)

Cons: died too quickly.

7. Chernenko (reigned for 1 year)

Cons: died too quickly.

8. Mikhail Gorbachev (reigned for 6 years)

Pros: started long overdue reforms.
Cons: fell in love with a great country.

9. Boris Yeltsin (ruled for 8 years)

Pluses: carried out a number of important, albeit extremely painful reforms.
Cons: started a war in Chechnya.

10. Vladimir Putin (ruled for 8 years)

Pluses: stopped the war in Chechnya, continued reforms, restored GDP and living standards to almost Soviet levels, gave Russia a decade of free Internet.
Cons: failed to diversify the economy.

11. Dmitry Medvedev (ruled for 3 years so far)

Pros: won the military conflict with Georgia, continued reforms
Cons: has not completed his term of office yet.

Just in case: in the pluses and minuses of the rulers, I put what seems important to me personally. You will probably have your own opinion about their advantages and disadvantages.

In any case, please write which of these 11 people you consider the best ruler for Russia. And by all means explain who you admire in absentia, “at a distance”, and whom you would gladly choose as the President of the Russian Federation even tomorrow - in order to live under his wise leadership.

In the history of the Russian, and then the Russian state, there were many rulers, but not all of them became great during their reign - they did not expand territories, did not win wars, did not develop culture, etc.

Yaroslav the Wise

He was the son of Saint Vladimir. He became one of the first truly effective rulers in the history of Russia. Thanks to him, a number of cities appeared - Yuryev in the Baltic states, Yaroslavl in the Volga region, Yuryev Russian, Yaroslavl in the Carpathian region and Novgorod-Seversky.

During his reign, he was able to stop the Pecheneg raids on Russia and defeated them near the walls of Kyiv in 1038. In honor of this great event, the Hagia Sophia was built. The best artists from Constantinople were invited to paint the temple.

For strong international relations, dynastic marriages were used, as a result of which his daughter Anna Yaroslavna married the French king Henry I.

The wise man was actively engaged in the construction of monasteries, founded the first large school, allocated considerable funds for translations and rewriting of books, published the Church Charter and the Russian Truth. In 1051 he appointed Hilarion as metropolitan without the participation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, becoming the first Russian metropolitan.

Ivan III

He can rightfully be called one of the most successful rulers in the history of Russia. It was he who was able to gather around Moscow the scattered principalities of northeastern Russia. Under him, the Yaroslavl and Rostov principalities, Vyatka, Great Perm, Novgorod and a number of other lands became part of a single state.

The first of the princes took the title "Sovereign of All Russia" and coined the term Russia. He freed Russia from the yoke. Standing on the Ugra River in 1480 marked the complete victory of Russia for its independence.

In 1497 he adopted the Sudebnik, which laid the foundation for overcoming feudal fragmentation. This document was progressive for its time, it is worth noting that at the end of the 15th century, not every European country could boast of such legislation.

It was Ivan III who approved the double-headed eagle in the form of the coat of arms, which was used in Byzantium and the Roman Empire.

It was under him that most of the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin was created, which has survived to this day. To implement this project, he invited Italian masters. During his reign, 25 churches were built in Moscow.

Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible is an autocrat whose reign still has different assessments, often they are opposite. However, it is impossible to challenge his effectiveness as a ruler.

Successfully fought against the successors of the Golden Horde. He was able to annex the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms. Significantly expanded to the east, subjugating the Siberian Khan Edigei and the Great Nogai Horde. Could not solve the problem of access to the Baltic. Under him, diplomacy successfully and actively developed. He established Russian-British contacts. Ivan the Terrible himself was a very educated person for his time. He had an excellent memory and erudition. He wrote the music and text of the service of the feast of Our Lady of Vladimir, the canon to the Archangel Michael. He actively developed book printing and supported chroniclers.

Peter I

His accession to the throne radically changed the vector of development of the Russian state. Thanks to him, a “window to Europe” appeared. Many and successfully led military campaigns. Fought with the clergy. He carried out reforms in the army, in science and the tax system. He became the first creator of the Russian military fleet, changed the chronology, and carried out a regional reform.

Tsar Peter personally met with outstanding European scientists - Leibniz and Newton. According to his decree, books, weapons, instruments were brought from Europe to Russia. To implement his plans, he invited famous European scientists, craftsmen and architects.

During his reign, he managed to gain a foothold and settle in the south of Russia - on the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Thanks to the victory over Charles XII, he gained access to the Baltic Sea. After the Persian campaign, the cities of Derbent and Baku, which are located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, went to Russia.

Under him, outdated forms of diplomatic relations and etiquette were abolished, and permanent missions and consulates abroad were approved.

Frequent trips to Asia, Siberia and the Far East made it possible to develop geography and cartography.

Catherine II

The most important German woman on the Russian throne. However, she considered herself Russian. She is one of the most effective rulers of the Russian Empire. During her reign, Russia was able to finally gain a foothold in the Black Sea. Thanks to successful wars, it was possible to annex new lands, which were called Novorossia: the Kuban region, Crimea, the Northern Black Sea region.

She took Eastern Georgia under her citizenship, and also returned the Western Russian lands, which had once been torn away by Poland.

Under her, the population of the Empire increased significantly. New cities were created. The treasury was increased by 4 times. The industry and agriculture actively developed. At this time, Russia for the first time became an exporter of bread.

Under her, paper money was introduced, a clear division of the entire empire appeared, secondary education, observatories, physics classrooms, anatomical theaters, a botanical garden, libraries, archives, and so on arose. In 1753 the Russian Academy was established.

Alexander I

During his reign, Russia was able to win the Patriotic War against Napoleon and his allies. Under him, Western and Eastern Georgia, Mingrelia, Imeretia, Guria, Finland, Bessarabia, a huge part of Poland were included in the empire.

His domestic policy was not always soft. We can recall cases of the use of police forces against the opposition. However, he introduced a number of useful reforms. It was allowed to buy uninhabited lands, ministries and the cabinet of ministers appeared, free cultivators.

Alexander II

He entered Russian history as the "Liberator". During his reign, serfdom was abolished, the army was reorganized under him, military duty was reduced, and corporal punishment was abolished. The State Bank was established. Reforms of the financial and monetary system, police and university reforms were carried out.

During the years of his reign, the Polish uprising was suppressed and the Caucasian War ended. In 1858-1860, the Amur and Ussuri regions were annexed. In 1867-1873. the territory of Russia expanded due to the conquests of the Turkestan region and the Ferghana Valley, as well as the voluntary entry into the empire of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khiva Khanate. They still cannot forgive him for selling Alaska.

Alexander III

There were no wars with him. Alexander III was called "the most Russian tsar" and "peacemaker". Witte said of him that he elevated the international prestige of his state without shedding a single drop of Russian blood.

His merits were noted by France, in his honor the bridge over the river Seine was named. Even Wilhelm II praised him after his death, calling him a real autocratic Emperor.

Domestically, there were also successful policies. During his time, a technical revolution took place in the country, the economy stabilized, industry developed very rapidly. In 1891, the construction of the Great Siberian Railway began.

Joseph Stalin

The era of his reign is ambiguous, but it cannot be denied that he "took the country with a plow, and left it with a nuclear bomb." We must also pay tribute to the fact that it was during his reign that he managed to win the Great Patriotic War.

Numbers can tell for his reign. So, from 1920 to 1959, according to the census data, the number of people living in the USSR increased from 136.8 million to 208.8 million. Literacy and education in the country increased sharply. In 1879 there were 79% of the population of illiterate people, and in 1932 the level rose to 89.1%.

Production volumes per capita in the period from 1913 to 1950 in the Union increased four times. The growth of agricultural production increased by 45%. By the end of his reign, the country's gold reserves increased by 6.5 times and amounted to 2050 tons.

Alexander Volkov